Journal: Conservative Theological Journal
Volume: CTJ 06:17 (Mar 2002)
Article: A Review of R. C. Sproul’s The Last Days According to Jesus: An Analysis of Moderate Preterism, Part I
Author: Michael D. Stallard

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A Review of R. C. Sproul’s The Last Days
According to Jesus: An Analysis of
Moderate Preterism, Part I

Mike Stallard

Associate Professor of Systematic Theology
Baptist Bible Seminary, Clarks Summit, PA

In recent times, the view of preterism has been on the rise within evangelicalism although it is by no means a majority opinion.1 R. C. Sproul’s book, The Last Days According to Jesus (1998), popularizes a form of preterism in a well-written format that is appealing but at the same time theologically deficient.2 Sproul defines preterism in one chart in the book as a view in

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which “the Kingdom is a present reality.”3 This description is imprecise since many non-preterists hold to this belief. In the text of the book he more exactly describes preterism with the statement, “Preterists argue not only that the kingdom is a present reality, but also that in a real historical sense the parousia has already occurred.”4

Sproul goes on to distinguish between two forms of preterism: radical preterism in which “all future prophecies in the NT have already been fulfilled” and moderate preterism in which “many future prophecies in the NT have already been fulfilled” but “some crucial prophecies have not yet been fulfilled.”5 Sproul rightly rejects radical preterism due to its inability to handle the final resurrection.6 He even devotes an extremely helpful chapter to the differences between the two kinds of preterism, even raising the question of whether it is proper to label radical preterism as heresy.7 Others, including preterists, have certainly done so.8 In the end, radical preterism appears to deny the future bodily resurrection of believers as well the actual, visible, and future Second Coming of Christ. There is no question that this teaching is outside the boundaries of orthodox and biblical Christianity. On

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these issues, radical preterism has more affinity with modern, classical liberalism than it does with genuine historical evangelicalism.

The more moderate preterism of Sproul, which sees many prophecies fulfilled with crucial ones remaining unfulfilled, leaves room for the future ...