Gary DeMar wrote this piece today. He criticizes futurists for teaching that God has ordained an eschatological Jewish holocaust just before the return of Christ.
One thing that prewrathers and prettribbers have in common is both agree Israel’s worst judgment is still in the future. However, prewrathers do not believe the rapture happens before this event. Pretribulationists will have a wake up call when they learn the church will suffer alongside of Israel at this time.
The worse judgment upon the Jews did not happen in AD 70, nor even during Hitler’s Jewish holocaust. The Jewish Scriptures themselves testify that there will be an unprecedented time of suffering (judgment) upon the Jewish people just before the consummation of time:
“Alas, what a terrible time of trouble it is! There has never been any like it. It is a time of trouble for the descendants of Jacob, but some of them will be rescued out of it.” —Jer 30:7
This prophecy is situated in a larger eschatological context. As you read the following passage, notice I have bolded the events that unequivocally cannot describe AD 70, as Gary DeMar would have you believe, but instead describe the restoration of Israel:
(1) The LORD spoke to Jeremiah. (2) “The LORD God of Israel says, ‘Write everything that I am about to tell you in a scroll. (3) For I, the LORD, affirm that the time will come when I will reverse the plight of my people, Israel and Judah,’ says the LORD. ‘I will bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors and they will take possession of it once again.’” (4) So here is what the LORD has to say about Israel and Judah. (5) Yes, here is what he says: “You hear cries of panic and of terror; there is no peace in sight. (6) Ask yourselves this and consider it carefully: Have you ever seen a man give birth to a baby? Why then do I see all these strong men grabbing their stomachs in pain like a woman giving birth? And why do their faces turn so deathly pale? (7) Alas, what a terrible time of trouble it is! There has never been any like it. It is a time of trouble for the descendants of Jacob, but some of them will be rescued out of it. (8) When the time for them to be rescued comes,” says the LORD who rules over all, “I will rescue you from foreign subjugation. I will deliver you from captivity. Foreigners will then no longer subjugate them. (9) But they will be subject to the LORD their God and to the Davidic ruler whom I will raise up as king over them. (10) So I, the LORD, tell you not to be afraid, you descendants of Jacob, my servants. Do not be terrified, people of Israel. For I will rescue you and your descendants from a faraway land where you are captives. The descendants of Jacob will return to their land and enjoy peace.They will be secure and no one will terrify them. (11) For I, the LORD, affirm that I will be with you and will rescue you. I will completely destroy all the nations where I scattered you. But I will not completely destroy you. I will indeed discipline you, but only in due measure. I will not allow you to go entirely unpunished.” —Jer 30:1–11
Scripture such as this explicit passage is not on DeMar’s side. He cannot make sense of it given his procrustean preterism. He is not able to walk through this passage in any meaningful consistent manner. No, he needs to either atomize it or spiritualize it to fit his preconceived interpretation on Israel’s future.
Daniel also ties in the eschatological holocaust of the Jews with the event of the resurrection:
(1) At that time Michael, the great prince who watches over your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress unlike any other from the nation’s beginning up to that time. But at that time your own people, all those whose names are found written in the book, will escape. (2) Many of those who sleep in the dusty ground will awake– some to everlasting life, and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence. (3) But the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavenly expanse. And those bringing many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever. —Dan 12:1–3
If DeMar wants to be consistent with his “this happened in AD 70” preterism, then he must also claim that the resurrection happened in AD 70. This would make him a hyper-preterist. But he denies the resurrection happened in AD 70, which makes him inconsistent. (See other texts that situate it in the consummation of time: (Isa 26:16–19; 51:17–52:2; Zech 14:1–3)
As a prewrather, I believe there will be a church holocaust that will happen during this same time. Antichrist’s object of persecution will be Israel and the church (Rev 12:17; Rev 14:12–13; Matt 24:21 [extended to the church]).
