(On the Significance of A.D. 70)
"Scripture connects as one theological Event - the Advent - Christ’s birth, life, resurrection, ascension, the outpouring of His Spirit upon the Church in A.D. 30, and the outpouring of His wrath upon Israel in the Holocaust of A.D. 66-70." (David Chilton, The Days of Vengeance, p. 285)

"...the Bible speaks of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church and the destruction of Israel as being the same event, for they were intimately connected theologically. The prophet Joel foretold both the Day of Pentecost and the destruction of Jerusalem in one breath." (David Chilton, The Great Tribulation, p. 21)

"The more I pondered the awesome implications of Jesus’ words, the more I realized their truly revolutionary significance for eschatology. Without exception, every event foretold by the Biblical prophets was fulfilled within that generation, as Jesus said." "Scripture foretells a Second Coming – not a third!" (David Chilton, Foreword to What Happened in AD 70? By Ed Stevens, 1997)

"The Olivet Discourse is not about the Second Coming of Christ. It is a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70." (quoted by Ice)

(On The Olivet Discourse)
"The Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21).. is a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70" (Paradise Restored, p. 224)

(On The Nature of Christ's Return)
"...our Lord Jesus Christ predicted His Return within the lifetime of His first-century hearers. That fact presents Christians with a dilemma: If Jesus was wrong in His prediction (as theological liberals have been saying for many years), we have a much bigger problem than an academic theological issue regarding the doctrine of Eschatology - it means we can't rely on Jesus for salvation, either! If we can't trust Jesus in Matthew 24, we certainly can't trust Him in John 3:16! As a well-known theologian recently said, "If Jesus is a false prophet, my faith is in vain."

"...any proposed division of Matthew 24 into two different "comings" is illegitimate, nugatory, and gossamer. Scripture foretells a Second Coming (Heb.9:28) - not a third!

"...Stevens presses Christ's declaration in Luke 21:22 to its limit: "Jesus said that all Old Testament prophecy would be fulfilled by the time Jerusalem was destroyed." The more I pondered the awesome implications of Jesus' words, the more I realized their truly revolutionary significance for eschatology. Without exception, every event foretold by the Biblical prophets was fulfilled within that generation, as Jesus had said (Matt. 16:27-28; 24:34). (Foreword to What Happened in AD70?)

(Early Quote from Chilton, who, obviously, changed his position):
"While King’s work has a great deal of value for the discerning student, its ultimate thesis – that there is no future Coming of Christ or Final Judgment – is heretical. Historic, orthodox Christianity everywhere, with one voice, has always taught that Christ "shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead" (Nicene Creed). This is a non-negotiable article of the Christian faith. (Cf. David Chilton, Paradise Restored: A Biblical Theology of Dominion, pp. 138-48.)

(On Matthew 24:34 and the "Generation Means Race" Theory)
"Some have sought to get around the force of this text by saying that the word generation here really means race, and that Jesus was simply saying that the Jewish race would not die out until all these things took place. Is that true? I challenge you: Get out your concordance and look up every New Testament occurrence of the word generation (in Greek, genea) and see if it ever means 'race' in any other context. Here are all the references for the Gospels: Matthew 1:17; 11:16; 12:39, 41, 42, 45; 16:4; 17:17; 23:36; 24:34; Mark 8:12, 38; 9:19; 13:30; Luke 1:48, 50; 7:31; 9:41; 11:29, 30, 31, 32, 50, 51; 18:8; 17:25; 21:32. Not one of these references is speaking of the entire Jewish race over thousands of years; all use the word in its normal sense of the sum total of those living at the same time. It always refers to contemporaries. (In fact, those who say it means "race" tend to acknowledge this fact, but explain that the word suddenly changes its meaning when Jesus uses it in Matthew 24! We can smile at such a transparent error, but we should also remember that this is very serious. We are dealing with the Word of the living God.)." (The Great Tribulation, p. 3)

(On II Peter 3:7-13)
"What Peter is saying is that, once the Old era is gone, the New Covenant will be established. An era in which righteousness dwells. The New World Order of the Lord Jesus Christ has arrived. And according to God’s promise, the saving knowledge of Him will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea ...there are scripture passages that indicate that the world isn’t going to end in a fiery holocaust, it’s going to continue on forever. Scripture references for those: Psalm 78:69; 104:5; 119:90; Ecclesiastes 1:4 and Ephesians 3:21." (David Chilton, Conference on Bible Prophecy, Oklahoma City, 1997)

(On Revelation 11:15)
"At this point in history God’s plan is made apparent: He has placed Jews and Gentiles on equal footing in the Covenant. The destruction of apostate Israel and the Temple revealed that God had created a new nation, a new Temple, as Jesus prophesied to the Jewish leaders: ‘Therefore I say to you, the Kingdom of God will be taken from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it’ (Matt.21:43). Thus the Kingdom of God, the ‘Fifth Kingdom’ prophesied in Daniel 2, becomes universalized, as the heavenly choir sings: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.’"(Days of Vengeance: p.287-288)

(On the Number of the Beast)
The unexpected element in the computation was that it had to be worked out in Hebrew, a language that at least some members of the churches would know. His readers would have guessed by now that he was speaking of Nero, and those who understood Hebrew probably grasped it instantly. The numerical values of the Hebrew letters in Neron Kesar (Nero Caesar) are:







As I mentioned earlier, the point is not that Nero’s name is the primary identification of 666. The point is, instead, what the number meant to the churches. St. John’s Biblically informed readers will have already recognized many clear indications of the Beast’s identity as Rome (indeed, they already knew this from reading the Book of Daniel). Now Nero has arrived on the scene as the first great persecutor of the Church, the embodi-ment of the "666-ness" of the Empire, and – Lo and behold! – his very name spells out 666. It is significant that "all the earliest Christian writers on the Apocalypse, from Irenaeus down to Victorious of Pettau and Commodian in the fourth, and Andreas in the fifth, and St. Beatus in the eighth century, connect Nero, or some Roman em-peror, with the Apocalyptic Beast ." There should be no reasonable doubt about this identification. St. John was writing to first-century Christians, warning them of things that were "shortly" to take place. They were engaged in the most crucial battle of history, against the Dragon and the evil Empire which he possessed. The purpose of the Revelation was to comfort the Church with the assurance that God was in control, so that even the awesome might of the Dragon and the Beast would not stand before the armies of Jesus Christ. Christ was wounded in His heel on Friday, the sixth day, the Day of the Beast – yet that is the day He crushed the Dragon’s head. At his most powerful, St. John says, the Beast is just a six, or a series of sixes; never a seven. His plans of world dominion will never be fulfilled, and the Church will overcome through her Lord Jesus, the 888, who conquered on the Eighth Day.".

It k charged by some that Neron Kesar is merely a convenient "misspelling" of Nero’s name in Hebrew. This objection overlooks the fact that before the modern introduction of dictionaries the world was simply not as concerned as we are about uniformity in the spelling of names. Alternate spellings were common (e.g. "Joram" and "Jehoram" in the Old Testament), especially in the transliteration of words into a foreign tongue. But the allegation of misspelling is wholly wrong anyway. The form Neron Kesar (1) is the linguistically "correct" Hebrew form, (2) is the form found in the Talmud and other rabbinical writings, and (3) was used by Hebrews in the first century, as archaeological evidence has shown. As F. W. Farrar observed, "the Jewish Christian would have tried the name as he thought of the name-that is in Hebrew letters. And the moment he did this the secret stood revealed. No Jew ever thought of Nero except as ‘Neron Kesar,’ and this gives at once . . . 666" (The Ear[y Days of Christianity, Chicago and New York: Belford, Clarke& Co., 1882, p. 540). Of some related interest is the fact that if Nero’s name is written without the final n (i.e., the way it would occur to a Gentile to spell it in Hebrew), it yields the number 616 — which is exactly the variant reading in a few New Testament manuscripts. The most reasonable explanation for this variant is that it arose from the confusion over the final n."

(Comparison of the Trumpet Judgments of Revelation and Exodus)
The Seventh Trumpet was the sign that "there shall be no more delay" (cf. 10:6-7). Time has run out; wrath to the utmost has now come upon Israel. From this point on, St. John abandons the language and imagery of warning, concentrating wholly on the message of Jerusalem’s impending destruction. As he describes the City’s doom, he extends and intensifies the Exodus imagery that has already been so pervasive throughout the prophecy. Again he mentions "the Great City" (16:19), reminding his readers of a previous reference: "the Great City, which Spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified" (11 :8). Jerusalem is called Sodom because of its sensual, luxurious apostasy (cf. Ezek. 16:49-50), and because it is devoted to total destruction as a whole burnt sacrifice (Gen. 19:24-28; Deut. 13:12-18). But St. John’s more usual metaphors for the Great City are taken from the Exodus pattern: Jerusalem is not only Egypt, but also the other enemies of Israel. He has shown us the Egyptian Dragon chasing the Woman into the wilderness (Chapter 12); a revived Balak and Balaam seeking to destroy God’s people by war and by seduction to idolatry (chapter 13); the sealed armies of the New Israel gathered on Mount Zion to celebrate the feasts (Chapter 14); and the saints standing in triumph at the "Red Sea," singing the Song of Moses (chapter 15). Now, in Chapter 16, seven judgments corresponding to the ten Egyptian Plagues are to be poured out on the Great City. There is also a marked correspondence between these Chalice-judgments and the Trumpet-judgments of Chapters 8-11. Because the Trumpets were essentially warnings, they took only a third of the Land; with the Chalices, the destruction is total.

(On Revelation 17:10)
"..they are seven kings; five have fallen: The first five Caesars were Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius. This has been called into question by some, since, in a technical sense, the Empire began with Augustus, not Julius (cf. Tacitus, The Annals, i.1). Yet that was a technicality which, as far as the normal conversation and writing of the first century were concerned, was irrelevant. For all practical purposes, Julius Caesar was Emperor: He claimed the title imperator, and most early Roman, Christian, and Jewish writers count him as the first Emperor. Suetonius begins his Lives of the Twelve Caesars with Julius as the first Emperor, as does Dio Cassius in his Roman History. Book 5 of the Sibylline Oracles calls Julius "the first king: and 4 Ezra 12:15 speaks of Augustus as "the second" of the emperors. For our purposes, Josephus seems to provide the most convincing testimony, since he wrote for both a Roman and a Jewish audience, in the common parlance of the day. In his Antiquities of the Jews he clearly speaks of Augustus and Tiberius as the second and third emperors (xviii. ii.2), of Caligula as the fourth (xviii.vi.10), and of Julius as the first (xix. i.11). The most extensive discussion of all the evidence is in Moses Stuart, Commentary on the Apocalypse, two VOIS. (Andover: Allen, Merrill, and Wardwell, 1845), Vol. 2, pp. 445-52; cf. Isbon T. Beckwith, The Apocalypse of John: Studies in Introduction with an Exegetical and Critical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, [1919] 1979), pp. 701f. (p. 436)

(On The Millennial Reign of Christ)
"One of the antichrists who afflicted the early church was Cerinthus, the leader of a first-century Judaistic cult. Regarded by the Church Fathers as "the Arch-heretic," and identified as one of the "false apostles" who opposed Paul, Cerinthus was a Jew who joined the Church and began drawing Christians away from the orthodox faith. He taught that a lesser deity, and not the true God, had created the world (holding, with the Gnostics, that God was much too "spiritual" to be concerned with material reality). Logically, this meant also a denial of the Incarnation, since God would not take to Himself a physical body and truly human personality. And Cerinthus was consistent: he declared that Jesus had merely been an ordinary man, not born of a virgin; that "the Christ" (a heavenly spirit) had descended upon the man Jesus at His baptism (enabling Him to perform miracles), but then left Him again at the crucifixion. Cerinthus also advocated a doctrine of justification by works — in particular, the absolute necessity of observing the ceremonial ordinances of the Old Covenant in order to be saved.

Furthermore, Cerinthus was apparently the first to teach that the Second Coming would usher in a literal reign of Christ in Jerusalem for a thousand years. Although this was contrary to the apostolic teaching of the Kingdom, Cerinthus claimed that an angel had revealed this doctrine to him." (Chapter 12,Paradise Restored)

(Miscellaneous)
"...as the old heaven and earth collapsed, the church was receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken. Was receiving. ‘We are receiving! Not that someday we’re going to receive, but we are receiving.’ But, they hadn’t quite received it yet... It was a process." (David Chilton, Conference on Bible Prophecy, Oklahoma City,1997)

What's Really Wrong With Public Schools? by David H. Chilton

About David Chilton

Within a few months after David Chilton wrote this Foreword, he had a second heart attack and passed on to the heavenly realm. He was a very dear friend, and a real inspiration to a lot of us. After his first heart attack he did not retreat. He still read and analyzed large volumes of material quickly. I could not send him books fast enough. He plunged back into the deep end of theological study (eschatology). He quizzed me relentlessly on the finer points of the Preterist view. I learned much from him in the process. He approached every issue in a presuppositional apologetic way. And he was always concerned about applying new truths in practical and relevant ways to recontstruct our culture upon Biblical standards. In the six months before his death, he became convinced of the full preterist view. He was just beginning to write and speak about it when God took him Home. His contribution to the development of preterist eschatology was considerable and outstanding. His books, Paradise Restored, Days of Vengeance and The Great Tribulation will be most useful for students of Biblical eschatology for many centuries to come. He wrote numerous articles, essays and books on many other Biblical, philosophical, political, moral, ethical, social and economic issues. A few months before he passed on, he asked me to help him produce a Preterist Study Bible. We were just in the planning stages of that when he passed on. God willing, I hope to see that project become reality, and dedicate it to him. Dave was a man after God's own heart. - by Edward Stevens, June 1997

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