Double Fulfillment of Prophecy?
Some preachers say that they can accept Mat 24 as the 1st fulfillment of Jesus prophecy in year AD67-AD70, but they believe that another fulfillment of the same prophecy will come in another future generation.
Many of us who taught bible prophecy used to (but not now) have an illustration of how a prophet sees a revelation or vision. We thought that a prophet sees a vision like a person look at a mountain range. The person who looks at a mountain range can see the mountains but cannot determine which mountain is nearer and which is further. Also he cannot measure the distances of the mountains to each other or to oneself. So we used to think that a prophet can prophesy things in the future but do not know the timing or the sequence of events of which one is coming in order.
However, after looking back, we have to ask ourselves a question whether the prophecies of Jesus is it like this? No, it is not especially the prophecies found in Matthew 24 given by Jesus. These prophecies have a specific date, a specific timing and specific description of events going to take place. Such prophecies must be taken seriously and cannot be disregarded. They must be interpreted within the Context of what Jesus was addressing especially in the disciples' questions in verse 3.
The prophecies of Jesus were not left to chance or individual liking of interpretation. Jesus gave specific timelines and not vague assumptions.
For example, what is the timing of the "great tribulation"? Jesus answered in Mat 24:21, that the timing would be when all the signs have taken place in their generation.
See: https://advancingtruth.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-great-tribulation.html
Another example in Rev 1:1, where Jesus told John about the events that are "shortly" coming to pass. This word "shortly" also means "quickly" or "swiftly".
In Rev 1:3, Jesus told John that the "time is at hand" or "time is near". These are specific timings of events that are almost going to take place.
Another example in Luke 23:28-30, when Jesus was on the way to the Cross, He told the women that the coming destruction on them will be so great, that they will cry to the mountains to fall and cover them.
This was retold by Jesus in John in Rev 6:15-17, the same scenario. The wrath of God coming on them will be so great that they will cry to the mountains to fall and cover them. And this is going to take place very very soon.
To say that the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple happened in AD70 and again in the future because of double fulfillment of prophecy is being not a good scholar or wrong hermeunetics. Wrong interpretation will result in wrong teaching leading to formation of cults and manipulative groups. That's why with every earthly physical catastrophe within the last few centuries have resulted with many men and women who claimed to be the Messiahs coming to save a dying world from the "great tribulation".
See the many lists of them here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_claimed_to_be_Jesus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_messiah_claimants
https://www.christianpost.com/news/5-false-messiahs-and-why-their-claims-to-be-christ-contradict-the-bible.html
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/08/new-messiahs-jesus-christ-second-coming-photos/
Many of these cults believe in the Dispensation theory, that states that Jesus will rapture the Christians before the future "great tribulation" that is going to come upon the world. They are sometimes called pre-tribulation preachers. Now with the pandemic Covid-19 virus that is infecting millions around the world, many egoistically fueled preachers are having a great time telling their followers that Jesus has shown THEM that this is the End of the world, and they will be raptured soon.
This dispensationalism has done a lot of damage to the church. It has caused many believers to be stagnant and just wait for the kingdom of God that is to come.
When Jesus told the disciples to expect the "days of vengeance" of God that is coming upon them in their lifetime in Luke 21:21-23, He was not telling them about the "wrath" that is going to come many many centuries later. The future has nothing to do with them.
After the resurrection of Jesus, Paul reminded the Thessalonian church that the "wrath of God" will be coming soon and they will be delivered from it.
1Th 1:10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
All the prophecies regarding the fall of Jerusalem and Israel, regarding the judgement of God on Israel had already been fulfilled.
Luk 18:31 Then He drew the Twelve to Him and said, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything written in the Prophets which refers to the Son of Man will be fulfilled.
Jesus said, "It will be FULFILLED'. There is no double fulfillment.
J.E. Leonard wrote in his book "Come Out of Her, My People" in 1991, page 70:
[ God had to utterly destroy the Temple, the genealogical records that qualify the descendants of Aaron to serve as priests and the city of Jerusalem. He had to scatter the people and make it impossible for them to continue their futile and fruitless sacrifices in order to demonstrate his repudiation of Judaism as a religious system. Jesus said that no man comes to the Father, except through Him. God verified Jesus statement when He forcibly put an end to Israel's attempt to relate to the Father apart from the Son. ]
There is no double fulfillment to the end of Judaism or the Mosaic Age.All these happened within that generation only. We are already more than 20 generations behind the "great tribulation" that Jesus talked about.
From the friend's study on double fulfillment of prophecy:
[ Does a prophecy have just one fulfillment, or can it have two or three? Does each Bible verse have multiple meanings? In the 17th century, John Owen well said: "If the Scripture has more than one meaning, it has no meaning at all."
After His resurrection, Jesus encouraged the disciples thus: "These are the words which I spoke to you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me" (Luke 24:44).
Jesus was not the "initial," "partial," "typical" fulfillment. He was the FULFILLMENT!
What often happens is that people cannot deny the fulfillment of a prophecy, but their prejudices leave them dissatisfied. Therefore, they resort to "dual" fulfillment.
This is done today with such prophecies as the destruction of Jerusalem, the coming of Elijah, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the destruction of Babylon.
Where will the "double fulfillment" theory stop? Could it be that John the Baptist was only a "partial" fulfillment of Isaiah 40, inasmuch as he did not literally lower any mountains? (See Luke 3:4-6.)
Isaiah 53, as read by the Ethiopian eunuch, prophesied that the Suffering Servant would be "like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so he opened not his mouth" (Acts 8:32-35).
Did Philip tell the eunuch, "Well, since Jesus did open his mouth a couple of times during his trial, He is only a 'partial' fulfillment--the 'primary' and 'complete' fulfillment is off in the future"? Of course not!
It is time to take God at His word, whether it harmonizes with our prejudices or not. If prophecy is really prophecy, then when it is fulfilled, it is FULFILLED. ]
Adam Maarschalk, a bible scholar in his research noted:
[ An article written in 2004 by Michael Fenemore goes into even more detail on why the idea of dual fulfillment does not work when it comes to Jesus’ famous words in Matthew 24:
Some prophecy teachers, while acknowledging a fulfillment of Matthew 24 in the first century, predict a future second fulfillment, but this time, with worldwide implications… We might wonder whether those who promote the double-fulfillment theory ever took the time to test it by reading over the text even once. How could this be fulfilled twice?
This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come (Mat 24:14, NASB).
Will the “great commission” be fulfilled twice? Does “the end” come twice? If it does, then, the first one wasn’t the end.
Will there be two “great” tribulations? “For there will be greater anguish than at any time since the world began. And it will never be so great again” (Matt. 24:21, NLT). Since this anguish would “never be so great again,” how could it occur twice? Some might protest that such language is hyperbolic; it was not intended to be taken literally. Perhaps that is true. But then, the same people should be able to understand that the rest of Matthew 24 is replete with the same Old Testament-style hyperbole. They should not require a second fulfillment just because some events did not occur exactly as Jesus described them.
Jesus never said Matthew 24 would be fulfilled twice, and there’s no rule anywhere in the Bible saying prophecy should be interpreted this way. The double-fulfillment concept is simply an untenable fabrication created in desperation, probably deemed necessary because its adherents expect literal fulfillments of the highly figurative, cosmic predictions in Matthew 24 and other places, which of course, have never occurred (and never will). ]
