SID: Sid Roth here with Perry Stone. And there is a teaching, it’s an old teaching, that’s resurfacing right now. It’s called Preterism, and it basically states that the Book of Revelation is already completed. You don’t even need that book any more. Now you throw out the Book of Revelation, you throw out the Old Testament and you throw out the Word of God. Now Perry Stone, what would you say to someone that walked up to you and said, “Look Perry, 70 A.D., you know what happened in Israel? Everything took place in the Book of Revelation.”
PERRY: First of all, let’s talk about who they are. These are individuals that believe that Matthew 24, the Book of Revelation, most of it was fulfilled in 70 A.D. Why do they say that? Well you had the destruction of the temple, destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews being scattered and then Josephus talks about these cosmic signs, stars shaped like a sword, the voice that came in the temple saying, “Let us depart hence,” a comet that was seen over the city. So what they do is they take the cosmic signs that Josephus wrote about, they take the fact the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews were scattered and they basically say all of Matthew 24 was fulfilled. But the problem you have with that, there’s a couple of problems. Problem number one is the Bible says, “There will be a generation that will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of glory and the tribes of the earth will morn.” Show me where that happened in 70 A.D. It did not happen. Number two, anybody who’s a Preterits watching, they know this because the people who have revived this doctrine, this is their biggest weakness. They believe the Book of Revelation was written 68 A.D., just about two years before the destruction. Therefore, when John, for example is told to measure the Temple of God in Revelation 11, they say, well that was the temple in Jerusalem. It had to be written by 68 A.D. because the temple was destroyed two years later. Here’s the problem you have. The early church followers, three of them, talk about the Emperor Domitian, who was the emperor in 81 A.D., when he came to power. Now the temple is destroyed in 70 and the emperor, that was the emperor when John wrote the Book of Revelation comes in 81 A.D. and he dies about 94, 95, it blows the theory away. There’s nothing a Preterist can stand on when they understand that history reveals the Book of Revelation was written in 95 A.D., 25 years after the destruction of the temple. And Sid, the scripture they use in Revelation 11 about measuring the Temple of God is a temple in the tribulation period, not one that existed in 70 A.D.
SID: So if it’s so blown out in the water, why does anyone believe in this Preterist thing?
PERRY: Because they don’t know the Bible or they don’t know how to properly interpret, you know, the Book of Revelation.
SID: Who gains by someone tossing out the Book of Revelation and tossing out the Old Testament?
PERRY: Well no one gains.
SID: Yeah. And there is someone that gains: the devil.
PERRY: The enemy gains.
SID: The devil gains.
PERRY: The kingdom of darkness gains because there’s a lot of reasons why people should study the book. Because I’ve looked at it from the historical perspective, the allegorical perspective. I’ve looked at it from the four main perspectives. The only way to interpret the book properly is futuristic from Chapter 4 to Chapter 22. And Sid, here’s the reason why. Because if you look at the numbers of people who are dying in the tribulation, a third, a third, a third, never in the history of the world, and I want everybody to hear this, never in the history of the world is there a time that you can find where those numbers ever came into existence yet.
SID: What about another old doctrine that is floating around now. It’s called Kingdom now. We are going to take over the political realm, the art realm, every realm of the world and present Jesus the earth on a silver platter. What’s wrong with that thinking?
PERRY: Okay. It’s the same thinking the Pharisees had. The Pharisees had it mixed up because they said they wanted a Messiah who would conquer Rome, put Israel in a political power position. So when Yeshua came, he came as a lamb, not a lion. He comes as a lion at the end of the tribulation. Okay. So they had it mixed up because when they saw him they said, we want to make him a king, we want him to conquer Rome. He didn’t do that. What did the disciples say when he was going back to Heaven? Will you restore the kingdom to Israel? They wanted a political kingdom, but they got a spiritual kingdom. Now the Kingdom of God, is on Earth through the church. But here’s what we’re doing, setting people free from demon spirits, healing the sick. We’re delivering people from sin, getting them ready for eternity.
SID: Which party is that exactly? Is that Democrat or Republican?
PERRY: There you go. And so the kingdom is now spiritual. And today people have got it mixed up again because they think that we, the people, make a political kingdom. We take over the government. One guy told me it’s getting better and better. I said, if it’s better and better I don’t want to see worse and worse. I mean, you know—
SID: How can someone say it’s getting better and better?
PERRY: I’m telling you, it makes no sense.
SID: I can’t afford it.
PERRY: So here’s the point I make with that. There is a kingdom, yes, the Kingdom of God is on Earth and it’s working in us now. But it’s a spiritual kingdom delivering people from the power of demonic activities in sin and Satan. The Messiah will come. You can’t have a kingdom without a king. The king will return. In Revelation 19, the timing is at the conclusion of what’s called the Great Tribulation. The saints of God will rule and reign with him for a thousand years. Then we have the actual kingdom on Earth, political and spiritual. Because when he becomes king he rules the earth with wrought of iron. We’re not ruling Earth with a wrought of iron, because we can’t rule because our king has not returned yet.
SID: What about the Rapture? What a divisive area. But what an exciting area when you spend 80,000 hours studying the Bible. The only book, the Old Testament was the only book the first church had. We’ll talk about rapture when we come back.
