The Final Decade Before The End by Ed. Stevens

91 occasions. And we need to note here that they use it against ALL preterists, not just the rapture preterists. For instance, here is how one futurist critic said it: Eusebius Pamphilus relates information given by Hegesippus about the Lord’s relatives. The interesting part concerns them answering Domitian concerning the Kingdom and Christ’s coming. These guys would have either lived through AD70 or been closely connected to those who did. They would have had close ties to the apostolic teaching concerning the second coming. What is the preterist argument concerning such an early witness to Christ’s still future coming post AD 70? [Doug Shuffield - found on the Preterist Archive website] So, how do we Preterists handle this story? Notice that the grandsons were not aware of the fulfillment of these things at AD 70. Why hadn’t Jude told them? Didn’t Jude know about the return of his brother (Jesus) in AD 70? Why didn’t he pass that info along to his son and grandsons? In view of his inspired status as a true Christian and writer of one of the books of our NT, it seems pretty safe to assume that Jude would have known that Christ returned in AD 70 if he lived until that event.

Assuming that his son and grandsons were TRUE Christians at the time of the Parousia, they would have known that the Parousia occurred, just by their association with Jude and the family of Jesus.

However, there are lots of uncertainties involved in this story. For instance, we do not know for sure that the grandsons were Christians before the Parousia, nor whether Jude himself survived until (and after) the Parousia.

Since Jude was definitely a true Christian at the time of writing his book (AD 64), he would either have been raptured at the Parousia, or killed in the Neronic persecution before the Parousia like Paul, John, Peter, and James his brother (AD 62-64). If he was killed in the Neronic persecution, then his family might have fled the country when the Judean Christians fled to Pella. However, we don’t know whether his son and grandsons were true Christians at that time or not. Nor do we know when the grandsons were born. If the son of Jude was still alive and was a true Christian at the time of the Parousia, then he was raptured along with Jude, and the grandsons would have already been born before their father died. And if their father was a Christian, the grandsons would also most likely be Christians. The problem is, we simply do not know which, if any, of these scenarios are correct, or whether the solution lies somewhere else.

This is a problem for all preterists. We have the burden of explaining how Jude’s grandsons, who seem to be Christians, could have been so ignorant about the past occurrence of the Parousia (and all of its related events) at AD 70. If they or their parents were alive and were true Christians at the time of the Parousia, they would have KNOWN that the Parousia occurred. The NT writers are too specific about what the true Christians could EXPECT to see and experience at the Parousia.

There is no wiggle room here for Preterists to say that the true Christians either missed the significance of AD 70, or simply went on their merry way and never mentioned it again (not even to their children and grandchildren). That approach brings a reproach upon the honesty, dignity and credibility of any of the apostles and pre-70 saints who lived beyond AD 70.

If they were true Christians at the time of the Parousia, and were still around after witnessing and experiencing these momentous events, they would have said something to indicate that these big three events had already occurred. They would have spoken up when Papias, Polycarp, and Ignatius started saying that the Parousia was still future. They would have set the record straight.

Not to do so would have been unethical negligence, and would have discredited them as false witnesses for Christ. No matter where we date this story, the grandsons of Jude do seem to be totally ignorant of the occurrence of the Parousia. How can we explain this ignorance? The futurists use this ignorance to prove that the Parousia did not occur, but preterists do not have that option.

So how do we preterists explain their ignorance of the Parousia?

Two Possible Preterist Solutions: