Compare Matthew 23:37-38 with the previously quoted scriptures of Leviticus 26:31-33 and you will quickly see that their language is almost identical.  This would indicate that Jesus was predicting in His Matthew 23 message the fulfillment of the judgment of Leviticus 26.  It also indicates that this judgment was to take place during the generation of those He was speaking to at that time.  The book of Revelation predicted this coming destruction of Jerusalem a few years before it took place.

Let’s now look at some more of the predictions Jesus gave concerning the fulfillment of these Old Testament scriptures of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 & 32.  As you read the following verses of Luke 21, keep in mind that they are the parallel scriptures to Matthew 24, and can be used to help us understand Matthew 24 as well.

Bro. Baxter is always claiming that the Abomination of Desolation is an antichrist taking away an animal sacrifice even though he has no scripture to prove that.  Luke 21:20 is the exact parallel statement with Matthew 24:15 which says, “When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken by Daniel,” to flee.  But Luke leaves off the words “abomination of desolation” and tells us exactly what it is.  He reveals that it is an invading army that will come to make Jerusalem desolate.  Notice this and compare Luke with Matthew as you read, and let scripture interpret scripture.


The fact that they will be carried captive into all nations proves this has to be speaking of the AD70 destruction of Jerusalem.  I say this because Dispensationalists teach this happens at the end of a final seven-year period in which two-thirds of the Jews are killed, one-third of them are saved, and culminates with Jesus coming to usher them into a future 1000 year period.  There are two major problems with this teaching.  First: this would have these people being saved by their race and date of birth rather than by obeying God’s covenant.  Second: this Dispensationalist scenario would leave no time for those remaining people to go into captivity throughout the world.  These discrepancies would make the Futurist teaching on this biblically impossible, but this scenario did happen in incredible detail during the AD70 siege of Jerusalem.  There, history says, approximately 1.1 million Jews were killed and approximately 90,000 were carried captive into all nations.  This First Century time period also agrees with what Jesus said in Matthew 23:36.  There He predicted that these things would be fulfilled during the time period of the generation to which He was speaking; He confirmed this was true in Matthew 24:34 and Luke 21:32.


Keep in mind that Jesus revealed in Matthew 23:35-38 the generation He was referring to was the one He was speaking to at that time.


Jesus let them know these judgments would take place because they would finish the transgression by killing the Messiah and His followers.  This would, as the Scripture says, “fill the measure” of the cup of His wrath, causing His judgment to be poured out upon those in that generation who rejected His New Covenant message.

Isaiah chapters 28 and 29 describe the judgments against Jerusalem in detail, and I will touch on it lightly here.  Basically, Isaiah 28 is where God prophesied the giving of the New Covenant.  He said it would come with “stammering lips and another tongue,” but the unbelieving Jews “would not hear.” They got their “Chief Cornerstone,” but they would not trust in Him.  They chose instead the covenant of death—which is the legalism of the Law—rather than to accept God’s New Covenant—which is salvation by grace.



In Isaiah 29 you find the first six verses contain a direct prophecy against a city called “Ariel, Ariel.” This we know is Jerusalem because it is described there as “the city where David dwelt.” Then verse 3 says, “God will bring a mount against this city.” This is the judgment that is mentioned in verse 6 and is described as “thunder, earthquake, great noise, storm and tempest, and a devouring fire.” These verses in Isaiah use the same type of biblical language that is used in the seventh judgment in each of the four sets of judgments being poured out.  Because of that you can conclude that Isaiah— like all the other Old Testament prophets who used this type of biblical language—was referring to the same coming judgment against Jerusalem and Her rebellious citizens.  This is very easy to see when you realize that this language and interpretation is a consistent theme throughout the Bible.

It is easy to see from all these scriptural proofs that it is consistent with both Old and New Testament prophecies, and the words of Jesus and His Apostles, that we are dealing with biblical imagery of the destruction of Jerusalem and His “Coming in the Clouds” in judgment against that city.  However, this should not be confused with the final return of the Lord to resurrect His Church at the last day, because this same imagery and language was used many times in the Old Testament and only involved a coming of the Lord in judgment, and did not involve a resurrection.  We must not fail to recognize the fact that the Bible refers to the Lord coming in judgment against a nation as a “coming of the Lord” in both the Old and New Testament.  Bro. Baxter, as well as most futurists, fails to recognize this truth in scripture; therefore, every time they read about “a coming of the Lord” they automatically interpret that as His coming in the air to resurrect His Church.  Such was Bro. Baxter’s reasoning in his point number two when he said…


His statement about what Revelation 11:1-2 says was not all in the Bible.  It does say the Holy City would be trodden under for 42 months, but it does not say “prior to His second coming.” That was another one of Bro. Baxter’s quotes from the Bible where he claims the Bible says something it does not say, and yet he knows probably 90% of his followers are going to take his statements as biblical fact because they never search it out for themselves.  His main point in missing this fulfillment in 70AD is not the fact that Jerusalem was not trodden under foot for 42 months, but because he sees every coming of the Lord mentioned in scripture as the final coming of the Lord for His Church.  What do you do about the scripture where Jesus said that some of them would not taste of death till they had seen the son of man coming in the clouds, and that they would not have gone over the cities of Israel with the gospel till the son of man be come? This clearly creates a problem for all the people who claim Jesus never came in that generation, and only recognize one coming at the end, therefore refusing to recognize all the scriptural evidence about His coming in judgment against Jerusalem.


I covered this subject much more thoroughly in my book, but I want to give a few quick examples of Old Testament prophecies that were given against three different cities or nations.  Notice that the prophecies are the same type prophecies used in the book of Revelation to prophesy about the destruction of Jerusalem.  They involved the falling of the sun, moon, and stars, as well as a parting of the heavens as a scroll in some cases, yet the actual fulfillment of this prophecy was that God sent another nation’s army to destroy that nation and establish a new government in its place.  This is exactly what God did in the New Testament as He sent Jesus Christ with a new government upon His shoulders, replacing animal sacrifices with the sacrifice of Himself once and forever.  He then sent another nation’s army (Rome) to physically destroy Jerusalem and the Temple to prove His New Covenant was the only covenant for Jew and Gentile.  The dream of Joseph included some of this same imagery about a change of authority.


Remember Joseph’s dream used these symbols to denote human government.  


This came to pass when Joseph was made a ruler in Egypt and his brothers came there and bowed before him.  But notice in verse 10 that Joseph’s father, Israel, understood the true meaning of the imagery of Joseph’s dream.  He knew that his government was going to bow down to Joseph’s.  He saw this from Joseph dreaming that the sun, moon, and stars were bowing down to Joseph.  In biblical imagery, seeing a star fall from the sky foretold a coming change in the government it was referenced to; it was referring to a future time when that government was not only going to bow down to their victor, but was to be completely overthrown by them and consequently cease to exist as a power.


Let’s look at the language that Isaiah used when prophesying about the coming destruction of Babylon.  Remember that this is still Old Testament prophecy.



The actual fulfillment of this happened when the armies of the Medes and Persians defeated the King of Babylon and took over his city.  This represented a change in government and authority.  Approximately 200 years before it would be fulfilled, Isaiah 44:28 stated that the man who would carry out this judgment and give the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem would be named Cyrus.  Isaiah 9:6-7 also prophesied that when Jesus would come, the government would be upon His shoulders.  It should not be of any surprise then that the same biblical imagery is used in the New Testament—especially in the book of Revelation—to describe His destruction of Jerusalem’s old covenant worship system by a heathen army, and His establishment of the New Covenant of Grace—the New Jerusalem—the new light of the world! This occurrence is referring to the time that the NEW SUN of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2, Revelation 21:23) took the place of the old sun (natural Jerusalem).



Now let’s look at the way the destruction of Egypt is described.

This scripture describes a change in government, which was fulfilled when Egypt was overthrown by the hands of another nation’s army.  When people do not look back to see where these scriptures originated, and the context in which they were written, they misinterpret the message God intended these scriptures to communicate.  This has caused many people to improperly interpret the prophetic language of the Bible.  But if they would stop breaking the consistency of Scripture, and instead bring the consistency of the Old Testament into the New Testament, then they would be able to more easily understand the prophetic teachings of Jesus and His Apostles.



Let’s take a look at Isaiah’s prophecies about the defeat of two Old Testament cities, Idumea and Bozrah and then compare it with the language of the book of Revelation.


These cities fell just as it was prophesied; yet the heavens are still physically intact.



The language of Isaiah 34:4 is the same language that John used to describe the wrath of Revelation 6:13-16.


People think this passage in Revelation is referring to a nuclear blast because God said, “The heavens are going to depart like a scroll.” But this is exactly the same language Isaiah used when he prophesied the impending destruction of the cities of Idumea and Bozrah.  God did bring that judgment to pass, and He didn’t use a cruise missile, a Stealth Fighter, or a nuclear bomb to do it, because these weapons did not exist at the time of their defeat.  He accomplishes this destruction through the might of a foreign army.  This type of language is a consistent theme throughout the Old Testament and is used when God is describing the destruction that He is bringing against a people who have rebelled against Him.  Since this is true, why couldn’t God use the same biblical language in the New Testament to describe His usage of a heathen Roman army to destroy a rebellious Jerusalem?



The scriptures we have just quoted in Revelation 6 are the fulfillment of Jesus’ preaching in Luke 23:28-30.


This shows that the things happening in Revelation are happening to the people of that generation and their children.  It is nothing more than biblical imagery showing the coming destruction of Jerusalem, which was to take place before that generation had passed away.

Bro. Baxter follows the same pattern with other things he mentions and sees as a literal fulfillment rather than recognizing the biblical imagery involved.  He mentioned the two witnesses of Revelation 11:3 and sees them as two literal men and sees the 3½ days as a literal time, saying it hasn’t happened yet.  Jesus said these witnesses were the two olive trees and the two golden candlesticks (see Zechariah 4) which are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.  In this article, I do not have time to go into this, because it has already gotten longer than I originally intended; however, I have a teaching on this entitled The Four Beasts and the Two Witnesses.  I prove in that teaching that this is imagery of the Apostolic Ministry, and use many scriptures to prove this.  You must remember there was no witness in Jerusalem for 3½ years as the church had fled at the command of Jesus, while God’s wrath was being poured out against the rejecters of the New Covenant in Jerusalem.  Listen to the entire teaching and decide for yourself if you think it is correct.  If you disagree, I will still love you.  (This can be listened to online at: www.rightlydividingtheword.com.)

Bro. Baxter then goes into Revelation 13 to say that the whole world will have to receive a number to be able to buy and sell, and a false prophet must get the world to follow an antichrist.  He then goes into Daniel to prove his point by misrepresenting the scriptures in Daniel.  Since this article is limited on space I cannot explain here what I believe on this particular subject.  However, if you want my views on this subject matter, see page 68 of my book The Coming of the Lord....



Bro. Baxter says the main problem he sees with the Preterist doctrine is that we teach that the book of Revelation is mostly fulfilled and is primarily dealing with the destruction of Jerusalem.  He then used a literal interpretation of certain scriptures (which I have already exposed as being in error) to say we were wrong.  I would like for him to continue his literal interpretation for a moment as I read what the Angel of the Lord (later declared to be Jesus Himself) said to John in the setting and closing of the prophecy before He got into all the prophetic imagery of the vision itself.  Bro. Baxter teaches Revelation as a future event.  To do so he must ignore the time text in which Jesus literally said the book would be fulfilled. So his argument really is with Jesus Christ and His word, and not with the Preterist who believe what Jesus said to be
true.

I am going to compare some of the time text in Daniel with the time text given in the book of Revelation.  One thing you need to realize when looking at a time text statement is whether or not it is located in the setting of the vision or in the vision itself.  Once a vision is entered into, everything is usually prophesied as being “near” or “at hand,” but that is not the case in the “setting of the vision,” and I gave some biblical examples of the difference in my book.  Let’s now look at some of the time text and times given in the book of Revelation and in the book of Daniel and compare the two in order to draw a clearer understanding from the scriptures.



Let’s compare these scriptures of Daniel, which were commanded to be sealed until the time of the end, with the language of Revelation.


I believe that John opened the book that Daniel had sealed over 500 years earlier.  John did this because “the time of the end,” and not the “end of time” was at hand.  This time period is recorded in Daniel 12:7 as being a “time, times, and a half.” It would result in the scattering of the holy people and bring to an end all the other things that were prophesied.


Let’s compare this now with the wording and TIME TEXT of the book of Revelation.


He didn’t say this was going to happen 2,000 to 3,000 years in the future.  He said this was “shortly” coming to pass.


He said the time is “at hand.” Compare the phrase “at hand” with its usage in the rest of the New Testament, and you will discover that this is a reference to it being close by, not far off, something that was soon to take place.


How are those who pierced (crucified) Him going to see Him coming unless they are still alive on that day? This fulfillment would be impossible if this is referring to a time in the future.  It would have been easy to fulfill if this was referring to His coming in their generation.  The word “earth” here is the same word that means “land,” and is normally used in reference to the tribes of the land of Israel.

Look now in Revelation 22, which is the closing chapter of that great book, for even more proof that the book of Revelation was to be fulfilled immediately after it was written.


Even at the closing of the Book of Revelation He said it again, “The things which must shortly be done.”


He said you had better keep these things because I am coming soon!


As previously stated, I believe that John opened the sealed vision of Daniel because it was then “the time of the end.”

This does not mean that it was “the end of time” as most preach.


Remember, Jesus said that some of them would still be alive when He came back to give His rewards.  Here He is giving those rewards out: to the wicked He will destroy them in His wrath; to the righteous He is going to allow them to flee into the wilderness and be safe from the destruction of Jerusalem.  The Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:4-43) says the same thing.  There Moses says it will be a time when God will reward the wicked and be merciful to His people.


God told Daniel to seal his book because its prophecies would not be fulfilled in the days in which they were written.  But that is not what He told the apostle John.  God told John not to seal his book because the time for its fulfillment was at hand.  Even though this is what the Bible says, some contend that the language of Revelation is misleading and say its prophecies will be fulfilled sometime in the future.  What I want to know is how can they say such a thing when Revelation’s wording is so clear?  How can they honestly believe that the angel who spake to John missed it?  Or that Jesus, who was the one who inspired John’s writings, missed it?  I contend that neither the angel nor Jesus missed anything!  Rather, those who have misinterpreted Revelation’s prophetic timetable are the ones who have missed it.  They have done so because they refuse to see that most of Revelation, which was given in biblical imagery, is John’s detailed account of the Matthew 24 Mount Olivet Discourse, which describes Jesus’ AD70 destruction of Jerusalem.

Another thing Bro. Baxter tried to do was discount the statement by Jesus that all these things would be fulfilled before that generation passed.  He used the typical Dispensational explanation about the fig tree putting forth its leaves, and the fact he claims this fig tree generation is future.  Dispensationalists try to use this to push the prophecy forward to a future time when Israel is restored, but when you compare this with the parallel scriptures in Luke, it makes that interpretation impossible.  All Jesus was saying was to observe the fulfillment of these signs and you will know the time of the desolation of Jerusalem is near; and as I have proved in my prophecy lesson entitled The Great Tribulation, all of these signs were fulfilled in that generation.

There are three things that must be dealt with here.  (1) The fact that Matthew 23 set the stage for Matthew 24 and clearly stated it would happen to those in that generation which would kill the Messiah, His followers, and reject His New Covenant Message.  This makes it impossible to push this off into a future generation without contradicting the words of Jesus in Matthew 23.  (2) Who did Jesus name in Matthew 23 to be the city that fit the descriptions of Babylon the Great given in the book of Revelation? (3) What type of coming was He referring to in Matthew 24:30-31? We must use scripture to back up our answer, not just give preconceived ideas that it is referring to His final appearing at the Last Day.  I will deal with all three of these at once to save time.  The Futurists do not have a scripture that we cannot give an answer for.  If they did, I would not be holding to the Preterist viewpoint.  However, we have many that they cannot answer, because there is no biblical base to many of their beliefs.  I have taught in detail about all the subjects important to Bible Prophecy in my series entitled Rightly Dividing the Word of Bible Prophecy, but to cover these subjects in detail took me 10 tapes and close to 20 hours of instruction.  The truth is now out there, and now it is between men and God whether or not they will take the time to search it out.  Let me now deal with the three aforementioned points from the scriptures, since the answer to all three involve usage of many of the same scriptures.



The following are prophecies concerning Babylon the Great found in the book of Revelation.


Remember this description.  When we can find a city guilty of the blood of the prophets, apostles, saints, and (the key point) of all that were slain upon the earth, then we can know for sure to what city this refers.


In what great city was Jesus crucified?  Rome or Jerusalem?  It was Jerusalem.  This is a definite reference to Jerusalem being “the great city.” (I deal with the identity of the two witnesses in another lesson.)


Babylon is called “the great city” in the book of Revelation.

The great city that has fallen in this judgment is Jerusalem.


Compare Revelation’s statement about the city being divided into three parts with the 5th chapter of Ezekiel.  Remember that Revelation and Ezekiel are basically the same prophecies.


You can’t get much plainer.  God is saying here that the city that would be judged is Jerusalem!


The prophet was told to shave his head and divide the hair in three parts.  He is then told to burn one third with fire, to smite one third with a knife, and to scatter one third in the wind which would have a sword go after it.  This was done to show the different judgments that God was going to bring against—as verse 5 says—the city of Jerusalem.  Verse 12 explains the three-part judgment of Jerusalem, which history says took place just as it was stated.


Remember this is a harlot city that is described as riding on a political beast.  The prophet Isaiah spoke of Jerusalem as being a city of harlotry.


Ezekiel chapters 16, 22, and 23 all call Jerusalem by name and declare her to be the harlot city that God will burn with fire.  I will give a few references here, but you should still read these chapters for yourself.


Remember in the book of Revelation, she had a golden cup in her hand that was full of her abominations.


During the Old Covenant, Israel was married to God.  He was the One that she committed adultery against.  Her unfaithfulness is what caused God to divorce her, but He then offered to take her back under a new covenant that He established with the death of Jesus.  Their refusal to accept God’s New Covenant was the reason why He judged Jerusalem so severely.

Babylon is that great city that sat on the beast that had seven heads (seven mountains) and ten horns.  It was the beast, and not the whore that sat on the beast, that had the seven heads and ten horns.  Rome fits this description since it is a city that has seven hills.  Rome was also the political strength that Jerusalem was riding on when she persecuted and killed the apostles, prophets, and saints of Jesus Christ. Then, just as Revelation 17 says, Rome turned on Jerusalem and threw her off its back and devoured her in AD70.  Remember, this harlot city is described in Revelation as the one that killed the prophets, the apostles, and the saints, and is also guilty of the blood of all that were killed upon the earth.  I deal with this subject in great detail in my prophecy series in the lesson entitled The Real Babylon the Great.




Matthew’s, “Fill ye up the measure of your fathers,” and Daniel’s, “Finish the transgression,” are synonymous descriptions of the same event.  Daniel said this event would take place during his 70 weeks prophecy, and Matthew indicated that this would happen when the unbelieving Jews killed their Messiah.


Jesus said these unbelievers would kill the apostles, the people who He sent to them, and they would also persecute these first century Christians from city to city.  To see this come to pass, all you have to do is read the books of Acts.


Here it is again.  The unbelieving Jews were the ones that God was going to hold responsible for all the blood that had been shed in the earth.  Remember, when they asked for Jesus’ death, they told the ruler of Rome to “let His blood be upon us and our children.”

This proves to which generation He was referring in Matthew 24:34 when He said, “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” To say that this is referring to some future generation, maybe even that of our day, would directly contradict the clear meaning of Jesus’ words found here.


Jesus called the name of the city that killed the prophets, the apostles, and was guilty of the blood of all righteous clear back to righteous Abel, “Jerusalem.” He then said He was going to bring all those things on her in that generation and make her desolate.  This was fulfilled in AD70, forty years after Jesus’ crucifixion.  He gave them one generation—forty years—to choose between Him, and the Law.  Those who refused Him, He judged according to the Law.


Paul agreed with the words of Jesus.  He spoke of this occurrence in 1 Thessalonians.


God sent His wrath to avenge for their killing of the prophets, apostles, the saints, and even their Messiah—Jesus.



You can understand the gathering of the elect (Matthew 24) by comparing the destruction of Babylon the Great (Jerusalem), followed by an invitation to the marriage supper (Revelation 19), with the parable of the wedding feast (Matthew 22).  This will help us to scripturally identify what type of coming is being described in Matthew 24:30-31, when he gathers together his elect from the four corners of the earth.  I have added the italics, bolds, and underlines for explanation purposes.



This is the Apostles inviting the Jews to be saved.


The marriage supper was already prepared before the destruction of Jerusalem, so the invitation to the marriage feast was literally nothing more than the preaching of the gospel to the lost, which brings a person into a marriage relationship with Jesus Christ under the New Covenant.  This relationship will result in spending eternity with Jesus for those who are obedient to the New Covenant message.


This was referring to the apostles preaching to the unbelieving Jews, and just as Jesus said, they rejected the apostles’ message, and attacked them by physically abusing them, and by murdering them.


This is talking about Jerusalem.  God is showing that He will burn their city because they refused the invitation He sent, via the apostles, to partake in His wedding.


Remember they “gathered together” those who would come.  This is the “gathering together of the elect.” In Revelation, the marriage supper took place after Jerusalem was destroyed.



This compares with the marriage invitation found in Matthew 22.  It took place after the city was destroyed.  This also matches the sending out of His angels (messengers/preachers) to gather the elect from the four corners of the earth immediately after the tribulation of those days.


We are still gathering souls to Jesus today! This also matches Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares.  In that parable Jesus said the tares are gathered first so that the righteous could shine forth as the sun (Son of Righteousness).

Matthew 24:31 is a direct fulfillment of Isaiah 11:12.  Many try to say the scriptures of Isaiah chapter 11 are referring to a future 1000 year reign of Christ, but a careful examination of these scriptures, along with chapter 12 of Isaiah, proves that this is nothing more than biblical imagery used to describe the inner peace that comes through the New Covenant message and having the Prince of Peace living within you.

Read both of these chapters in Isaiah for yourself.  Remember as you do that men divided them into chapters and verses, but they were not originally written that way.  As you read them in their original context, it will become evident that chapter 12 is still speaking of the events of chapter 11.  This is easy to see since chapter 12 begins by saying “and in that day” and goes on to describe things that apply to the New Covenant message.  Let’s examine a few of these scriptures.


When you compare this with other Old Testament scriptures on the restoration of Israel, it becomes evident that this is referring to their restoration to God by Jesus Christ and the New Covenant message.  The beginning of Isaiah 11 and all of Isaiah 12 prove this has to be referring to the events fulfilled by Jesus Christ and the New Covenant.


The final point I am going to deal with is the statements Bro. Baxter makes to “prove” that Daniel’s 70th week was not fulfilled by Jesus Christ, but is still future.  This is where he uses what many refer to as the constant “Baxter method” of misquoting and misapplying scripture out of context and claiming the Bible says what he just said, when the Bible does not say what he just said.

We have some prime examples of this in this article, some of which I have already exposed.  He saved the best for last though as he usually does his best job when dealing with the subject of what he believes to be a future world ruler called the antichrist.  When Bro. Baxter gets on this subject, he goes all over the Bible and finds anything that to him might be a prophecy of a future antichrist.  He then refers to that portion of scripture as though it is a future antichrist, when in reality the Bible says nothing about that portion of scripture referring to a future world ruler.  We have heard these Dispensational assumptions taught for so long as a fact, that most have accepted that they are true even without scriptural evidence. These people also can become highly offended if someone dares to point out that the Bible does not refer to a future antichrist.  Our website offers a $1,000.00 reward for one scripture that says any of the seven main points listed there about Dispensationalism.  Two of the seven points are: (1) There is a gap between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel, and (2) An antichrist will make a 7-year covenant with the Jews.  If Bro. Baxter has at least one scripture which proves either of these, then I suggest he call and collect his money.  If he does not have a least one scripture which says either of these, then I suggest he stop teaching it as biblically based fact.



I want you to be aware of the fact that the word “antichrist” is only mentioned in two books in the entire Bible, which are the epistles of 1 and 2 John.  John says there were many antichrists in his day, and that this was how they knew it was the last time.  Of course he was referring to the last days of the Jewish age of Law-keeping and not the end of the physical world in which we now live.  Daniel called it the “time of the end,” not the “end of time,” as most try to interpret it.  Was John in error? Not if the New Testament is inspired of God, he wasn’t.  I’m going to place my confidence in the Word.

To expose how Bro. Baxter misquotes the Scripture to prove his point, I am going to quote from his article and then show the biblical error behind what he said.  His first paragraph explaining what Preterists believe about Daniel’s 70th week is correct.  He starts making his error when he begins to try to show why what we believe is wrong.  The following is a direct quote from the article.


He got this explanation correct.  That is exactly what we believe.  To fully understand the scriptural reason behind why we believe this, I once again suggest that you listen to my tape on Daniel’s 70th Week and compare the two teachings, and determine for yourself which teaching you feel is biblically correct.  The lesson is close to two hours in length, so there is no way I could get into that in this article.  However, I will share a couple of points.

Number one, where else in the Bible do you find God giving men a definite number of years (490) for something to come to completion, only to find out it wasn’t correct.  There was a hidden gap that he failed to mention anything about.  Can you imagine Daniel going to prayer after 69 of the prophesied 70 years of Babylonian captivity and reminding God it was about time to be able to go back to Jerusalem only to have God tell him there was a 2000 year plus gap God had failed to tell him about.  This gap idea is a man-made Dispensational creation, designed to promote Natural Israel above the Church.  It was created to be a total return of God to Natural Israel and Law-keeping, and to have an explanation for getting men to accept the idea.  Unfortunately many Christians today have accepted this unbiblical idea, and have totally closed their
minds to what the Bible really teaches.

I know many Post-Tribulation believers who disagree with Bro. Baxter’s Dispensational teachings, and they believe and teach that Daniel’s 70th week was fulfilled by Christ without a gap.  That is why I must address Bro. Baxter and his teachings personally, because most Post-Tribulation believers that understand the false teachings of Dispensational Theology strongly disagree with him on much of his teaching.  We have asked Bro. Baxter personally about his Dispensational teachings while claiming to be a Post-Tribulationist, and his response was that he doesn’t understand Dispensationalism.  I can’t imagine a man that has dedicated his whole ministry to the teaching of prophecy but has not taken the time to study what has formed the foundation of his entire teaching.  I highly recommend that he does that, because it could cause him to change his position on some things.

Number two, the Bible makes it very clear that it was the death of the Messiah which brought in a New Covenant for Jew and Gentile alike.  God ceased to honor the animal sacrifices after that time, and that is what the scriptures are referring to in Daniel 9:27.  There are many New Testament scriptures to prove this, but let me give just a few.


This clearly says He took away the first, so He could establish the second.  This is definite scripture that says Jesus took away the acceptance of animal sacrifices for salvation, which was the daily sacrifice that the writer of Hebrews said could never take away sins, though they were still physically being offered.  Another scripture which says it has been made old and is about ready to vanish away, which was fulfilled in 70AD with the destruction of the Temple.


There are others, but I have given scripture for Jesus being the one to cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.  Bro. Baxter does not have one scripture that says an antichrist will take away the daily sacrifice.  I will prove the scriptures he quotes from in Daniel 11 about the King of the North have nothing to do with the time of Christ, but were fulfilled many years before Christ came on the scene.  Let me go now to his next quotes.


Bro. Baxter then quotes Daniel 9:27 and we are about to do that, but before we read it I want to expose his error about what he has just said.  He claims Daniel 9:27 says that the same one who took away the daily sacrifice would “place” the Abomination of Desolation.  We are now going to read Daniel 9:27, and I want to show you that it says nothing about the abomination being “placed.” He uses these words because he refuses to listen to Luke’s interpretation of what the abomination of desolation was, which was Jerusalem being surrounded by armies to make her desolate.  He wants you to believe his non-scriptural Dispensational theory that it is a future antichrist taking away an animal sacrifice in a future Jewish Temple, because the Jews have returned to Law-keeping.  Let’s read Daniel 9:27, but let’s also read verse 26 because then you can get a better picture of what verse 27 is saying.


Did you read anything in this set of scriptures about an “antichrist” taking away a daily sacrifice and “placing” the abomination of desolation? I did not see either of these words in those scriptures.  Now let me share with you what it really says.  (1) It says that the Messiah is going to be cut off.  (2) The people of the prince are going to come and destroy the city and the sanctuary.  [Both of these were fulfilled when Jesus was crucified and the city of Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed by the Roman army some forty years later in 70AD.] (3) The war will not end [consummation] until the city and the Temple are desolate.  (4) The prince will confirm the covenant with Israel for one week, [which, of course, is the last week of Daniel’s prophecy to Israel.] (5) In the middle of the week He will cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease.  [This means that in the middle of the final week he will cause animal sacrifices, offered to God to remove Israel’s sins, to cease being God’s method to remove sin any longer, because a New Covenant was then brought into effect by the death of the testator.  {See Heb.  9:16-17} We believe this is referring to Christ who was cut off after 3 ½ years of ministry; however, it seems He did not let the Early Church go to the Gentiles until the 70th week was completed.] (6) Because of the abominations of Israel, God is going to fulfill the desolations that have been determined by God upon the people until the end.

Notice there is no mention of an antichrist or anything about the future after the cutting off of the Messiah and the Destruction of Jerusalem.  Man has inserted all of these things in order to try to make men believe this is still future, and animal sacrifices will again be accepted by God.

I will agree that the identity of “prince,” and of the “he,” is very important.  Verse 25 refers to the prince as “Messiah the Prince,” and I do not see anything to indicate the prince changed, even though men have turned Christ into an antichrist.  Jesus Christ came to confirm God’s covenant to Israel for the last seven years of Daniel’s prophecy.  This covenant has been prophesied by God’s prophets throughout the Old Testament.  The 70th week began with the “anointing to the Most Holy,” which took place at the baptism of Christ as He began His ministry.  He was cut off after 3 ½ years or in the midst of the week, and His death brought an end to animal sacrifices for salvation.  To prove this is mentioned as a covenant, let’s read Isaiah 61:1-2, 8.


Jesus quoted this in Luke 4:18 when He began His ministry and said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”  He did not read the part about the day of vengeance because it was not to take place till the end of that generation nearly 40 years later in 70AD.  However, to prove that He was dealing with a covenant, let’s read a little further down in Isaiah 61 and see what Isaiah says in verse 8.


Jesus was to confirm this covenant to Israel during the final week of Daniel’s prophecy, but it would actually be an everlasting covenant.  After Daniel’s seventieth week was fulfilled, it would be offered to the entire world, not just to the Jews.

For this “Prince” to be the Messiah, we would also need some scripture which declares the Roman army to be considered as God’s army or the Messiah’s army, which was being sent to destroy Jerusalem in 70AD.  Jesus clearly declared this to be the case in Matthew 22 in the parable of the marriage feast.

Jesus clearly declared here the very same story that Daniel prophesies in Daniel 9:25-27, and He refers to the Roman army which destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple for their rejection of the New Covenant as being “His” armies.

Some try to contend that the letter “P” on the word “prince” in Daniel 9:26 is not a capital letter like it is in verse 25 when referring to “Messiah the Prince.” However when you go back and look at the original 1611 edition of the King James Version, the word “Prince” in verse 26 is also a capitol “P.” I am looking at one as I write this article.  The margin of verse 27 in that edition also has the words “Or, with the abominable armies * Mat.24:15, Mark 13:14, Luke 21:20.” This proves that the original translators of the King James believed this the same way that I believe it.  They claimed the abomination of desolation was exactly what Luke 21:20 says it is—the Roman Army coming to make Jerusalem desolate.  This was the abomination that maketh desolate that the followers of Jesus were told to look for and flee the city.  Daniel 9:25-27 is also much easier to understand from the Septuagint version which Jesus was quoting from in Matthew 24:25.

You can clearly see from what the scriptures teach when you leave the Dispensationalist’s man-made interpretations out of it, that this says nothing about an antichrist, but it is all about Jesus Christ and what history and the Bible clearly says happened and is already fulfilled.  Also it proves it was fulfilled without a 2000 year gap, so it is history and not future.


Bro. Baxter then goes into Daniel 11 and says that the King of the North is the same future antichrist, which we never found in the scriptures in chapter nine, even though Bro. Baxter claimed it to be there.  He is now going to try to prove what he said about chapter nine by going into chapter 11.  The only problem is, history declares these two times to be several hundred years apart, and chapter 11 happened well before the time of Christ.  Let me first quote what Bro. Baxter claims the Bible says, and then we will look at who it is really talking about according to history.  The following is a direct quote from his article:


Bro. Baxter tried to make the King of the North in chapter 11 the same person as the Prince in Daniel 9:26.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The two are totally opposite, and were years apart in time according to history.  One was the Messiah, and the other was a vile person who actually did take away the daily sacrifice, and place an abomination upon the altar.  This man’s name was Antiochus Epiphanes.



Many commentaries are available which name all the kings that are mentioned in Daniel 11, and they even explain their lives as to how they fulfilled Daniel 11 verse by verse.  They all follow right down to verse 21 and declare the vile person to be Antiochus Epiphanes, who fulfilled each of the next scriptures at least through verse 35, and some of the commentaries began to differ at that point, but it is evident they all still declare it to be already fulfilled in the past.  So you can see what I am saying, let’s look at a verse by verse account of Daniel 11 from John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on
the Whole Bible.





Philip Mauro in his book The Seventy Weeks and the Great Tribulation, which we have available through our ministry dedicates almost two chapters of his book to Daniel 11, naming each of the kings beginning with verse one, and he declares the vile person to be Antiochus Epiphanes.  Clark’s Commentary agrees with him and declares this vile person to be Antiochus Epiphanes.  The list goes on and on of the historical references which declare Bro. Baxter’s future antichrist to not be an antichrist at all, but a vile man who existed many years before Christ came on the scene.  Daniel 11 is the story of the so-called silent years that some men talk about, but they were not silent, because they have been recorded in Daniel 11, and in the historical writings of First and Second Maccabees, which was be found in the original King James Bible, and is found today in the Apocrypha and Catholic Bibles.  However, Bro. Baxter and Dispensationalists stand against history and the Bible, when they declare this man to be a future antichrist that will someday stand in a future Jewish temple.  Remember, the Bible says nothing about this, but they still do a tremendous job of twisting and misquoting and misapplying scripture to make you believe it does.

I wanted to deal with the man of sin in II Thessalonians 2 and the beast of Revelation 13 and give you their names and history as well, but time and space will not permit it in this article.  I feel I have more than answered anything Bro. Irvin Baxter had to say against Preterism and have proven his arguments to be false.  You can get these further explanations from my book, my series on prophecy, or in other resource material, much of which is available through our Rightly Dividing the Word ministry.

I hope you will consider these truths that have been presented with an open and sincere heart and join in with hundreds of other Apostolic men who have decided to believe and accept the Word of God rather than the traditions of men.  I present this article because I love the brethren and I love truth.  I say again, the only reason I mentioned Bro. Irvin Baxter’s name is because this is a response to his article, but this is in no way an attack upon the man himself or his character.  It is a response to what I feel is a prophecy position that is erroneous, and a response to his attack upon the Preterist position which I feel is the true biblical position on prophecy.  Let me close by quoting what I said in the closing statements of my book, “I believe the correct interpretation of Bible prophecy is very important to the Church in order to avoid deception and to fulfill its true purpose in the earth.  That is why I have tried my best to share these truths in this study.  However, whether we ever agree on every area of prophecy or not, let’s agree to respect and honor each other and to work together to reach this lost world with the only gospel that will ever save anyone—the Apostle’s New Testament gospel of Jesus Christ!”

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Bro. Larry T.  Smith of El Campo, Texas, has been a pastor for over 30 years.  He is the founder of Rightly Dividing the Word ministries.  This ministry produces audio and video teaching series that focus on apostolic truths.  He can be contacted by mail at: PO Box 1226, El Campo, TX 77437; or emailed at:
ltsmith777@rightlydividingtheword.com.

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