There are three other Bible passages which Hyper-preterists use when they try to show that our Lord returned secretly in AD 70. It will be necessary to consider each of these texts individually, but two of them are specifically designed to counter Matt 24:14, which tells us, ‘And this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come.’ This helpful verse gives us some sort of time line for the Lord Jesus’ return; the Gospel has first to be preached to all people groups. Although great strides in this respect have been made in the last century or so, there are still many nations where the word of God is scarcely known. The Lord, not we, will judge when the preaching has been accomplished, so we should not spend time wondering when that will be, but rather support Gospel missionary activities throughout the world, by which we can, in a sense, ‘[Hasten] the coming of the Day of God’ (2 Peter 3:12).
The first verse misused by Hyper-preterists is Col 1:23. ‘…..The gospel which you heard, which was preached [or ‘proclaimed’] to every creature under heaven.’ Colossians was written around AD 60 or 61. The suggestion is that ‘To every creature under heaven’ is a deliberate hyperbole on Paul’s part and merely refers to the Gospel having been preached in all the main population centres of the Roman world. If this were so, then the conditions of Matt 24:14 would be met and Christ could have come in AD 70. However, it is certain that the Gospel had not been preached all around the Roman Empire by AD 61. Paul infers in Romans 15:20-24 that the Gospel had not reached Spain by AD 56 or so, and we know that he personally had no opportunity to take it there in the next four or five years. Moreover there is not so much as a hint in the Bible that the Gospel had come to Gaul or to any part of Africa (except maybe Egypt) by AD 70, let alone 61. Let the reader look at a map of Western Europe and North Africa. It’s huge! The Gospel spread with remarkable speed, but there was no chance for it to have reached even the major cities of the Roman Empire, let alone ‘every creature under heaven’ by that time.
So what does Col 1:23 mean? Well, when was the Gospel proclaimed? You could say it was at the baptism of the Lord Jesus, when God’s voice was heard saying, “This is My beloved Son. In Him I am well pleased” (Matt 3:16-17); or it might say it was at the start of our Lord’s ministry, when He declared, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). In either case, to whom were the words directed? To all men everywhere. They were proclamations. The Lord Jesus did not become God’s beloved Son when men heard about him. Nor did the kingdom of God only draw near when people were informed that it had. The Gospel had been proclaimed, and it was the duty of men and women to believe and obey it. As Paul told the Athenians, ‘God….. now commands all men everywhere to repent’ (Acts 17:30). So in Col 1:23, Paul is saying that the Gospel had already been proclaimed to the whole human race. Peace and reconciliation with God were available to everyone regardless of age, sex, situation or race.
Matt 10:23. ‘Assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.’ In this verse, the Hyper-preterists claim that the Lord Jesus is saying to His Apostles, “Make a start with your evangelization of Judea and Galilee, but I shall come back to destroy Jerusalem so quickly that you won’t get very far in doing so before then.” This interpretation doesn’t work either. The word translated ‘cities’ here is polis. It has a very specific meaning of a large settlement surrounded by a wall. Only the larger towns or cities had a wall. There is a word, kome, which is used for smaller towns and villages that didn’t have a wall. The two words are used together in Matt 9:35 and elsewhere, so if our Lord had wanted to include the smaller settlements, He could have done so. Now get the map out again and look at Israel- it’s tiny! The Lord Jesus walked its length and breadth regularly in His three-year ministry. It would not have taken twelve Apostles more than a couple of years to get around the larger cities of Judea and Galilee.
So what does this verse mean? There are two explanations which make good sense. The simplest is that the Lord Jesus is telling the Apostles that there instructions are only temporary ones. Before they had visited even the main cities of Judea, the risen Christ would come to them with new instructions; they would be sent, not merely into Israel, but to the whole world (Matt 28:16-20 etc.).
The second interpretation is a little more complicated but it is the one I favour. In the New Testament, the term ‘Israel’ is seldom used as a geographical term- ‘Judea,’ ‘Galilee’ and ‘Samaria’ are used instead (see, for example, Matt 2:22; 3:1; Luke 4:44; Acts 1:8 etc.). When ‘Israel’ is used, it usually refers to the people of God (eg. Matt 15:24; Luke 24:21; John 1:47). So what the Lord Jesus is saying here is, “You and those disciples who come after you will not have gone through all the cities of the world where God’s elect are found before I come again in glory.” This interpretation is in harmony with Matt 24:14.
