The point being that 'shortly' to God may not be what we would consider shortly.
Yes, the Bible teaches that God is outside the realm of time. However we are bound by the time-space constraints placed upon us. When God chooses to communicate to His creation, who are bound by time constraints, does He do so in a manner that His creation would understand? I would think so. Your view says no, God leaves us in confusion by communicating with us in His non-time realm. Therefore leaving the words meaningless to us.
Also, there is no denying that the events of AD70 were a partial fulfillment of prophecy.
Do the events of AD70 fulfill any OT prophecies?
The problem is that preterism has to spiritualize a lot of events in order to claim that they ALL came to pass. There is no good reason for this, as elsewhere in the Bible, we see that when God declares something will come to pass, it comes to pass literaly, even if there is a near-term partial fulfillment.
The Old Covenant was a physical type and shadow of the coming spiritual New Covenant. Literal fulfillment does not have to be physical. Besides components of the New Covenant are spiritual.
Jer. 31:33But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts,
and write it in their hearts ; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Was it literally written? No. Was it literally fulfilled? Yes.
The Old Covenant Law was physically written in stone, the New Covenant Law is spiritually written on the heart.
Circumcision follows the same pattern, physical to spiritual when changing the Covenants:
Romans 2:29No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.
I Cor. 15:46Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
The Temple was a physical type of a coming spiritual Temple:
I Peter 2: 5Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a
spiritual house , an holy
priesthood , to offer up
spiritual sacrifices , acceptable to God by Jesus Christ........9But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
an holy nation , a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
Priesthood, sacrifices, chosen Nation were all physical types of the spiritual realities of the New Covenant.
As a preterist, what do you look for in the future? Anything?
My outlook would be more positive than an earth-ending Apocolytic destruction that my friends, neighbors, and family might have to endure.
Eph 3:20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory
in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations ,
for ever and ever! Amen.
How do you explain such strange happenings as Israel being back in their land
The United Nations. Perhaps you can show me where atheist and agnostic modern Israel fulfills any prophecy.
Who are those people living in modern day Israel?
Encyclopedia Brittanica (1973)
'The Jews As A Race: The findings of physical anthropology show that, contrary to the popular view, there is no Jewish race. Anthropornetric measurements of Jewish groups in many parts of the world indicate that they differ greatly from one another with respect to all the important physical characteristics." (vol. 12, page 1054)
Encyclopedia Judaica Jerusalem (1971)
"It is a common assumption, and one that sometimes seems ineradicable even in the face of evidence to the contrary, that the Jews of today constitute a race, a homogeneous entity easily recognizable. From the preceding discussion of the origin and early history of the Jews, it should be clear that in the course of their formation as a people and a nation they had already assimilated a variety of racial strains from people moving into the general area they occupied. This had taken place by interbreeding and then by conversion to Judaism of a considerable number of communities. . . .
"Thus, the diversity of the racial and genetic attributes of various Jewish colonies of today renders any unified racial classification of them a contradiction in terms. Despite this, many people readily accept the notion that they are a distinct race. This is probably reinforced by the fact that some Jews are recognizably different in appearance from the surrounding population. That many cannot be easily identified is overlooked and the stereotype for some is extended to all - a not uncommon phenomenon" (Encyclopedia Judaica Jerusalem, 1971, vol. 3, p. 50).
Encyclopedia Americana (1986)
"Racial and Ethnic Considerations. Some theorists have considered the Jews a distinct race, although this has no factual basis. In every country in which the Jews lived for a considerable time, their physical traits came to approximate those of the indigenous people. Hence the Jews belong to several distinct racial types, ranging, for example, from fair to dark. Among the reasons for this phenomenon are voluntary or involuntary miscegenation and the conversion of Gentiles to Judaism" (Encyclopedia Americana, 1986, vol. 16, p. 71).
Collier's Encyclopedia (1977)
"A common error and persistent modern myth is the designation of the Jews as a 'race! This is scientifically fallacious, from the standpoint of both physical and historical tradition. Investigations by anthropologists have shown that Jews are by no means uniform in physical character and that they nearly always reflect the physical and mental characteristics of the people among whom they five" (Collier's Encyclopedia, 1977, vol. 13, p. 573).
H.G. Wells
"There can be little doubt that the scattered Phoenicians in Spain and Africa and throughout the Mediterranean, speaking as they did a language closely akin to Hebrew and being deprived of their authentic political rights, became proselytes to Judaism. For phases of vigorous proselytism alternated with phases of exclusive jealousy in Jewish history. On one occasion the Idumeans, being conquered, were all forcibly made Jews. There were Arab tribes who were Jews in the time of Muhammad, and a Thrkish people who were mainly Jews in South Russia in the ninth century. Judaism is indeed the reconstructed political ideal of many shattered peoples - mainly Semitic.... The main part of Jewry never was in Judea and had never come out of Judea" (The Outline of History, p. 505).
and technology advancing so rapidly and bringing forth the capability to implement a mark just as described in revelation? This surely must seem a strange coincidence to you?
Yes, when I was a Dispie. However then I read of a similiar mark in the OT and put 2 and 2 together.
Ex 13:9And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the LORD's law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the LORD brought thee out of Egypt.
Dt. 6:8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
Dt. 11:18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
Literal or Symbolic?
What about this one? Technology involved?
Rev 14:1Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.
