From Abraham to All Nations: A Biblical Refutation of Israel-Only Preterism

The main theological failure of Israel-Only (IO) Preterism is not simply that it gives too much importance to A.D. 70. The deeper problem is what it does to the scope and duration of God’s plan of salvation. Israel-only teaches that salvation was limited to ancient ethnic Israel, including Israelites scattered among the nations, and that God’s redemptive plan reached its completion in A.D. 70. But that turns the gospel into a first-century ethnic program, and that is not the picture Scripture gives us.

From the beginning, God’s promise to Abraham reached beyond one nation. God told Abraham, “in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Paul explains this promise in Galatians 3:8: “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” Notice what Paul says. The promise to Abraham was the gospel preached beforehand, and the promised blessing was for all nations.

Paul makes the point even clearer in Galatians 3:14: “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.” Paul doesn’t say the blessing would come upon Israelites who happened to be living among the Gentiles. He says the blessing would come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. He then explains who Abraham’s spiritual children are: “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26), and, “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29). The deciding factor is not physical descent from Israel. The deciding factor is belonging to Christ.

That creates a major problem for Israel-Only theology. If God really meant only ethnic Israelites, then phrases such as “all the families of the earth,” “all nations,” and “the Gentiles” have to be changed into something the verses themselves never say. Instead of allowing Scripture to define the promise, the Israel-Only system has to redefine the words to protect its theory.

Jesus’ Great Commission says the same thing. Jesus commanded, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations” (Matt. 28:19). He also told His apostles, “Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The direction is clear: Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, and then the uttermost part of the earth. The gospel moves outward. It wasn’t a search mission to locate scattered Israelites. It was God’s saving message going into the world.

This becomes even clearer when we compare Acts 2 with Ephesians 2. On Pentecost, Peter said, “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39). An Israel-Only advocate may try to argue that “afar off” means Israelites who were geographically scattered among the nations, but Paul tells us who the people called “afar off” were.

In Ephesians 2:11, Paul tells his readers, “Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh.” Then in verse 12 he says these Gentiles had been “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise.” Notice that carefully. Paul doesn’t say they were Israelites who had forgotten their identity. He says they were Gentiles, and he distinguishes them from Israel's commonwealth.

Then Paul says in Ephesians 2:13, “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” There it is. Who were the people who had been “far off”? Gentiles. Paul had just identified them as “Gentiles in the flesh,” “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,” and “strangers from the covenants of promise.” Then he calls those same people “far off.” They were not brought near by discovering that they were really Israelites. They were brought near “by the blood of Christ.”

Paul continues, “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us” (Eph. 2:14), and then says that Christ acted “that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross” (Eph. 2:16). In verse 17 he says Christ “came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.” There are two groups. Those who were near were the Jews. Those who were afar off were the Gentiles. Christ brought both together in one body. Paul finishes the thought in verse 19: “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” The argument is simple: they were Gentiles, they were outside the commonwealth of Israel, they were called “afar off,” and Christ brought them near by His blood. That is the opposite of Israel-Only theology.

Israel-Only Preterism has another serious problem. It must explain why God’s saving work supposedly ended with the first-century generation, but Paul speaks about the church in language that reaches far beyond A.D. 70. He writes, “Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end” (Eph. 3:21). Other translations express the same idea as “throughout all generations.” How can “all generations” reasonably mean “only until A.D. 70”? Paul describes God receiving glory in the church from generation to generation, while Israel-Only theology tries to bring God’s redemptive program to an effective end in the first century. Those ideas do not fit together.

Peter’s statement in Acts 2:39 causes the same problem. The promise was “unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Where is the A.D. 70 expiration date? There is none. Peter says the promise reaches “as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

The claim that all Bible prophecy was fulfilled by A.D. 70 also has a simple logical problem: it's an absolute statement. We don’t have to find fifty prophecies that reach beyond A.D. 70. We only need one. If even one prophecy was fulfilled after A.D. 70, or is still waiting to be fulfilled, then the claim that all prophecy was fulfilled by A.D. 70 is false.

Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 prophesied the rise and eventual fall of the Roman Empire. Rome didn’t come to its final end in A.D. 70. The Western Empire fell centuries later, in A.D. 476. That prophecy therefore reached far beyond the destruction of Jerusalem.

The same problem appears when we consider prophecies that clearly haven’t happened yet. Matthew 25 is one of the strongest examples. Jesus says, “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him...before him shall be gathered all nations” (Matt. 25:31-32). He then separates mankind as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. The righteous are placed on one side, and the wicked on the other.

Then comes the last verse of the chapter: “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Matt. 25:46). That verse creates a serious problem for Full Preterism. Jesus doesn’t say one group goes back to normal life on earth after the judgment. He says the wicked go into everlasting punishment and the righteous go into eternal life.

If Matthew 25:31-46 was completely fulfilled in A.D. 70, then the final separation of mankind already happened. Everyone involved was assigned to one of two eternal destinations. The righteous entered eternal life, and the wicked entered everlasting punishment. So who was left on earth after A.D. 70? If this was the final judgment of all mankind, the answer would have to be nobody.

Yet human history obviously continued. People continued to be born. People continued to live and die. Nations continued to exist. Christians continued preaching the gospel. People continued obeying or rejecting God. The very existence of later generations shows that Matthew 25:46 cannot simply be the destruction of Jerusalem. If the final judgment had already happened, mankind would already have been divided into its final eternal destinations.

Matthew 25 also creates another problem for Israel-Only theology because Jesus says, “Before him shall be gathered all nations” (Matt. 25:32). He doesn’t say scattered Israelites from among the nations. He says all nations. Luke uses similarly universal language when he says the coming judgment would affect “all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:35). The destruction of Jerusalem was local. The final judgment described in these passages is universal.

Jesus also prophesied a resurrection that clearly has not happened yet. He said, “The hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth” (John 5:28-29). The good come forth to the resurrection of life and the evil to the resurrection of condemnation. That is not a description of Jerusalem being destroyed. It is the resurrection of the dead.

Paul describes the same kind of event in 1 Thessalonians 4:16: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God,” and then says, “the dead in Christ shall rise first.” Did all the dead rise from their graves in A.D. 70? No. Did the Lord descend from heaven in the manner Paul described? No. Was the voice of the archangel heard? No. Was the trumpet of God sounded? No. Were the living saints caught up to meet Christ in the air? No. These events remain future.

Peter gives another prophecy that cannot be made to fit A.D. 70. He writes, “The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also...shall be burned up” (2 Pet. 3:10). Jerusalem burned in A.D. 70. The earth did not. The material creation continued after Jerusalem fell and continues today. That prophecy therefore wasn’t completely fulfilled in A.D. 70.

1 Corinthians 15 creates another problem. Paul says Christ will reign “till he hath put all enemies under his feet,” and then says, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:25-26). If this was fulfilled in A.D. 70, then death was destroyed in A.D. 70, but people kept dying. People died in A.D. 71, A.D. 100, A.D. 500, and people still die today. Whatever Paul means when he says death will be destroyed, it cannot honestly be said that physical death ended in A.D. 70. Paul connects the defeat of death with the resurrection when he says, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22). The final defeat of death is tied to the resurrection of the dead, not to the Roman army destroying Jerusalem.

2 Timothy 4 also reaches beyond the A.D. 70 system. Paul warned Timothy, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,” and commanded him, “Preach the word” (2 Tim. 4:2-3). If everything connected with Christ’s appearing and judgment ended in A.D. 70, Timothy would have had only a very short time to carry out this continuing command, but false teachers didn’t disappear in A.D. 70. People turning away from truth did not disappear. The need to preach the Word didn’t disappear. These warnings still describe conditions Christians face, and duties Christians have.

This brings the problem with Israel-Only Preterism into focus. God promised that all families of the earth would be blessed. Paul says that blessing would come upon the Gentiles through Christ. Jesus commanded that disciples be made from all nations. The gospel was to go from Jerusalem to the uttermost part of the earth. Peter said the promise was for those who were “afar off,” and Paul identifies those “afar off” people as Gentiles who had been outside the commonwealth of Israel. Paul says God would receive glory in the church throughout all generations. Jesus says all nations will one day stand before Him in judgment. Jesus says the righteous will enter eternal life and the wicked will receive everlasting punishment. Jesus says all who are in the graves will be raised. Paul says the dead will rise when Christ descends from heaven. Peter says the present creation will finally be destroyed. Paul says the last enemy, death, will finally be destroyed.

None of that happened in A.D. 70.

A.D. 70 was an important judgment on Jerusalem, but it wasn’t the end of salvation, the end of the church, the resurrection of all the dead, the final judgment of all nations, the destruction of the material universe, or the moment when every human being entered either eternal life or everlasting punishment. It certainly was not the end of every biblical prophecy.

The Bible moves in the opposite direction from Israel-Only theology. From Abraham to Christ, the promise moves from one man to all families. From Israel to the Gentiles, the blessing moves outward. From Jerusalem, the gospel moves to the uttermost part of the earth. From the first century, the church continues throughout all generations. At the true end, all nations will stand before Christ.

That is why Israel-Only Preterism fails at its foundation. It doesn’t simply overemphasize A.D. 70. It makes A.D. 70 do things the Bible never says it did, and it closes a door of salvation that God opened to the Gentiles through the blood of Christ.