A friend of mine believes that many end times things happened in the 1st century AD and I’m trying to find precise information in the Bible (more than Mt 24, rebirth of Israel in 1948 etc) that we are in the end of the end times so I can say with corroborative evidence why I believe what I believe. Can you help?
It’s good to know why you believe what you believe, but I think you should be taking the offense instead of the defense in your discussion. After all, yours is the view that conforms to a literal interpretation of Scripture.
The preterist (past fulfillment) view requires a substantial re-interpretation of Scripture and its adherents should be compelled to defend themselves for doing such a thing. For example, they should have to explain how they justify saying that the transfiguration of Matt. 17 fulfilled the prophecy of the 2nd Coming described in Matt. 24:30 and Rev. 19:11-14. Or how Nero fulfilled the prophecies of the anti-Christ standing in the Holy Place (2 Thes. 2:4) when he never set foot in Jerusalem, or how affixing a representation of the Roman eagle over the main entrance to the Temple fulfilled the prophecy of the Abomination of Desolation (Matt. 24:15, Daniel 9:27). These are just examples, but if you open a Bible and compare these passages as they’re written with the preterist interpretation there’s no way to make them match.
The Bible only supports one view of the End Times and that’s the pre-trib, pre-millennial view. All others are based on misinterpretations or re-interpretations. Instead of us being forced to explain why we believe what the Bible says, we should be making the other guys explain why they don’t.