The Preterist Blog ~ 100% Hyperpreterist Free|we can haz rezurekshun?

I have expressed over the past few years the view that I was coming to regarding the coming of Christ. (pun intended) That is that the coming of Christ is the reign of Christ bookended by two physical advents. It is both its parts and the whole. This is the most Biblically consistent way I believe of looking at the issue. Now, when I first thought of it, I was wary. I am always wary of theological novelty. I don’t presume to be so clever as to come up with some new theory that others have not. My first encouragement came when I was listening to Greg Bahnsen’s series on Revelation when he quoted Hengenstenberg. I immediately got the book, and I am not exaggerating to say that I got all misty-eyed with joy on how my thoughts were so eloquently put down nearly two centuries ago. Without further ado, here is the Hengstenberg passage that has blessed me so much, and is the key to inoculate oneself against hyperpreterism.

What is interesting is that Hengstenberg is working backwards to the same point I am working forwards to. He is coming at the passage as an orthodox believer in the future final physical return to show that this final return has echoes in the past and is part and parcel of an ongoing event.

I come to the passage as someone who sees clearly the first century application and works forward to show that it must point ultimately to the consummation. To deny either is to rob Christ of the fullness of His reign. Christ is not reigning in hyperpreterist-world as the mediator. He has already given up the Messianic Kingdom to the Father (1 Cor. 15). And to the hyperpreterist who denies an end of history and tries to claim that Christ already resurrected him, how could Christ even do that when there is no end to the number of the elect as there is no end to history. And an actual infinite number is an impossibility. No matter what number you posit, you can always add one more to it. This makes Calvinistic hyperpreterism absurd. It would fit with an open theism version of hyperpreterism, but not a Calvinist one. Calvinism requires a fixed number of elect that can be foreknown. A never-ending history does not and cannot provide that.

Pages 78 through 80
The Revelation of St. John V1: Expounded For Those Who Search The Scriptures (1851)

Revelation 1:7. Behold he comes with the clouds, and all eyes shall see him, and they that pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth shall wail over him. Yea, Amen.

John here looks back especially to Matt. xxiv. 30, “And then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth wail, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory.” And this declaration of our Lord again rests upon the two passages, Dan. vii. 13, “Behold, one like the Son of Man came in the clouds of heaven,” and Zech. xii. 10, “And I pour out upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the the spirit of grace and of supplication, and they look upon me whom they have pierced, and they wail over him, as the wailing over an only son, and mourn over him, as the mourning over a firstborn.” From the latter passage in particular is taken the expression, “They shall wail,” and also “They shall see.” that John had the declaration of our Lord more immediately in view, is clear from this, that here, as there, the two passages of Zechariah and Daniel are united together. Still, John also reverts to the fundamental passages, and more literally adheres to them. Instead of: in the clouds of heaven, we have here, with a more exact reference to Daniel: with the clouds; and the clause derived here from Zechariah, “and they who pierced him” is omitted by Matthew. While in the declaration of our Lord both the fundamental passages are woven together, here the territory of both is still preserved distinct. The clause, “Behold he comes with the clouds,” points to Daniel, the rest to Zechariah, the clouds with which, or accompanied by which, the Lord comes, are not “the symbol of glory, of elevation above all nature” (Havernick), but they are the shadow of the judgment. This even in the Old Testament is the regular significance of the clouds, when employed in such a connection. Isaiah says in ch. xix. 1, “behold the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and cometh to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt are moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt melts in the midst of it.” On which Michaelis remarks: “This is to be understood of a dark stormy cloud, which is charged with thunder and lightning. Swift clouds must be particularly stormy.” On ps. xcvii. 12, “clouds and darkness are round about him,” I remarked in my commentary, “The Lord appears surrounded by dark clouds, which announce his anger, and beget the expectations of a tempest of thunder and lightning breaking forth.” Again on Ps. xviii. 10, when the Lord is represented as coming down from heaven, and having darkness under his feet, “The Lord approaches marching on the dark thunder clouds. These are to his enemies a sign of his anger, and a proclamation of his judgment.” From these thick tempest-clouds break forth lightning, thunder, and hail, ver 11, ss. In Nahum i. 3, it is said, “Behold the lord, in storm and tempest is his way, and clouds are the dust of his feet.”

The lord does not come once merely with clouds at the end of the world, but through all periods of the world’s history. There the carcass is, there the eagles are gathered together. The truth, that the Lord comes with clouds, renews itself with every oppression of the church by the world. The opinion, which would confine the expression to an externally visible appearance of the Lord, is already excluded by the fundamental passages of the Old Testament. But of special importance for the right understanding of it is Matth. xxvi. 64, where Jesus says to the high priest, “But I say unto you, from henceforth ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” There the Lords comes upon the clouds to the judgement of Jerusalem, as a manifest proof that we are not to think merely of his coming at the last day, and that the words do not point to a visible appearing. There also the Lord does not come merely to the proper catastrophe on the clouds; he comes from henceforth; so that his whole secret and concealed agency towards the destruction of Jerusalem is comprehended under his coming. But if there the coming on the clouds refers to the judgment on Jerusalem, and here primarily to the judgment on persecuting Rome, then we obtain the result, that thereby the judicial activity of the Lord in its whole compass, according to its different objects and manifestations, is indicated.