Why the 70 AD Doctrine Offends the Modern Christian: The Scandal of the Mundane

 Why the 70 AD Doctrine Offends the Modern Christian: The Scandal of the Mundane


Jesus’ return in 70 AD is not just an eschatological footnote—it’s a scandal to the modern Christian mindset. Why? Because it forces believers to trade in their apocalyptic spectacles for gardening gloves. It demands a faith that finds God not in raptures and sky-splitting drama, but in the ordinary rhythms of everyday life. The idea that Christ has already returned, that judgment has been rendered, and that the Kingdom is here in its fullness now feels… anticlimactic. It doesn’t sell books. It doesn’t fill prophecy conferences. It doesn’t give us something to escape into.


Modern Christianity, especially in the West, often thrives on a "soon-coming" narrative—an emotional dopamine hit from being on the edge of world history. If Jesus already returned to bring judgment on Old Covenant Jerusalem and inaugurated the New Creation, then we are left with a different kind of commission: not one of waiting, but of cultivating. We are not passengers waiting for a cosmic rapture, but participants in a redeemed cosmos, called to reflect God's glory in the "mundane": marriages, work, community, creativity, justice, and love.


But for many, this feels too ordinary. If there’s no looming Armageddon, then we must learn to endure boredom, love difficult people, and find the Kingdom in washing dishes and planting trees. That’s not the Christianity many signed up for. The Preterist vision is offensive because it tells us the drama already happened—and now we’re part of the epilogue. But in this epilogue lies true beauty: a faith that doesn't need the end of the world to be significant, because Christ is already all in all.


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