The Narnia 3 Book Review Blog

Noe, John. Beyond the End Times: The Rest of the Greatest Story Ever Told. Bradford, PA: Preterist Resources, 1999. xii + 301pp (paper) $19.95

For a more thorough discussion of this movement, Click Here.

To borrow the popular catch-phrase, “just when you thought it was safe to…” just when you might have thought that you could safely say that you had seen every possible variation of eschatological schema, something new comes on the scene.

For several years a small group, known mainly around the Internet and email theological discussion lists, called the International Preterist Association has been advocating what has been called “consistent preterism,” “full-preterism,” or “hyper-preterism.” In brief this is a position that advances the traditional Preterist understanding of prophecy to postulate that all Biblical prophecy was fulfilled in AD 70 and that there is no aspect of any Biblical prophecy yet awaiting fulfillment. Edward E. Stevens, president of this association, says on the cover that this book is “A compelling introduction to past-fulfillment of Bible prophecy.”

The author, John Noe has made a living as a motivational speaker and entrepreneur and has become a chief spokesman for the “full-preterism” position. In the introduction it is said of Noe that he “is not a professional theologian. He has had no formal seminary training, but that may be an advantage –it might have handicapped his communication style” (p. x). This seems to be both a startling admission and the first of a virtually endless set of logical fallacies strewn throughout this book.

It would be impossible in the amount of space available for this reviewer to detail all of the problems of this book in terms of argumentation and documentation. A few examples will have to suffice.

Beginning with research methodology, mention must be made regarding the documentation and endnotes utilized in this work. There is seemingly not even an attempt at some standard form of documentation; the formatting style practically changes from note to note. Citations are often incomplete (e.g. 282 note 11; 283 note 1); when referencing a periodical the story or article title is never mentioned (e.g. 282 note 2-4); books are referenced with either incomplete or no bibliographic information (e.g. 282 note 5); the use of underlining, italicizing or quotation marks to set off book or article titles is incoherently random (compare 283 note 8 to 287 note 5), publisher names are misspelled (e.g. 283 note 1 for chapter 6). Beyond this there are numerous typographical errors both in the notes and within the text itself. There are also no indexes and, more problematic, no bibliography or listing of works cited.

In terms of content the notations do not rise to a high level either. The author constantly makes references to secondary sources for information (e.g. 291, note 1 for chapter 11; 292 note 3). He references several works of antiquity (Josephus’ History of the Jews; Eusebius;’ Ecclesiastical History; and essays by Athanasius and Augustine) without any clear citation as to which edition of those works he is referencing at any given point. Sometimes the information he presents is simply untrue. In note 5 for chapter 3 (p. 283) he states, “From Columbus’ Book of Prophecies, which is only available in Spanish and has never been published in this country.” The fact is that a parallel Spanish-English edition, with commentary, was printed in 1997 (The Book of Prophecies edited by Christopher Columbus, Berkley, California: The University of California Press) , a full two years before this present work was published. In dealing with the Second Law of Thermodynamics (63 and 283, note 2 for Chapter 4), he lifts a selected quotation from The World Book Encyclopedia (a nice high school level reference work) to prove his point and then procedes to give the wrong page number for the article.

Throughout the notes the author overuses vague ad populum pronouncements such as “Some Bible scholars maintain,” “Some liberal scholars have insisted,” “Some Jewish scholars,” “Some interpreters,” “Many interpreters,” and so on. Despite the author’s admitted lack of training he makes numerous pronouncements on the proper translation of the Greek and Hebrew text and their lexical meanings, although the only source ever cited is one reference to the dictionary in Strong’s Concordance (291 note 28).

In terms of the content of the book itself is thoroughly disappointing as well. The structure is confusing and there is no attempt at a coherent outline. The text is jumbled with “bullet points” and collections of “Top 12 List,” “Eight Confirmatory Insights,” “Five Side-Stepping Devices,” in which the author continually interrupts his own flow of thought. The author begins by stringing together a list of anecdotal evidence to demonstrate the dangers of any end of the world scenario. The author states that:

Prior to the 20th century, the church was culturally relevant, involved, and positive. Not so anymore. After the turn of the century, Hal Lindsey’s brand of premillennialism and its doomsday mentality spread like a wildfire through Christianity’s evangelical ranks and devastated postmillennial gains (38-39).

Of course the anachronistic fallacy is evident, since Hal Lindsey foray into prophetic writing did not begin until the late 1960’s. That the author would be concerned that postmillennial gains were “devastated” is also interesting since he also places postmillennialists into the futurist camp that he opposes (271). Since all of the eschatological positions, except his, are posited as “futurists” apparently the author believes that all of Christianity represented by either a premillennial, postmillennial, or amillennial eschatology are culturally irrelevant, uninvolved and negative.

The foundational thesis of this work is that all events related to the Return of Christ have already occurred. That is, the Return of Christ, the Resurrection of the Just and Unjust, the casting of Satan into the Lake of Fire and the establishment of the New Heavens and New Earth along with any other Biblical prophecy that might be mentioned, all occurred at or about AD 70. One chapter of the book is entitled, “Why the World Will Never End” in which the author that eternality is an attribute of the creation (50). He makes amazing claims about scientific theory (such as the earth not being subject to the Second Law of Thermodynamics) with essentially no support (63). If someone might ask how he could imagine that the world’s resources can continue without end, he naïvely states,

If a little more sun or cosmic substance of any kind is someday needed, He will simply speak it into existence. Likewise, if the speed of light slows down too much –as some scientists worry about–¬ He could give it a boost. These divine acts would only be minor tweaks compared to creating it all in the first place (63).

To make his system work the author tragically reduces the New Heaven, the New Earth, and the New Jerusalem to a spiritual abstraction that he equates to the present Christian life or “New Covenant life” (262-63). He states, “Although God never intended New Covenant life to be either the end of all human difficulties, or an escape from the frailties of the physical plane, the Holy City’s symbolic description in Revelation 21 and 22 is given to encourage all saints of every generation” (263). But this is no encouragement at all. Revelation 21-22 talks about the fact that “there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain” (Rev. 21:4); and “there shall no longer be any curse and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His bond-servants shall serve Him” (22:3).

The author’s treatment of Daniel 9 and Daniel’s “Seventy Weeks,” which he concludes ended with the Stoning of Stephen (88), and Matthew 24, which he claims that none of the three basic millennial schemes interpret correctly, are also extremely disappointing.

For what is billed as a “compelling introduction to past-fulfillment of Bible prophecy” the book amazingly fails to deal with some basic issues or objections. First of all he nowhere even mentions how his view is not to be compared with the error of Hymenaeus and Philetus who also claimed that the resurrection was already past (2 Timothy 2:17-18). In fact “full-preterism” has been called a return to the heresy of Hymenaeus (MacArthur, The Second Coming [Crossway Books, 2000], 13). He also nowhere meaningfully deals with Acts 1:9-11 which speaks of exactly the manner in which Christ would return. Amazingly, the entire issue of the dating of the New Testament writings is dismissed with a sentence in an endnote (298 note 3). He states there that his opinion is that the early date of Revelation is “far superior” but also that the “dating debate will not be addressed in this book, however.” For an “introduction” into this new eschatological scheme is amazing insomuch that if the traditional dating of Revelation (AD 95) is correct the author’s entire thesis is reduced to a tragic waste of time and paper. Also there is no discussion as to the problem of evil and obvious Satanic and demonic activity in the world today if, as the author asserts, Satan and his minions have been cast into the Lake of Fire. Additionally, if the resurrection has already occurred, then what of believers in this age? What also of the fate of unbelievers since the judgments have already been carried out? None of these issues are addressed.

At the end of the book the author calls for a Reformation in the church based on the “full-preterist” position. He states that, “This reformation could become as significant as the 16th-century Protestant Reformation” (271). This kind of bluster, combined with a complete disregard for hermeneutics, playing fast and loose with factual information, and an abandonment of the rules of logic, does not qualify the author to be an reliable guide as to the meaning of Scripture. Unfortunately, publications such as this (which present the appearance of thorough Biblical and scholarly research) and the ubiquitous nature of the Internet means that this current revival of the heresy of Hymenaeus will likely continue to be a bane for churches and pastors, whether they are premillennial, postmillennial or amillennial in their doctrinal stance, for some time to come.