Andrew - Well, I couldn’t not leap in, could I?

I don’t really see much difference between a narrative of the Coming of the Son of Man and a narrative of YHWH descending from heaven to deliver his people from their enemies - they both have the same kind of focus on a deliverance from worldly powers through judgement. This is a part of the NT narrative, but leaves out elements of the story which receive much greater prominence in the NT - in which the cross is at the centre.

The reign of God as the NT describes it is at its heart quite different from a reign which can be understood in terms of power politics. It is a reign over far greater adversaries than Judaism or Rome alone - and which Paul describes as a ‘reign in life’ - Romans 5:17, for those who believe in Jesus. Romans 5 shows that this life is far more than judgement or deliverance in the here and now. Life is imparted throught the life-giving Spirit, in contrast with the death which is bound up with all aspects of the old creation - including governmental and political structures. The best that could be said for these is that they have an interim value. At worst they are oppressive and demonic.

The NT describes the kingdom of God as an on-going reign of God - facilitated by an event, the event of the cross, but inescapably and inexorably connected to the resurrection, ascension, outpoured Spirit - and judgement of Jesus. Mini-judgements, such as the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, are all precursors of the final judgement. The reign of life, as Paul describes it, must have political consequences - it holds every power structure up to scrutiny, challenging each to yield allegiance to the true king. But the focus was and is not on challenging the old structures, but the emergence of the new community of God’s people through the outpoured Spirit, and the final triumph of this new community, affecting the entire creation. This was Isaiah’s vision, which is shot through the whole of the NT, and in terms of which Paul describes his own divine commission.

I don’t think it is possible to take Daniel’s vision and apply its fulfilment exclusively to Mark 13 and Matthew 24. The fulfilment has to interpreted in the light of our understanding of the NT as a whole, in which the overthrow of the powers begins at the cross (Colossians 2:15), and is not primarily political, but addresses forces behind political and ideological opposition.

Preterism has provided many insights - and there are many varieties of preterism in terms of their extent (comprehensive/thorough-going, moderate/partial etc). But in the end, theology is an exercise conducted not just by individuals, or even individual groups, but by the entire community of faith - and not just in our own age, but throughout all ages. The judgement of this community has been against preterism in its more extreme forms. But the same must be said of all theological innovations. We are on dangerous territory if we say that the conclusions of the community of faith in most of the Christian era have been wrong, and that a radically reworked version of the Christian narrative is nearer to the historical understanding of the early church, and true for us today.