What about Chorazin?
In Matthew 11Jesus rebukes the cities He had performed miracles in proving who He was and yet they refused to repent. We begin in verse 20
Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent:
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
“But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.
“And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
“But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”
Hyper preterists claim all things written were fulfilled in A.D. 70. The resurrection and judgement included and there are no prophecies left to be fulfilled. With that said, what do with do with the city of Chorazin and Jesus’ prophecy that the day of judgement would be more tolerable for tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for Chorazin. So what happened to Tyre? Ezekiel 26:3-8 says this,
3 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.
4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.
5 It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD: and it shall become a spoil to the nations.
6 And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
So what happened to Sidon? Artaxerxes conquered Sidon, Alexander the Great conquered Tyre and destroyed the city. Yet they made a small comeback and Tyre and Sidon still existed when Jesus spoke to Chorazin. In Mark 3:7-8 we read,
Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him.
My Research Institute has worked on this for at least since 20 minutes ago and we my aid, “Timothy Russell of Ardmore” found this,
“Tyre was under Muslim rule from 638 to 1124, when it fell to the Crusaders, and until the 13th century it was a principal town of the kingdom of Jerusalem. The Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, who died on the Third Crusade, was buried in its 12th-century cathedral.”
What about Sidon? It still exists too. No doubt it was conquered several times but survives to this day. Wikipedia says this, and you can do the research for yourself,
“Sidon (/ˈsaɪdən/) or Saida (Arabic: صيدا Ṣaydā), is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital, on the Mediterranean coast. Tyre to the south and Lebanese capital Beirut to the north are both about 40 kilometres (25 miles) away. Sidon has a population of about 80,000 within city limits, while its metropolitan area has more than a quarter-million inhabitants.”
Jesus also mentioned Bethsaida, a city where some of the Apostles were from. John 1:44 He said it would be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for that city on the day of judgement. Bethsaida was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 67, three years before A.D. 70, the hyper preterist’s “judgement day”.
You see the problem folks? Chorazin was destroyed in about 397. That’s over 3 hundred years after Jerusalem and the temple fell which is, we’re told, the judgement day Jesus was referring to. The ancient city of Sodom has been nothing but ruins since Old Testament times. In fact it’s not a given that the ruins have been found, but many believe they have found the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah. So if it would be more tolerable for Sodom than on the cities who Jesus performed great works in, why were they not even partakers in the “judgement day” in A.D. 70 when ALL things were supposedly fulfilled?
Oh I’m sure the hyper preterists have the satisfactory answers. After all, who has ever asked a question they couldn’t answer? Sodom was destroyed before judgement day. Bethsaida was destroyed before judgement day. Jerusalem was destroyed on judgement day. So what about Chorazin? Why was it over three hundred years before it finally became extinct? Why are Tyre and Sidon still with us in some degree to this day? Was Sodom the only one worth wiping out forever? But Jesus said it would be more tolerable for them than Chorazin and the other cities mentioned on judgement day, with the exception of Bethsaida which was destroyed 3 years earlier.