James Stuart Russell (1816-1895) was the developer of the Preterist thought, the idea that the entire Bible, and the fulfillment of everything in the Bible, occurred prior to or during A.D. 70. It is worth noting that during the 1800s, a plethora of cults, false Christians sects, and false teachings were given birth: Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Christian Science, Darwinism, Marxism/Communism, Hegelian Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Modern Liturgical Revival, Existentialism, Modern Humanism, Unitarianism, Dispensationalism, and, of course, Preterism.
If the First Coming of the Messiah was literal, so too will be His Second Coming. To deny this and spiritualize it is to deny Scripture and make Jesus and His disciples out to be liars. If you read the New Testament to a child and then ask them how the Preterist view fits with the narrative of God's Word, even they are intelligent enough to realize that it does not and cannot. Preterism is as equally indefensible as Dispensationalism.
Every Christian is a partial Preterist, because certain things in the New Testament were fulfilled in A.D. 70. But the idea that everything was fulfilled before or during A.D. 70, including the writing of every book of the New Testament, is preposterous, ludicrous, ridiculous, nonsensical, and asinine.
Individuals such as Kenneth Gentry, Gary DeMar, and Gary North are proponents of the Preterist theory, and their arguments lack not only logic, but also coherence. Gary North challenges Dispensationalists for not having written any new systematic theologies, but Preterists have never written a single systematic theology.