One of the largest objections to the interpretation of end times events that looks at them as being partly or largely fulfilled is that it leaves people unprepared for the hard times that are coming ahead.
The argument does have some merit, as some people do use this teaching to indicate that there will be no difficult seasons ahead, and that everything is getting better all the time.
Long range applications aside, however, it does not take much thought to realize that the concern does not directly arise from the theological position itself.
Consider Nazi Germany in WWII. It is clear that WWII did not fulfill the Biblical prophecies of the End Times (Elsewhere, we detailed how even though numerically WWII had more people killed, the destruction of 70AD was considerably worse than WWII on the basis of proportion and degree of suffering). But, considering that WWII still happened, it is not the fault of any eschatology that people were left unprepared for it.
Knowing that WWII was not the fulfillment of Eschatology, or any Biblical prophecy that I am aware of, and that it still happened, should be proof enough that the Eschatology did not leave people unprepared for it, but an inability to tell the seasons and the times was.
Neither a futurist nor any other Eschatology prepared the church for Nazi Germany, and yet it came anyway.
The simple lesson is we must be watchful, regardless of whether Christ is coming soon or later, or whether the Great Tribulation is before or behind us.
No one’s Eschatology was required to prepare for WWII, and it doesn’t take Eschatology to know that when the sky is red and overcast, tomorrow it will storm.