Here’s the first of two questions posed in a full preterist FB group I visit on occasion. Like ithers I have discussed here, it’s a ‘leading’ question, in that it is the type of question that prompts a respondent towards providing an already-determined answer. In this case, the predetermined answer is that genuine Christians do not ‘need’ to be raised bodily since we have already been raised spiritually and have received life in Christ Jesus. A corroborating passage of scripture is offered as ‘proof’ of the presupposition driving the question. Here is the FB question:

“If believers already have His life, already been raised with Him from the dead, in the likeness of His resurrection and having the resurrection and the life, Jesus Christ Himself, what need is there then there for a physical body resurrected from the grave when believers have already bourne the image of the earthy, the natural, the physical, the temporal but we are to bear the image of the heavenly, the spiritual, the eternal? You know as Paul wrote how flesh and blood did not inherit the kingdom?” (1 Cor 15:50 – I cited the reference the reference since the post author must have inadvertently omitted it.)

I call it a leading question because it was posed by a full preterist whose mission in life seems to be trying to convince others that full preterism (ALL biblical prophecy was fulfilled in 70 A.D.) is God’s truth. Period.

Here is my initial response:

“I don’t think it’s a question of NEEDING a bodily resurrection, but it’s a question of what has been promised that we will receive one. We agree that we, as believers have been spiritually resurrected to new life in Christ. The term ‘resurrection’ in the Bible seems to always refer to a bodily resurrection. Not a single reference to the resurrection of believers tells us it will only be spiritual. Jesus was raised bodily and so will we. It’s a promise easily checked out. Your reference to 1Co 15:50 “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” simply means that the current physical bodies in which we are encased are not worthy of inheriting the kingdom. I could present you with a multitude of irrefutable scriptures pointing to the believer’s bodily resurrection, but I need to head for a local hospital for an iron infusion procedure right now.”

I got into trouble once again with the ladies who are admins for the Group (Pauline Doctrine). My mistake was not providing any specific verses to back up my claim that there was “irrefutable scriptures” pointing to the bodily resurrection of believers.

The second question was the Following:

“O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7: 24 kjv

“What was the body of this death?”

My response to that one was:

Obviously, from the context, Paul is contrasting the law of God in the heart and mind of a believer with the law of sin and death in our mortal bodies:

Rom 7:22-25 “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”

Paul speaks of the inner conflict between two “laws” every believer faces. Some tell us that he was talking about his pre-conversion life, but the context states otherwise. I’ve talked about the conflict and the resolution to the conflict in “hunting dog” terms. If I own 2 hunting dogs, The one I love the most and take care of will perform the best during a hunt. I think the bigger question might be “How do we resolve the inner conflict?” The answer I suggest is feed and nourish our “new” creation in Christ Jesus.

Naturally, I got in trouble once more, I assume for not providing the post author’s desired response the initial question. I thought that by providing the context of the quoted passage would explain it quite clearly. My intent was to let the reader examine the passage given in context and let God speak to them directly.

Well, what followed was a barrage of responses excoriating me for NOT providing my personal opinion, but scripture itself (which I vainly tried to explain as politely as I could). The final response I received from one member of the admins was in part:

“… the original intended audience (the readers of the original post) should be allowed the relevancy FIRST”.

I guess I stuck my foot in it when I responded:

“That sounds like “opinion first” and context later, if at all. Did you forget about the actual ‘Context”? You did talk about comparing with other scripture. I would recommend placing a single passage into its own context first and then comparing it with other scripture, with the let what is clear interpret what is less clear.”

To make a much longer story short, I’ve been banned/blocked once again. I’ve also found out that others have faced the same fate, and probably for the same reason – daring to disagree or not responding with the ‘right’ answer to a leading question. From now on I’ll probably stop by that FB Group on occasion to see what preterist doctrine the admin ladies are pushing, but keep my mouth shut.

I think my “Preterism” library is now quite complete. My final question had to do with what a 70 A.D. completion of all Biblical prophecy meant for today’s believers. In an article published by Ligonier Ministries I found this comment:

“One theologian sums up the full preterist position like this: “The coming of Christ in judgment was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, Satan and Antichrist have [already] been thrown into the lake of fire, the kingdom of God has arrived, the resurrection is understood in spiritual terms, the Great Commission has been fulfilled, all things have been made new (the old heaven and earth have passed away; the new heaven and earth have come), the promised restoration has arrived, and the world now continues as it is ad infinitum.”[i]

According to the preterist, the “new heavens and new earth” spoken of in Revelation 21:1 is, to the preterist, a description of the world under the New Covenant. Forget about the “new earth” being a re-creation of this earth as God originally intended. We are already in it, with all of its “mess”. We can, however continue to share the gospel with the lost world around us and help others find Christ and an eternal spiritual resurrection, but there is no future bodily resurrection of believers in full preterism.

And that’s all, folks!

As an epilogue to my little “adventure into preterism”, I did find an article that explained the behavior of preterists to the proverbial “T”, at least as I have experienced it:

“Preterism, like all systems that can be characterized as being taken up by ideologues, is a system that is based on deductive reasoning that then requires all the particulars to be forced into the deductive system despite how the particulars may testify against the deductive system. Preterism, will not allow any contrary evidence from particular texts of Scripture because Preterism has as straight-jacket template that requires all to fit the system. Preterism, is a procrustean bed that will take texts and force them to fit their system. To the Preterist hammer all the eschatolgical texts are nails.

What the above paragraph means then is that having a conversation with a Preterist on this subject can be excruciatingly difficult because for them this is not just about eschatology. Indeed, for them Preterism is their whole weltanschauung (worldview).”[ii]

[i] Preterism | Ligonier Ministries

[ii] Continuing with the Problems of Full Preterism

Be Blessed!