From: A Torah
Commentary on First Corinthians 15 Return to Home
By Roland H. Worth,
Jr. © 2012
A Torah Commentary on First
Corinthians 15:
Interpreting the Text in Light of
Its Old Testament Roots—
With Special Emphasis on
Full Preterism and Covenant Eschatology
by
Roland
H. Worth, Jr.
© 2012
Reproduction of this book for non-profit circulation by any electronic or print media means is hereby freely granted at no cost—provided the text is not altered in any manner.
If accompanied by additional, supplemental material—in agreement or disagreement—it must be clearly and visibly distinguishable from the original text.
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are
taken from the New King James Version®.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Contents
Introduction . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . 1
Part I: Theme Development
Chapter 1: Development of Chapter Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 15
Part II: Old Testament
Precedents
Chapter 2: Explicit
Quotations: Psalms 110:1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 51
Chapter 3: Explicit Quotations: Psalms 8:6
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Chapter 4: Explicit Quotations: Isaiah 22:13; Genesis 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Chapter 5: Explicit
Quotations: Isaiah 25:8 . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
75
Chapter 6: Explicit
Quotations: Hosea
Chapter 7: Old
Testament Allusions . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
117
Part III: Questions,
Controversies, and
Problem Texts in Chapter 15
Chapter 8: Problem Texts and Interpretive Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
15:6: The appearance to “five hundred” at one
time: the
incident not mentioned in the gospels.
15:8: The seeming
inappropriateness of Jesus appearing
to Paul.
15:8: Was Jesus’ appearance to Paul a vision?
Christ being “subject” to the Father again.
beasts at
Chapter 9: Controversies over Jesus’ Personal
Resurrection . . . . . . . . . . .
155
15:4:
What was the nature of Jesus’ resurrection body?
15:4: How ancient heretical
movements used Biblical
language to prove that Jesus was not physically
resurrected.
15:4: Biblical “Proofs” that Jesus’ Resurrection
was
Non-Physical and Non-Tangible.
15:4: Full Preterist/Covenant
Eschatologists attempts to
preserve the physical resurrection of Jesus.
Chapter 10: Pauline
Resurrection Teaching to Gentile Philosophers
and Rulers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 184
1 Corinthians: Acts 17 and
the Athenian philosophers.
Acts 24 and the Roman officialdom.
the Full Preterist standpoint.
Chapter 11: Socio-Religious
Context of Corinthian Doubts about
Individual Resurrection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 215
possibility of a
physical, bodily resurrection: The
Gentile
context—Biblical evidence.
possibility of a physical, bodily
resurrection: The Jewish
context—Biblical evidence.
of a bodily
resurrection: The Jewish context—Their
non-Biblical
writings, interpretation of Biblical evidence,
and rival views.
Chapter 12: If Not a Personal, Physical Resurrection—What
Then? . . . . . 249
within the pre-A.D. 70
Christian community:
The pioneering work
of Hymenaeus and Philetus.
later dissenters
within the Christian community—
the post-Biblical
age.
modern world: Is it the
collective body of the redeemed
that is “raised” and not the individual body?
Chapter 13: Christian Historical Context: What Was Believed by Those
Who Lived through A.D. 70 or Were Taught by That or the
Following Two Generations? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . 289
were taught by those disciples and/or apostles had to
say: Looking forward to a
still future “Second
Coming” and “resurrection.”
mid-second century that are incompatible with
Full Preterism.
Bibliography
(Chapter 15) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 332
Introduction
Because of its unintended length, I deemed it
best to present Chapter 15 as a separate volume in this series on First
Corinthians. Its anticipated finish date
was at least six months ago. The
extended delay centered around the need to provide an adequate treatment of
Full Preterism and Covenant Eschatology as it
affected this chapter, in addition to the normal wide range of interpretive
options all these volumes include.
This volume in no way deals with all the arguments introduced in regard
to this interpretive method. The
emphasis has been on that which fits most comfortable into the kind of approach
the preceding volumes have taken--not to provide a handbook of
everything wrong with their scenario, which would transform this volume from a
commentary into what the book cataloguers used to label “doctrinal and
controversial works.” (And probably
still do.) In this case, an overlap
between the two categories is inevitable.
(I have, literally, tens of thousands of words of additional material. These materials will likely form the core of a
supplemental volume at a later date.
They are not included here because I judged that there were practical
limits even to a “long” work such as this one and that the inclusion of them
would push the study beyond any responsible limit. The materials include analyses of varied additional
pro- and anti-70 A.D. arguments (centering on the resurrection and the
interpretation of prophecy) plus a summary of 19th century Full Preterist thought, complete with illustrative quotations.
Certain prophecies have been examined at length in the present work since
careful analysis of these has been customary throughout these volumes. Admittedly, in this chapter, the detail is
even greater, though that includes more data about rival schemes of
interpretation as well. Under “Problem
Texts” we have included consideration of a variety of key and interesting
issues as we always do, including ones related to Full Preterist
concerns. Again, not an exhaustive
presentation but a detailed one, just as we presented similar ones of other
subjects in the preceding volumes.
To return to a point already alluded to but deserving greater
discussion: This fourth major
revision of the commentary was substantially delayed in order to provide time
to provide additional research on the interwoven topics of Full Preterism and Covenant Eschatology, a subject I had not
touched in many years. I provided the
best coverage I could—within the inherent limits for this type of format and the
difficulty I had finding the kind of data (pro and con) that would satisfy my
research instincts. Yet even then I did
not feel fully satisfied and I found myself, time and again, doing yet additional
research and making further additions to various sections as I did the final revisionary work.
Even going back and revising “completed” sections as I uncovered
nuggets of information that would make things more understandable both for me
and the reader.
As this implies, I simply had not figured out the right places
to look—but my “mule headedness” ultimately paid off and I found what I
regarded as an adequate development of both supportive and counter-arguments. I readily admit I’m far better at
synthesizing other people’s material, and even carrying it beyond what they
have done, than doing the ground-breaking pioneering work myself. I can do it, but its not my
[Page 2] strongest talent.
These limitations had to be overcome by application of “blood, sweat, and
tears,” to invoke the words of a great British Prime Minister. Those words also are a warning that words
used one way by one generation may, long afterwards, quite fairly provide an accurate and reliable description of something
not originally under discussion. Matthew
2:14-15 uses Hosea 11:19 in just such a manner.
This is an important interpretive reality, as we examine the alleged “disjunction”
between Isaiah 25:8’s and Hosea 13:14’s original context and Pauline usage in 1
Corinthians 15: a statement, given by
inspiration, about one situation, might well be applicable, by inspiration, to
something far different and even more sweeping.
Or is there room in “inspiration” for it to lead one of the two speakers
into blatant error?
Must a New Testament inspired author apply an Old Testament author’s
words in exactly the same manner or to exactly the same subject
or become a false prophet in deviating from it?
I think not. And if not, we have
no right to impose upon our exegesis an interpretive straightjacket that would
require such a limitation, when the NT context clearly is discussing something
significantly different.
Having
entered this field of intense controversy at all, it seemed morally compulsory
to deal with it in a depth and with a passion found in few other places in
these four volumes on First Corinthians.
There we deal with “old” and well established traditions of argument and
counter-argument; here we deal with a doctrinal synthesis still evolving and
not yet in its final development.
All this effort grew out of the fact that a
long time friend urged me to reconsider the subject of eschatology—he himself
had rejected the approach he now defends.
We both did so, originally, after many months of study, but he had
changed his understanding on the matter over subsequent years. So I selected the area of the subject most
relevant to my immediate writing plans—First Corinthians 15--and proceeded to
analyze it.
I simply had no desire to
return to a subject I had once spent so much time on and rejected. If it weren’t for the ties of friendship, I
doubt I would ever have.
On the other hand, the
movement has clearly breached its original narrow borders of support and this
disinclination may simply represent a bad “judgment call” on my part. If support continues to grow . . . or is it
the passion of a few, whose fervency leaves the impression of a far-broader
basis of support than it actually has?
(Some have claimed that.) But if
that apparently growing base is what it appears to be, this much seems crystal
clear: any analysis claiming to be
detailed will surely have to provide at least a passing treatment in the
future. More than that if it continues
to grow in popularity as it has in the last twenty years.
The Purpose of
Religious
Controversy
Leslie J. Tizzard, in his analysis of love in 1
Corinthians 13, makes this highly relevant plea for responsible
controversy.[1]
Many
people dislike all controversy. They are
for peace at any price and are always afraid that an argument or discussion
will degenerate into a quarrel. [Page
3] This sort of attitude leads to
dishonest compromises and endless mental confusion.
Differences
of opinion and the consequent clashes of mind with mind are good and
necessary. In controversy we clear our
own minds by being forced to put our convictions into words, the weakness of
our own arguments is exposed and new points of view are put before us. Controversy is stimulating, and if our minds
are lethargic and prone to fatty degeneration it causes them to take a little
vigorous exercise.
It
is barren and degrading only when it is not infused with the spirit of
courtesy. The aim of all controversy
should be the discovery of truth. If
truth is to be revealed and not deliberately obscured, the participants must be
ready to be convinced of error while contending strongly, but always fairly,
for their own case.
So
many enter a controversy resolved that nothing shall make them change their own
minds, but determined that the other fellow shall either change his or be made
to look a fool or a knave. Many
controversies are not conducted in the interests of truth but of an
institution, party or sect.
Any
method is acceptable which will secure a knock-out or a win on points. Browbeating, abuse, sarcasm, twisting the
other man’s words, taking an unfair advantage of his ignorance—any weapon that
lies to hand is used without compunction.
And, worst of all, there is the attempt to blacken his character. . . .
Lack
of courtesy in controversy is mere childishness even when it occurs on the
Front Bench of the House of Commons. It
brings down the most august assembly to the level of the playground where
children, being incapable of objective judgment or sustained argument, are
reduced to calling one another names. . . .
Most lamentable of all is such a lack of courtesy among Christians.
Although much of
this book was written before coming across the above work, I had already
attempted to manifest that mind frame in this study. Time and again I found myself tempering my
words by either “toning them down” or adding “ifs and buts” to attempt to
dilute the degree of sting that some of the argumentation inevitably
involved.
I am but a human
being and I have tried my best for restraint.
Yet whatever virtues Totally Fulfilled Eschatology has, in regard to the
resurrection—of us, but especially in any impact it has upon that of Jesus--it
faces the highest probability of not only disagreement but indignation and even
rage.
The other issues
are, in many ways, academic and impersonal; but whether an actual physical
resurrection was promised to you and I gets about as personal as you can. As does anything that so readily can be used
to compromise the similar resurrection of the Lord—upon whose own rising from
the dead, the conviction of ours is ultimately based. And among at least some Full Preterists it is not hard to detect what sounds like a
“nibbling away at the edges” of that doctrine—as in trying to find a way to
describe His resurrection body that reduces, minimizes, or eliminates that physical
element. (These matters will be
discussed in the “Problem Texts” section.)
[Page 4]
Our Goal:
Truth, Insight, and a Fair
Understanding
of the “New” Eschatology’s Claims Concerning the
Resurrection
Some are inclined to
consider the objection in
This is still relevant today because in the early 21st century we are seeing a surprisingly strong movement asserting the same thing, one that crosses traditional patterns of religious division but with its dominant base among those who would describe themselves as “religious conservatives” and “evangelicals.” Instead of yielding to secularist assumptions (with the exception of any influenced by a “Modernist” theological background), their motives grow out of a desire to more accurately interpret the scriptures in regard to its use of “near term” language. They do this by forcing all eschatological references into that framework, even when the descriptions do not--to the ears of “uninformed” outsiders--seem to offer any possibility of such a connection.
To describe this approach, I have usually used the contractions TFP
(Totally Fulfilled Prophecy) or TFE (Totally Fulfilled Eschatology). I have, however, freely used variants for
verbal variety—Covenant Theology, the 70 A.D. doctrine, and Full Preterism.
“Preterism” is the belief that many of the prophecies of both testaments were fulfilled in the first century; “full preterism” is the belief that all were. The core belief of the latter is that every single prophecy of Christ’s second coming, of the final judgment, of the resurrection, are now past events—all fulfilled in or by 70 A.D. Indeed, if it is anywhere predicted in scripture it is over and done with—70 A.D. being the last possible terminus point. The physical world will never end because it was never intended to. What we have done, they insist, is to literalize statements that were never made to be interpreted the way both religious conservatives and liberals have traditionally done.
Its strongest point is to
take the “soon to be fulfilled” allusions in the gospels and the Book of
Revelation seriously as references to near term events. It falters (to those of us rejecting any such
sole event interpretation) when it assumes that the return of the Lord in
judgment on Jerusalem in 70 A.D. was intended to be the exclusive
“return” and judgment ever mentioned by the various New Testament statements on
the subject. God did not come in
judgment only once in the Old Testament and that analogy alone would make us
anticipate that it would not be the case with Jesus either.
Not to mention the
difficulty of “shoe horning” varying texts into that interpretive framework
without massive “massaging” of them to make them fit. When we see that happen on this scale, we
normally react by concluding that we are dealing with a system that may,
indeed, fit some of the passages (whether intended to be so used or not)
but not all of them. One in which a partially
accurate theory is driving interpretation of all passages, forcing them
into a single interpretive mold that was never intended to cover [Page 5] them all.
The far more appropriate approach in such cases is, of course, to adjust
interpretation to the changed circumstances and contexts that are under
discussion.
In the remainder of this introduction I set aside my efforts at
“scholarly distancing” from the subject to explain my own personal judgment on
what is happening. I will try to rein
that in—as a general rule—in this work, but if unvarnished personal convictions
deserve a blunt presentation, surely it is in the introduction of a work!
You see, I look at it this way: Yes,
the advocates can make Full Preterism work, both on the topic of the resurrection and
other themes—so long as they get to provide the “proper” new definitions to
replace the ones the rest of us “erroneously” thought Jesus and Paul
intended. Whatever legitimate insights
they might have on some other limited aspects of eschatology—and there are
unquestionably places where they do--when it comes to the resurrection, most
will conclude that their case is based on special pleading and word
manipulation.
Could I be wrong? Of course! The flip side is also true: the advocate of Full Preterism
in its various forms can also be wrong!
Truth is not foreordained to walk on the same side of the street of any
of us.
One of the irritating
companions of any radically new theology that claims to be Biblically based is
the inclination to dismiss others as yielding to “your prejudices” and
“yielding to tradition.” Though that can
certainly happen, the charge is extremely unwise in the current situation. Anyone who has followed my Corinthian studies
this far will have noticed that I’m quite willing to throw traditional
interpretation overboard if it doesn’t seem to actually fit the text. Evidence, good evidence I need, not
the kind of “word gaming” I consciously rejected over forty years ago.
A word of explanation: Back then I was writing a term paper in a college
English class and I had to prove that Atlantis existed. Alas, I had to do so from the six or seven
text extracts in our assigned “source book.”
I received a fine grade—back in the days when a B-plus or A-minus meant
a lot more than it did later. But the
professor, quite rightly, wrote on the front of the paper, “You’ve twisted,
misrepresented, distorted every piece of data you’ve introduced.”
And I had!
And knew it! But my job was to
“prove” a point from these particular sources and I had carried out the
assignment ably and well. And I learned
a lesson that I’ve carried through the rest of my life: be careful; you can prove
anything you set your mind on, but you still need to prove it through a fair
and just use of the data. A big
difference in those two statements!
Those embracing Full Preterism
do so with enthusiasm and a full commitment to gaining greater spiritual
insight. But as I look at how
they do it on the varied subjects their doctrine affects—even salvation wasn’t
“really” available until the destruction of
Just?
Unjust? The reader must judge for
himself or herself.
Yet I must confess a sense of exasperation in dealing with the theology as it repudiates so many conclusions long regarded as fully—or at least, close to fully—settled. As a “counter balance” to the serious research I do, I attempt to read science fiction, mystery novels, and a scattering of nonfiction. In Ann Perry’s initial entry in her Christmas season short novel series, A Christmas Visitor, one character mentions a
[Page 6] feeling I had repeatedly during the
preparation of this research—and still retain:
“Henry saw at a glance both that the charge was preposterous, and that
it could also be extremely difficult to disprove because it rested on no
reasonable evidence.”[3]
This sense of frustration at
what I call “word games” and a more neutral party would call “redefinitions” is
reflected in Sam Frost’s renunciation of his years of embracing the Full Preterist view. He
wrote in January 2011,[4]
I have stepped outside of
my own defenses of FP and have seen my own defenses as simply weak. I was defending something passionately and any
thing that came up against it, I quickly dismissed. I am not doing that any more. I have expanded
my thoughts. I don't like where "consistent" preterism
leads, for I believe that it leads to where a great deal of it is right now:
confused and all over the place.
I said, too, "just
give it time". Well, I gave it sixteen years. I gave it my all. Much
sacrifice from family and friends. And, for what? More inconsistencies? More "redefinitions"? How far
am I going to go to continue to defend this? How many lines will I cross? How many distinctions will I blur? How many arguments from obsfucation
will I distort in order to go full steam ahead?
I
consider Full Preterism to operate from the same mind
frame as the Jehovah Witnesses. They
have a fully consistent theology. But
they accomplish this only by denying every other Biblical doctrine that stands
in their way. Although Frost does not
use that comparison, he reflects a similar core evaluation of Full Preterism in how its late twentieth century form has
evolved. What disturbed him even more
was the sense that, if one were consistent, even more could be
“redefined” out of the way. Again, as he
wrote in January 2011,[5]
I hung in there. I didn't
care whether anything in FP "lined up" with anything orthodox. It was true, and that was it: damn the torpedoes! Full steam ahead! Never mind that iceberg! What I am finding is that I was actually
willing to question any and every doctrine of orthodoxy and find them false so
long as Jesus returned and all prophecy was fulfilled in AD 70. I was willing even to discard the
"church" today, the lord's table, baptism, evangelism and the whole
nine yards.
The Trinity? Just ramblings of Greek "fathers"
using Greek terms and Greek categories to bind it over the hearts of the lessor as "truth" - to the point of death.
Maybe Christ was just a
divine man...created. Certainly solves a lot of problems.
Maybe the Scriptures,
though
Yes....being honest
now....I was willing to jettison all of this to save FP. I saw no REASON not
to since we have basically questioned and redefined so [Page 7] much already, why not go down the whole
pike? what's stopping us? Why not interpret the Virgin Birth narrative
as "covenant birth" and "apocalyptic" - not
"real" - but "covenantal" and "spiritual"? Why not? What reason would you give?
Don't cite creed. Don't cite history. All that you could give is "The
Scripture". But, that leads right
back to where we are at, doesn't it? What
DO the Scriptures say and why are so many in disagreement?
I have added the extra emphasis
on one sentence above and it well describes my gut fear in this whole
business: nothing is certain nor can
be if it gets in the way of Totally Fulfilled Prophecy. I am easily able to handle the idea of being
wrong on “this” or “that” or even “that also.”
But I find it extremely hard to swallow a belief system that means I am
also wrong—quite possibly—on subject after subject after subject and perhaps
even a few more that I haven’t thought of yet.
Especially when I am going to have to--in my best judgment--play nothing
short of word redefinition games in order to accomplish it.
At
this point it is time to share with the reader a piece of advice I gave my
daughters: The good Lord gave you a
brain; use it! Judge the
arguments pro and con and make up your own mind. I could be right. I could be wrong. They could be right. They could be wrong. But God expects you to make the
decision. And not others for you.
Individual Believer Resurrection:
An Unexpected Issue for Today
The new scenario becomes
particularly startling when applied to the resurrection. Totally Fulfilled Eschatology insists that it
was actually a non-physical resurrection that was promised and that it came to
pass in connection with the fall of
TFE unquestionably raises
the thorny question of how Paul could possibly have written this resurrection
chapter the way he did if he truly had a non-physical event in
mind. Would you or I? In the current context all that is a
secondary matter, but the reader should constantly keep it in mind as s/he reads
what is said throughout the chapter and tests it by asking themselves, “Will
this verse fit such an idea at all”--for if you have not heard of TFE, you
almost certainly will in the future.
Our treatment of 1
Corinthians 15 would have been a long one automatically due to the large number
of verses it covers. Yet due to the need
to introduce a discussion of this new, evolving theology it is significantly
longer than even that—very, very significantly longer! I finally had to order myself (as William L. Shirer’s editor did to that author when he wrote The
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich):
finish the research—or at least enough of it--and complete the book! As I’ve mentioned earlier, even that decision
did not prove as simple or quick to carry out as I intended.
[Page 8]
And just what does Totally Fulfilled Prophecy specifically mean by its claim to believe in the “resurrection?” Unlike the remainder of the Corinthian commentaries, at this point I must surrender my scholarly hat and “meander” a bit. Not because I want to, but because of the need to explain a special difficulty encountered when expanding the breadth of this chapter. Perhaps I somehow have missed it, but in all candor, I must confess that there does not seem to be one standard, generally accepted, short definition of “resurrection” to work with in TFP. In fact, there clearly isn’t.
One
critic of TFP described the varieties of conviction in this manner,[6]
All hyperpreterists have one thing in
common. They believe that the dead physical bodies of Christians remain in the
grave forever. When it comes to defining
the resurrection that occurs at the second coming of Christ, there are
basically three different views among full preterists.
Some attempt to define every mention of a future resurrection in terms of a
spiritual resurrection (e.g., regeneration). Others view the resurrection as a
release of souls from Hades in A.D. 70.
Still others believe a bodily resurrection occurred in A.D. 70, but this
involved the creation of completely new spiritual bodies that replace the
bodies left to rot forever in the earth.
The form of TFP I most come in contact with is “Covenant Eschatology” and its approach to the definition of resurrection clearly varies from all of these. Even here a nice, concise one sentence definition escaped me and had to be compiled from a number of interlocked sentiments. Some mention one subject and others another but with none that I’ve used so far quite tying it all together in the proverbial “one little package.”
Component 1. The resurrection involves Judaism perishing and Christianity being resurrected. Typically one finds this imagery used, but without the explicit tie-in with the resurrection of 1 Corinthians 15. Yet if it is described as if a resurrection, what other intent can the rhetoric have?
In some places it
is made explicit, however. Max King
wrote, “The primary application of the resurrection is applied to the death of
Judaism, and to the rise of Christianity.”[7] He also wrote, “Resurrection has reference
many times to the change from the Jewish system to the Christian system, where
the material body of Judaism is put off in death and the spiritual body of
Christianity is resurrected in life.”[8]
This approach has
its fair share of difficulties. For
example, how in the world did Christianity get resurrected when it had not died
and stood in no need of it? And how did
a different entity get resurrected than the one who died? Even in traditional interpretation, no one
speaks of Peter dying and James being resurrected. Even if “resurrection” language is being
adopted to non-conventional usage, would we not expect the same identity
between the dying one and the resurrected one—be it individual or group?
We can well speak
of
[Page 9] The Essenes are well known to have been opposed to the Temple
and some suspect they had become opposed to the very idea of a Temple system
rather than to just its abuse: The
Fourth Sibylline Oracle—which has been attributed to them—describes “altars . .
. defiled by the blood of animate creatures,” as if animal sacrifice itself
were now abhorrent.[10]
The Diaspora
scattered Jews so far and wide that it was inherently improbable—both
financially and practically—for many to have ever even been in the
Furthermore, both
in those dispersed sectors and nearby, synagogues were already widespread, as
Jesus’ frequent visitation of them shows and provided a ready replacement for
the masses. There were “synagogues
throughout all
Again for
financial and practical reasons, one can’t help but wonder what percentage even
of those in such near by regions were frequent
Hence what appears
to be really aimed at is not a mere change in which law was binding (the
old revelation or the new), it is that
Furthermore, if we
err in that judgment and Christianity was “resurrected” in 70 A.D., then
prior to then it must have been dead for how can you have resurrection unless
you first have the death of that person or movement that is resurrected? So in 70, Judaism died and Christianity was
made alive. Why then was any one
converted prior to that date, since all you could give them was fellowship in a
“dead” spiritual institution, the church—which would not be brought to
“life/resurrection” for decades?
(2)
The second component of the “resurrection” is the replacement of which
religious system is obligatory: The Old
Testament being removed and “dying” and the New Testament “rising” and, so to
speak, being resurrected. In
regard to Isaiah 25 in particular, Tami Jelinek
contends, “Paul’s own exposition of this and the other prophetic text from
which he is quoting (Hosea
One might well die
to that law, so to speak, but that isn’t to be resurrected from it—to be
“removed,” “liberated,” “freed,” yes, but “resurrected” conveys a far different
image. The language just doesn’t fit
well. And even if we concede the extreme
stretch of normal usage, it only fits part of the first century
church: the Gentiles were never, in the
first place, subject to the Jewish law.
So we have a “resurrection” that doesn’t even apply to the entire
church?
Furthermore, the
Old Testament was not removed at the cross, as traditionally believed; the
event only occurred at the
It should be noted
that even “Full Preterists”—synonymous with those who
embrace TFP—sometimes find this “obsession” with the end of the Jewish Law in
70 A.D. as actually undermining the whole premise of what they believe. They argue that TFP is something that
involves world-wide consequences and should never be diverted into the ghetto
of a narrow Judeo-centric interpretation as this approach does. Hence, though we will treat the abolishment
of the Old Testament as authoritative as a significant [Page 10] component of TFP’s
“resurrection,” clearly a significant number either do not or regard it as a
secondary element at most.
Kurt M. Simmons
brings in this stinging attack on those whose “overdevelop-ment”
of any law changing aspects of TFP has diverted elements of the movement away
from its proper universalistic emphasis,[13]
Covenant eschatology should not be confused with full Preterism. Preterism is an interpretative school of eschatology, or study of last things. Preterism holds that prophesies regarding Christ’s second coming are best understood in terms of their contemporary-historical context, and were fulfilled in the same generation Christ and the apostles lived. That is not what covenant eschatology is.
Covenant
eschatology goes well beyond merely interpreting the second coming in a
contemporary-historical manner, and purports to systematically explain New
Testament teaching about Christ’s return with reference largely or exclusively
to passage of the old covenant. More specifically, it interprets the eschaton locally
(confined to
According
to covenant eschatology, the “world” that was destroyed at Christ’s coming was
the world of the Jews; the “heavens and earth” were the Old Testament;
the “elements” of the world were the temple
system and
In
other words, covenant eschatology attempts to explain almost everything
in terms of the destruction of
Component 3. The resurrection is the time that salvation becomes available; hence it is salvational in nature. In traditional thought, salvation is available at the time of conversion. In this new reconstruction that is simply the time early Christians were promised it; the actual receipt was much later. As one defender of TFP worded it to me, “Yes, they had salvation and they trusted in the blood of Christ to bring that salvation. There was no question about their salvation. The question is a matter of when, not if.”[14]
Strictly speaking,
we would anticipate that the resurrection would be defined as either
component 1 or component 2. Of course we
are working from the precedent we are most acquainted with: Under the traditional understanding of
“resurrection,” it was one simple event—the deceased is returned to a
body and that body has either already been changed or immediately is
transformed to a greater form. When we
get to TFP, though, we have to think in terms of “resurrection” being a
surprisingly flexible term that encompasses significantly more than just one
process—and, oddly enough, none of them involving the transforming of the
physical body that we would expect to be at least one of them.
[Page 11] And none of them, to
immediate understanding, really linked to the others. In other words we could imagine all of the
items, if valid, actually occurring but to conclude they all are aspects of the
proper definition of the same thing, “resurrection,” is—rather startling.
Hence the
immediate reaction when we first read in TFP resurrection discussions of sin
finally perishing and forgiveness being now completely and fully available and
consider that in isolation: If that were
the case, then the real issue becomes nothing to do with Jerusalem or Judaism
but with the removal of sin. And Paul’s
rhetoric in this chapter sounds really strange if his actual topic is
nothing to do with our personal return from the grave to life but to how we
finally obtain complete redemption. Is
there any reader of these words who can seriously tell me that would be how
they would have read the text if they had lived back then?
Furthermore if 70
A.D. was when salvation was finally fully possible because Jesus’ law came into
effect, there is still a profound problem.
Also to be fulfilled at Jesus’ 70 A.D. return is “deliver[ing] the kingdom to God the Father” (
When a king leaves power it is up to the new King to establish the new law of the realm—reaffirming or replacing as He deems best. The Old Testament was Jehovah’s law, the New Testament Jesus’ law, so what—if anything--is the new, third covenant for us? (Even if Jesus remains as co-regent, one would still anticipate such a change in bodies of law. It’s the way regal systems work when the rulers have general, all-encompassing power. The rules change.)
Why then would any
of Jesus’ law remain in effect, including the promise of redemption? In light of
These difficulties still remain when it becomes simply another component of the “real” definition of resurrection. Further difficulties with the salvational component will be analyized this under TFP interpretations of Isaiah 25:8
Component 4. And, of course, there is the common scenario that the resurrection has absolutely nothing to do with the individual John and Jane Q. Christian who was alive in 70 A.D. It has to do with a change that occurred in the collective body called the “church.” Of course there is the not insignificant problem that the average reader has to pry real hard to find anything in the chapter to hinge such an approach on; oh, it’s there if you try real hard. But, unmotivated by the need to fit this chapter into TFP, it is hard to imagine any reader hollering, “Eureka! It’s talking about what happens to the church and not the individual!” Not going to happen.
In the new scenario, physically dead believers were blessed by the second coming of Jesus along with those then alive. Regardless of what you define that change to have been, none of us today have any reason to anticipate receiving any blessing they received [Page 12] from it. They were in the “changed” group; we weren’t changed, nor could be, because we weren’t part of the church back then.
There is nothing
(beyond bald assumption) that promises post-resurrection any salvation, any
redemption, any blessing at all to those who weren’t present at the 70 A.D.
transformation event. “All prophecy has
been fulfilled” is the hallmark cry of the movement. If so, then none of the blessings promised
by prophecy remain to be fulfilled either.
Of course, we can try to shift the framework. We can argue that it was at this point, for example, that salvation (in its fullness) “began to be granted”—but does even that leave the door open for future generations? Wouldn’t it most naturally mean “began to be granted to those then alive and who had lived through the resurrection”? That they were “beginning to be granted salvation” proves nothing about later descendants being given the same blessing. In fact, isn’t it manifest arrogance to wrest for unresurrected individuals the blessings promised for resurrected ones?
It should be noted that a “corporate” concept of being saved is far from new to theological discussion. In the 19th century, Benjamin Franklin (Disciples/church of Christ) and Erasmus Manford (Universalist) debated the question of universal salvation. Manford argued that when the Old Covenant system finally vanished then was fulfilled the OT prophecy cited by Paul about death being swallowed by victory. Then the “body” was saved but Manford does not speak in terms of “the body, the church” but the body as “the body of humanity,” i.e., “the whole family of man shall be redeemed.”[15]
If a 19th
century version of Full Preterism saw universal
salvation in chapter 15 in its redemption of the “body,” is there any
reason to doubt that our contemporary movement—or at least a sizable fraction
of it—might find it a tempting alternative as well? If the text already has been successfully redefined
from individual to group, why need that group be limited to “the narrow
confines” of the church? Do we not wish
all to be redeemed?
Indeed, 1
Corinthians 15:28 refers to how, when Christ presents the kingdom to His
Father, that God will be “all in all.” Independent
of the A.D. 70 controversy, this is interpreted by a body of thought outside the
movement, as a pledge of universal salvation.
Physical body to church body to universal body—there certainly is a
logical evolution. Might it not even
become a Full Preterist alternative to
Covenant Eschatology?
I only know where
the doctrine has been, lending credibility to its capacity to do so
again. To some it would be totally
abhorrent; to others a magnificent spiritual break through.
Having far more contact with Covenant Eschatology than other variants, much / most of my remarks will be within that context, though quite a few points will have obvious application to the wider movement. To those whose variant of the doctrine doesn’t fit the confines of these four niches combined or separated, I can only provide my apology for the inability to present a synthesis that encompasses them all.
That comes not from my failure anywhere near as much as that of Full Preterism. It appears to be a still evolving theology in their interdenominational movement, far (?) from its ultimate form. Or, perhaps, the reality is that there is and can be no consensus? And that the movement is irreconcilably divided--permanently? (Consider the harsh [Page 13] remarks of Kurt M. Simmons above disavowing Covenant Eschatology as having anything to do with full preterism.)
Ten years from now it will surely be far simpler to do so; either that or the movement will have disintegrated from an inability to adequately deal with this chapter and other “resurrection” texts—at least to the satisfaction of other full preterist advocates. As a movement the concept has obvious strength; divided into warring factions of “purists,” it minimizes the growth potential of the approach. If its advocates can not agree as to who is a “true” full preterist, it is hardly likely that they can overcome outsider hostility to become the dominant interpretive option of non-futurist interpreters of prophecy.[16]
As a historian,
which approach wins out—shared definitions versus factional
infighting—naturally intrigues me. As a
student of the scriptural text as well, of course.
Now to put my “scholarly hat” back on and resume our discussion. If it “edges off” at times, my apologies. It is very hard to be brief and reasonably detached on something this profound, without the system being in its final stage of development and without a reservoir going back decades of detailed and readily available discussion. Then the work, essentially, becomes evaluating rather than, perhaps, helping shape the ultimate outcome.
Roland H. Worth, Jr.
January 2012
Notes
[1] Leslie, J. Tizard, A
More Excellent Way (London:
Independent Press, Ltd., 1953), 73.
[2] William
Kelly, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (2007). At:
http://www.bible centre.org/commentaries/wk_50_lect_int_1_cor.htm. [November 2010.]
[3] Anne Perry, A Christmas Visitor (
[4] Sam Frost, Statement, as reprinted under the
heading, “Sam Frost Makes It Official:
“He Has Left Full Preterism.” At:
http://deathisdefeated.ning.com/ profiles/blog/show?id=2362512%3ABlogPost%3A32549&commentId=2362512%3AComment%3A32700. Posted on this web site
[5] Ibid.
[Page 14] [6] Brian Schwertley, “Full Preterism
Refuted, Part 2: The Resurrection of the
Dead.” 2008. At:
http://reformedonline.com/view/reformedonline/Full%20
Preterism%20Resurrection.htm. [July
2010, March 2011, June 2011.]
[7] Max King, The
Spirit of Prophecy (Warren, Ohio, 1971 ed.), 204, as quoted by Kurt
M. Simmons, “Quoth He: Max King—Spiritualized Resurrection/Corporate
Body View.” Part of the
PeteristCentral.Com: Affirming Christ’s
Second Coming Fulfilled website. At:
http://www.preteristcentral.com/Quoth%20He%20-%20
Max%20King.html. [June 2011]
[8] Max King, The
Spirit of Prophecy (Warren, Ohio, 1971 edition), 191; cf. 210, 212, as quoted and cited by
Ibid.
[9] Maurice
Sartre, The Middle East under Rome, translated by Catherine Porter and
Elizabeth Rawlings (Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005), 327, goes so far as to
call the high priests “mere puppets,” which probably overstates the matter—but
not by much.
[10] As
quoted by Ibid., 328: He argues that
this can hardly be a reference to pagan sacrifices for “the Essenes never paid any particular attention to pagans.”
[11] Ibid.
[12] Tami Jelinek, “In This
Mountain: An Exposition of Isaiah
25:6-9.” New Creations Ministries
website. At: http://www.newcreationministries.tv/
Articles/isaiah25.htm. [July 2010, June
2011.]
[13] Kurt M. Simmons, “Simmons’ Response to Frost: Does Max King’s Covenant Eschatology and the
Corporate Body View Tend to Universalism?”
Part of the PeteristCentral.Com:
Affirming Christ’s Second Coming Fulfilled website. At:
http://planetpreterist.com/content/simmons%E2%80%99-response-frost-does-max-king%E2%80%99s-covenant-eschatology-and-corporate-body-view-tend-un. [June 2011.]
[14] Milt Smotherman, “Re: Questions on October 5th 1 Cor. 15 Analysis.”
Widely circulated e-mail dated
[15] For these quotes and other extracts, see Kurt M.
Simmons, “Does Max King’s Covenant Eschatology and the Corporate Body View Tend
to Universalism?”
[16] For a cynical evaluation of Full Preterism
as in a downward (death?) spiral since 2000—complete with the names of specific
individuals—see the analysis of a former advocate of the approach, Roderick
Edwards, in his “The State of Preterism:
2010-2011.” Dated: