What about the resurrection?

The concept of the resurrection is one of the most challenging aspects of preterism for anyone who approaches the text with a futurist paradigm. The subject deserves, and will get, much more attention in the coming Articles section of this site, but hopefully there will be enough here to get you thinking.

First we need to do a little word study.  The word for resurrection is anastasis which literally has the idea of standing again. While it is certainly applied biblically to physical resurrections, it is not used exclusively that way. Here’s one example:

Luke 2:And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel;

We won’t chase the rabbit trail of Christ being the cause of the “fall and rising of many” except to note that the fall here is not physical death. Paul describes the Savior as a “stumbling block and rock of offense” which would cause many to fall. Again, this falling isn’t physical death but a loss of standing. Old Covenant Israel had standing with God (imperfect as it was through the weakness of the law) but it only foreshadowed the time of restoration in which full standing (stasis) would be established in Christ.

Romans 8:10-11 is frequently cited as an objection to this view, but it actually confirms it:

And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.

It is argued that Paul is saying their mortal bodies would be brought back to life. Read the text again, that is not what it says. The context is a discussion of the nature of the two minds: flesh and spirit. Because Paul says this giving of life is future (“will also give”) many assume that he is looking ahead to some period of time after his hearers die. That is not the case!

Paul is writing to living, breathing individuals. Their mortal bodies are alive, but death still resides in them because they await the announcement of their salvation (Hebrews 9:28). True, they already have life in earnest, but they are awaiting its consummation. When it came, their mortal bodies became its vessels. To use the biblical phrase, they were “changed in a twinkling of an eye.” Their standing before the Father was completely restored on the basis of their life in the Son.

Now, let’s turn to Colossians 1:18 “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.” At first reading, you may ask why, but consider the significance of this passage.

Paul says Christ is the “first-born from the dead” but was Christ the first to be brought physically back to life? If you are at all familiar with the scripture, you know the answer to this question. We read the stories of a number of individuals who had biological life restored. Obviously, Paul cannot be talking about biological life!

Christ was the first-born from the death that Adam died. Contrary to popular teaching, that death was not physical death. Yes, he died physically at the ripe old age of 930 years but he died spiritually the very day he transgressed God’s command, just as God said he would. To believe otherwise is to agree with the serpent who said he wouldn’t die! (Read more)

We’ll close this brief introduction with a couple of  observations from Christ’s teaching:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.” (John 8:51)

Hopefully you will agree the believers among those who heard this message are long dead biologically. Patently, Christ could not have been talking about physical death. He was making the profound observation that, in essence, He was/is the Tree of Life. All who partook of the fruit of His word would never die (as Adam died).  This is consistent with what He told Martha following the death of Lazarus:

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? (John 11:25-26)

There is a wonderful parallelism here which is missed by almost everyone. Before we get to it, we need to understand the time in which Christ is speaking. From creation until the advent of Christ (in its fullness), the faithful dead were awaiting salvation in sheol or hades (i.e. the grave). Scripture observes there was a separation between the righteous dead and the wicked. The righteous were in “Abraham’s bosom” or paradiso, the wicked were in “torment” or tartarus.

We won’t develop this further here, but it is critical to understanding what Jesus is communicating in the passage above. Jesus’ statement recognized there were, at that time, two classes of righteous people: those who were physically dead, and those who were physically alive. It is here we can see the parallelism begin to develop.

To the physically dead Christ was resurrection. That’s pretty easy to grasp. They died before hearing the gospel so, as with Adam, in dying (physically) they died (the death of Adam).

However, to those who were physically alive, He would be life (zoe). While this life can refer to physical life it is a word that deals with the experience of life (living) rather than its nature. While it certainly applies to the biological being (bios), it also has spiritual application.

Those who believed on Christ when they saw Him were granted “life in His name.” Their experience changed from living unto themselves to living His life.  Because they, being physically alive, received the gospel, they, in dying (physically) would never die (the death of Adam).

The important thing to note is the revelation of that life was future to them, but not us! Are you beginning to get the picture? Let’s review.

Those in the grave prior to Christ’s advent, had the gospel message proclaimed to them following Christ’s death and were resurrected (restored to standing before God). With a few exceptions, they did not live again in a physical body. A number were physically raised from the dead to confirm what was happening spiritually but most were immediately transported to the presence of the Father at the resurrection in A.D. 70.

Paul told those who remained that “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” It makes no sense for those who are present with the Father to be returned to their decomposed carcasses so they can be raised out of the ground, changed in mid-air and then return to the Father. If they are already present with the Father, they are already properly clothed for that glorious setting!

Today we abide in His presence even as we walk this earth. At death, the veil of flesh which blinds us to that dimension will be removed and we will see it in all it’s glory.

Now that’s something to look forward to!

© Copyright 2003 – 2020 ~ Jim Wade