So, I think you are safe as long as the final resurrection remains intact in your thinking.

But I won’t tell anyone if you won’t.

I do believe the “first resurrection” saints have physical bodies. Besides the facts that Jesus has a physical body in heaven and there is nothing in the text to indicate otherwise, there is the Garden, Land, World pattern. The Land resurrection mediates the Garden resurrection with the World. Those saints “live and reign” with Christ throughout this gospel age until it ends.

And, yes, all Covenants have an end. A Covenant is like a tour of duty. This current tour will end, just as all the others did. This one will end in victory. It doesn’t mean “Covenant life” will end. It means the mission – the Great Commission – will have an end. Only then can the Son hand the completed kingdom to the Father.

On the rest of the dead, see:
http://www.bullartistry.com.au/wp/2009/04/16/three-resurrections-4/

Kindly open my eyes on this new thought for me:

1) “The Old Covenant ended with a physical resurrection. We know it was physical because it is described as a marriage.”
Are you saying that the saints in heaven now have resurrected bodies, b/c “resurrection” in Evangel-ese means bodily.

and 2) please flesh out(!) the idea that covenants have an end. If that is the case and the NC ends with the future resurrection…is that an end to covenant life? “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end” and so had Adam not failed his covenant structure would have matured into a new phase. By your definition that NC would have an end….and then that NC would have an end….Am I missing something? Thanks, Mate.

I did respond to the article by Sam that you posted. I didn’t do it by dealing with the particulars but by showing that the structural allusions of Revelation make your assertion of recapitulation impossible.

“(1) The book consists of seven sections. (2) These seven sections run parallel. Each of them spans the entire dispensation from the first to the second coming of Christ. The period is viewed from one aspect; then from another (p.25).”

The sections do not run parallel at all.

Sam’s arguments aren’t emotional. They are based on common sense.

I don’t have a problem with Satan being crushed “soon.” AD70 completed the totus Christus – the body ascended AS FLESH. This is the Covenant Head and Covenant body as a corporate High Priest (mediator), standing in the veil, on the neck of the accuser, until all the nations have passed through the Laver of baptism. Only then will he be loosed for a short spell – as the Azal goat. You haven’t dealt with my arguments above. The answers are not in the New Testament, but in the structure of the Old. Check out the last few chapters of Bible Matrix when you get it, and “all will become clear to you, earthling.”

Ezekiel 38-39 are a prophecy of the Book of Esther, and their place within the structure of Ezekiel support this:
http://www.bullartistry.com.au/wp/2010/10/18/ezekiels-numbers/

Esther has nothing to do with AD70. The allusions are used because the people of God are living in all provinces and God is working behind the scenes. Also, because Satan is the ultimate Amalek (Haman). The process God used to destroy Haman (i.e. give him enough rope to hang himself) is exactly what God will do in the final “battle.” It won’t be much of a battle at all.

http://www.bullartistry.com.au/wp/2009/09/10/haman-hamstrung/

Cheers,
Mike

In your Ezek./Esther connection, do “nations” mean “worldwide”? I thought DeMar (taking up Jordan’s position here) pointed out that they were the local nations – “world as they knew it”?

2) I am aware of Sam’s emotional arguments about sin and evil existing. I responded to those kind of emotional arguments concerning the New Creation in our book – responding to RC Sproul Jr., Mathison and Kistemaker. Sam hasn’t even touched them.

3) I understand why you have a problem with Satan being “crushed” “soon” (Romans 16:20/Genesis 3:15) and being thrown into the lake of fire since that doesn’t fit your futurist interpretation of his activity in the millennium today?

In Christ,
Mike Sullivan