21. The New Covenant is still not established, because Christians need teaching. Jer. 31: 34.
The Jeremiah passage is actually not referring to the first century, but to the Restoration Covenant. Every death-and-resurrection of Israel starts with law on stone and ends with law on flesh, ie. law incarnate. See Jeremiah was a Bullfrog? The writer of Hebrews is simply saying, “It’s happening again one last time!”
God had repeated His promises of land and people to Isaac, but it was to Jacob that God revealed He was going to build the true Babelic tower in the Promised Land. With his head on a rough stone, Jacob saw angels ascending and descending on a stairway to heaven, a ziggurat, a constructed holy mountain, between God and man. As with Eve, the Lord would build it out of flesh and blood—Jacob’s offspring—a living Tabernacle made of precious stones mined from the Land.
WORDS OF WARNING:
[Romans] is not a letter written to generic Gentiles. These words are given to the saints in Rome. “To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints” (Rom. 1:7). When he cautions them against hubris, why would he do this? He did it because he saw the first stirrings of it. Remember that Paul characteristically argues “one of you will say then,” and he does this because he knows how the Q&A sessions usually go. And what happens here? “God cut out the Jews to make way for us Romans” (v. 19). Remember that this was the capital city of the most powerful empire in the world. Anyone who thinks that Christians don’t get caught up by this kind of reflected glory need to ask more pointed questions of their sinful hearts. The Lord spurned the devil’s offer of all the kingdoms of men in their glory—His followers have not always been so successful.
Continue reading
11. “We shall see Him as He is.” (1 John 3: 2). Never happened in A.D. 70.
12. “We shall know, even as we are known” (1 Cor. 13: 12). Still not fulfilled — unless you redefine knowledge.
I believe the first resurrection occurred during the Jewish war. Revelation specifically teaches two resurrections bookending the kingdom age. The end of the Temple was the coming of the kingdom. We cannot spiritualise this idea and say the first resurrection is conversion. That’s not what the text says. It says that those who took part in the first resurrection lived and reigned with Christ for the millennium. They are a human government in heaven. See Big Government.
I am not conceding anything to hyperpreterists. Yes, I believe they are right (to some degree) concerning a resurrection in AD70. What they don’t take into account is the pattern of the bigger picture laid down in the Old Testament, starting in Genesis, a pattern that structures the world, the Tabernacle, and even the human body, that leaves their denial of a future resurrection and judgment without justification. A physical “Land” resurrection actually guarantees a physical “World” resurrection. See Trinitarian Judgments.
Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Exodus 3:5
A sacrifice is literally a nearbringing. James Jordan suggests that instead of sacrifice or offering, a better translation of the word qorban would be “nearbringing”:
“The English “sacrifice” tends to connote the idea of giving something up for someone else. That has little if anything to do with qorban. “Offering” tends to connote a gift, which again has nothing to do with qorban. The word means to draw near, to get into close relationship with someone, and it is used only in relationship to God. We do not worship God by giving Him anything, for He needs nothing. We do not worship God by giving up anything good, for He is the one who has given us all good things. We worship God by drawing near to Him.” [1]
The first nearbringing was the marriage Covenant between Adam and Eve. There was blood when Adam was “divided” so that Eve might be “constructed.” [2] And we can assume that when Adam and Eve were first physically united there was also blood.
6. Jesus Christ was not judge of the quick and the dead, because (according to preterists) He only judged the dead.
Jesus judged between the living and the dead in AD70. The true bride and the false bride were bodies of living people. Of course, part of the true bride was the Old Covenant saints (those “under the Altar”) who were dead.
Personal and structural…
“Jordan’s definition of the covenant is striking. Continue reading
3. 97,000 Jews got away scot free from Revelation 19: 21.
“And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.”
Here’s the first of my replies to Brian’s contentions. I’ve put a 50 Failed Predictions? link under featured articles so all posts in this series are easy to find.
1. The bodies and souls of the wicked were not thrown into Gehenna (Matt. 10: 28).
Gehenna was the Valley of Hinnom. It was the site of the child sacrifices before the exile. The Lord atoned for this shedding of innocent blood to false gods by filling it with the bodies of the idolaters—a mass grave. Then the Land was ceremonially clean. Fittingly, Ge-Hinnom was the site of Jeremiah’s terrifying threats in Jeremiah 18, which Paul draws upon in Romans 9:21.
Brian Simmons posted some great points of contention on his anti-Preterist blog last June:
50 Failed Predictions for Fools Who Say Christ Returned in AD70
Brian’s a great bloke and a good thinker. He fights the heresy of hyperpreterism, but I reckon he’s thrown the baby out with the bathwater. And how could I refuse such a challenge! Who can resist a list?
Bible Matrix blog
