PRETERISM: MAKING SENSE OF PROPHECY

by David C. Tate

[Preterism is the belief that all prophecies of the New Testament regarding the second coming and the
apocalypse have been fulfilled. This lesser known eschatological doctrine is ignored or shunned by all the
mainstream prophets of Judeo-Christianity because it does not fit the establishment narrative, this
despite the hundreds of conflicting doctrines regarding the "end times" that are promoted by these same
experts today. This is how I personally came to understand Preterism].

When I was young I professed belief in the coming of the Revelations and was a staunch Identity futurist.
I believed in the future coming of Christ, and such views were what drove much of my life growing up in
the late 1970's and early 1980's.

So many religious leaders had dates for when the "the end times" were to come. Their doctrines were
very seductive, and it was very popular to believe the end was near. Even the AIT Bible study course so
important to Identity Christians expressed that the end would begin in 1979. Other Identity leaders taught
that Jesus would not come again until we restored the kingdom so Jesus could come as King. Every year
some counterfeit preacher would mislead his congregation by calling down a new date for the
apocalypse, more than once getting gullible people to sell off their homes to donate to these false profit$
since "the end" was about to come. Decades later we've had Christians looking to things like Y2K, or the
end of the Mayan calendar for fulfilment of prophecy, as if a dead mongrel people who practiced human
sacrifice to their false pagan gods have any prophetic insight for Adamic (How do we identify false
profits? The Word tells us if their lies never come to pass God never sent them and they are deserving of
death - Deut 18:20-22, LXX).

In truth I had no basis for my futurist beliefs other than what everyone else was saying. I just "knew" they
were right. But they never came about, and as a young zealot they contributed in at least a small part to
my ending up in prison back in 1985.

With a life sentence ahead of me I felt very strongly about proving, or disproving, the many things I had
believed for myself. I studied very hard after coming to prison and found that few to none agreed in their
many interpretations of "the end times." There were dozens of futurist teachings: premillennial,
postmillennial, historicist, presentist, dispensational, different versions of each, and many others I can't
begin to remember. So many opinions, all conflicting, all opposing, no one on the same page. I eventually
threw up my hands in disgust and gave up on studying anything to do with The Revelation to John. Yet, I
continued to study the rest of Scripture, particularly our New Covenant in Jesus Christ which many in
Identity so often set aside, and my understanding grew.

Even when a good friend (who later authored "The Apocalypse of Christ") first shared Preterism with me, I
looked everything over and went back to studying other things. The idea that all prophecy was fulfilled by
70AD was intriguing, but at that point in my life I wasn't interested in any more eschatology. It wasn't
until later after I started to notice the TIMING of events in the rest of the New Testament that I looked at
The Revelation from the perspective of Preterism. What convinced me wasn't anyone's particular study
on The Revelation, but everything else in the New Testament. The era of the First Christians leading up to
the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans in 70AD which marked the end of the Judean
age. This included the many occasions the NT authors wrote that THEIR TIME was "the end" or "last
times."

WHEN did the authors of the New Testament say THE END was?

Peter wrote that the times in which he lived were "THE LAST TIMES" (1Pe 1:20), and told the people of
his time that "THE END OF ALL THINGS HAS DRAWN NEAR" (1Pe 4:7).

Paul wrote to readers in his time that the bad things that happened to those who tempted God in the Old
Testament were "written for a warning TO US, to whom the END OF THE AGES HAS ARRIVED" (1Co
10:11).

The book of Hebrews opens, "In many parts and in many ways of old, God spoke to the fathers by the
prophets, IN THESE LAST DAYS He spoke to us in the Son" (He 1:1-2). Later this author added, "but NOW
once, AT THE COMPLETION OF THE AGES" (He 9:26).

John wrote to his readers that "IT IS A LAST HOUR" (1Jn 2:18).
Even The Revelation to John opens, "A revelation of Jesus Anointed, which God gave to Him to show His
slaves THINGS WHICH MUST OCCUR WITH SPEED" (Re 1:1). And, "Blessed is the one reading and those
hearing the words of the prophecy and keeping the things having been written, FOR THE TIME IS NEAR"
(Re 1:3, also 2:5,16, 3:11).

And The Revelation closes saying, "*...And the Master God of the Separated Prophets sent His messenger
to show His slaves WHAT MUST HAPPEN QUICKLY. 'Behold, I AM COMING QUICKLY, Blessed is he
keeping the words of the prophecy of this scroll" (Re 22:6-7, also 22:10, 12,20-21).

Anyone reading any of these things at the time of Jesus would have been looking for them to happen in
THEIR lifetime. They would not have imagined these prophecies taking place in some nebulous future.
These things were written to them, not to us. Clearly, if these Bible authors thought their time and not
ours was the end then we should be asking, "What ended?" And maybe, "What replaced it?"

One problem is that (like I did in my youth) many people MAKE THEMSELVES "THE FIRST PERSON" when
reading their Bible. In other words, they read the Bible as if all the letters contained therein WERE
WRITTEN TO US TODAY when these letters were actually WRITTEN TO PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T BEEN
AROUND FOR TWO-THOUSAND YEARS. An old friend called this kind of thinking "temporal arrogance,"
the belief that New Testament prophecy was written to us and not to those it was actually written to.
Another problem is that because mainstream Judeo-churchianity and Hollyweird control the narrative,
even atheists and pagans who've never read a Bible will argue that Christianity teaches a future end of
the world apocalypse and second coming of Jesus. If TV and the movies portray it as being so, then it is
so. These modern idols direct nearly every aspect of people's lives, and the proofs of how media-driven
society has become are easily seen in instances like social distancing, BLM "protesting" and the mass
murder of white history.

Other than as fantasy plot lines for movies or as a way for televangelists to make a buck, where do many
of these doctrines come from?

One example is the foremost futurist doctrine of "Dispensationalism," a Judeo-Christian doctrine which
has only appeared in recent history. Dispensationalism's central tenets are that the prophecies of the
Bible regarding the "end times" apply to and have their primary or total fulfilment today and in the near
future, and are directly related to the Jewish people.

Dispensationalism teaches: 1. The Jews are God's chosen people, 2. How a nation treats the Jews will
have a direct bearing on how God treats that nation, 3. The Jews "reinstatement in their homeland," i.e.
Palestine, is a fulfilment of Bible prophecy, 4. The world will soon pass through a time of terrible trouble
called the "Great Tribulation," and then 5. Jesus will return in the flesh to kick out the "Antichrist" and
usher in everlasting peace on earth.

What Dispensationalists fail to say (if they are aware of it themselves) is that this doctrine was developed
by Orthodox Judaism to promote Zionism and their belief that as the Jews are now gathered in Palestine
that THEY, the Jewish people, have collectively become the "messiah" and the "saviors" of the world.
They only need rebuild the temple and renew animal sacrifice.

Neither Dispensationalism nor Zionism are Christian doctrines, and it should be obvious that these are
"anti-Christ" (anti-Messiah) beliefs (1Jn 2:22-23). Yet this is the main theme of Judeo-so-called-
Christianity that even non-Christians believe is true. It is Adamic Christians who make up the Body of
Christ and are God's chosen and elect, not a mixed up people who deny Jesus as Messiah. Who deny
Jesus is King.

PRETERISM is the belief that all prophecies of the New Testament regarding the apocalypse and the
second coming have been fulfilled and are now historical events. Preterism has been around longer than
futurist doctrines, if not in name then in the teachings of the earliest Christians. It is even mentioned in
Halley's Bible Handbook, although few people know such a view exists thanks to the Judeo-supremacist
narrative.

Not all Preterists hold identical views. Christian Separatists teach Theistic Preterism, which focuses on
everything Jesus accomplished in the 1st century AD, His "Finished Work." We believe that all
prophecies, Old and New Testament, were fulfilled by the end of the New Testament era, culminating
with the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD.

The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, the place where the political "ekklesia" of Israel
assembled, was a HUGE deal. Not just to the Judeans in Palestine, but to the Israelites dispersed
throughout the ancient world. The magnitude of this event is largely ignored by Christians today, but was
earth shattering to the Israelites of the time. However, to the First Christians it was a Day of Vindication
after forty years of suffering that began with the murder of Jesus and the persecutions of the First
Christians by the Judeans and Rome.

The fulfilment of all prophecy by 70 AD does not mean that God's Word holds less importance for
Christians today. Just the opposite.

Even though Preterists hold that prophecy has been fulfilled, we also hold that all of Scripture is just as
relevant to us now as for any other generation. This is because we now live IN the eternal fulfilment or
REALISATION of Scriptural prophecy.

Most Christians already understand this to some extent. For example, we know that the symbolic ritual
sacrifice of innocent animals is now realised ("fulfilled" forever in the form of the Sacrifice of Jesus
Anointed, a Sacrifice every Christian in every generation partakes of as a PRESENT REALITY. The
practice of sacrifice didn't end, but the symbolic ritual was realised in the Eternal Sacrifice every
Christian looks to for salvation. (And, no, I'm not saying Jesus is sacrificed anew for every Christian, His
Work was finished, we look back to His Sacrifice for Salvation).

Consider the following (which was written before the temple was destroyed and ritual sacrifices ended):

"For the law [ritual practices] had a shadow of the coming good things - not itself the image of those
things - every year with the same sacrifices, which they [priests] offer continually, they are never able to
perfect those drawing near. ... for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away failures
[sins].... He [Jesus] takes away the first [symbolic rituals] so that He may set up the second [the present
reality of Salvation], by which will we are separated for the Body of Jesus Anointed once and for all. And
indeed, every priest stands every day, ministering, and often offering the same sacrifices, which can
never take away your failures [sins]. But He, offering only one sacrifice on behalf of failures [sins], SAT
DOWN IN PERPETUITY AT THE RIGHT OF GOD, ... For by one offering, He has perfected in perpetuity
those being separated" (Heb. 10:1,4,9-12,14, read all of 9:26-10:18).

So we see that the old ritual practice of animal sacrifice was only symbolic, a "shadow" of that which
came later through Jesus and "the end" of ritualism. The symbolic ritual shadow became the Present
Reality of Salvation to all who hear the calling of Christ from then until now and into the future.

Many misinformed Christians believe that Jesus "did away" with the Laws of God. But Jesus said, "Do not
think that I came to annul the law or the prophets. I did not come to annul, but to fulfil" (Mt 5:17).

In this verse the Greek word for "fulfil" is pleroo #4137 meaning "make full, fill up, complete, finish."
Compare this idea to an unfinished cabinet: until you sand it down, varnish it, and fill it with books it is
not "finished." This is the “fulfilled reality" for our cabinet. We don't throw it out after it is finished, WE
CONTINUE TO USE IT. The finished cabinet remains a Present Reality in our lives. So also the Laws of
God were not annulled by Jesus, He simply “finished" the symbolic ritual parts. He made the Law/Word of
God "complete" by changing symbolic rituals into reality.

Another Present Reality many Christians will recognise is that the Church as the collective Body of
believers IS realised to be the Living Body or Wife of Jesus. The Church took the place of the physical
temple which no longer stands in Jerusalem. The Church is a Present Reality while the old temple is a
dead ritual object.

As the Word asks us, "Do you not know that YOU ARE a temple of God? And the Mentality [Spirit] of God
DWELLS in you?" (1Co 3:16, also 2Co 6:16).

Or, as Paul told the Adamic nations (commonly mistranslated "the gentiles"), "Then, therefore, you ARE
aliens and refugees NO MORE, but FELLOW-CITIZENS of the Separated Ones and of the household of God,
having BEEN BUILT upon the foundation of the ambassadors and prophets, Jesus the Anointed Himself
BEING the Cornerstone, in Whom all the building fitted together GROWS INTO A SEPARATED TEMPLE in
the Master, in whom you also ARE BEING CONSTRUCTED TOGETHER INTO THE PLACE WHERE THE
MENTALITY OF GOD DWELLS" (Eph 2:19-22).

The idea that Christians now make up the Body and Temple of Jesus on earth is related to the Greek
word ekklesia #1577, commonly translated "church" or "assembly," but best translated as "BODY
POLITIC." Neither "church" nor “assembly" fully relate the Greek definition of ekklesia: "an assembly of
the citizens summoned by the crier, the legislative assembly" (Liddell and Scott). Or, "a body of citizens
'gathered' to discuss affairs of state" (Expanded Strong's). However, a "body politic" is: "a nation or
government as a corporate body" (Oxford).

For the Israelites their ekklesia - their theocratic political body of Levite priests, Sadducees and Scribes -
could only be called together in Jerusalem. (Israelites in the dispersion throughout the Greco-Roman
world gathered in "synagogues," from a different word that actually meant "to assemble" and which had
no governmental implications). So when Jesus and His followers began referring to themselves as "the
Ekklesia" it was a blasphemous affront to the traditional ritualistic and legalistic Judeans who taught
that their ekklesia could only be held in Jerusalem.

For example, Paul uses Ekklesia as a synonym for the Living BODY of Jesus here on earth, "He [Jesus] IS
before all things, and all things ARE held together in Him, and He IS the Head of the Body, the Body
Politic [Ekklesia]" (Col 1:17-18). And, "the Anointed [Christ] IS Head of the Body Politic [Ekklesia], and He
IS the Savior of the Body" (Ep 5:23).

In Ephesians Paul confirmed that the Ekklesia is the woman/wife of Jesus when he wrote, "The men: love
your women, even as the Anointed loved the Body Politic [Ekklesia], and gave himself up on behalf of
them" (Ep 5:25).

And when Paul listed the qualifications we should use to choose overseers [guardians, bishops] and
deacons [servants, ministers] in our Body Politics [Churches] he wrote that they should be "ruling their
own household and children well" (1Ti 3:12,4) because "if anyone does not know how to rule his own
house, how will he care for a Body Politic [Ekklesia] of God" (1Ti 3:5). Paul gave such instructions so that
we "may know how to behave in the House of God, which IS the Body Politic [Ekklesia] of the Living God,
the pillar and foundation of Truth" (1Ti 3:15).

The Christian Body is not just the Temple and House of God, but the entire temple system is now a
Present Reality, including the priesthood. As we read in the opening verses of The Revelation, Jesus
"MADE US a Government [Kingdom] and priests unto God" (Re 1:6, also 5:10). "Made," past tense. [Note:
Some translations have "kings and priests," but the word 'kings' supplanted 'kingdom' in later
manuscripts of the Bible whereas kingdom is used in the oldest and purest Greet texts. Christians are not
kings, we are freed men and women who serve at the pleasure of our One King, Jesus Anointed: Mt
28:18].

As "priests" of God Christians are taking part in the Government/Kingdom of God, now, in this life. We not
only partake of the Sacrifice of Jesus personally with no need of earthly priests to administer ritual
sacrifices in our behalf, but as a community Christians are to minister to the needs of one another, raise
our little ones in The Way, and even purge our societies of those lawless and unjust individuals who
reject the Law/Word of God and His Justice. And, as Christian communities have grown into Christian
countries at various times in our history, we will see this again in the rise and fall and rise again of godly
nations (Deut 28).

God's Government is a Present Reality for Christians who see ourselves as the Living Temple of God, the
Ekklesia/Body Politic of Christ that functions under His Rule and Authority. For it was God "Who delivered
us out of the authority of darkness, and CHANGED US INTO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SON of His
Honourable Brotherly Love" (Col 1:13).

At the beginning of their ministries Jesus and John the Baptist both declared, "Repent! For the
Government [Kingdom] of the Heavens HAS come near" (Mt 3:2, 4:17). As His ministry grew Jesus
instructed His students to proclaim,"The Government of the Heavens HAS drawn near" (Mt 10:7, Lk 10:9).
And, Jesus and His students went out "proclaiming the good message of the Government" (Mt 9:35, Lk
9:2).

The Government/Kingdom of God is mentioned over 150 times in the New Testament, almost always in
terms of its nearness or presence. THERE WAS NOT ONE PERSON WHO HEARD JESUS OR HIS STUDENTS
DECLARE THE NEARNESS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD WHO WAS NOT EXPECTING TO SEE IT IN
THEIR LIFETIME.

Jesus even went so far as to say, "THERE ARE SOME STANDING HERE WHO WILL IN NO WAY TASTE OF
DEATH UNTIL THEY SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING IN HIS GOVERNMENT" (Mt 16:28, Lk 9:27, Mk 9:1). To
explain away verses like this there are those who teach that 2000-year-old disciples are still waiting for
Jesus to come again. Others teach that John is hanging around in Tibet waiting for Jesus' second coming
based on John 21:22, "If I desire him to remain until I come, what is it to you?" Yet, this is easily
disproven by the next verse which says, "Therefore, the word went out to the brothers that that student
does not die. YET JESUS DID NOT SAY TO HIM THAT HE DOES NOT DIE, BUT 'IF I DESIRE HIM TO
REMAIN UNTIL I COME, what is it to you?' (vs :23). With the exception of John the beloved disciple, the
other eleven disciples were martyred before 70 AD when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, only
John lived up through this event.

Some teach that the Roman soldier who stabbed Jesus' side at His crucifixion (Jn 19:34,37) is still
waiting around for "the second coming" of Jesus based on Revelation 1:7, "Behold, He [Jesus] comes
with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, AND THE ONES WHO PIERCED HIM...." Such people fail to
recognise that The Revelation, as with all prophecy, uses symbolic language. In this verse "clouds" are
found elsewhere in scripture to symbolise masses of people (2Pe 2:17, Jude 12). As Jesus also said to the
high priest before His crucifixion, "Yet I tell you, FROM THIS TIME YOU WILL SEE the Son of man sitting
off the right of power [Mt 28:18, Ac 5:31, 7:56], AND COMING IN THE CLOUDS OF THE HEAVENS" (Mt
26:64). Jesus came in the "clouds of the Heavens" when He indwelled the masses of Christians who
exploded in numbers after His Resurrection (Jn 14:23, Ro 8:9, Ep 2:19-22). Having the Mentality/Spirit of
God dwelling and working in our minds Christians are already "seated in the heaven" (Ep 2:6) and
"citizens of heaven" (Php 4:20). The Government of Heaven is a Present Reality for Christians.

If we listen to futurists like the premillennialists, or we listen to spiritualists like Judeo-Christians, the
Government/Kingdom of God could not have existed THEN and it could not exist NOW. To them the
Government of God was and is inaccessible to us. Futurists are unable to imagine the Government of God
in anything but physical terms, comparing it to the the physical earthly governments of men like the Jews
did at the time of Christ. Spiritualists can only imagine the Government of God in the spiritual condition of
the afterlife. The spiritualist and futurist viewpoints are at odds, neither willing to consider anything else.
But, as is so often the case, the Truth lies somewhere in between and off to the side where most people
refuse to look.

If Jesus were to speak to futurists today, He might tell them the same thing He told the chief priests and
elders of the temple after they questioned His authority rejecting Him, "Because of this, I tell you, THAT
THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD WILL BE TAKEN FROM YOU, AND WILL BE GIVEN TO A NATION PRODUCING
ITS FRUITS" (Mt 21:43).

In 70 AD the might of the Roman army descended up on Jerusalem and completely destroyed the city and
temple along with the Sadducees and elders who directed the temple system. The nation of Judea came
to a complete end. Futurists and Judeo-Christians would have us believe God's Government on earth froze
at this juncture, that we are in a 2000 year old holding pattern waiting for Jesus to come again in a
physical body to rebuild a physical temple in physical Jerusalem. As if God, Who is a Mentality/Spirit, is
constrained by physical bounds and not the opposite: "God is a Mentality [Spirit), and those worshipping
Him must worship in Mentality [Spirit) and in Truth" (Jn 4:24).

But the Words of Jesus came true, the Judean nation was replaced and given over to the Anointed Nation
of our King Jesus Christ. A nation made up of Christians, renewed generation to generation in all those
who hear the calling of Christ. A nation our ancestors called Christendom.

If the Government/Kingdom of God came 2000 years ago, what form did it take? Of course, we've already
given the answer to this question: The Ekklesia/Church is not only the Temple and Living Body Politic of
Jesus, but His Government on earth generation to generation. As Jesus said, “The Government of God
does not come with observation, nor will they say, 'Behold here,' or 'Behold, there,' for behold, THE
GOVERNMENT OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU'" (Lk 17:20-21).

Jesus defined the smallest component of His Government and Nation when He said, "For WHERE TWO OR
THREE ARE GATHERED TOGETHER in My authority [name], THERE I AM IN THEIR MIDST" (Mt 18:20).
Jesus said this while still in His physical body before His death and resurrection, yet His Mentality/Spirit
was already at work among believers everywhere as it has been from before the the world was made.
And, we should ask why He said "two or three" and not "one"? Because His believers, His children, are
commanded to be a Family (Mt 12:50, 1Ti 5:1-2), a Nation of priests (Re 1:6, 1Pe 2:9), a Living Temple that
is the seat of God's Government/Body Politic on earth (1Pe 2:5, Ep 2:19-22).

Two more "Present Realities" helpful for understanding Preterism are Resurrection to Life and
Judgement.

What was lost in Eden was recovered through Christ. Through His Sacrifice Jesus restored not just the
innocence of genuinely repentant Christians, but also our "Intended Nature." Not the nature of the flesh,
but the Nature that Adam and Eve had when they walked with God in His Garden before they fell to sin
and their failure to do God's eternal Word.
When Lazarus died Martha despaired. Even though she believed in a future resurrection, she did not
understand that the last day was already near at hand. So before Jesus raised Lazarus from death He
enlightened Martha. "Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again.' Martha said to him, 'I know that he
will rise again in the resurrection in the last day. Jesus said to her, I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE
LIFE, he being persuaded in Me, THOUGH HE DIE, HE WILL LIVE. And everyone living and being persuaded
in Me WILL NOT DIE FOREVER. Are you persuaded in this?'' (Jn 11:23-26, see also 1Un 5:12, Jn 8:51,
14:6).

Just as important as Jesus being "the Resurrection and the Life" is that Jesus said to Martha that anyone
"persuaded" in Him "will not die forever." We know Jesus wasn't talking physical death because millions
of persuaded/believing Christians have died physical death since He spoke those words, including Martha
("though he die, he will live"). JESUS WAS SPEAKING OF A DEATH OF THE MENTALITY OR SPIRIT.

To understand spiritual death we must go back to the Garden of Eden. We all know the story: The serpent
seduced Eve, she partook of the forbidden fruit, Adam didn't bring her before God for her sin but instead
joined her in it, and the family of Adam was removed from the Garden. But there's a detail most people
overlook.
After God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden we read, "And the Master God commanded Adam, saying,
'You shall eat for food of every tree that is in the Garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, of it you shall not eat, BUT ON THE DAY YOU EAT OF IT, YOU SHALL DIE BY DEATH" (Genesis 2:16-
17, LXX).

The Bible tells us that Adam lived an unnaturally long life, 930 years, and then died. Because Adam's
flesh did not physically die the day he partook of the forbidden fruit some interpret a prophetic "day" to
be 1,000 years. But, as with with so many Scriptural things, futurists are again looking at things
physically and not spiritually.

Adam was removed from God's Garden THE VERY DAY he partook of evil. The Holy Spirit Mentality of God
left Adam, and ADAM DIED A SPIRITUAL DEATH. Adam no longer "walked with God" in His Garden of
Perfection.

Jesus said, "IT IS THE MENTALITY [SPIRIT] WHICH MAKES ALIVE. THE FLESH DOES NOT PROFIT -
NOTHING!
The words which I speak to you are Mentality and are Life" (Jn 6:63).

The physical flesh is part of this physical world, and the reality of physical life is that all living things that
are born to this physical world will die. God saw this creation as "good" in the beginning (Gen 1:31). This
cosmos we live in is His design not ours. He is the Potter, we are the clay. Death is part of this life.

God chose Adam-kind as His special portion of this earth. So as Adam walked with God, so also God's
called and chosen children walk with Him. That walk begins when we are Born Again or Born From Above
(Jn 3:3-6) through the Mentality/Spirit of God that works in our hearts and minds leading to repentance
which in turn reveals itself through godly behaviour and actions. As an old friend put it: One cannot have
an inward transformation without an outward manifestation

But, there is also the reality of spiritual death for the unrepentant. All Adamic men and women are either:
1. ALIVE to God, 2. DYING to God or, 3. DEAD to God. "It is the Mentality [Spirit] which makes alive" (Jn
6:63).

Before His death and crucifixion Jesus said, "For even AS the Father RAISES the dead and GIVES life, so
also Son GIVES life to whomever He wills. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the
Son, so that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He not honouring the Son does not
honour the Father Who has sent Him. Most assuredly, most assuredly, I say to you, The one hearing My
Word and being persuaded by He Who sent Me HAS everlasting life and DOES NOT come unto judgment
but HAS PASSED OUT OF DEATH INTO LIFE. Most assuredly, most assuredly, I say to you that an hour is
coming AND NOW IS, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those hearing will live" (Jn
5:21-25).

Note the present tense: "raisES," "givES," "HAS," "NOW IS." That "hour" was THEN, not after some future
"apocalypse" (Jn 4:23-24, 1Jn 2:18). For Christians Life with God begins now, in this life, and after
physical death we remain Alive with God.
Jesus led His students to a high mountain privately, "And He was transfigured before them, and His face
shone like the sun, and His garments became white as the light, and, behold, MOSES AND ELIJAH
APPEARED TO THEM, talking with Him" (Mt 17:2-3).

Moses and Elijah were not in some grave awaiting resurrection, they were alive with God BEFORE the
Crucifixion Sacrifice and physical Resurrection of Jesus. This was because they looked forward to the
coming Messiah, just as we look back to the moment of Crucifixion for our salvation. All Christians have a
Common Salvation (Ju 3, Ti 1:4). All Christians are "equally precious" before our God (2Pe 1:1). There is
"one Body and one Mentality" that we share in (Ep 4:4-6). Yes, Moses and Elijah were important Bible
figures, but they too had a Common Salvation with us.

When the Sadducees tested Jesus, He said to them, "About the resurrection of the dead, have you not
read that spoken to you by God saying, I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, and the God of ISAAC, and the God
of JACOB?' GOD IS NOT OF THE DEAD, BUT OF THE LIVING" (Mt 22:31-32).

Moses, Elijah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive with God, not slumbering in a grave waiting for a future
resurrection. Consider another proof of this.

Many think it was an "angel" who guided John through The Revelation, but the word "angel" is a
transliteration (as opposed to a translation) of the Greek word angelos which literally translated means
"messenger." Angelos is from the Greek angello which means "to bear a message, tell, announce." There
is no supernatural connotation originally attached to these words.

While receiving The Revelation John fell at the messenger's feet and started to worship him, but the
messenger said,"Behold! Stop! I am YOUR FELLOW-SLAVE, and OF YOUR BROTHERS, HAVING THE
TESTIMONY OF JESUS. Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the Mentality (Spirit) of prophecy" (Re
19:10). When John tried to worship him again the messenger repeated himself, "Behold! Stop! For I am
YOUR FELLOW-SLAVE, and of YOUR BROTHERS THE PROPHETS, and of those keeping the words of this
Scroll. Worship God" (Re 22:9).

If this messenger was not a physical flesh and blood man, then HE HAD BEEN because he described
himself as a "fellow-slave," one of John's "brothers," and "having the testimony of Jesus." This
messenger had either been a prophet, or one of the early Christian martyrs like Stephen, who at the
moment of his death saw "the heavens having been opened, and the Son of man standing at the right of
God" (Ac 7:54-60). [Note: While it is not always translated properly, in their letters the Bible authors
referred to themselves as "slaves" of God, from the Greek doulos, as opposed to the Greek diakanos
"servant, deacon," (Ja 1:1, Ro 1:1, Php 1:1, Ju 1:1, 2Pe 1:1, Jn 13:16, Re 1:1, etc.)].

We understand JUDGMENT through our understanding of Resurrection to Life. Recall Jesus' words on the
Resurrection, "The one hearing My Word and being persuaded by He Who sent Me HAS everlasting life and
DOES NOT COME UNTO JUDGMENT but has passed out of death into life" (Jn 5:24).

Through the Redemption of Jesus He has "Justified" us from our sins, from our failure to live up to the
Word of God, allowing us to live up to the potential of our Intended Nature. He has restored the innocence
lost when we were removed from God's Garden. Through His Justification God's children are freed from
Judgment, from the sentence of Spiritual death that all of Adam's children are under.

Everyone remembers John 3:16, but few read the following verses with a full understanding, "For God so
loved the world [Gk kosmos, the world God made and called "good" in the beginning - Gen 3:16] that He
gave His only-begotten Son, that everyone being persuaded in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. For God did not send His Son into the world that that He might judge the world, but that the world
might be saved through Him. THE ONE PERSUADED IN HIM IS NOT JUDGED, but THE ONE NOT
PERSUADED HAS ALREADY BEEN JUDGED, for he has not been persuaded in the authority of the only-
begotten Son of God" (Jn 3:16-18).

Judeo-so-called-Christians quote John 3:16 every day, but do not contemplate that Judgment is
connected to salvation. Nor that there are different "world orders," and that only the World Order God
declared "good" from the beginning, before the fall of Adam-kind, was the Cosmotic Order God originally
Intended for Adamic Man and woman. For this reason God came to us in the form of the Messiah
(Emmanuel, "God with us" - Mt 1:23), the Price Paid for our collective failure to live up to His Nature.

The old symbolic ritual laws could save no one, so Jesus announced forgiveness of failures/sins through
the reality of His Sacrifice, "And everyone being persuaded in this One is JUSTIFIED from all things from
which you could not be justified by the law of Moses" (Ac 13:39).
"For the law was given through Moses, Favour and Truth came into being through Jesus Anointed" (Jn
1:17). Some say Jesus brought something new in regards to the Laws of God, but this is not so. Jesus IS
the Living Word that was with God from the beginning (Jn 1:1-2, 14:6) and IS God (Mt 1:23, Jn 20:28).
"Jesus Anointed, the same yesterday, today, and forever" (He 13:8). He is the Source of Justice, the
measure of right and wrong from the very beginning.

The Law teaches us what sin is, and, it instructs us in the Justice (often translated "Righteousness") of
God (Ro 7:7, Ga 3:24). Jesus did not do away with sin, He called for repentance as a route to forgiveness
and salvation from spiritual death. The Greek word translated repentance literally means "a change of
mind," which in turn leads to a change in behaviour: doing what is right and just in the eyes of God. "For
not the hearers of the law are just with God, but the doers of the law will be justified" (Ro 2:13). The
Sacrifice of Jesus Anointed justified we unjust failures/sinners so that we might grow and walk in His
Way into Christian Maturity. This was part of Jesus' "Finished" Work. It is not incomplete, it is a Present
Reality for all true Christians.

But not everyone accepts or is able to receive the Gift of Life. "The one being persuaded in the Son HAS
everlasting life, but the one without persuasion of the Son will not see life, but THE ANGER OF GOD
REMAINS ON HIM" (Jn 3:36). The anger of God is the source of Judgment. God is Light, purer and hotter
than any fire, and for impure man to approach that Flame he must be purified, like Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego who were thrown into the fiery furnace in the book of Daniel and were not burned because
One like the Son of God walked in the fire with them (Dan 3:25). Without the Sacrifice of the Son the
anger of God cannot be appeased, "for truly, our God is a consuming fire" (He 12:29).

The New Covenant supports the Present Reality of Resurrection to Life through the Justification of Christ.
For further study read: Eph 2:4-7, 2Co 1:9-10, Col 3:1, Jn 12:47-48.

[End]. ©2021 DCT/CSCS.