The two most ancient questions known to man is; who created me and why. In Genesis, God answers these questions within the first three chapters. It was God who created all things. Man was created for fellowship with God.
So why is this foundational? It speaks to the nature of who man is in relationship with God. God is one, an uncreated being, Christ also having the same nature as God (Col 2:9) is also God and uncreated. The Holy Spirit also revealing the same attributes as God (Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Eternal) and so is also God. God is a separate and distinct form from angels who were created by God. Finally, lower than angles is man. Three distinct “beings”. Man does not become a God because the nature of the being, determines its standing in creation. By the definition of what God is, a man can never become God even by fiat. Nor can a man ever become an angel. God’s infinite nature cannot be created in a man or given to man, that attribute remains God’s alone and is what separates creation from what is God.
Angels, having lost their place in rebellion to God (Jude .6) find no place within scriptures of redemption. Man, on the other hand, also rebels and yet finds redemption.
The essential truth that must be evidenced from scripture is what man was created to be. A man is created Body, Soul, and Spirit, a triune being, finite in nature. This scheme undermines the Full Preterist position that demands the physical is “evil” and the Spiritual is Good, the very basis of gnostic thought.
The Preterists first affirms man is to be a Spiritual being, not a man of “flesh and Bones”, he denies that man was created to be body and spirit being forever in that form. Man cannot become and remain a spirit form because he was never created just as a spirit.
The FP having differing views concerning the nature of man’s creation two possibilities are formed of what man is to be in the end, when in heaven. 1. Man after death becomes a “spiritual” being and is no longer physical. 2. Man is physical with a “spiritual body” but again is not physical in nature as in having a flesh body but of some other material which they claim is a mystery for the ages, without one shred of Biblical evidence to support or hint at such a notion that a body can be made of something not physical yet be material in some fashion. According to FP doctrine, man after death, never returns to Earth but remains in heaven with an unknown future. Because they deny the bodily resurrection, they must affirm that all “flesh” is evil and cannot go into heaven based on a misreading of I Corinthians 15:50. “Flesh and Blood” in this context it is referring to the lowly nature of the body in fallen man not the substance of the body. They fail to accept that this body is changed and made to be glorious like His body in the Resurrection. (Phil 3:21)
Don states in his book,
The post resurrection, pre-ascension body of Jesus was his glorified, immortal body. This simply is not correct. Let me state this simply, the post-resurrection, pre-ascension body of Christ was unchanged from his pre-passion body.[1]
Many FP Preterist follow Don Preston’s[2] teaching and deny that Jesus was raised in a glorified body.
God created “flesh” in the garden and called it good. Preterist fail to see that at the redemption of all things is the release of all creation from the curse of Adam (Romans 8:18-24) and is a return to the original condition of creation where it was “good”. Since all prophecy was fulfilled for them, the redemption of creation also happened in A.D. 70, which flies in the face that thistles still exist along with the other things that came into existence because of the curse; sickness, disease, and physical death. Of course, they must spiritualize this redemption for creation not even understanding the physical universe cannot be “spiritually” set free from the physical curses placed upon it.
In “Covenant Creation”[3] the whole literalness of the creation of the Universe is denied with claims that death existed in the Garden, Adam was not the first man ever created, and the story is not about the creation of the physical universe. For their end time scenario to work they must go back and change the meaning for man’s creation in the first place. To make all things fulfilled, all doctrines and theology must be reinvented to make it all fit A.D. 70, which to them is the end of the story. The Bible never speaks of things prophetically after A.D. 70.
We begin with understanding what is man and how he was created to be.
The Doctrine of Man
Traditional Anthropology understands that man was first created as a triune being as a reflection of God’s triune nature. Man is created in God’s image, yet God the father is not in flesh, so this image is much deeper than a physical likeness.
Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground (body) and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (spirit), and the man became a living creature (soul). Genesis 2:7 (emphasis mine)
Paul sates, in I Thessalonians 5:23
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Traditionally man is seen as three parts but theologically man cannot be pulled apart into three separate parts, meaning man is body and spirit, upon death of the body, the spirit departs and goes to its place. The “soma”, body remains in the ground. The “soul” or the psyche, remains with the Spirit, or Pnuema. The “soul” or the psyche is what retains the identification of the person as a distinct individual, complete with memories and personality, and exists apart from synapsis in the brain. Meaning the dead person who is in heaven without a body knows who they are and what they were when they were alive. Man is considered one being and whole while the spirit and body dwell together and the separation of the spirit from the body is death, which is not how God created man to be in the garden.
The Spirit is sometimes referred to the “breath” of life of man, but it’s evidenced the body has no life with the absence of a spirit, that give it life. While the spirit does not require to be in the body to have “life.”
Life is defined by; 1. The body and spirit living upon earth in one form, the blood is then the life force of man’s body. 2. The Spirit exist and has its life in the power of God who causes all things to live and exist (Col 1:16). “Jesus” has life in himself, (John 5:25) which philosophically means that he is not dependant on anything to “live” while man is dependent on Christ. If God was to cease to exist all matter of creation would also cease to exist. (Heb 2:10; 11:36). BUT if all of creation ceased to exist, including this material universe, God would continue to exist and is not dependant on the world around him for life, as man is dependent on the world around him to live, and the spirit of man dependent upon Christ’s will and desire for us to exist.
The body absent of the spirit is dead. (James 2:26). Death is then defined in scriptures as the spirit separated from its body, the body is “dead”, Thanatos, without life.
The spirit then is eternal, NOT INFINITE[4], then it is considered to have life apart from a body. The terms mortal and perishable are applied in scriptures only to the body as it is subject to death through either the aging process (perishability) or by its life blood being poured out. (Rom 8:11) Then the body that has died, comes back to “life” by the reintroduction of the Spirit by means of resurrection, back into the body from which it came, the body that was created for that Spirit[5] and not some other body created in heaven.
God fixes what is broken, he never throws it away. (Rom 8:23)
The just and unjust are both resurrected (John 5:29; Acts 24:15) so that the person is judged for the deeds done while in the body and suffers the reward or torment of his punishment within the flesh body. A lake of fire does not hurt a “spirit” as a spirit is not of a physical material. What good is it then to punish a person by sending them to a lake of fire in which they can feel nothing? If a Spirit cannot eat, then what good is a tree with fruit in the new creation, in which no one can eat of and enjoy?
Because man was created as a body, soul, and spirit, physical death is but a temporary condition. The goal of the resurrection is to unite the body with the Spirit after physical death, and heaven is the place where the man who died in Christ dwells until the resurrection. Revelation 21-22 speaks of the New Heaven and Earth in which this Earth is remade. The old works of man is burnt away (2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 20:9). In the description of Revelation 21-22, life in the New Heavens and Earth, death is no more, physical death is removed, overcome by resurrection, ALL things are made new.
I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.4He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more …
4They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun[6], for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
In Hebrew expression when the bible repeats’ the same exact thought but in three different ways[i], the writer is stressing the importance of what is being said as being of the utmost importance,
The dwelling place of God is with man.
He will dwell with them, and they will be his people,
and God himself will be with them as their God.
This fundamental truth being conveyed is that in the New Heaven and Earth, God is living with man, face to face literally and not spiritually. The two realms have become one, “on earth as it is in heaven”. N. T. Wright expresses this whole concept much better than I and so this truth can be found in his book “Surprised by Hope” where the premise is that man was not created to live on clouds strumming harps where we become angels, but the earth was created for man and God to dwell together. The Revelation passage describes this eternal nature of fellowship with God being consummated in the New Heaven and the Earth where God is no longer separated from man, living in a different realm. The Spiritual is united with the physical and becomes one. Man’s life began on Earth and in the final scene the people of God descend back to the Earth where both “dwell” together.
To live in the recreated Earth, to enjoy all his creation, it demands we have senses that can enjoy, bodies, so that we can eat of the fruit. Spirits cannot eat or feel as Jesus ate bread in Luke 27 to prove that he was indeed flesh and bones and not a “spirit.”
In the garden, if Adam had eaten of the tree of life, then he would have continued living as he was created, there would be no reason for him to lose his body, meaning there is no reason we would assume the body would die since he ate of the tree of life. It is for this reason that Preterists claim death existed in the Garden because the promise of restoration is restoring what man was in in the garden before the fall, body and spirit. To claim this restoration happened in A.D. 70, FP theology implies the curse is completely reversed and currently we live in the NH&E, where death, sickness, and disease continues, which means that the conditions before and after the fall are no different. What was restored if we are in the same condition as man was after the fall? It’s funny that all Christians are living in the NH&E at this very moment, according to FP theology, but not one of us who rejects Preterism seem to get to enjoy it. I wonder why he forgot to tell me we are living in the NH&E?
Revelation 21-22 is about the restoration of man to its complete wholeness and represented by the tree of life in the New Heaven and Earth, it’s a restoration to a place in time before the fall, as if Adam had never eaten of the tree of good and evil. Now the preterist would argue that because there is a tree of Life in the garden that would indicate that death also existed, or else why would they need a tree of Life to eat from?
The Tree of life represented a choice, the right choice to walk in obedience. The tree had no magical powers to make a person immortal any more than the tree of good and evil made man “good or evil”. A Tree of Life in the New Heaven and Earth is not about eating and living forever but a reminder of the blessedness of walking in obedience and the life that has come from that obedience. In Mathew 7:21-22, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, the one who is obedient will now livebecause of their obedience. We get to partake of that Tree of Life and eats it fruit forever because we have been obedient.
The Death of Adam[7]
At this point it would be appropriate to discuss the “death” of Adam that came upon all men. I will be directly responding to arguments made by Daniel Rogers in his book, “The Last Enemy, and the Triumph of Christ.”
Coming from a Church of Christ background, the same as Don Preston[8], the “lack of theology” is the same. Daniel’s arguments presented follow those of Preston.
At the risk of repeating myself too much, I again point out that without understanding or knowing the rich heritage of church teaching from all corners of the Earth; Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodist, Pentecostal, and Presbyterian, we fall into traps of thinking and beliefs that have already been established as error. It does not mean obviously we believe everything everyone says, but we come to learn the dynamics of each position, its strengths and weakness. Most Full Preterist have no such background from which to draw from.
With that said Daniel begins his less than scholarly expose on death of Adam as being “spiritual Death”. The implication then is that Christ died bodily yes, on the cross, but his goal was to “taste death for every man” which was spiritual death. So yes, they imply that Christ died “spiritually” on the cross when Christ said, “My god my God, why have you forsaken me.” It’s even held that he descended in the hadean realm and suffered there as well and experienced the new birth when he was resurrected. He had to die in the same death of Adam, so therefore they must go back to Adam and explain that Adam’s death he was threatened with that day in which he ate was “spiritual death” since he did not literally die on that day.
If the FP can remove that Last Enemy as being “physical death”, then it removes the requirement that the resurrection of the dead is of dead bodies coming out of the ground, and so resurrection is being “resurrected” into the “Glorious” Body of Christ, Spiritually. The dead being spoken about in FP theology, are the “spiritually dead” and has nothing to do with a person who has “fallen asleep.” (I Cor 15:18,20)
Now Daniel begins his expose with a justification for his method of interpretation. His first point is to prove what is “death.”
As we have made it our purpose to stick to the Bible, our definitions of death will not come from the dictionaries or even the lexicons, but from the word of God; however, we will reference the Greek text when absolutely necessary[9].[10]
To get his definition of death he demonstrates the very principle I spoke about above, a rejection of church scholarship, yet recognizes he can’t escape it at every point. He, not being a Greek scholar, is dependent on Greek scholars who wrote Lexicons to inform the reader the meaning of Greek words. The irony is that he wants to stick to the “Bible” for its definition and the very definitions of Greek words are found in Greek Lexicons, but according to him we can get the meaning of death from the English translations of the Bible. Let us see if this is true.
Another full Preterists stated in another discussion on FACEBOOK,
What various men may have said then is about as useful as what various men say today here on Facebook. The writings that are important are those that were given by inspiration. Beyond the time of inspiration, human opinions, doctrines and practices began to creep into their thinking and philosophy. Genesis-Revelation is the inspired testimony of God’s redemptive purpose. What Chuck Swindoll writes today is little consequence.
If we follow the logic of the last statement, What Don Preston writes today is of little consequence. What William Bell writes today is of little consequence. What Daniel Rogers writes today is of little consequence.
The Doctrine of the Trinity, and Incarnation are “manmade” doctrines as taught in scriptures. Meaning to arrive at these positions one must glean from the text to reach these implications since neither doctrine is spelled out and defined from any single passage.
This is what becomes the epitome of irony and hypocrisy. They reject the writing of the ECF or of any type of Theology proper, Daniel will hardly even site a recognized scholar yet will site Preston and repeat his same arguments and will write a book explaining his understanding of scriptures and will then reject other works of men who are also doing the same thing as he, wrote a book. Yet says we are to ignore them because they were not inspired. So, he writes a book about his “correcting” the traditional teaching of the church, being uneducated and uninspired himself as if he has it right, above Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, and the list of names could go on.
In the preceding dialogue the obvious contradiction becomes apparent. What the early Church Fathers wrote after 70 AD becomes relevant as they were charged with preserving the oral tradition of the Apostolic faith by correcting false teaching. The ECF did as Paul and the others did, write letters and books to teach and instruct (Didache[11]) the church and to refute the heresies brought on by ignorant but self-proclaimed “Christian” heretics such as Marcion.
John M. Rist stated,
The perception in many academic and professional circles… Of the theoretical crisis, combined with the ignorance of ordinary people, make way for deception, equivocations, and outright lying and humbug in public debate.[12]
Now getting to the first point Daniel states,
It can be argued that there are two major types of death outlined in scripture: physical and spiritual. Both of these deaths are important to us for both effect every person who has ever lived.[13]
Tragically this point is partially incorrect. The Bible speaks of the sin that separates man from God, the guilt of sin which destroys the relationship is a “spiritual death” of the relationship in which sin prevents a holy God joining with man on a spiritual level. This was overcome by the blood of the Lamb and now his spirit dwells within the “born again – new creation” believer. This is a major factor to understand and the implication have many ramifications towards FP theology. The least of which is the idea that a person is not born again in the “first resurrection” but is made a new creation in order to experience the first resurrection after they have died.
The second type of death is mortality. In the curse God declared man would return to dust from which he came. (Gen. 3:19) You do not declare the sun will rise today for the first time IF the sun is already rising and setting every day. You do not declare man will now turn to dust IF man was already going to turn to dust one day. Physical death then is a part and parcel of the curse placed upon creation by God for Adam’s sin. All men suffer physical death because of the sin nature passed on to them for Adam sin.
Physical death is the way of escape from these mortal bodies. It allows for redemption to occur for all men. Simply, if man did not die, he would remain immortal in that fallen state in which sin and death exists within the human nature and exhibited through the human body, which is called the flesh, carnal nature, lowly boy, and even “flesh and blood,” from which there would be no escape if one is immortal.
The third death is the second death, being cast into the Lake of Fire after the GWT judgment.
The fourth death, in one sense Rogers totally ignores, is the death due to punishment.[14] The Hebrew expression found in Genesis 2 is “you shall surely die.” This is death by punishment. It is not about a pronouncement of someone turning to dust, or that one day they will die, this is a declaration of a sentence, a consequence for violating Gods law.
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
4191 [e] מ֥וֹת mō-wṯ surely V-Qal-Inf Abs
4191 [e] תָּמֽוּת׃ tā-mūṯ. you shall die V-Qal-Imperf-2m
mō-wṯ tā-mūṯ., “You shall surely die,” is used in many places throughout scriptures to pronounce the death sentence.
Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours. Genesis 20:7
He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death.
http://biblehub.com/exodus/21-15.htmWhoever strikes his father, or his mother shall be put to death.
Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.
Whoever curseshis father, or his mother shall be put to death. (Exo 21)
In every verse above mō-wṯ tā-mūṯ, is used and implies the person is to be killed for violation of the crime.
The implication is that physical death is what is being pronounced, not spiritual death. Spiritual death is the result of the sin, as two friends are divided when one offends the other and no forgiveness is given or offered. The relationship cannot be restored until one seeks to be forgiven for the offense. Unlike man who can simply walk away and cannot demand restitution for the offense from another person, in God’s Justice restitution or payment for sin must be paid since he is the lawgiver. He alone has the right to judge and sentence, hence God says, “vengeance is mine, I will repay,” and tells us not to “repay evil with evil.” It is not our law that people violate it is God’s law that says do not steal, therefore it is God who exacts justice.
Secondly it demands immediate fulfillment upon the completion of the violation of the law or according to the terms that necessitated the sentence to come.
This demonstrates there are basically four “deaths” that Bible talks about not two.
As Daniel then notes that what physical death is, based on James 2:26,
Physical death is defined in James 2:26: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” As you can see, physical death is the state that man is in whenever the spirit is separate from the body.[15]
So properly, death is when the body and soul separate by any means, which negates the ideas of “spiritual death” as being the Biblical definition of death. It remains primarily in the area of the physical. The death of a relationship becomes the separation of two parties, God and man, in a spiritual sense. There is no verse that describes in detail “spiritual death” or by using those words explains spiritual death. The best way to explain what is “spiritual death,” is the spirit of man being under condemnation for sin and is therefore subject to the second death, he is a “dead man walking.” It is a state of being, outside of right standing with God because a sin has occurred that has broken fellowship with God or another person. Until forgiveness occurs, the relationship remains broken.
The only remedy for a broken relationship due to sin, is for the death of the accused. “without the shedding of blood there can be no remission for sin,” but once you have been killed for your sin, you face the second death and there is no way to be reconciled back to God when your physically dead. If you can’t be reconciled to God after your dead how is it possible to be reconciled to him at all or ever? Because once a person is dead, he faces judgment before the throne. So the answer is, you can’t be reconciled after death. That’s why he sent his son to shed his blood for us. So that we might live and be reconciled to God so that we will not have to face the second death. The sacrificial system was designed so that man was not “instantly” punished for his crime, a death occurs that allows for forgiveness. Now if every person was killed the second, they sinned then no one could make it into heaven, but the Bible says, “he overlooked our sin” (Acts 17:30) so that he might send a deliverer. The whole reason the sacrificial system was created by God was so that man could understand what Christ was to do.
We are declared guilty in his court of law and condemned to death, but it is his son who dies in our place so that we might live.
For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify ourconscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Heb 9:13-14)
Now Daniel asks the question; was death created by God?
“Death” is not created. It is the “uncreation” of what God had joined together. Death is not a natural process that happens to a person, Adam after being created to be “alive” was meant to live. God put man together, body and spirit as the intent and purpose for man in the way he was created. He was not created a “spirit” alone nor a “body” alone but both united. If God’s intent in creation was the joining of spirit and body, then the separation is not his intended purpose or its envisioned final destiny, it becomes an enemy to his purposes. Resurrection of the dead is reuniting of the body and Spirit, the restoration of his purpose.
In his next argument we demonstrate his inability of understanding the theology, which leads to false beliefs. Rogers is claiming that because a seed dies, because in reproduction sperms dies, therefore it is “death” and so death existed in the Garden. Yet Rogers already defined what is death based on James 2:26. The separation of body and spirit.
When he asserts that death existed in the garden, he is equating the order of things before the fall as the same way after the fall.
Notice that physical death was created by God as a natural process.
“And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:12). In order for a seed to produce fruit, what needs to happen to the seed? “Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies” (1 Corinthians 15:36).[16]
In the previous point he stated death was the separation of the body from the spirit yet contends that based on the word “die” of a seed it equates to “death”. The Greek word used for a seed to “die” is apothnḗskō, which stresses the ending of what is “former” – to bring what (naturally) follows. (notice also that a seed cannot die spiritually?) Secondly in contradiction to his beliefs, life of the body is in the blood. The shedding of blood ends the life. A seed is not experiencing “death”, but the transition from the former to the new, there is continuation of the seed’s life. If the blood is shed, then the life ceases to exist in the body. Seeds have no blood to shed, nor is there a spirit that leaves the body.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Lev. 17:11
For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore, I have said to the people of Israel, you shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.
Theologically life is found in the creature which has blood. Plants are not considered “life” as if you cut a tree down and it dies you have not taken its life, it has no blood, you’re not condemned for the murder of a tree. Hair is made up of dead cells. Fingernails are created from dead cells. Or can we argue because we eat a piece of fruit, the moment we picked it, it “died?”
Death is a transition; the seed goes from one form to another. The Bible makes the distinction of what is “alive” and protected as sacred from what is the natural order of things and he defines death, the taking of a life, the shedding of blood as the just punishment for sin. Seeds or trees are not considered “life” that is protected by a law. Only those things with blood can have their life taken from them, and only innocent humans are prohibited from being killed.
Because he has wrongly defined what real physical death is, he concludes that since these are the natural processes of life, then death was created in the Garden and it was good. Again, confusing that the life of a creature is vastly different from the life of a seed.
Rogers states,
Was physical death part of creation? Yes, and it was good. [17]
Unfortunately, because he did not correctly define “life,” Biblically but instead used human reasoning, he makes a theological mess. Meaning he is stating that death exited in the Garden, Adam was created mortal, and it was all good, the Last Enemy of I Corinthians 15, by implication is “good.”
Rogers then argues that because Adam and Eve had to eat to stay alive, demands they were mortal and subject to death. Even if this was true, the declaration of God was not that “you will die 900 hundred years later”, as defining what “surely you shall die” means. Let me point out that in the new heavens and earth we also see the tree of life and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.” Do we assume then that because a tree is seen in heaven in the Heavenly Jerusalem that demands that the people need to eat in order to stay alive? Decidedly not. Death and Hades are no more.
Can it be that just as the heavens declare his handiwork, the smells of flowers are there for man’s pleasure, the animals are there for the pleasure of man, the sights and sounds are all created for the pleasure of man that somehow food cannot be a pleasure to enjoy? (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste). Trust me, they were not eating the fatted calf in the garden. Also as much as I like a Ribeye steak, I don’t think we will be eating beef in the new heavens and earth..
Rogers viewpoint fails to take into consideration that in the restoration we are not returning to the state of Adam post-fall but of Pre-fall. What was lost in the Garden is being restored to its perfection, hence the tree of Life in the New Jerusalem, a restoration of all things and all things become new.
How is it new if the condition after the fall is the same condition of man before the fall? Man could not die before the fall but now after the fall, can die, his body and spirit separate and the body turns back into dust. Then to say the restoration of all things is a return to death is simply dead wrong. (pun intended)
Rogers then reaches his conclusion about physical death
Physical death is obviously not the enemy of God because He created it, and everything He created is good. Read the following passages where New Testament authors commented on death.[18]
He then quotes a Revelation 14:3 to prove that death was “good” and blessed.
13And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”
They are not blessed to die, dying by beheading is not a blessed way to go out, they are blessed because the woes of the tribulation are over for them. This kind of illogical thinking always leads to trouble for interpretation. It also demonstrates the subtle nuances of language are not necessary easily seen but experience and study are needed to inform the reader of what is being said. It is this basic charge against Daniel Rogers that demonstrates why he is not to be trusted as a teacher or to be recognized as a “bible teacher,” if what you preach cannot be trusted to be true and so easily demonstrated to be in error, we must throw out the baby with the bath water. It’s not to be trusted just like a broken clock, its only right twice a day. Either throw it away or get a new battery for it.
Now, like Preston, he turns the argument that if God said they would die in that day they ate, then if they did not physically die that day, then the death they were threatened with was not physical death. They try to argue if it was physical death being threatened (as a punishment) and they didn’t die that day that makes God a liar and the devil is correct in saying they would not die that day.
We see then that spiritual death is the only death that could adequately punish Adam, and, at the same time, meet the time requirements of God’s law[19]. The physical death theory causes God to lie and the Devil to be correct.[20]
The correct argument is that God did not lie, and neither did satan fully lie.
I have absolutely been floored by the denial Preston and Rogers makes by not understanding the sacrificial system yet mentioning it as part of his argument.
This perfect lifestyle allowed Jesus to not only be the perfect example for us, but it also fulfilled the type/ antitype prophecies of the Old Law concerning the lamb without spot or blemish (1 Peter 1:19). The undisputable fact of Jesus’s sinless life is what makes His willingness to die a substitutionary death all the more precious. There is no small amount of verses that teach that Jesus died in our place.[21]
Christ covers over our sin, And, he made for the tent a covering of tanned rams’ skins and goatskins. (Exo 36:19)
Then they shall spread over them a cloth of scarlet and cover the same with a covering of goatskin, (Num 4:8)
Gen 3:21 And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them (covered their nakedness).
The animal died in their place and their sacrifice covered over their sin. Hence the animal died in their place, which is the forerunner of the sacrificial system. For Preston or Rogers to admit this covering over of sin took place in the garden, is to concede the death of Adam was physical death. That would then mean the last enemy would be physical death, so if the FP asserts all enemies were put under his feet in A.D. 70, physical death would have ended, yet it still exists, therefore the death Christ died for was not Physical death, but spiritual. We have proven that false.
It is cognitive dissonance that they deny an animal died on that day in their place? No, at this point it is a willful rejection.
Summary
While not trying to write a complete doctoral dissertation of the “doctrine of Man”, this condensed version stresses the point that man was created as three parts; Body, Soul, and Spirit. In the end of all things man lives with Jesus, who is also Body, soul, and Spirit, face to face with man on this earth that was created to be the physical place where both live in fellowship, the other “realm” no longer exists as both places have become one.
Man was never created to be just a “spiritual” being as Resurrection brings back together what death separated.
The death Adam was to experience that day was Physical death, and yet God foreshadowed atonement right from the very first sin.
[1] Don Preston, “Like Father Like Son; On Clouds of Glory: A Study in The Nature of His Coming” Da Jon Publishing Ardmore, OK, 2009, K. Loc 4676
[2] Don Preston is the leading proponent and teacher of Full Preterism, Realized Eschatology, or Covenant Eschatology. Having written many books and produced hundreds of videos on You Tube he remains contained in the internet as he was rejected from the Churches of Christ for his views.
[3] An invented hyper-preterist interpretation of Genesis creation, a book written by J.L Vaughn and Martin to explain the origins of “Covenant man”.
[4] Once created the spirit cannot die from old age or is subject to death by natural means. It did not exist in some waiting place until the body was formed and the spirit entered it after birth. Even in the lake of fire it exists in a state of death.
[5] Revelation 20 clearly has people who were killed by beheading, coming back to life, and John calls this the first resurrection. Since it is the body that is dead, it is the body coming back to life in Resurrection.
[6] If there is no more night, then there is no more 24 hours counting of time, with no moon or sun, time ceases to exist as we understand it.
[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIEX8PzJS_Y
[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCIE5fkdWiw
[9] Why is it not important to establish the meaning of the Greek word?
[10] Rogers, The Last Enemy, 73
[11] The Didache (written A.D. 70-100) is one of the earliest manuscripts teaching liturgy and function of the sacraments.
[12] Rist, John M. Real Ethics: Reconsidering the Foundations of Morality, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2002
[13] Daniel Rogers, The Last Enemy, 120
[14] Death by disease or sickness is a result of the curse but is not imposed on every person as “the” punishment, that they are to get sick and die, yet examples in scriptures exist where God made people sick unto death as a punishment for their sin.
[15] Rogers, Last Enemy, 80
[16] Rogers, Last Enemy, 125
[17] Rogers, Last Enemy Kindle loc 122
[18] Rogers, Last Enemy, 177
[19] God’s law always demanded physical death for sin, never “spiritual death”.
[20] Rogers, Last Enemy, 314
[21] Ibid 334
[i] This same principle is found throughout scriptures but most noticeable in Genesis 7.
1. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind.
2. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died.
3. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth.