Preterist Gnosticism

Since it's indisputable the promises about Christ returning in
the manner He departed (Acts 1:9ff), the resurrection of the
saints dead, vile bodies (1 Cor. 15; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Php
3:21), the rapture of the church (1 Thess. 4:13-18), and the
destruction of the heavens and earth by fire (2 Peter 3), have
not occurred yet, preterists are forced to come up with a
spiritualized obfuscation of the plain teaching of Scripture.
One of their favorite lies, is that if you believe any promise
God made includes or in any way pertains to that which is
physical (such as the resurrection of your dead, physical body
or Christ literally and physically returning to and reigning
from this earth), why that makes you "physical" minded, and
means you are not "spiritual", like they are (e.g.
"Spiritman").

Fact is, believers had every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places, in Christ Jesus (Eph. 1), and were already
spiritually resurrected from the dead, before A.D. 70. They
were already spiritually alive, immortal, and incorruptible,
before Paul expounded to them God's prospect of resurrection
from the dead (1 Cor. 15; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Php. 3:21; 2 Cor.
5:21)!

Believer's souls are not dead, mortal, corruptible, and vile,
that they can "put on" incorruption and immortality, as 1
Corinthians 15:53-54 says will occur when we are raised from
the dead. No, Paul said "this mortal" is what would "put on"
immortality, and "this corruptible" is that which must "put
on" incorruption! It is our "vile" bodies which shall be
transformed to the likeness of Christ's glorious body (Php.
3:21), and the dead bodies which were sown into the ground,
which shall be raised "from the dead", "thou fool" (1 Cor.
15:36)!

Oh, I know it seems obvious, but when you are dealing with
what the Bible says is a "fool", you have to clarify that it
must be something which is DEAD, before you can raise it "from
the dead". Believer's souls ARE NOT DEAD, not "corruptible",
not "vile", and are NOT "mortal"! It is only their dead,
vile, corruptible, mortal bodies which can be raised "from the
dead", and "put on" immortality and incorruption, "thou fool"
(1 Cor. 15:36)!

Now preterists will squeal that they aren't Gnostics, and it
may be they don't believe every last thing that the Gnostics
Paul wrote about believe. But they DO, and are FORCED to
adhere to a form of Gnosticism, in that they MUST pretend that
if you believe God's promises in any way pertain to or include
that which is physical (like Christ actually coming back and
reigning literally and physically, or your dead body actually
being raised from the dead, and coming out of the grave), why
suddenly you have become "physical" minded, are all about the
"physical", and have therefore become carnal. They then feign
they are "spiritual" (e.g. "Spiritman"), as if it's somehow
spiritual to deny and obfuscate the idea that any of God's
spiritual blessings could somehow include or affect that which
is physical.

Yes, preterists are forced to adhere to a form of Gnosticism,
because it's obvious the promises of Christ's return, of the
resurrection and rapture of the saints, and the destruction of
the heavens and earth have not been fulfilled yet, and they
want to appease skeptics who scoff at God's patience (2 Peter
3).

Futurists are not forced to in any way deny, obfuscate, or
diminish the spiritual aspects of God's promises. Preterists,
on the other hand, are FORCED to deny and obfuscate the
literal/physical aspects of God's promises, because it is
OBVIOUS they haven't been fulfilled yet!

©2007 pulpitfire.net, pulpitfire.org, pulpitfire.com
--
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself
up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every
thought to make it obedient to Christ. †2 Corinthians 10:5

Christ died for our sins, and God raised Him from the dead.
Rely on this work alone to escape hell and receive eternal
life (Jn. 3:16; 1 Cor. 15:1-3; Eph. 2:8-10; 2 Thess. 1:8-9).