Postmillennial Worldview

PMW 2025-058 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

Introduction
Hyper-preterism in all of its various, warring branches is heretical at its very core. By “hyper-preterism” I am not limiting the concept to what is known as “full preterism” or “consistent preterism.” Such a definition is a common maneuver by hyper-preterists who are not absolutely and fully preterist in every single detail. By doing this, they can claim: “I am not a FULL preterist,” thinking that this declaration allows them to avoid the charge of being “hyper.” They are hoping this will allow them to fly under the radar and not be charged with eroding the foundations of the Christian faith.

Rather, I am more narrowly applying this distinctive term to the core issues that breach orthodoxy, whether each-and-every nuance of some full or consistent preterist is adopted. The label “hyper-preterist,” therefore, applies to any system of preterism that denies three key evangelical (orthodox) doctrines known as “The Three R’s of Eschatology.” Those doctrines that are denied by “hyper-preterists” are:

1. The Return of Christ (at the end of history in bodily, physical form).
2. The Resurrection of the dead (at the end of history in bodily, physical form— despite how “difficult” this might be for God.
3. The Renewal of all creation (after the resurrection as the new creation is established in its final, physical, eternal form).

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PMW 2025-057 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

Introduction
We are currently witnessing the arising of neo-Gnosticism among a small but vocal body of some Bible students who are operating within evangelical Christian circles. This Gnosticism is making its presence felt by the ever evolving and continually splintering hyper-preterist movement. Though ancient Gnosticism was multi-faceted, at its core it elevated the spiritual realm over the physical. For those who are Gnostically-inclined today, salvation ultimately involves escape from the material realm and the physical body, preferring entry into the purely spiritual realm in a new ethereal body, such as proposed long ago by Origen.

The label of “neo-Gnosticism” can easily apply to hyper-preterism. This is (partly) due to its denial of a future, physical, fleshly resurrection of the dead. Some hyper-preterists go so far with this neo-Gnostic preference as to even rework Christology itself. They claim that though Jesus was physically resurrected from the dead, his physical body of flesh and bone dissipated and was replaced by an ethereal body made of spirit. This occurred in conjunction with his ascension. Continue reading →

PMW 2025-056 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr..

In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul carefully and abundantly compiles a list of analogies that are important to understand. These underscore and accentuate the fact that our very mortal bodies in which we now live will be raised to new life and transformed into glory. Thus, he promotes a resurrection that involves continuity and discontinuity: continuity by involving the fleshly body in which we live on earth and discontinuity by enhancing the body’s power. He does so in such a way as to underscore and accentuate the truth that it is the “self-same body” that dies which is raised. And this is despite current-day neo-Gnostics in the hyper-preterist movement [1] who see our buried bodies as eventually being wasted away but that will be replaced with bodies composed of ethereal spirit material. Hopefully this theological fad will soon burn out and those caught up in it will repent and return to historic, orthodox Christianity.

A SUMMARY OF PAUL

In this regard, note the following summary analysis of 1 Cor. 15:36–41:

1. It is the God-designed goal of seeds to develop into plants, just as it is the God-ordained goal of our mortal bodies to be raised to immortal life (vv. 36, 38).
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PMW 2025-038 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

I am concluding a series on the resurrection body as found in 1 Corinthians 15. I am arguing for the position of historic Christianity that the resurrection body is a qualitatively transformed physical body rather than an altogether new spiritual body, as per Gnosticism.

The “problem” we face
In this article I will focus on 1 Cor. 15:44, which is an important verse that can easily mislead the incautious reader. This verse states of the physical body that dies and is resurrected that:

“it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.”
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PMW 2025-037 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

Introduction
I am now presenting my fifth in a series of studies on the nature of the resurrection body as found in 1 Corinthians 15. I am declaring, along with historic Christianity, that our physical bodies die in history but that those very bodies arise at the end of history in the resurrection of the dead. This is far from the proto-Gnostic views of ancient heretics, modern liberals, and contemporary hyper-preterists, including Paul’s opponents at Corinth.[1]

So, now let us move on to reflect on:

The language of “change” in Paul’s argument
Having briefly considered the rhetorical structure of Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 15:36–54, we should now note how Paul speaks of the resurrection body in terms of “change” (allasso). After charging his opponents with being “fools” (v. 36) regarding their resurrection-body error, he answers their foolishness in the immediately following verses. Then in verses 51–52 he speaks of the “change” which defines the resurrection:
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