SUMMARY:
Christ came when He set up His kingdom [Matthew 16:28; Mark 9:1] on the day
of Pentecost [Acts 2].
Christ came in judgment on Israel in A. D. 70.
But, neither of these is His coming in person at the end of this age [1
Thessalonians 3:13-18].
The destruction of the temple put an end to the worship of Israel, the destruction of their genealogical records put an end to their identity and an end to their existence as a nation.
THE A. D. 70 DOCTRINES
The A. D. 70 doctrine is that all the passages that speak of the second coming were fulfilled in A. D. 70, also called Preterit Eschatology, Realized Eschatology, Fulfilled Eschatology, Covenant Eschatology.
Four points that must be proven for the A. D. 70 doctrines to be true.
[1] That the Law and the Jewish age did not end unto 40 years after the death of Christ.
That the Old Covenant and the New Covenant over lapped for 40 years.
[2] That all that died before A. D 70 was resurrected from the dead in A. D. 70.
[3] That the resurrection is passed and all the saved go to Heaven at the moment of death.
[4] That there will be no judgment day for the lost after the judgment they say took place in A. D. 70.
Was A. D. 70 the second and final coming of Christ? Or is the second coming of
Christ and the judgment of all yet to come?
1. According to Realized Eschatology the second coming of Christ was an invisible coming in A. D. 70, and He will not come again. There will be no resurrection
and judgment day to come for all at the coming of Christ.
2. According to Realized Eschatology the resurrection was when all the Old Testament saints were resurrected in A. D. 70. The "judgment day" was when the Jewish age ended in A. D. 70.
3. According to Realized Eschatology after A. D. 70 all that dies in Christ go to their eternal reward at the moment of death.
4. According to Realized Eschatology the Great Commission given in Matthew 28:18-19 has been completely fulfilled therefore, it is not for us today.
5. According to Realized Eschatology the old heavens and earth have passed away,
and the new heavens and earth are now here.
6. According to Realized Eschatology all the New Testament was written before A.
D. 70, and there is no revelation about anything that will happen after A. D. 70;
therefore, there is no revelation about when or even if the earth will ever end.
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They must deny the vast amount of evident that much of the New Testament (including Peter's letters and Revelation) was written after A. D. 70 for if just one book was written after that date the Preterit Eschatology could not be true. Early writers, Eusebius, Irenaeus, Clement, Origin, and others say Revelation was written in the reign of Domitian.
7. According to Realized Eschatology the Great Tribulation and Armageddon are both past.
8. According to Realized Eschatology death and hades were thrown into the lake of fire in A. D. 70.
9. According to Realized Eschatology Satan has been put in the lake of fire. Max King, "The Spirit of Prophecy," Page 356, 1971.
o Their teaching is that in A. D. 70 Jesus moved all the righteous dead to Heaven and cast the Devil and his angels, and the wicked dead into the Lake of Fire. If
Satin were cast into the Lake of Fire which is the second death, where does evil
and temptations come from today?
10. According to Realized Eschatology all prophecy, including all of the Book of Revelation, has been fulfilled.
11. According to Realized Eschatology all New Testament writer believed that the coming of Christ was to be in their lifetime.
What the early non-inspired writers said about ―the last days‖ and the second coming of Christ a few years after A. D. 70; from Florida College Annual Lectures, Almon L.
Williams, 1986, page 217.
Isnatius: "These are the last times"
Barnabas: "Wherefore let us take heed in these last days"
Clement: "Herein He speaks of the day of this appearing, when He shall come and redeem us, each man according to his works. And the unbelievers shall see His glory and His might: and they shall be amazed"
Clement: "But you know that the day of judgment comes even now as a burning oven, and the powers of the heaven shall melt, and the earth as lead melting on the fire, and than shall appear the secret and open works of man"
Polycarp: "Now He that raised Him from the dead will raise up also...Whoever shall pervert the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts and say there is neither resurrection nor judgment, that man is first-born of Satan"
There was revelation given in the Old Testament on the establishment of the kingdom
[Micah 4:1] and the resurrection of Christ was given in types and shadows as Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness [John 3:14]; which few if any understood, but the doctrine of the resurrection, life, and immortality, which Christ taught, were new. The words, resurrection, immortal, and immortality are not in the Old Testament in the King James Version or the American Standard Version. The resurrection was new to the heathen world, which believed in an immortal soul that had no need for a resurrection.
The first coming of Christ, His suffering and rejection, His death and resurrection were told about in the Old Testament; but there is noting about His second coming in it; the second coming of Christ, the resurrection, the judgment of all at His second coming and the promise of life after death in Heaven was new to the New Testament.
The New Testament clearly teaches that the second coming, the resurrection of all, and the judgment of all have not came. All the lost will awake from the dead and the saved will awake to eternal life at the same time. It will be a resurrection of the dead, not as realized eschatology teaches, death is only a change from one kind of life to another kind of life, which would not be a resurrection and would make a resurrection impossible.
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“For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God” (Romans 14:10).
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
“He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as
it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:26-28).
“For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury
of a fire which will consume the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:26-27).
“But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the DAY OF JUDGMENT and destruction of ungodly
men” (2 Peter 3:7).
John 5:28-29 : "For an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment." All, both the good and the evil will be resurrected from the dead in the same hour, not some over two thousand years apart from A. D. 70 to now and still counting; and not changed from one form of life to anther form of life immediately after death without a resurrection.
Philippians 3:20-21: "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself." Our body being transformed into conformity with His body is at His coming from Heaven, not at our death. Christ does not come from Heaven ever time a person dies. That there will be a resurrection and judgment of all at the second coming of Christ is discussed throughout this book and in the review below.
A REVIEW OF "THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD"
By Samuel Dawson
A web page in which he attempts to prove from 1 Corinthians 15 that the Old Testament does teach that the dead in Christ will be resurrected, and that this resurrection was in A. D. 70. Dawson said he thinks I inadvertently give the Old Testament's teaching of the subject short shrift. Then said you can be a good guy and do that because he has done exactly the same thing. Below is an examination of how he thinks I give the Old Testament teaching of the resurrection short shrift.
Some point to restoring of the nation of Israel as a nation as being a resurrection, but the restoring or resurrection of Israel as a nation is not the resurrection of the New Testament. It is not the resurrecting of a person to eternal life or immortality. Not even the resurrection of a nation to immortality or to eternal life. It is not even close to being the resurrection taught in the New Testament . "Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life" [Ezekiel 37:5] is speaking of a nation being restored as a nation, the people that were alive but in captivity being restored to their land and coming to life as a nation, this is not of the resurrection of a single person that was dead; there is nothing in it about anyone or any nation being given immortality. The resurrection taught in the New Testament is not the resurrection of a nation (restoring that 372
nation only for a short time) but is the resurrection of individuals to eternal life and there is nothing like it in the Old Testament. There is nothing in 1 Corinthians 15, or any of the New Testament about the resurrection of fleshly bodies at the coming of Christ. No one put on immortality in A. D. 70, and no one's corruptible (fleshly) bodies were changed to incorruption, and all that were living in A. D. 70 died; death was not
"swallowed up in victory" [1 Corinthians 15:54], as it will be at the coming of Christ. If Paul were not speaking of a resurrection that will come after this lifetime, then when he said, "then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ have perished" they had perished (depicting a process that had pass before Paul wrote this, not an on going process; they had perished– died before he wrote, not were perishing– dying at the time he wrote) [1 Corinthians 15:18]; he was speaking of some that had died past tense that were dead present tense in about A. D. 57, but still would be raised, future tense, with a spiritual body at the coming of Christ. Paul was not speaking of a resurrection that had passed or that was taking place at that time, but of the resurrection to life and immortality that will not take place unto the coming of Christ. At the coming of Christ, all the saved that have died ("fallen asleep") "the dead in Christ shall rise" and the living saints will be changed and both at the same time shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and shall "ever be with the Lord" [1 Thessalonians 3:14-17]; this did not happen in A. D. 70, and those who are fallen asleep are not yet with Christ. Paul says the resurrection of those who are asleep in Christ, and putting on immortality by those who are living will both be at the same moment, both in the twinkling of an eye. Realized eschatology says, "not so Paul, the resurrection of the Old Testament saint was in A. D. 70, but there will be no resurrection for us as we will be changed at the moment of death, both are not in the same moment." if all were transformed (receives a "spiritual body" in which they will dwell in immediately and eternally at the moment of death) nothing is resurrected; there would be no resurrection for anyone after A. D. 70. According to them, the only resurrection in the Bible was at A. D. 70 and it is passed. There will be no resurrection and judgment day for anyone. "Faithful is the saying: For if we died with him, we shall also live with him...Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who concerning the truth have erred, saying the resurrection is past already" [2 Timothy 10-19]. Israel was not delivered in A. D. 70, but was judged and destroyed. There is nothing in 1 Corinthians 15, Matthew 24, or any passage about Israel being resurrected or restored in A. D. 70.
On page 6 he said, "Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life"
Ezekiel 37 refers to the death of Israel, then said, West is absolutely right that the word
resurrection isn't there, but what word should we call the process whereby Israel was dead, and God's purpose was to bring them to life. He needs to see that when the Old Testament speaks of restoring or resurrecting a nation to life as a nation that would die again, it is not speaking of the resurrection to eternal life of even one dead person. Not one dead person was restored to life and given immortality. There is no promise that anyone would ever be given immortality in the Old Testament. No nation, not even Israel, will ever be given immortality; but the saved individuals of all nations will at the resurrection. How can he not see that the resurrection or restoring of Israel as a nation for only a short time in Ezekiel 37 is nothing like the resurrection of individuals to immortality Paul was speaking of in 1 Corinthians 15? When Israel was restored as a nation after the seventy-year captivity in Daniel, it was not even the 373
same individuals in "the resurrection" of the nation that was in Israel before the captivity from which the nation was resurrected. One group of Jews went into the captivity and Israel died as a nation, another group of Jews came out of the captivity and Israel were restored or resurrected as a nation; not one dead Jew was resurrected, not resurrected to life on this earth or resurrected to life in Heaven. The many restorations of Israel as a nation from captivity in the Old Testament, which was one hundred percent physical earthly restoring of a nation, is not the resurrection to eternal life for those who are in Christ, not the resurrection OF THE DEAD in 1 Corinthians 15. Not one dead person was resurrected to eternal life in any of the resurrections or restoring of Israel as a nation; there is nothing said in any of Israel's resurrection as a nation about any person ever being given immortality.
Page 89: Samuel said, "We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed” is a time statement; by, “We shall not all sleep,” he says Paul affirmed that not all of those in Corinth were going to die physically before the resurrection happened. If Paul were saying not all would die physically before the resurrection happened in A. D. 70, then he was also saying all those in Corinth and all living Christians would be changed from physical bodies to spiritual bodies when the resurrection did happen in A. D. 70. Living Christians was not changed at that time, and both Christians and non-Christians still had physical bodies after A. D.70 just as they did before it, and all still have physical bodies today. This teaching would have made the church on earth go out of existence on earth in A. D. 70. No one will have the spiritual body before the resurrection. Read this "time statement" in the context, "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory" [1 Corinthians 15:51-53]. The
"time" is when "the trumpet shall sound." At the sound of the trumpet two things happen in the same moment:
1. "The dead shall be raised incorruptible"
2. AND "we shall be changed,"
Both the living and the dead in the same moment, both the living and the
dead in the same twinkling of an eye, both the living and the dead at the
sound of the same trumpet. All living Christians will be changed from physical bodies to spiritual bodies in the same moment the dead are
resurrected with spiritual bodies.
If this had happened in A. D. 70, there would have been no Christians for the Romans to put to death. He changed , "and we shall all be changed" to "not all of those in Corinth were going to die physically before A. D. 70 when the resurrection would happened"
with nothing happing to them in A. D. 70, with nothing happening to them at the time of the resurrection, nothing " all be changed in a moment;" in other words according to him the living Christians were not changed at all. If I understand him, he says the living Christians in Corinth were not going to be " all be changed in a moment" but each one changed in a different moment, the moment of their death, which for many of them would not be in A. D. 70; and each Christian is changed to a spiritual body at a different 374
moment than all other Christians. On page 57 he again changed "we shall all be changed in a moment" to the Old Covenant faithful being taken from the unseen Hadean state into the presence of Christ in the twinkling of an eye. It seems that Paul's "we" must be changed to "them." "Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we (them?) shall all (only all of "them," not "we") be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump" [1 Corinthians 15:51]. Does he think the first "we" is us but the second "we" them? If the first "we" is "them," some of the "them" did not all sleep, then some of the Old Covenant faithful was alive when Paul was writing this in A. D. 67 or 68, they were alive before A. D. 70.
"We that are alive." It is believed that Paul was put to death in about A. D. 67 or 68. If Christ did come in A. D. 70, Paul is not in the "we that are alive" at His coming.
"But, some one will ask, how are the dead raised? And with what manner of body do they come" [1 Corinthians 15:35]. Paul was reassuring the Corinthians that the Corinthians that had "fallen asleep in Christ" had not perished, that their hope of the resurrection did not depend on them being alive at the time of the resurrection [1
Corinthians 15:18-19]. Dawson asked who were these 'dead ones,' then said they were the same Old Covenant dead ones Paul discussed throughout the chapter. Then he said when we change who the we was, we totally miss the time element in Paul's teaching. Then he changed the "we" from "we" to "them"; he changes from the ones Paul was writing to at Corinth about those in Corinth who had fallen asleep "in Christ" to those who had been dead for many years before Christ; he changed the "we" to Abraham and all the Old Testament saints. He totally miss the time element in Paul's teaching by changing the "we" from those who were alive at the time Paul was writing to
"them," to those who had been dead for many years The "dead ones" are the Corinthians that had fallen asleep in Christ, not Old Testament saints who are not even mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15. On pages 85 -88 he attempts to make the "natural body" be Old Testament Israel and the "spiritual body" be the new Israel; when he makes Israel be the
"natural body" and the church be the "spiritual body," he takes the resurrection of the dead out of I Corinthians 15. In about A. D. 57, 13 years before A. D. 70, he has the old Israel being sown a natural body, it is being raised a spiritual body. Paul said, " And as
WE HAVE borne the image of the earthly (Adam, 15:45 a natural or earthly corruptible body), WE SHALL also bear the image of the heavenly (Christ, a spiritual incorruptible body)" [1 Corinthians 15:49]. He changes the "we have borne" to "is being sown" and
"we shall also bear the image" to "is being raised." Then changes "we" (us) to "it"
(Israel).
On page 77 he said, Paul Literally, asked, How are the dead ones being raised? 1
Corinthians 15 was written about 13 years before A. D. 70, – 13 years before he says Christ came, 13 years before he says the Old Covenant saints were raised he has Paul asking, How are the dead ones being raised? Did he forget that he had used " then they
that are Christ's at His coming" and applied it to the resurrection of the Old Covenant faithful? Did he forget that he had applied, "Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we (them-Old Testament saints-Dawson) shall all (them-Old Testament saints-Dawson) be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump" [1
Corinthians 15:51]. Yet, he has them being raised 13 years before the moment, before the twinkling of an eye. On page 85 he said, "Literally, it (Israel) is ― is being sown a natural body, it is being raised a spiritual body." If he is not saying Old Covenant saints were 375
being sown with a natural body and being raised with a spiritual body about 13 years before he says Christ came a second time, about 13 years before he says the resurrection occurred. Does he really believe Old Covenant saints were being sown with a natural body in about A. D. 57 when Paul was writing this? "Presently 'is being raised' " is used on page 91 and throughout the 110 pages. He puts is being raised in quotation marks.
Paul said, "Shall be raised incorruptible" (future tense ) [1 Corinthians 15:52]. Presently is being raised (present tense) is in no translation but his and then it puts the resurrection as taking place 13 years to soon for the Realized Eschatology view that the resurrection took place in A. D. 70.
On page 99 he quarts Christ saying 6 times of those who believe Him , "I will raise him up at the last day" [John 6:39; 640; 6:44; 6:54; 11:24; 12:48]. Which one does he believe? That the Old Testament faithful was being raised in A. D. 57 when Paul wrote 1
Corinthians or "at the last day" which he says was in A. D. 70? Christ is saying this to all that believed Him, not just to the Jews that believe Him. Dawson says the Old Covenant had a last day but the New Covenant will not have a last day. Christ was not speaking of the last day of the Old or the New Covenant. He was speaking of the last day of the earth,
"The day of the Lord" spoken of in 2 Peter 3:10 (see "The Day Of The Lord" below).
Both John and Revelation (and other New Testament books) were written after A. D. 70.
1 Corinthians 15:45-49: On page 87 he changes the "natural" and "spiritual" to the Old Testament faithful being changed from natural Israel to spiritual Israel as the result of the gospel, and this is in about A. D. 57 when Paul said this, before A. D. 70, which he says is when the second coming of Christ was, and before when he says the resurrection of the Old Testament faithful ones did take place. How he could think that "the first man Adam became a living soul" is speaking of the Old Testament faithful is beyond my understanding. There is nothing in this passage about Adam being Israel . "Then the Lord God formed man (Adam ) of the dust from the ground, and breathed into his (Adam)
nostrils the breath of life; and man (Adam) became a living soul" [Genesis 2:7]. Adam was the first man, not the nation of Israel. Adam was the natural man made "of the earth,"
not Israel. Both Adam and Christ (when He was on earth) were "a man," Israel was a nation. Christ is (present tense) "the second man is of heaven" [1 Corinthians 15:47]. By pointing out that this is present tense, he is saying that