At a Glance

The full weight of each position lives in the texts and the argument, not in a chart — a chart cannot argue, only summarize. But for a reader who wants a single page to return to while reading Part Six's fuller treatment, here is the shape of the disagreement across all five doctrines, stated as briefly as honesty allows.

A word of warning before you read it: every term in this chart — the millennium, the rapture, the tribulation, the already/not-yet pattern itself — is unpacked in full later in this book, most of it in Part Six and some of it not until Part Five. If a row below reads as compressed shorthand rather than a self-explanatory sentence, that is expected, not a sign you have missed something. Glance at this chart now to get the shape of the disagreement, then come back to it after Part Six, when every term in it will carry the weight of an actual argument instead of a label.

Doctrine	Dispensationalism	Partial Preterism	Full Preterism
Satan's judgment	Bound for a future, literal thousand years; released, then finally judged	Bound at the cross; finally judged at Christ's still-future return	Fully and finally judged by AD 70; nothing remains
Resurrection of the body	Future, bodily, staged: church raised at the rapture, others later	Future, bodily, patterned on Christ's own risen body; not yet happened to anyone	Already accomplished — a spiritual, covenantal transformation complete by AD 70
Second coming	Two future events: a secret rapture, then a visible, public return	One still-future, visible, bodily return, distinct from the AD 70 judgment on Jerusalem	Already occurred, in judgment, at AD 70; personal meeting with Christ now located at each believer's own death
New heaven and new earth	Literal future re-creation of the physical cosmos, after the millennium and final judgment	Already begun in the believer and the church; not yet complete in the physical creation	Already complete — the old covenant order's dissolution, fully realized by AD 70
Final judgment	Multiple staged future judgments, ending in the great white throne after the millennium	One still-future, universal judgment of all people, distinct from the historical judgment on Jerusalem	Already complete, confined to the judgment that fell on Jerusalem and the old covenant order in AD 70