Seeing the Whole Shape Before You Decide

Take all five statements together, stated in a single sentence the way no one ever actually states them to you all at once, and you get a complete, coherent version of full preterism, with a specific shape to what it does and does not leave you still waiting for: no future defeat of evil still coming, because that was Statement One. No body ever, actually, physically raised, because that was Statement Two. No visible return of Christ you are still, genuinely, watching for, because that was Statement Three. No world still, actively, being made new, because that was Statement Four. And no final accounting still waiting, somewhere ahead, for the people who are, right now, in your own lifetime, getting away with real evil — because that was Statement Five. Part Six gave you the strongest full preterist reply to exactly this reading: that each of those is relocated rather than removed, delivered rather than pending. Whether that reply satisfies you is not something this book is going to decide on your behalf here. What matters right now is only this: you should never adopt any part of that five-statement system without having seen the whole five-statement shape first, and weighed it, whole, against what 1 Corinthians 15 hands a grieving Christian at a graveside, what Romans 8 hands a suffering believer, what 1 Thessalonians 4 hands a church anxious about members who died before Christ's return — and against the full preterist answer to each, given at full strength in Part Six.

Take dispensationalism's five statements together the same way, and you get a complete, coherent picture with its own specific shape: a rescue that removes the church before history's worst chapter, because that was Statement One. A specific seven-year countdown, still waiting on a specific future treaty, because that was Statement Two. A specific individual, not yet identified, embodying evil at a scale no tyrant in history has yet reached, because that was Statement Three. A literal, physical, thousand-year reign from an actual throne in an actual Jerusalem, because that was Statement Four. And only after all of that, a final judgment for everyone else, because that was Statement Five. Part Six gave you the strongest dispensationalist reply to every objection raised against exactly this reading — Ephesians 3's mystery language, Matthew 24's original audience, the 1 Thessalonians 4-5 distinction between two comings, Isaiah 65:20's own plain, unmetaphorical mortality. Whether those replies satisfy you is not something this book is going to decide on your behalf here either.

Take partial preterism's five statements together the same way, and the shape looks different again: a war already, decisively won at the cross, that somehow still requires the church's full armor two thousand years later, because that was Statement One. A resurrection body guaranteed as certain, that has still, in two thousand years, only ever been personally witnessed once, because that was Statement Two. A coming dated with total confidence to one specific generation, in the very same breath that refuses to date a second coming at all, because that was Statement Three. A creation both fully new, right now, in you, and still, right now, visibly groaning around you, because that was Statement Four. And a final judgment every apostle who mentioned it called near, that has now been near for two millennia and counting, because that was Statement Five. Part Six gave you the strongest partial preterist reply to each of these tensions in turn — Augustine's own already/not-yet reading of Revelation 20, the body Thomas actually touched, the seam at Matthew 24:36, Romans 8's own present-tense groaning read against 2 Corinthians 5:17's present-tense newness. Whether those replies satisfy you, once again, is yours to weigh, not this book's to settle for you.

Stated that plainly, all three ask something real of the person who holds them. That is not a reason to reject any of them. It is a reason to know, before you commit to one, exactly what you are committing to.