Full preterism
Outside historic orthodoxy
The teaching that all biblical prophecy, including Christ's second coming and the resurrection of the dead, was fulfilled in AD 70, so there is no future bodily return or resurrection.
Also called: hyper-preterism, hyperpreterism, full preterist, hyper-preterist, consistent preterism
What it means
Full preterism, sometimes called hyper-preterism, takes the preterist reading of prophecy to its end. It teaches that the second coming, the resurrection of the dead, and the final judgement all happened in the first century, around the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. On this view we are now living in the new heavens and new earth, and there is no future return of Christ to wait for.
Its holders often explain the resurrection as a spiritual or corporate event rather than the raising of bodies from the grave. They argue that the New Testament's language of nearness, and Jesus' words about "this generation," require every prophecy to have been fulfilled within that generation.
The church has never held this. The Apostles' Creed confesses that Christ "will come again to judge the living and the dead" and the "resurrection of the body," and the Nicene Creed looks for "the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come." Full preterism denies what the creeds confess, which is why this site treats it as outside historic orthodoxy. It should not be confused with partial preterism, which affirms Christ's future bodily return.
What Scripture says
Jesus will come back in the same way the apostles saw him go into heaven, bodily and visibly.
Paul names as departing from the truth those who say the resurrection has already happened, and says it upsets faith.
At the last trumpet the dead are raised imperishable and death is swallowed up in victory.
Christ will come from heaven and transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body.
All who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out to resurrection.
When Christ appears we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.
What is wrong with it
Scripture teaches a future, bodily, visible return of Christ. The angels told the apostles he would come back in the same way they saw him go, and he went bodily and visibly. Paul ties the resurrection to our bodies: the perishable will put on the imperishable, and Christ will transform our lowly bodies to be like his. Death, the last enemy, is plainly not yet destroyed: believers still die and are buried.
The New Testament itself confronts this teaching. When some in the early church said the resurrection had already taken place, Paul did not treat it as a difference of interpretation. He said they had swerved from the truth and were overthrowing the faith of some.
How it undermines the truth
Full preterism undermines the Christian hope. If the resurrection is past, then the bodies of believers who have died will never be raised, and Paul's comfort to grieving Christians, that the dead in Christ will rise, means nothing. It also undermines the final judgement and the setting right of all wrongs, since the world as we know it is declared to be the finished kingdom.
It undermines the creeds and the church's shared confession, and it weakens the doctrine of Christ's own bodily resurrection, which Paul makes the pattern of ours.
How it can harm a church
In a church, this teaching leaves the grieving without the hope of seeing their loved ones raised, and leaves the suffering without the promise that Christ will come to make all things new. It removes the call to watchfulness and readiness that Jesus gave his disciples. Because its teachers use careful arguments from real texts about AD 70, it can spread quietly from partial preterism and unsettle members before elders notice. Churches should teach the creeds' hope clearly and correct this teaching gently but firmly.
This page describes a teaching, not the faith of any person who holds it.
Where it comes up
Confessions: Apostles' Creed; Nicene Creed; WCF 32.2-3; WCF 33.1; LBCF 1689 31.2-3; LBCF 1689 32.1
On this site: End times
Related terms
Partial preterismA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that many New Testament prophecies, especially in the Olivet Discourse, were fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, while Christ's bodily return is still to come.
HeresyTerm
A denial of an essential Christian doctrine, persisted in after correction.
CreedTerm
A short, formal statement of the core beliefs of the Christian faith, confessed by the church together.
OrthodoxyTerm
Right belief, measured by Scripture and summarised in the historic creeds the church has confessed together.