The Bible tells one story centering on the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It unfolds through God’s covenantal purposes and moves toward the consummation of all things in Him. The categories below are simply an attempt to summarize how I understand that story and its culmination.
The Positional Framework
Amillennial
I understand the millennium of Revelation 20 as the present reign of Christ between His first and second comings (Rev. 20:1–6). Christ is already enthroned at the right hand of the Father and reigns now with all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18; Acts 2:33–36; 1 Cor. 15:25–26). I therefore reject the idea of a distinct future earthly millennial kingdom following the return of Christ.
Partial Preterist
I understand many of the signs and judgments in passages such as Matthew 24 to have had a real first-century fulfillment in the events surrounding AD 70, marking the end of the old covenant order (Matt. 24:1–34; Luke 21:20–24, 32). At the same time, I affirm a future, visible, bodily return of Christ at the end of history, along with the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment (Acts 1:11; John 5:28–29; 1 Thess. 4:16–17; Rev. 1:7).
Covenantal
My framework is rooted in the 1689 London Baptist Confession and the broader Reformed understanding of Scripture and redemptive history. I understand the Bible to reveal one coherent plan of redemption centered in Christ, in whom all the promises of God find their Yes and Amen (Luke 24:27, 44; 2 Cor. 1:20; Gal. 3:16; Heb. 1:1–3).
Two-Age Model
I understand the New Testament’s eschatology to be governed by the biblical pattern of this age and the age to come (Matt. 12:32; Mark 10:30; Luke 18:29–30; Eph. 1:20–21). This present age continues until the return of Christ, while the age to come arrives in fullness at the consummation.
Already / Not Yet
The relationship between these two ages is central to the whole framework. In Christ, the age to come has already broken into history, though its fullness still awaits consummation (Heb. 6:5). Believers already taste the powers of the world to come, have already been raised with Christ in principle, and already belong to the new creation, yet still await the resurrection body and the full renewal of all things (Rom. 8:23; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:4–6; Col. 3:1–4).
Non-Dispensational
I reject any division of redemptive history into separate divine programs for two peoples of God. Instead, I affirm one redeemed people of God across both Testaments, in keeping with a classic covenantal understanding (Rom. 11:17–24; Gal. 3:28–29; Eph. 2:11–22). The church is not a parenthesis in the plan of God, but the gathered people of God in union with the Messiah.
One Future Bodily Return, One General Resurrection, One Final Judgment
I believe that the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the final separation of the righteous and the wicked occur together at the end of the age (Dan. 12:2; John 5:28–29; Matt. 13:39–43, 49–50). These realities belong to the last day, the final trumpet, the harvest, and the consummation (1 Cor. 15:22–26, 51–52; 2 Thess. 1:6–10). Hyper-preterism, or full preterism, is therefore ruled out and must be rejected as heretical, because it denies essential future realities plainly taught in Scripture.
Further Clarifications
Three further clarifications follow from all of this. Scripture interprets current events, not vice versa (2 Pet. 1:19–21). No future rebuilt temple is required, since Christ is the true Temple and His people are God’s temple in Him (John 2:19–21; Eph. 2:19–22; 1 Pet. 2:5). And Christ’s second coming will be universal, visible, and cosmic, not secret, localized, or merely symbolic (Acts 1:11; Matt. 24:27; 1 Thess. 4:16–17; Rev. 1:7).
The Church as the Fulfilled People of God in Christ
Christ at the Center of All God’s Purposes
These positional convictions are not ends in themselves. They are grounded in a larger biblical reality: the New Testament presents one people of God, gathered at last in and through the Lord Jesus Christ (John 10:16; 11:51–52; Eph. 2:14–16). The church is not a parenthesis in the plan of God, nor a temporary interruption in a supposedly separate program for ethnic Israel. This does not erase ethnic Jews as a distinct people group, but it does mean that covenant membership and the saving promises of God are found only in Christ. The church is the fulfilled people of God in Christ, made up of all who belong to Him by faith, Jew and Gentile alike (Gal. 3:28–29; Eph. 2:19–22).
This is because Christ Himself stands at the center of all God’s saving purposes. He is the promised Son of David (Luke 1:32–33), the true King (Matt. 28:18), the true Seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:16), the true Temple (John 2:19–21), the final Sacrifice (Heb. 10:10–14), the great High Priest (Heb. 4:14–16), the faithful Israelite (Matt. 2:15; Isa. 49:3–6), and the heir of all the promises of God (2 Cor. 1:20). Everything the old covenant anticipated finds its fulfillment in Him. Therefore, all who are united to Christ share in what He has accomplished and inherit what He has secured (Rom. 8:16–17; Gal. 3:29).
We Have a King
Christ is our King. After His resurrection and ascension, He was exalted to the right hand of the Father and now reigns from heaven with all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18; Acts 2:33–36; Eph. 1:20–22). His reign is not postponed to some future earthly arrangement. It is a present reality. The risen Christ now governs all things for the sake of His people (1 Cor. 15:25; Eph. 1:22–23).
We Have a Kingdom
Because Christ is King, He has a kingdom. Yet His kingdom is not earthly in origin, nor is it confined by national borders, political structures, or ethnic lines (John 18:36; Rom. 14:17). It is the saving reign of God breaking into history through the Messiah (Matt. 12:28; Mark 1:14–15). Entrance into this kingdom comes not through physical descent from Abraham, but through the new birth (John 1:12–13; 3:3, 5). What was once foreshadowed in old covenant forms is now revealed in its greater and spiritual reality in Christ.
We Are His People
The church is the gathered people of God in Christ. Jesus came to gather into one the children of God scattered abroad (John 11:51–52). He has one flock and one Shepherd (John 10:16). In Him the dividing wall has been broken down, so that Jew and Gentile alike are reconciled in one body through the cross (Eph. 2:14–16). The church is not a secondary people of God. It is the covenant people of God brought to fulfillment in the Messiah (Gal. 3:28–29; Eph. 2:19–22).
Christ Is the True Shepherd, Sacrifice, Priest, and Temple
Christ is the Shepherd of His people. He gives eternal life to His sheep and lays down His life for them (John 10:9–11, 27–28). He is the once-for-all sacrifice who takes away sin (Heb. 7:27; 9:12, 26; 10:10–14). He is our great High Priest, who intercedes for us in the presence of God (Heb. 4:14–16; 7:25; 1 John 2:1). And He is the true Temple, the dwelling place of God with man (John 2:19–21; Col. 2:9), in whom all the old covenant shadows reach their fulfillment.
Because believers are united to Christ, the church is now the temple of God. Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone, the church is a holy dwelling place for God by the Spirit (Eph. 2:19–22). Believers, individually and corporately, are living stones in this spiritual house (1 Cor. 3:16–17; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Pet. 2:5).
We Have True Worship
Jesus made clear that the age of worship centered on a physical location was coming to an end (John 4:21). In the new covenant, worship is no longer tied to Jerusalem or to a physical temple, but is offered in Spirit and truth through Christ (John 4:23–24; Phil. 3:3). This is not less real worship, but more. The shadows have given way to the substance (Col. 2:16–17; Heb. 8:1–6).
We Are Abraham’s Offspring in Christ, Not by Ethnicity
The promises made to Abraham were never merely about ethnicity. They were ultimately centered in Christ, the true Seed (Gal. 3:16). All who belong to Christ by faith are counted as Abraham’s children and heirs according to promise (Gal. 3:7, 29; Rom. 4:11–17). Abraham himself looked forward to Christ’s day and rejoiced (John 8:56). Thus, the family of Abraham is defined not by bloodline, but by union with the Messiah through faith.
The New Testament confirms this by teaching that outward covenant markers never guaranteed saving membership among the people of God (Rom. 9:6–8). True circumcision is a matter of the heart, wrought by the Spirit (Rom. 2:28–29; Phil. 3:3). This does not erase ethnic distinctions in the ordinary sense, but it does mean that covenant identity before God is no longer defined by race, genealogy, or old covenant boundary markers. In Christ, what matters is a new creation (Gal. 6:15; Col. 2:11–12).
We Are the Holy Nation
Jesus warned that the kingdom would be taken from unfaithful leaders and given to a people producing its fruits (Matt. 21:43). Peter applies old covenant covenantal language directly to the church, calling believers a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for God’s own possession (1 Pet. 2:9–10; cf. Ex. 19:5–6). This is not because the church exists apart from Israel’s story, but because in Christ that story has reached its fulfillment.
We Are the New Covenant People
The new covenant is realized in Christ and belongs to those who are united to Him by faith (Jer. 31:31–34; Luke 22:20; Heb. 8:6–13). The Jewish remnant that believed in Jesus entered into that covenant reality in the apostolic age, and believing Gentiles were then brought in as full fellow heirs (Acts 2; Acts 10; Eph. 3:4–6). The result is one body, one flock, one temple, one people (Eph. 2:19–22; 4:4–6).
A Needed Clarification
This position does not erase ordinary ethnic distinctions, nor does it encourage arrogance toward ethnic Jews (Rom. 11:18–21). It does mean that the saving promises of God are fulfilled only in Christ, and that both Jew and Gentile must come to God through Him by faith in the Messiah (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Rom. 10:12–13). Ethnic Israel has no separate saving track or parallel covenant destiny apart from Christ, but neither should this truth ever be expressed with pride, contempt, or dismissiveness. There is no need to rebuild old covenant shadows once the substance has come (Col. 2:16–17; Heb. 8:13).
We Have an Inheritance
The inheritance of God’s people is no longer to be understood in narrow old covenant, typological terms. The land itself pointed forward to something greater. In Abraham, the promise expanded to embrace the world (Rom. 4:13), and in Christ the final inheritance is the kingdom of God, eternal life, the resurrection, and the new creation (Matt. 5:5; Heb. 11:13–16; Rev. 21:1–7). The old covenant order has reached its fulfillment in Christ and has therefore passed away as a covenantal administration (Heb. 8:13). Its types and shadows have served their purpose. The substance belongs to Christ, and all who are His share in that inheritance (Col. 2:17; Gal. 3:29).
The Main Point
The church should not be understood as a detached entity running alongside Israel in a separate divine plan. Nor should Christ be fitted into a system that leaves old covenant structures standing as though they were still awaiting their true meaning. Rather, Christ is the fulfillment of all that came before, and the church is the gathered people of God in Him (Luke 24:27, 44; 2 Cor. 1:20; Eph. 2:11–22).
He is the true King (Matt. 28:18). He brings the true Kingdom (Mark 1:14–15). He is the true Temple (John 2:19–21). He is the true Sacrifice (Heb. 10:10–14). He is the true High Priest (Heb. 4:14–16). He is the true Seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:16). He is the heir of all the promises (2 Cor. 1:20).
And because we are united to Him by faith, we are His people, His flock, His temple, His priesthood, and heirs with Him of the world to come (Rom. 8:16–17; Gal. 3:29; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9).
In short: Christ has come, Christ now reigns, Christ is coming again. His people are one. His promises are fulfilled in Him. The best is still ahead.
