We Who Are Alive (Refuting Hyper-Preterism)

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Article by Jason L Bradfield – source here – https://www.reformation.blog/p/we-who-are-alive-is-not-a-time-text?

Among hyper-preterists, one of the more popular arguments for a first-century fulfillment of the resurrection is that Paul’s language in 1 Thessalonians 4:15 functions as a “time text.” The claim runs like this: when Paul wrote, “we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord,” he was asserting that he personally expected to be among the living when Christ returned. Since Paul was alive in the mid-first century, the parousia must have been a mid-first-century event. Hyper-preterists Gary DeMar and Kim Burgess, among others, have pressed this reading.

At this point in time, Paul still fully expected to be alive in his earthly body at the parousia of Christ as based on the direct warrant of Christ Himself in texts like Matthew 10:23, 16:27-28, and 24:34. This is precisely why Paul deliberately used “we” language in both 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15.1

The argument sounds intuitive on the surface. But it collapses under the weight of Greek grammar, Paul’s own broader testimony, and, most critically, what Paul says in the very next verse. What we are dealing with in 1 Thessalonians 4:15 is not a prophetic time indicator at all. It is a category identification, and the difference matters enormously.

The key phrase in Greek is hemeis hoi zontes hoi perileipomenoi (ἡμεῖς οἱ ζῶντες οἱ περιλειπόμενοι). The pronoun hemeis (”we”) is followed by two articular present participles: hoi zontes (”the ones living”) and hoi perileipomenoi (”the ones remaining”). The participles function substantivally, which means they describe a class of people defined by their condition at the time of the event, not at the time of writing. Paul is saying, in effect, “those among us believers who are in the state of being alive and remaining when the Lord comes.” The present tense of the participles is relative to the main action of the sentence (the coming of the Lord), not to the moment Paul picked up his pen. This is a standard use of the articular participle in Koine Greek and there is nothing in the grammar that restricts the referent to Paul and his immediate contemporaries.

To appreciate why this matters, consider the broader context of the passage. Paul is writing to a grieving church. Believers in Thessalonica had died, and the remaining congregation was distraught, apparently worried that their departed brothers and sisters would miss out on the parousia. Paul’s entire argument is pastoral comfort:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 ESV)

The structure of Paul’s argument is to divide all believers into two groups: the dead in Christ and the living who remain. He uses “we” because he and his readers are currently alive and naturally fall, as things presently stand, into the latter group. But the whole point of the passage is that the timing is open-ended enough for some believers to have already died. If Paul “knew” the parousia would occur within his lifetime, the Thessalonians’ grief over a few recently deceased believers would be a remarkably trivial crisis to warrant apostolic correspondence. The passage only makes full pastoral sense if the timing genuinely remains unresolved.

But here is where the “time text” reading suffers its most decisive blow, and it comes from Paul himself in the very next breath. Without skipping a beat, Paul transitions into chapter 5:

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:1-2 ESV)

The thief metaphor is entirely about unpredictability. A thief does not send you a letter telling you when he is coming. The whole point of the image is that the timing is unknown and unknowable. Jesus used the same metaphor in Matthew 24:43 for exactly that reason, and Peter picks it up in 2 Peter 3:10 the same way. If Paul had just planted a time text in 4:15 telling the Thessalonians that the parousia would occur within their lifetime, why would he immediately pivot to telling them the timing is as unpredictable as a break-in? You cannot have it both ways. You cannot say “I’ve just told you it will happen while we’re alive” and then say “but you have no need for me to write about the timing because it comes when no one expects it.” Those two claims work against each other if the first one is really a time indicator. But on the categorical reading, the sequence is perfectly coherent: Paul is saying that whenever this happens, the dead will not miss out, and whoever among us is alive at the time will be caught up with them. As for when that will be, you already know the answer: you don’t know, and you can’t know.

What makes this connection even more devastating to the hyper-preterist “time text” claim is the phrase Paul uses. “The times and the seasons” in 1 Thessalonians 5:1 is τῶν χρόνων καὶ τῶν καιρῶν (ton chronon kai ton kairon). This is the same word pair that Jesus himself used in Acts 1:7 when the disciples asked him about the timing of the restoration: “He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons (χρόνους ἢ καιρούς) that the Father has fixed by his own authority’” (Acts 1:7 ESV). The only differences are the grammatical case (accusative in Acts, genitive in 1 Thessalonians, because of their different syntactic positions) and the conjunction (”or” in Acts, “and” in 1 Thessalonians). But it is unmistakably the same phrase.

Paul is not just making a general point about unpredictability. He is echoing the Lord’s own words. And he is doing it immediately after the passage that hyper-preterists want to turn into a chronological marker. Jesus told the disciples that the timing of these events is not for them to know. Paul then tells the Thessalonians, using the same phrase, that they have no need for him to write about the times and seasons, because they already know the answer: it comes like a thief. They know this because Jesus already told them so. That is not what you write ten seconds after dropping a time text. That is what you write after deliberately not giving one.

The parallel passage in 1 Corinthians 15 reinforces all of this. There Paul writes: “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52 ESV). The hyper-preterist wants to read “we shall not all sleep” as a chronological prediction: “not all of us in this generation will die before Jesus returns.” But that is not what Paul is saying. He is not making a statement about the timing of anyone’s death relative to the parousia. He is making a statement about the mechanics of the resurrection event itself. “We shall not all sleep” means that not every believer will go through death, because whoever happens to be alive when Christ returns will bypass death entirely and be transformed on the spot. “But we shall all be changed” means that whether you are dead or alive at that moment, every believer receives a transformed, resurrected body. The dead get raised. The living get changed. Nobody is left out.

This is the exact same argument Paul made to the Thessalonians, just from a different angle for a different pastoral situation. In Thessalonica, the concern was that the dead would miss out or be at a disadvantage. Paul’s answer: no, the dead in Christ rise first, and then whoever is alive gets caught up with them. In Corinth, the topic is the nature of the resurrection body, so Paul approaches it differently, but the underlying logic is identical. There are two categories of believers at the time of Christ’s return: those who have died and need to be raised, and those who are still alive and need to be changed without dying. Both groups are fully accounted for. The “mystery” Paul is revealing is not when this will happen but how it will happen, specifically that the living will not need to die first but will be instantaneously transformed. The “we” in both passages functions identically: it places Paul and his readers among the living for the sake of illustration, without foreclosing the possibility that they might die before the event occurs.

Notice too the qualifier in 1 Corinthians 15:51: “not all.” If “we” is a time text asserting that Paul expected the parousia during his generation, then “we shall not all sleep” concedes that some in his generation would die before it happened. That already weakens the “time text” claim considerably, since it admits the “we” is flexible enough to include people who will die. But more than that, it confirms that the “we” is a category that encompasses believers across an indefinite period, some of whom will die and some of whom will be alive when the event occurs. The qualifier only makes sense on the categorical reading.

What makes the “time text” reading truly untenable beyond the immediate context is that Paul himself undermines it in his later writings. If “we who are alive” is a firm prophetic assertion that Paul would be personally alive at the parousia, then Paul is a failed or confused prophet, because he clearly contemplated and eventually expected his own death prior to Christ’s return.

In Philippians, written from prison, Paul is genuinely torn: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain…I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Philippians 1:21-23 ESV). No one who has received a prophetic guarantee of survival until the parousia speaks like this. Paul treats death as a real and even attractive possibility, not as something foreclosed by divine promise.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul speaks of the prospect of being “away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8 ESV), openly contemplating the intermediate state between death and resurrection. And in 2 Timothy, written near the end of his life, Paul knows exactly what is coming: “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day” (2 Timothy 4:6-8 ESV). Paul expects to die, and he still looks forward to “that day” when the Lord will award his crown. He does not panic over the fact that he will not be among “the living who remain.” He simply shifts, quite naturally, from one side of his own earlier category to the other, because the categories were never about him personally.

It is also worth noting what genuine time texts in the New Testament actually look like. When Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:28 ESV), or “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (Matthew 24:34 ESV), these are explicit temporal statements with definite subjects, definite verbs, and definite time horizons. Paul’s articular participial clause in 1 Thessalonians 4:15 is grammatically nothing like these. It describes a class of people defined by a condition (”being alive and remaining”), not a temporal prediction (”this will happen before you die”). Calling it a “time text” is a category error.

Every generation of Christians that reads 1 Thessalonians 4 is invited to place itself among the “we who are alive, who are left.” That is the whole force of the pastoral comfort Paul offers: whether you are alive or dead when Christ returns, you will be with the Lord. The passage is designed to work across centuries precisely because the “we” is not anchored to a single generation. To treat it as a time text is to flatten a beautifully open-ended pastoral assurance into a failed prediction, and to do so against the grammar, against Paul’s own usage of the identical phrase elsewhere, against his broader testimony in his later letters, against the immediate context of 1 Thessalonians 5, against the words of Jesus himself in Acts 1:7, and against the very mechanics of the resurrection event as Paul describes them in 1 Corinthians 15.

1

Kim Burgess and Gary DeMar, The Hope of Israel and the Nations: New Testament Eschatology Accomplished and Applied, vol. 2 (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 2024), 129.

Miscellaneous Quotes (120)

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“The New Testament Bereans tested even apostolic preaching against Scripture (Acts 17:11). If apostolic teaching was commendably tested by Scripture, how much more must the voices of later centuries, whether patristic or medieval, be subjected to the Word of God. (Eastern) Orthodoxy claims her tradition merely interprets Scripture, citing Paul’s exhortation to ‘hold fast the traditions’ (2 Thess. 2:15). Yet Paul’s ‘traditions’ were his own apostolic teaching, not later inventions. EO’s tradition functions as an independent source, smothering the sufficiency of Scripture with speculative accretions.” – Craig Ireland

“In an interview published in Christianity Today in April 1977, W. Ward Gasque asked Hal Lindsey about his 1948-1988 prediction about the ‘rapture.’ “But what if you’re wrong?” Lindsey replied: “Well, there’s just a split second’s difference between a hero and a bum. I didn’t ask to be a hero, but I guess I have become one in the Christian community. So I accept it. But if I’m wrong about this, I guess I’ll become a bum.”

Lindsey later revised his thinking on the length of a generation.

Subsequent to the publication of The Late Great Planet Earth, Lindsey wrote that he did not know “how long a Biblical generation is. Perhaps somewhere between sixty and eighty years. The state of Israel was established in 1948. There are a lot of world leaders who are pointing to the 1980s as being the time of some very momentous events. Perhaps it will be then. But I feel certain that it will take place before the year 2000.” “Future Fact? Future Fiction?,” Christianity Today (April 15, 1977), 40.”

“A new and more powerful proclamation of that law is perhaps the most pressing need of the hour; men would have little difficulty with the gospel if they had only learned the lesson of the law. . . . So it always is: a low view of law always brings legalism in religion; a high view of law makes a man a seeker after grace. Pray God that the high view may again prevail.” – John Machen

“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever. Missions exists because worship doesn’t.” – John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad, p. 17

“It’s possible to be a zealous defender of Reformed orthodoxy, a vigorous apologist, and a stalwart polemicist against error and heresy — AND have a kind and gracious heart, filled with the love and mercy of Jesus!” – Matthew Everhard

“Sometimes, anecdotes have force in them on account of their appealing to the sense of the ludicrous. Of course, I must be very careful here, for it is a sort of tradition of the fathers that it is wrong to laugh on Sundays. The eleventh commandment is, that we are to love one another, and then, according to some people, the twelfth is, “Thou shalt pull a long face on Sunday.” I must confess that I would rather hear people laugh than I would see them asleep in the house of God; and I would rather get the truth into them through the medium of ridicule than I would have the truth neglected, or leave the people to perish through lack of reception of the truth. I do believe in my heart that there may be as much holiness in a laugh as in a cry; and that, sometimes, to laugh is the better thing of the two, for I may weep, and be murmuring, and repining, and thinking all sorts of bitter thoughts against God; while, at another time, I may laugh the laugh of sarcasm against sin, and so evince a holy earnestness in the defence of the truth. I do not know why ridicule is to be given up to Satan as a weapon to be used against us, and not to be employed by us as a weapon against him. I will venture to affirm that the Reformation owed almost as much to the sense of the ridiculous in human nature as to anything else, and that those humorous squibs and caricatures, that were issued by the friends of Luther, did more to open the eyes of Germany to the abominations of the priesthood than the more solid and ponderous arguments against Romanism. I know no reason why we should not, on suitable occasions, try the same style of reasoning. “It is a dangerous weapon,” it will be said, “and many men will cut their fingers with it.” Well, that is their own look-out; but I do not know why we should be so particular about their cutting their fingers if they can, at the same time, cut the throat of sin, and do serious damage to the great adversary of souls.” – [Spurgeon, C. H. (2009). Lectures to my Students, Vol. 3: The Art of Illustration; Addresses Delivered to the students of the Pastors’ College, Metropolitan Tabernacle (43–44). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.]

“The elect are gathered into Christ’s flock by a call not immediately at birth, and not all at the same time, but according as it pleases God to dispense his grace to them. But before they are gathered unto that supreme Shepherd, they wander scattered in the wilderness common to all; and they do not differ at all from others except that they are protected by God’s especial mercy from rushing headlong into the final ruin of death. If you look upon them, you will see Adam’s offspring, who savor of the common corruption of the mass. The fact that they are not carried to utter and even desperate impiety is not due to any innate goodness of theirs but because the eye of God watches over their safety and his hand is outstretched to them!” – John Calvin

“I have taken all my good deeds, and all my bad, and cast them in a heap before the Lord, and fled from both, and betaken myself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in him I have sweet peace.” – David Dickson, 1663

“You will find all true theology summed up in these two short sentences: Salvation is all of the grace of God. Damnation is all of the will of man.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“Remember God has accepted us. The gospel of grace is a message of breathtaking freedom. It must be embraced with faith and thanksgiving. You are thoroughly accepted just as you are. Jesus Christ is your righteousness and he is never going to change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When you wake tomorrow, he will still be your righteousness, before you have done anything to enjoy God’s favour. You have to earn nothing. Your spirit needs to bask in the brilliant sunlight of this reality. You need to know it inwardly and celebrate it on a daily basis.” – Terry Virgo

In April 1983 Jack Miller wrote to a young woman, responding to her concerns as to whether she is truly repentant, a real Christian. Here is the opening to Jack’s letter.

Dear Elise,

Thank you for your recent letter concerning your desire to know whether you have had a God-centered repentance. So set aside any fears that I might be unwilling to take time to help you. Perhaps I can help you if you will recognize that all I can do is be a small finger pointing to a large Christ. But if you trust yourself to Him be confident He is not only willing to help you but has the power to help you.

What do you need to know?… When you turn to Christ, you don’t have a repentance apart from Christ, you just have Christ. Therefore don’t seek repentance or faith as such but seek Christ. When you have Christ you have repentance and faith. Beware of seeking an experience of repentance; just seek an experience of Christ.

The Devil can be pretty tricky. He doesn’t mind you thinking much about repentance and faith if you do not think about Jesus Christ… Seek Christ, and relate to Christ as a loving Savior and Lord who wants to invite you to know him.

– The Heart of a Servant Leader: Letters from Jack Miller (P&R, 2004), 244-45

“Five ways believers should be an example:

1. In the way we talk

2. In the way we act

3. In the way we love

4. In the way we trust God

5. In the way we seek holiness

  • 1 Timothy 4:12″ – Kevin Hay

Real hard work — the kind that changes your life, your income, and your future — isn’t a schedule. It’s a mindset. It’s what you do when no one’s watching. It’s the standard you hold when it’s inconvenient. It’s showing up when there’s no immediate reward… and doing it anyway.

“Almost all high profile evangelical preachers teach that hearing the voice of God is crucial in our walk with Christ. If you don’t hear God’s voice (regularly apparently) then you don’t have much of a relationship with God at all. If that is true, have you ever wondered why it is, that God gives us absolutely no instruction on how to hear Him speak?

In the New Testament, we have the Gospels, which give us the accounts of the birth, life, ministry, teachings, miracles, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In Acts we have the birth of the church and spread of the gospel. Throughout the rest of the New Testament, we have loads and loads of doctrine and theology, we have instructions on ecclesiology, qualifications of Elders, conflict resolution, church discipline, preaching, evangelism, spiritual gifts, trials, enduring persecution, eschatology and on and on and on.

And yet, God does not offer us so much as one single syllable of instruction on this one thing, that is supposedly at the very heart of our relationship with Him, how to hear His voice? In none of the pastoral epistles, exactly where you would expect to find it, is there any help on how to hear God’s voice, not one syllable. Why? Could it be, that there is no need for such instruction today, because God speaks to us today, through, and only through, His word?” – Justin Peters

“An anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.” – Charles Spurgeon

“The very essence of anxious care is the imagining that we are wiser than God.” (Charles Spurgeon)

“The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.” – George Mueller

“Pray and let God worry.” – Martin Luther

“There is unspeakable comfort in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good.” – J.I. Packer

“Let your cares drive you to God. I shall not mind if you have many of them if each one leads you to prayer.” – Charles Spurgeon

“Faith is not the absence of anxiety. Faith is the refusal to let anxiety have the final word.”

A Summary of My Eschatological Convictions

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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.