Introduction
Full preterism affirms that all explicit prophetic predictions in Scripture—particularly those regarding judgment, the fall of Jerusalem, and the passing of the old covenant order—were fulfilled in the first century. This reading, grounded in the grammatical-historical method, interprets texts like Matthew 24 and Revelation not as yet-future cataclysms, but as symbolic and covenantal judgments culminating in A.D. 70.1 Yet if all prophecy has already been fulfilled, does this leave no room for a future consummation of history? This essay argues that typological revelation itself demands a telos beyond the first century: a final consummation in universal restoration. When universalism and postmillennial eschatology are both granted, they naturally converge in pointing to a climactic culmination of God’s redemptive plan.
Preterism and Typological Fulfillment
The grammatical-historical method insists on reading biblical prophecy in its historical context. Jesus’ Olivet discourse (Matt. 24) directly warned his contemporaries of the impending destruction of Jerusalem, a point confirmed by Josephus’ detailed account of the Jewish War.2 Likewise, Revelation’s beast and harlot imagery finds natural correspondence in first-century Rome and Jerusalem.3 Preterism rightly underscores that prophecy had an imminent audience-relevance.
Yet biblical prophecy operates not only on the level of direct fulfillment, but also on the level of typology. Israel’s exodus, exile, and restoration cycles were repeatedly fulfilled in history, while at the same time pointing forward to the greater exodus in Christ (Luke 9:31, exodos). The judgment on Jerusalem in A.D. 70, though final in terms of covenantal transition, becomes itself a type of the ultimate purgation of evil. Typology thus preserves the possibility of further consummation without reintroducing futurist distortions.
The Universalist and Postmillennial Horizon
If universalism is true—that God will restore all things through Christ (Acts 3:21; 1 Cor. 15:22–28)—then history cannot simply drift on in endless cycles. Universal restoration entails a final victory where every enemy is subdued and God becomes “all in all.”4 Similarly, postmillennialism, with its expectation of gospel triumph in history, points toward a climactic consummation when Christ delivers the kingdom to the Father (1 Cor. 15:24). Both systems imply that the preterist fulfillment of explicit prophecy does not exhaust the eschatological program but rather clears the ground for the final cosmic reconciliation.
Origen and the Question of Perpetuity
Origen of Alexandria (ca. 185–254) represents an early and sophisticated universalist theology. He rightly perceived the freedom of the will and the cosmic scope of redemption, envisioning the final apokatastasis pantōn—“restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21).5 Yet he erred in suggesting that the glorified will might fall again, and in positing an eternal earth functioning as a reformatory for errant souls and celestials.^6 This undermined the finality of God’s victory and has been judged defective by later orthodox reflection.
In a similar vein, the common opinion among many contemporary full preterists—that history continues indefinitely with an endless crop of elect and reprobate being born without culmination—resembles Origen’s apokatastasis. and suffers from the same defect: it denies Scripture’s insistence on a final end when Christ abolishes death itself and brings creation into perfect sabbath rest (1 Cor. 15:26; Heb. 4:9). Moreover, such a notion does not conform to the testimony of the ecumenical creeds, which consistently affirm a final judgment, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.7 Both the biblical witness and the historic confession of the church demand consummation, not perpetuity.
Irenaeus: Recapitulation and Consummation
Irenaeus of Lyons (ca. 130–202) insisted that the work of Christ recapitulates the entirety of human history. In Against Heresies, he declared that Christ “sums up in Himself all things, both those which are in heaven and which are on earth.”^8 This “recapitulation” (anakephalaiōsis) is not merely covenantal transition, but the uniting of all creation in Christ. For Irenaeus, history has direction and climax; it moves toward consummation, not endless repetition. Thus, while preterism rightly identifies the destruction of Jerusalem as a covenantal hinge, Irenaeus reminds us that typological fulfillment anticipates a final unity of heaven and earth in Christ.
Athanasius: The Incarnation as Teleological
Athanasius (ca. 296–373), in On the Incarnation, argued that the Logos took flesh to bring about incorruption and the defeat of death itself.^9 For Athanasius, Christ’s victory was not provisional but teleological—it aimed at the complete restoration of humanity and the cosmos. This demands a consummation when death, the last enemy, is finally abolished (1 Cor. 15:26). If full preterism affirms that judgment prophecies have been fulfilled, Athanasius compels us to see that the telos of incarnation lies still ahead: the final transformation of creation into incorruptibility.
Gregory of Nyssa: Theological Universalism
Gregory of Nyssa (ca. 335–395) advanced a more explicitly universalist eschatology than even Origen. In his Catechetical Oration, Gregory envisioned the final restoration of all creation: “For it is evident that God will in truth be ‘in all’ when no evil is left in existence.”^10 Unlike Origen, Gregory rejected the idea of perpetual relapse; his universalism was eschatological and consummative. This insight provides an important corrective: if all prophecy was fulfilled in the past, typology nevertheless points forward to Gregory’s horizon—when the redemptive process reaches its sabbath completion.
Creedal Implications: Bodily Resurrection and the Nature of the Final State
All this being said, there are problem areas in the creeds’ themselves. Affirmation of the “resurrection of the body” as expressed in The Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, and later confessions of faith such as the Westminster Confession all affirm this hope as central to Christian orthodoxy.11 Yet the way this phrase has often been understood—namely, as a recreation of the terrestrial, decayed body of flesh—sits uneasily with the apostolic witness.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 explicitly distinguishes between two modes of embodiment: the psychikon sōma (natural/terrestrial body) and the pneumatikon sōma (spiritual/celestial body). “There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:44). The former is tied to Adam and the earth; the latter to Christ and the heavens. Paul insists that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (v. 50), clearly teaching that the eschatological body is not merely a reconstitution of earthly flesh but a transformation into celestial glory.
On the basis of a proper application of the grammatical-historical method—the hermeneutical standard recovered at the Reformation—it becomes evident that the credal interpretation, when understood as the reanimation of terrestrial bodies, and a subsequent final local judgment day for all mankind fails to meet the exegetical test. This should not be surprising. The ecumenical creeds arose before the maturation of grammatical-historical exegesis and before the Reformation’s insistence on the primacy of Scripture over ecclesiastical tradition. The early church confessed the resurrection in faithful simplicity, but its precise ontological understanding was underdeveloped.
Thus, the grammatical-historical method both affirms the truth in the creeds—the reality of bodily resurrection—while correcting their common misinterpretation. The resurrection is indeed bodily, but the body is of a different order: celestial, imperishable, and spiritual. In this light, the creedal hope finds its proper anchor not in a literalistic reconstitution of decayed flesh, but in Paul’s inspired proclamation that “as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Cor. 15:49).
The Grammatical-Historical Method and the Consummation
How then does the grammatical-historical method validate a future consummation if all explicit prophecies are past? The key lies in the eschatological trajectories embedded in Scripture’s types and promises:
Creation’s Groaning (Rom. 8:18–23). Paul’s language of cosmic liberation is not tied to A.D. 70, but to the ultimate unveiling of the sons of God.12
The Subjection of All Enemies (1 Cor. 15:22–28). While Christ’s resurrection inaugurated the defeat of death, Paul insists that death as the final enemy will be abolished.13
Typological Culmination. Historical judgments (e.g., the flood, Babylon, Jerusalem) are microcosms of a greater archetype: the purging of all evil. Typology by its very nature points beyond itself, demanding a reality greater than the shadow.
Thus, while the grammatical-historical method locates the explicit fulfillments in the past, it simultaneously unveils implicit trajectories—patterns and types that anticipate a consummation still to come.
Conclusion
Full preterism rightly insists that the apocalyptic prophecies of Jesus and John were fulfilled in the first century. Yet typology reveals that these fulfillments were provisional signs of a still greater horizon: the final universal restoration of all creation. Origen’s universalist instinct was correct, though his perpetuity of reform was flawed. Similarly, the idea of an endless perpetuation of human history with elect and reprobate added without end denies both Scripture and creed. And even the creeds themselves, though rightly confessing the resurrection of the body, often reflected a pre-critical interpretation that failed to distinguish between terrestrial and celestial embodiment as Paul so clearly does in 1 Corinthians 15.
Patristic theology reinforces this conclusion: Irenaeus’ recapitulation, Athanasius’ incarnational teleology, and Gregory of Nyssa’s consummative universalism all point toward an eschatological goal, not perpetual process. When combined with the Reformation’s grammatical-historical method, these witnesses confirm that the telos of redemptive history is not open-ended perpetuity or crude reanimation of flesh, but the final transformation of creation into incorruptibility.
In this way, the biblical witness coherently integrates preterist fulfillment, postmillennial hope, universal restoration, and celestial embodiment into a single consummated vision: God will be all in all.
Notes
R. C. Sproul, The Last Days According to Jesus (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 46–60.
Josephus, The Jewish War, 6.271–315.
Kenneth L. Gentry, Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating the Book of Revelation (Tyler, TX: ICE, 1989), 141–200.
Ilaria Ramelli, The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 87–105.
Origen, On First Principles 1.6.3; cf. Commentary on Romans 5.10.
Henri Crouzel, Origen (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989), 203–205.
The Nicene Creed (A.D. 325, 381); The Apostles’ Creed; cf. Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 45–57.
Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.19.1.
Athanasius, On the Incarnation 54.3.
Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism 26.
Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, 53–60.
N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2013), 1047–1053.
Richard B. Hays, First Corinthians (Louisville: John Knox, 1997), 260–265..
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