An Argument against a Postmillennial Claim about the Physical World

The best part of a storm is at the end of it. The darkness is broken by a sudden ray of light from the sun that crashes through the clouds signifying the end of the gloom. There is a sort of picture of Christ's return in that. 

Not all postmills will make this argument. I feel like I have to say that every time I talk about somethi9ng these days because the immediates response will be, "That's not what I claim." I get it. Everyone has their whopper their way. I'm just talking about those who put pickles on it. 

The pickles in this case is the claim that the authority given to Jesus Christ as a reward for His faithful work has already effected the physical world and it will continue to progress into something better until the day the Lord comes. In other words, the weather will be more accommodating to humanity, the animals will no longer be as hostile toward humans or one another, the trees will grow more green year by year, humans will live longer, etc.

Of course, I've talked a lot about the already-not yet theology of the New Testament that is pretty much unanimously held by New Testament scholars, as a theology that teaches that the spiritual transformation of God's sons must precede their physical transformation, but this belief above must deny this, and I'll argue here as to why.

In Romans 6-8, Paul argues that although we have been united to Christ, it is the inner man, the spirit, not the body that has been transformed. Hence, the physical body remains, not only in its evil estate, but , as he states in Ephesians, "continues to be corrupted" (Eph 4:22). Paul says of his physical body that nothing good dwells within it (Rom 7:18), and that it is only the inner man that loves the law of God (v. 22). Hence, he cries out, "Who will save me from this body of death?" (7:24). The body, after the Christian has come to Christ, is called "the body of sin" and that it is possible to let sin reign within it because it, in fact, has not yet been redeemed/transformed. The hope of the Christian to get freedom from sin in this life is by realizing the death sentence the body has been given (Rom 6:8, 11; Gal 5:24), giving it up as a living sacrifice to God through the renewing of the inner man/the mind/spirit (Rom 12:1-2), dominating the body by living in the spirit/the inner man rather than in the flesh. In other words, there is a war in the Christian because the physical body has not been transformed yet and still desires to do what is sinful (Gal 5:16-18). Paul argues in Galatians 5 here that the spirit/the new inner man is given so that we do not do what we want, referring to the desires of the flesh/the body. 

Now, it is important to put in another caveat that although the body is interchangeable with the flesh in Pauline literature, he is not saying that the body is inherently evil but instead that it has been completely corrupted. It is from this corruption that the body has not yet been delivered.

Instead, the timing of that deliverance is given in Romans 8. In vv. 10-11, Paul concludes based upon what he just argued that although the body is dead (notice: dead, not transformed), the spirit is alive because of Christ's righteousness. Paul then gives this hope to Christians in v. 11: "If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ will also give life to your mortal bodies through the spirit that dwells in you." In other words, the spiritual transformation within the believer that has taken place due to his unification with Christ will be the means through which the body is also given life and transformed by God.

When does this occur? Immediately? No, we just saw that the believer will struggle with the desires of the body that continues to get worse and worse, not better. As it gets worse, Christians who are growing in the new man are also getting stronger and able to dominate the desires of the body more and place it into submission by force, not because the body wants to be in submission to Christ. Instead, the transformation of the body occurs at the resurrection. Paul states in v. 23 that we inwardly groan as we await the revealing of the sons of God, which he explains is at the resurrection of the body.

Now, why is this important? Because in vv. 19-23, Paul argues that all of creation is linked to the body of believers through federal headship. It cannot be linked to the spirit except through the body because creation has no inherent spirit within it. There is no eternal life force in creation. It is linked to mankind and his lifeforce, his spirit, only through his body. Hence, it is only at the transformation of his body that creation can be transformed. Hence, it remains in a state of futility and decay until that time. There is no transformation of the physical world before it because there is no transformation of the body of believers before it.

We know that the resurrection occurs at the coming of Christ. It is then that we are transformed as He is (Phil 3:19-21; Col 3:1-4; 1 John 3:2-3). This is the already-not yet. In John 5:25, Jesus states, "“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." The kingdom had come in Jesus very day as the Son of God called out and raised spiritually dead men to spiritual life. But notice that this is for the inner man/the spirit, not the body. That is spoken of in vv. 28-29, when Jesus says, "Do not marvel at this [i.e., that God has given the Son authority to raise men spiritually], for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment." This is not said to be now. This is not what the kingdom looks like now. The kingdom now is a bunch of spiritually raised people with untransformed, corrupted bodies. We'll talk about in another post the fact that the authority given to Jesus to judge the world manifests itself in the already-not yet in these texts so that only the spiritual is applied now, but I digress.

My point is that this transformation of the body only occurs at the resurrection of the bodies of believers which only happens at the second advent of Christ.

Now, back to Romans 8. In vv. 18-25, which read as follows:

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 

The suffering in the context is due to an untransformed body and the struggle between the old man and the new man that it creates. Paul tells us to win the battle with our corrupted body by living in the mindset of the new man and overcoming it. This struggle is linked to the struggle that all creation has since it is linked to the body and now Paul personifies it as though it has a mind that is waiting to be delivered from it decay, corruption, and futility. In other words, the creation is still in the same state it was in before Christ came just as the body of the believer is in the same state it was in before Christ came and the gospel was applied to him. That's because the gospel has not been applied to his body and it has not been applied to creation yet. That is the "not yet" part of the already-not yet. 

So all one has to do to evalutate this common postmill claim that creation has been transformed or is being transformed or will be transformed before Christ's return to his physical body. The Bible says that the body was not transformed, is not being transformed, but will be transformed only at the resurrection of the body at the return of Christ. 

This, of course, leads us to a complete misreading of Isaiah 65:17-25 as some sort of future promise that God must fulfill in the church. Instead, these are Deuteronomic promises to Israel that if it obeys the law and is faithful to the suzerain-vassal covenant made by God with Israel after the exile, He will restore them as a picture of the new heavens and new earth that they were meant to be, and thus, fulfill their role as the means of saving the nations through that picture. They are not faithful, and therefore, this was never fulfilled, nor since Christ who is the substance of the shadows has come, does it ever need to be fulfilled. The church now is the spiritual kingdom that will spiritually picture the new heavens and earth as a place where everyone loves God and one another and where sin and chaos are no more. The church pictures this by loving one another, being faithful to God, and not living in the sins of the corrupted flesh.

It is important to understand, then, that the passage in Isaiah 65 would be a contradiction with the New Testament in any other framework. If this passage is arguing that the physical creation will be transformed before the resurrection and transformation of the bodies of believers, then it is a real contradiction with the New Testament that says otherwise. Instead, understanding it correctly as contingent, and therefore, unnecessary for God to fulfill due to Israel's unfaithfulness, will lead one to conclude that this prophecy remains a shadow of the world to come, and a sad commentary on what Israel could have been had they been faithful. 

So the gospel has not been applied to creation. Christ is given authority to take over all heaven and earth but has not yet applied that authority to the physical world, starting with and including our physical bodies. And this is, perhaps, the greatest irony of this argument within a postmill context because it ends up being a whole lot of people claiming to transform the world with the gospel who cannot even transform the most essential part of the physical world, i.e., their bodies, before the return of Christ. To use a verse out of context, If the eye is dark, the whole body will be. And it will remain that way until Christ appears in glory as the light that washes away all of the gloom. 

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ro 8:19–25.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 5:28–29.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 5:25.