The Manifestation of The Sons of God

 One thing about the hyper preterists, they will make sure you never run out of new ideas you’ve most likely not heard before. I was listening to “Morning Musings” as is my routine, and the topic of “Why Wright Is wrong” is the Friday weekly topic, until Preston finds someone else to go after in what he claims is “with all respect and kindness”. NT Wright apparently says in one of his books that he believes the creation which is groaning for the manifestation of the children of God in Romans chapter eight means the creation will be renewed or regenerated and will be glorified. I assume similar to Christians glorified bodies at the resurrection. I haven’t read the book myself so don’t take my word for it. My intent is to show how ridiculous and unnecessarily convoluted “Morning Musings” is trying to make Romans chapter eight, specifically verse 19. I have said it before, I don’t find Romans all that hard to understand. If I’m missing something, please fill me in. There is a saying by Chris Rosebrough concerning the interpretation of the Bible. He states there are three rules to correctly interpreting the Bible. 1. Context. 2, Context. And 3, Context. I agree with that statement. Some things in scripture are difficult for me and so I find the simplest way is to stick with my language as much as possible, and let the Bible do the explaining as much as possible in my language. I use the NKJ by default and go to Bible Hub or Bible Gateway when I need to. Blue Letter Bible is also a great free Bible of various versions.

 We can make anything simple difficult if we want to. But for me, for some reason, Romans 8 does not seem so difficult. And I’ll admit maybe I am oversimplifying the chapter. I do not believe Don K Preston has any authority to make the chapter say things it doesn’t. We don’t need to be Greek scholars to understand it and to claim the chapter is pointing to Titus destroying the temple in Jerusalem is when the “creation will stop groaning for the manifestation of the sons of God” is just silly. Understanding what it means is more than chapter eight but not really something I have dwelt on that much.

 So I’ll begin with chapter one and verse 16-17, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.

Catch the power of that? The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel of Christ. And it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. Are the justified the sons of God? If not, who is? Hyper preterists have prophecy pre-A.D.70 as pointing to that date. They claim the manifestation of the sons of God in Romans 8 is referring to A.D.70 and that was the end of all things and the fulfillment of 2nd Peter chapter 3. Keep that in mind as we look at Luke chapter 20 verses 29-36.

 Without getting into Jewish traditions of brothers marrying a dead brother’s childless wife, there is a bigger message here that Hyper preterists want to deflect away from. It’s not about marriage or what Moses told the people concerning marriage to keep a family name going. The context of this is about the resurrection.  The Sadducees who didn’t believe in a resurrection wanted to know whose wife this woman would be at the resurrection Jesus taught. Jesus answered them in verses 34-36.

Jesus answered and said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.

“But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage;

“nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection”.

Don has already butchered this up from a hyper preterist’s perspective, so I don’t need to ask him “catch the power of that Don?” If the sons of this age were only meant for the Jewish age pre-A.D.70, then why did those traditions and practices continue uninterrupted after A.D.70? Is there any book or legal citation that tells us there were no Jewish marriages or deaths post A.D.70? Did Josephus or Tacitus even write about the ending or family names after the Temple was destroyed? Of course, not but hyper preterists claim there is no such thing as a Jew after the temple fell and somehow Jesus words in Luke 20 was about “The” resurrection, they claim occurred in A.D.70. Luke 20:29-36 is not about marrying, dying, or a Jewish age. It is about a future resurrection of all people. The Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection or any resurrection of the dead. And so, they didn’t really have an argument with Jesus especially since their belief was that seven dead brothers and one dead wife were no longer married was not in conflict with what Jesus said. Even they believed the dead no longer die. That’s the way I understand it anyway. Jesus called those of His who are worthy at the resurrection, the sons of God. Who else do we know through scriptures who are the sons of God?

Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

 Galatians 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

1 John 3:2 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

 We can see that answering who are the sons of God or children of God, are all of us who belong to Christ. Romans 6 teaches that we who have been baptized into Christ and have been baptized into His death. Being baptized into death we walk a new life knowing we will also rise in Him at the resurrection. Paul teaches us in the chapter live as a child of God’s and not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies. Paul says in verse 22; But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

Our mortal bodies will die. We belong to Christ, so our hope is in the resurrection and our promise of eternal life. And on that note look at what John wrote to us in 1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

 Now we are the sons of God he said. And it hasn’t appeared or been made manifest yet what we shall be but when Jesus returns, we know we will be like Him. Don K Preston teaches the manifestation occurred the day the Temple fell. In the blink of an eye those Christians in their mortal bodies in Galatia, Corinth, Thessalonica, all those scattered throughout Asia Minor were made manifest as the sons of God in the blink of an eye the day in A.D.70 the temple in Jerusalem fell. All of creation that Paul wrote about in Romans chapter 8 verse 21 stopped the groaning. “because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God”.

 Is this a literal groaning of the trees, grass, fish, stars, and everything in creation? Who cares, the point is this isn’t talking about things carrying on as normal within seconds of the fall of the temple. Hyper preterists want you to believe the resurrection of the dead is over and the judgment is past. They want you to believe the manifestation of the sons of God before all creation occurred about 2000 years ago and no one noticed or thought to write about it! The Christians scattered all over the known world, thousands of miles away from Jerusalem were part of it. You’d think a few of them would have written about it huh? The “scholars” Preston looks up to so much didn’t write about it until someone invented this hyper preterist doctrine maybe 150 years or so ago. The early Church certainly never wrote about it and it’s nowhere to be found in scripture. Hyper preterists claim it is, but they are deceivers who have even deceived themselves.

 As Christians we are the sons of God, the children of God. What we will be has not been manifested yet. John said when He returns we will be as He is. Remember folks, John saw Jesus, walked and talked with Him and was one of His chosen Apostles. John was with Him at the transfiguration and even after that event John said himself It has not yet been revealed what we shall be but we know when He appears we will be like him. Its good to remember too most of Don’s “scholars” claim this was written 10 to 20 years after A.D.70, so there’s that. Personally, I don’t care when it was written, not one of the Apostles or writers of the New Testament referred to A.D.70 and the fall of the temple as resurrection and judgment day and the destruction of heaven and earth.

I’m looking forward to it myself when the children of God are made manifest at the resurrection and I will be like Him. Like I said at the start, if I’m missing something and this is too simplified, let me know. But I have yet been given a good reason why any of Romans 8 must be more difficult than it is. Peter did say himself some of Paul’s writings were hard to understand, but I don’t believe the letter to the Romans, especially chapter 8, was one of those hard to understand letters.