[This post was created from a comment (#3469) in the Questions from the COSM thread.]

Hi, Andrew.

I have now finished COSM, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve been a preterist for two or three years now (I know you don’t like the term, but please permit me to use it about myself since I’m accustomed to it). Since then I have struggled a lot with certain passages, particularly John 6 and Revelation 20, which picture two resurrections. I’ve wrestled a lot with the 1,000 year reign of Revelation 20, and no explanation that I’ve heard from anyone has been able to make sense of it (particularly those from other preterists).

Your separation of the two resurrections (one so that those first Christians who suffered and died could participate in the vindication of Christ at his coming, and another for everyone sometime in the future) makes a lot of sense of John 6 and Revelation 20, coherently fitting them into the larger narrative, so I am really tempted to adopt your view. I have a question, though, and it involves harmonizing these passages with 1 Corinthians 15. You made an excellent point about the resurrection of 1 Corinthians 15 only having believers in view and therefore that it is only referring to the first resurrection (which is connected to the parousia). I’m with you so far, but I have a question (actually a question-set) about what 1 Corinthians 15 says about Death, the final enemy.

“for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (vv. 22-26 NRSV)

“Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:
‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
   ‘Where, O death, is your victory?
   Where, O death, is your sting?’
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (vv. 51-57 NRSV)

If both of these sections are referring to the same event, that being the defeat of Death, then is death defeated at the parousia, or at the end of Christ’s interregnum? The second passage would seem to place it at the parousia, but the first passage, if your argument on the sequencing function of eita/epeita (I forget which is used here)  is correct, places it at the end of the interregnum. So then, are they not actually speaking of the same thing? If not, how can we fit these different statements about death into the larger narrative?