Eschatology Agnostics

Excellent. I was going to write pretty much the same thing. You saved me the trouble.

I understand one's theology causing one to downplay the fall of Jerusalem, but this is the first time I actually heard of it being "no big deal".

 

The body of Christ rose physically at the resurrection. No one is denying that.

But I assume you mean "Body" corporately. In that case I would say it never did, nor will. Not physically.

What happened in AD 70, just as Paul foretold in 1 Cor. 15:51 - 52, was the resurrection of those in the graves and the instantaneous change of those who were still alive at the time.

“We shall not all fall sleep, but we shall 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 shall be changed.”

You cannot read that passage without coming to the conclusion that Paul was certainly waiting for an event very soon to happen.

Now, to believe the futurist scenario we must assume (choose options below):
1. Paul was mistaken, though inspired.
2. Paul was thinking of us (2000 years in the future) though he was addressing them.
3. Paul meant to write "they" (that is, us) when he wrote ""we".
4. Meant "we" in an all-time embracing sense - Christians of all ages.

But this is the least likely of all because he also said "we shall not all fall asleep", meaning that some of his readership would be alive to experience this.

If one still doubts this happened in AD 70 consider other comments of Paul, clearly and authoritatively teaching that this event was soon to happen.

“It is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire.” (II Thess. 1:6-7)

Think about it: Who is getting relief, according to this passage? The 1st-century Thessalonian Christians. Is this relief and retribution twenty centuries in coming? No.

“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is about to judge the living and the dead…” (II Tim. 4:1)

He expected this to happen soon. The Greek word rendered here "about to" is rather insipidly translated "going to", "will", etc.

But the word "mello" is a much more potent term. It refers to something imminent. Interestingly the word is translated with the proper meaning in all occurrences in the NT - except for the eschatological passages! In those passages imminency is obscured.

This inconsistent handling of the term did not escape the notice of Robert Young, the scholar who wrote Young's Concordance. He had his own translation of the Bible that, among other differences, renders "mello" correctly. Check out his work, Young's Literal Translation.

 

Another passage to consider along these lines is Luke 20: 34 - 36

"And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection."

Now this begs the question: Just how are they (we) "equal to the angels"?

What are angels like? Do they have physical bodies?

 

You went off the rails right here, sorry to say. We need to first see the Scripture from their perspective, the 1st century Christians. These passages were written to them, not us.

They are written for us, but not to us. Many futurists interpret these passages as if the early readers did not even exist. But it is their comfort, admonition, instruction. It is only ours after we first apply this filter.

 

No, he wrote it before the Parousia. Revelation describes the Temple as still standing, and the events to happen shortly.