Excellent article Tom.
Excerpts:
"...2. More importantly, the “see[ing] God” does not come “in” the flesh, but “from” the flesh. In other words, Job is not voicing a confidence that he will, in some future time, have a fleshly body with which he will see God. He is saying that even after his body will be destroyed he will still – afterward – see God. The destruction of his body will have no bearing on his assurance of seeing God. And this interpretation I didn’t get from my fellow Preterists. I knew about it long before. Consider these mainline sources:
“And after my skin, thus torn to pieces,
And without my flesh shall I behold Eloah,”
“Therefore by far the majority of modern expositors have decided that Job does not indeed here avow the hope of the resurrection, but the hope of a future spiritual beholding of God, and therefore of a future life;” – Keil & Delitzsch
“After they shall have destroyed my skin, this shall happen – that I will see God.” – Gesenius
“The literal meaning is, “from, or out of, my flesh shall I see God.” It does not mean in his flesh, which would have been expressed by the preposition ב (b) – but there is the notion that from or out of his flesh he would see him;”
It cannot be proved that this refers to the resurrection of that body, and indeed the natural interpretation is against it.“
– Barnes
“And after this skin of mine is destroyed I will yet, without flesh, see God.” – Luther (translated from the German)
...Our blessed hope does not include eternal life in physical bodies, however glorified. We will have perfect spiritual existence in individual bodies. This is neither (as I have been accused) gnosticism or Eastern pantheistic oversoul existence. It is plainly what the Bible teaches. To get to the proof of this – and it admittedly is a slow and painstaking process – one must first deal with each and every passage that seems to teach otherwise. These two verses in Job are prime candidates, seeing that they are often quoted to teach what they pointedly do not teach...."
The passage from Job is sacred ground to the typical 'anti-Pret'.