I am currently examining and refuting the claim by Joel McDurmon that in our debate I misrepresented him in various “quotations” and demonstrated a lack of scholarly integrity. His claim is false to the core, as I have already shown, but, there is more. Be sure to read the previous articles #1” href=”http://donkpreston.com/a-response-to-joel-mcdurmons-charge-of-misrepresentation-1/” target=”_blank”>#1,#2” href=”http://donkpreston.com/a-response-to-joel-mcdurmons-charge-of-misrepresentation-2/” target=”_blank”> #2, #3” href=”http://donkpreston.com/a-response-to-joel-mcdurmons-charge-of-misrepresentation-3/” target=”_blank”>#3. DVDs of that debate, as well as a book, in both Kindle and paperback, are also available, so be sure to get your own copy and see that I did not, misrepresent McDurmon’s views.
I previous articles I have shown that McDurmon unequivocally, and without qualification when arguing against a writer by the name of Horton, says the Zion prophecies have been “spiritualized” and “fulfilled.” Joel says I misrepresented him by citing his own words to this effect, and insists that after all (logically at least) Horton is correct to posit a yet future, unfulfilled, physical Zion!
What Joel does is to say we are still waiting for Christ to subdue the last enemy, i.e. death. The trouble is, in our debate, he admitted that there was a fulfillment of 1 Corinthians 15 (which is the prediction of the defeat of the last enemy!!) in AD 70. Yes, you read that correctly!
So, the last enemy was defeated in AD 70 in a fulfillment of 1 Corinthians 15 and the Zion prophecies. But again, we are somehow awaiting another defeat of the last enemy and thus, logically, for the true arrival of Zion. But, once again, this is troublesome for Dominionist theology.
In a recent article posted on the American Vision website, McDurmon wrote this of the Zion promises and prophecies: “What is Zion but the Spirit-Indwelt people of God? What is the Temple except these same Indwelt people of God?” (Cut and pasted from: http://americanvision.org/7260/the-dome-of-the-rock-will-make-a-nice-church-some-day/). So, Zion has come, and it is spiritual and fulfilled!
But wait! Make no mistake, McDurmon believes we are still waiting on Zion– an earthly, physical Zion. (So, we are not waiting yet we are waiting!) But, as we will see, the verses he appeals to are the verses that he also says were fulfilled– in AD 70! Confused? You should be. The Dominionist hermeneutic is confused and confusing to say the least.
But, let me ask again: if you were reading McDurmon’s comments above, in which he seeks to refute Horton, who posits a future Zion, saying that we are today pilgrims on our way to Zion, would you ever get the idea that McDurmon actually believes that some of the Zion promises are unfulfilled? Would you ever get the idea that at least in some way, McDurmon would agree with Horton that we are still “marching on to Zion”? Of course you would not! Would you ever get from the words “Zion has, as it were, been revealed to be fulfilled in the ascended Christ” the idea that some Zion promises have not yet been fulfilled; they are not spiritualized, and will yet be fulfilled in an earthly, physical kingdom? Clearly, you would never get that idea from his article.
Now, make no mistake, McDurmon says he believes we are waiting for “Zion” to come down out of heaven, and that he is looking for a future earthly, physical kingdom with Jesus ruling as king over this earthly physical kingdom. (See my articles on #1” href=”http://eschatology.org/index.php/articles-mainmenu-61/37-responding-to-the-critics/1154-is-modern-postmillennialism-another-form-of-dispensationalism-1″ target=”_blank”>Dispensational Dominionism, in which I demonstrate that Joel’s theology is simply Dispensationalism in modified clothes).
So, here is what we have, the Zion prophecies have been “spiritualized” and “fulfilled” in Christ and the church. (Notice I have used the quotation marks in the way that McDurmon said was accurate). He tells us we must honor the past tense verbs in Hebrews 12, thus, Zion has come; We Are Not Waiting For It, as Horton Claims!
McDurmon said in the debate for instance, that 1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 20 had a fulfillment in AD 70, but, we are still awaiting the “final fulfillment.” Like most Dominionists, McDurmon believes the events of the first century were typological, or a foreshadowing of the future end of the age events. (This in spite of the fact that he calls the Dispensational doctrine of prophetic Double Fulfillment unBiblical. So, Dispensationalism is unBiblical in seeing double fulfillment of prophecy, but McDurmon sees multiple fullfillments, and that is Okay? See what I mean by Dominionism being confused and confusing?) Be sure to read my new book, AD 70: A Shadow of the “Real” End? for a devastating critique and refutation of this view.
The bottom line is that McDurmon is clearly inconsistent to condemn the futurist Horton for affirming that Christians are still waiting the arrival of a literal, physical Zion, in which Christ rules the world, but then, when debating preterism, affirming that very thing! McDurmon is patently wrong to charge me with misrepresentation of his views, when he undeniably did affirm that the Zion prophecies have been “spiritualized” and “fullfilled.”
McDurmon was Biblically right to affirm the fulfillment of the Zion promises. But, he has no exegetical basis for then turning around and claiming that those very same prophecies, that he said were spiritualized and fulfilled, have not, after all, been fulfilled and that we are awaiting their literal, physical, earthly fulfillment. This is theological duplicity at its worst. We have more to come, so stay tuned!