Hymenaeus and Philetus
“But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some” (2 Tim. 2:16–18)
Futurists [1] often point to this passage as “proof” that the general resurrection has not happened yet. After all, the apostle Paul condemned Hymenaeus and Philetus for saying that that the resurrection had already happened (2 Tim. 2:16–18).
What these futurists seem to miss (or overlook), however, is that Paul said these things prior to AD 70. So yes, at this particular point in time, pre-AD 70, it was heresy to say the resurrection had already happened. But not after AD 70. In fact, had Paul lived past AD 70, he too would have no doubt said the resurrection had happened. We can be sure of this for many reasons.
First, Paul linked the resurrection to the passing of the law, which passed away in AD 70:
“‘O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’ The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory [over the law, sin, and death] through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:56–57).
In saying “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law,” Paul means that the law leads to sin, which leads to death. In fact, elsewhere, Paul calls the law “the ministration of death written on stones” (2 Cor. 3:7). Why? Because the law ultimately condemns everyone. After all, everyone sins; and sin leads to separation from God, which is called death. But thanks be to Jesus, who gives his followers victory over this death, which is called resurrection.
So Paul linked the resurrection to the passing of the law. Yet the law, aka the old covenant, was about to pass away when the book of Hebrews was written around AD 62: “In that He [God] says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first [covenant] obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (Heb. 8:13). The law was about to pass away when this passage was written.
The writer of Hebrews goes on to say that the Jewish temple of that day symbolized the law (Heb. 9:8–9), so when the temple fell in AD 70, it meant the law had passed away. And since the resurrection is linked to the end of the law (as I just showed above), then this is when the resurrection must have happened too.
Second, Paul also said in around AD 50 that some of the people he was talking to would still be alive when the resurrection happened. For example, Paul told the Corinthians:
“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep [die], 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 incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51–52).
Paul clearly believed that some of the Corinthians he was talking to would still be alive when the resurrection happened. And he believed the same about the Thessalonians:
“For this we say to you [Thessalonians] by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:15–18)
Paul clearly believed the resurrection would happen within the lifetimes of the Thessalonians and Corinthians he was speaking to.
Various Other Timing Indicators about the Resurrection
During his trial in around AD 60, Paul told Governor Felix that there was “about to be a resurrection of the just and unjust” (Acts 24:15, YLT).
Likewise, in around AD 63, Paul told Timothy that Christ was “about to judge the living and the dead” (2 Tim. 4:1, YLT).
Peter, too, said in approximately AD 64 that Jesus was “ready to judge the living and the dead” (1 Pet. 4:5) and “the time has come for judgment to begin” (v. 17). This is a reference to the resurrection. Peter also said “the end of all things is at hand” (v. 7).
These passages could not be clearer. The judgment and resurrection were about to happen when these statements were uttered in approximately AD 60.
Another Glaring Problem for Futurists
The passage about Hymenaeus and Philetus brings up a glaring problem with the popular “futurist” view of the general resurrection, which asserts that it will be a physical, bodies-coming-out-of-graves kind of event. Apparently, Hymenaeus and Philetus were pretty successful at convincing people that the resurrection had already happened because Paul called them “a cancer” (v. 17). But how could these heretics have convinced all these people that the resurrection had already happened if it was supposed to be a physical, bodies-coming-out-of graves event? All Paul would have had to do to stop this “cancer” was to dig up a righteous person’s grave and show that it had not happened yet. For that matter, all Paul would have had to do was point out that the Old Testament saints such as Noah, Abraham, and Moses had not been physically resurrected. After all, they were not walking around amongst them in physical bodies. This would have stopped the Hymenaeus Heresy cold. But evidently, this heresy was not so easy to disprove. Why? Because the resurrection is a spiritual event. It cannot be proved or disproved by digging up a grave or by pointing at formerly dead saints.
Jesus, too, believed that the general resurrection was a spiritual event. That’s why he said, “I am the resurrection and the life…Whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25–26). If Jesus had physical resurrection in mind here, then he was dead wrong because every Christian that heard him utter that statement eventually died physically. And Christians have been dying physically ever since. Jesus obviously meant it spiritually. Whoever lives and believes in Jesus lives on spiritually after they die physically.
The general resurrection was a spiritual event that happened in the first century.
For more about the Resurrection, get my book The End Is Here: How the New Testament’s Prophecies Were Fulfilled.
By Alex Polyak, Director of The Bible Fulfilled, 11/11/24
[1] Futurists believe that many of the major prophecies in the New Testament still need to be fulfilled.
