(2nd Timothy 1:12) 12 For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.
(2nd Timothy 1:18) 18 the Lord grant to him to find mercy from the Lord on that day--and you know very well what services he rendered at Ephesus.
(2nd Timothy 2:17-18) 17 and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some.
When people find out that Preterists believe that the second coming of Christ and the resurrection have already happened, if they are familiar with this passage of scripture, they usually call us heretics or a Hymenean. The truth of the matter is that the reason Hymenaeus and Philetus were wrong is that they were claiming that the resurrection had already taken place, and yet the temple was still standing. That would be not only incorrect based on what Christ had prophesied, but it would be mixing Old Covenant Judaism and the works of the law with New Covenant Christianity and grace. For if the temple still had significance in the New Covenant then that would be mixing grace with works. The destruction of the temple was the sign that the Old Covenant and Judaism was completely done away with, and that God was no longer abiding in the temple, but in the hearts of his people. That is why they were wrong. The resurrection occurred when the temple was destroyed and that happened in 70AD just as Christ prophesied in the Olivet Discourse.
