Chapter 23.
Indeed, the Apostle teaches in Colossians that we who were once dead, alienated, and hostile to the Lord in spirit through our wicked deeds (Col 1:21), having been buried with Christ in baptism, were also raised with Him through faith in the power of God by which He was raised from the dead. «And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses» (Col 2:12—13). And again: «Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?» (Col 2:20) If then he describes us as spiritually dead while admitting that we also will one day die physically, then, by considering us spiritually risen, he does not deny that we will also be raised in our bodies. For example, he says: «If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God». Seek those things which are above, not below (Col 3:1—2). By this he points out that we will be raised in spirit because only through the spirit we can partake of the things that are above. We would not have to seek it or think about it if we had already possessed it. Also, he adds: «For you have certainly died for your sins, not for yourself, – and your life is now hidden with Christ in God» (Col 3:3). So, the life which is hidden has not yet been comprehended. John also says: «And it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him» (1 Jn 3:2). We can’t possibly be what we do not yet know, because if we had already become it, we would for sure have known. Therefore, at this time we only contemplate the object of our hope in faith; it is not yet in front of us or with us but is only an expectation. Paul writes to Galatians about this hope and this expectation: «In spirit we expect by faith the hope of our righteousness» (Gal 5:5). He does not say: «We already possess it». The righteousness of God refers here to the final judgment after which we will receive our reward. Paul, waiting for this judgment himself, writes to the Philippians: If I somehow attain to the resurrection from the dead, this does not mean that I have already attained it or become perfect (Php 3:11—12). Surely, he who was the vessel of election and the teacher of pagans had strong enough faith and knew all the mysteries and yet he adds: «I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus» (Php 3:12). And even more: «Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto the inaccessible reward which I am to strive for» (Php 3:13—14). Clearly, he is talking about the resurrection of the dead, but it will come in due course, for he says to Galatians: «And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap» (Gal 6:9). And he says to Timothy about Onesiphorus: «The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day» (2 Tim 1:18). He urges him to observe the commandment purely and irreproachably until that day – until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, which will be revealed in due time by the blessed and only Ruler, King of kings (1 Tim 6:14—15), that is, by God. Peter also talks about these times in Acts: «Repent and see to it that your sins are blotted out so that the times of refreshing might come to you from the presence of God and so that He would send you the appointed Christ, whom heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets» (Act 3:19—21).
Chapter 25.
Similarly, the book of Revelation indicates a certain sequence of times which even the souls of martyrs learned to endure while crying out for vengeance and judgment from under the altar so that the world might first drink of its sufferings from the bowls of the angels, so that the harlot city would meet its doom together with the ten kings, and so that the Antichrist (Beast) and his false prophet would begin persecuting the church, and so that, after the temporary imprisonment of the devil in the abyss, the first resurrection would be announced from the heavenly thrones, after which (when the devil is finally cast into the fire), the judgement of the resurrection would be proclaimed according to the books [see Rev 6:9—11; 15:7; 16:1; 17:12; 19:19—20; 20:4—12]. So, since Scripture points out the order of the end times, connecting the whole fruit of Christian hope to the end of the age, it is clear that either everything that God has promised to us will be fulfilled at that time (and, therefore, all that the heretics promise to us on the earth is false) or – if the greatest of mysteries is our resurrection itself – that even in this case one can believe in everything predicted for the end of the world without in the least denying the above opinion. Moreover, since one resurrection is interpreted as spiritual, it follows that the other must be bodily, because if nothing had been proclaimed about the [end] times, then there would only have been one resurrection, that is, a spiritual one. But if there is a resurrection proclaimed for the end times, it must be a bodily resurrection, because no spiritual resurrection is predicted along with it. This spiritual resurrection would have to be either happening now, regardless of the difference in time, or then – at the end of the age. So, it is more fitting for us to defend the spiritual resurrection taking place at the point of our turning to faith, but we also recognize that the full resurrection will take place at the end of the age.
Excerpt from «Against Marcion», book 3:
Chapter 24. About the millennial Kingdom on earth
1. «Certainly,» you say, «I expect from him what will be the evidence for the difference <between the two gods> – the divine kingdom of the eternal heavenly dominion. But your Christ promises to restore to the Jews their former status after returning them to the land, and then, after death – to comfort them in the realm of the dead, that is, in the bosom of Abraham» [compare Lk 16:22]. O, what a kind god if he should, after getting appeased, restore to us that which he took away in anger! Your god [i.e. the way you portray him] both smites and heals [compare Deut 32:39; Job 5:18], causes calamities and creates the world [compare Is 45:7]! O god who is merciful even to the dead!
2. <I will comment> on the bosom of Abraham in due course. As for the restoration of Judea (which the Jews expect to happen exactly as it is described, deceived as they are by the names of places and countries), it would take a long time to investigate the manner in which the allegorical interpretation, spiritual by its outward appearance and fruit, refers to Christ and the Church. It is a subject for another book which we entitled «The Hope of the Faithful» [«De spe fidelium» is one of Tertullian’s lost works]. Besides, it would be unnecessary now because we are concerned with the heavenly promise, not the earthly one.
3. After all, we confess that we have been promised [the millennial] Kingdom on earth, but <it will come> before <our ascent to> heaven, and it will be a different Kingdom <than the one that the Jews are looking for> because it is found in the city of Jerusalem which is not made by hands and which the Apostle calls «our mother from above» [compare Gal 4:26]. And after <our> resurrection, it will