Is the Preterist View of the Resurrection Just a Relocation of Ghosts?

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Some have argued that Preterists teach the idea that the resurrection is just a relocation of ghosts from Sheol to heaven and not a revival of dead people. Is this true and do Preterists believe this? No. Preterists who believe in the Individual Body View of the resurrection believe the saints take on new bodies in heaven. These Preterists do not believe the saints exist in heaven as naked spirits. Thus the resurrection is not just a movement of souls from one realm to another, but rather a taking on of new bodies when entering heaven. (See How the Resurrection Bodies of the Saints Perfectly Mirror Jesus’ Resurrection Body after His Ascension Into Heaven Fulfilling Philippians 3:20-21 and ALL Other Bible Verses on the Resurrection and The Notion that the Resurrection is an Earthly Phenomenon whereby the Dead are raised as Perfected, Eternal Earthly Bodies is dispelled by 1 Corinthians 15:35-50 and Isaiah 65:20.

It is also argued that Sheol is the grave and the departed cease to exist after they die and begin to exist again when they are resurrected into a new body. (And this maybe true. But what happens to the departed after death and prior to the resurrection is unclear. (See Do the Dead Sleep Prior to the Resurrection?)) Death is sometimes likened to “sleep” in the Bible (1 King 16:6, Psalm 13:3; 90:3-6, Job 14:10-12, Daniel 12:2, Matthew 9:24) and consequently the resurrection is likened to awakening (Dan 12:13, Matthew 9). Even if the departed “sleep” the sleep of death only to awake at the resurrection, this idea does not undermine the idea of Sheol being a realm of departed spirits in some form of conscious existence. After all, when one sleeps their consciousness does not cease. People frequently dream when they sleep sometimes very lucidly. I have and know of other people as well who have solved complicated problems while asleep that they were unable to figure out while awake. I have done this several times where I awake to the answer to an unsolved problem. Sleeping is a very conscious activity. So to liken death to sleep and being resurrected to waking up does not mean that death is a state of complete unconscious existence as being asleep is not unconscious existence perhaps akin to the realm of Hades.

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