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his birth (Luke 1:35). This is a typically Jewish way of understanding God's purpose for mankind.
He executes the Plan at the appropriate time.

The sort of "preexistence" Peter has in mind is the sort that fits the Jewish environment,
NOT the Greek atmosphere of later, post-biblical Christianity. States E.G. Selwyn in First Epistle
of St. Peter --

"We are not entitled to say that Peter was familiar with the idea of Christ's preexistence
with the Father before the incarnation [we are therefore not entitled to claim that Peter was
a Trinitarian!]. For this idea is not necessarily implied in his description of Christ as 'fore-
known before the foundation of the world,' since Christians are also the objects of God's
foreknowledge. All that we can say is that the phrase pro kataboles kosmou [before the
foundation of the world] affirms for Christ's office and work a supramundane range and
importance....Peter has not extended his belief in Christ's divinity to an affirmation of his
pre-existence: his Christology is more like that of the early chapters of Acts than of John
and Paul" (Baker Book House, 1983, pp. 248, 250).

While we disagree that Peter's idea of Jesus is different from that of Paul and John, we can
see that Peter (as the leading apostle -- Matthew 10:1) would have had no sympathy with either a
Trinitarian or Arian (cp. modern Jehovah's Witnesses) view of Jesus.

We note also that for Peter the future salvation of the Christians, the Kingdom they are to
inherit at the return of Christ, is likewise waiting in heaven "ready to be revealed in the last time"
(1 Peter 1:10, 11). The Second Coming is thus to be an "apocalypse" or unveiling of what is now
"existing" but hidden from our sight. So it is said of Jesus that he was "foreknown," and waiting to
be revealed in God's good time (1 Peter 1:20). Neither the Kingdom nor Jesus actually existed in
advance. They were planned from before the foundation of the world.

Paul uses the same concept and language about the future resurrection and immortality of
the saints. He says that we already "have" a building from God, a house fit for the coming age" (2
Corinthians 5:1). This is the proper translation of aionios, i.e., belonging to the coming age of the
Kingdom, not "eternal." This does not, of course, mean that the body of the future is temporary. It
confers immortality and thus lasts forever. The acquisition of that body is nevertheless the great
event of the coming age introduced by the resurrection. Our future resurrection body already "ex-
ists" in God's intention and may be thought of as real because it is certain to be manifested in the
future. In that sense we "have" it, though we obviously do not yet have it literally. The same is true
of the treasure we have in heaven. It is promised for our future. We will receive the reward of the
inheritance (Colossians 3:24) when Christ brings it from heaven to the earth at his future coming.

Foreordination Rather than Literal Preexistence

Having grasped this elementary fact of Jewish (and biblical) theology and thinking, it will
not be difficult to adjust our understanding of other passages where the same principle of "exis-
tence" followed by actual manifestation is found. Thus Jesus says in John 17:5: "Glorify me [now]
with the glory which I had with you before the foundation of the world." On the basis of 2 Corin-
thians 5:1 a Christian in the future, after the resurrection at Christ's return, will be able to say that

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