GENERAL NATURE OF THE RESURRECTION

GENERAL NATURE OF THE RESURRECTION

•  A Wrong Theory - Denies that Resurrection has to do with the body

1. Liberal Form - Resurrection is merely the survival of the spirit after death Lyman Abbott)

2. Soul-Sleep Form - Awakening of the soul to life is the Res. (7th Day Adventist Russellism)

 

• Supposed Basis of this Theory

They say the expression "Resurrection of the Body" does not occur in Scripture. True-but the idea is there.

Platonic dualism and Gnostic contempt for the body

• Certain Biblical Texts which are misinterpreted

1 Pet. 3:18 "In the Spirit" - Not a contrast between body and Spirit  "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:"

1 Cor. 15:44 - Two kinds of Bodies - Not a contrast of body and spirit.  "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."

Matt. 22:31-33 (Favorite with Modernists) See preceding pages. God of living-insisting that the living is in Spirit only.  "But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine."

Acts 23:8 - "Nor Spirit" Even the spirit disappears. Sadducees deny two things - not three.  "For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both."

•  Biblical View of Resurrection - It Concerns the Body Primarily

See the Biblical view of Man. I Thess. 5:23 "Body, Soul, Spirit." Any less of these elements would be the mutilation of the man.

Meaning of Anastasis "stand up."

Resurrection of Body is distinguished from the bestowal of spiritual life John 5:24-25 with 28-29. 

24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
25  Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

Rom, 8:10 with 11 "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."

 Christian Redemption includes body as well as spirit. Rom. 8:23 "Our body" "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."

 Resurrection involves a transformation of the body. Phil. 3:21 "Fashion anew." "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself."

Resurrection is affirmed of both good and bad. Acts 24:15  "And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust."

Arg? The unsaved have no spiritual life, therefore the resurrection can only be bodily.

Resurrection of Christ Himself defines its nature. John 2:19-20 "Temple of his body" "Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?"

Paul specially condemns one form of the antibody theory. 2 Tim. 2:18 Resurrection is past. This may have reference to Christ. "Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some."

Burton Scott Eastin -

Such a phrase as a "purely spiritual immortality" rests upon a metaphysical dualism that is today obsolete. One thing is certain, the enemies of Christ believed in the resurrection, or at least they believed that Christ claimed He would rise bodily, for they guarded the Tomb, and they sealed the Tomb.