Category Archives: Resurrection

STAND FIRM IN THE RESURRECTION HOPE (3)

hyperpreterism, Resurrection May 6, 2025 Leave a comment

PMW 2025-035 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

This is my third study in a series on  relevant portions of 1 Corinthians 15, which ancient Gnostics, modern liberals, and contemporary hyper-preterists believe support their attack on historic Christianity. They believe certain verses in this chapter undermine the historic doctrine of a future, physical, fleshly resurrection of the dead. And admittedly, upon a surface reading we can see how they could be confused by a few of Paul’s statements herein.

However, despite the surface appearance of some of Paul’s language (e.g., “spiritual body,” Christ as “life-giving spirit,” “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” etc.), Christian orthodoxy has long held to the physical resurrection of the dead as a future, corporate eschatological event occurring at the end of history at the final judgment. And orthodox Christians have long been aware that Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians has been in the New Testament from very early in Christian history. Paul wrote it around AD 54, just 20+ years after Jesus’ death (it is one of the earliest New Testament canonical writings). And yet historic Christianity has still maintained the physical nature of our future resurrection.
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STAND FIRM IN THE RESURRECTION HOPE (2)

hyperpreterism, Resurrection May 2, 2025 Comments: 2

PMW 2025-034 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

This is the second in my series discussing 1 Corinthians 15 as it regards the resurrection of the dead. Having thoroughly rebuked the heretical party at Corinth, Paul urges them (and all Christians) to “stand firm. Let nothing move you” (1 Cor. 15:58) from this resurrection hope, as he comes to the grand finale of his letter. This chapter happens to be the Achilles Heel (one among many!) of hyper-preterism and its assault on historic Christianity.

I will be focusing on key verses in Paul’s great “Resurrection Chapter,” though not exegeting the entirety of this lengthy chapter. And I will be concerned (as Paul was) with the believer’s resurrection rather than the unbeliever’s, though Paul held to the resurrection of both (Acts 23:6; 24:15), as did his Lord (John 5:25–29).

An Important Opening Issue

One area of the hyper-preterist’s debate with historic Christian theology has to do with the nature or composition of the resurrection body. That is, whether it will be material or spiritual, whether tangible or ethereal. And I will get to that issue at the appropriate time (right now it is 11:27 am on the day I am writing this, and I am hungry for lunch, but I digress). Continue reading →

STAND FIRM IN THE RESURRECTION HOPE (1)

Eternity, Resurrection April 29, 2025 Comments: 9

PMW 2025-033 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

In 1 Corinthians 15:58, we reach Paul’s argumentative conclusion to 1 Corinthians. This verse closes out the great resurrection chapter upon which Paul exhorts: “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you” (NIV). Standing firm on the resurrection has been the historic commitment of orthodox Christianity for 2000 years. However, recently not only has liberalism undercut the resurrection, but so has the semi-cultic hyper-preterist movement.

Unfortunately, the hyper-preterist movement, as Hal Lindsey may have expressed it (until his recent change of eschatology), is alive and well on Planet Earth. It is actively at work rejecting and/or re-working long-held eschatological doctrines, but not silently and in a corner. Rather they do so activistically publicly promoting their various (growing number of) heresies. This tragedy has arisen due to a very prideful error: the replacing of sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) with solo Scriptura (I alone am the interpreter of Scripture). “I know more than the church of all ages; I do not have to stand on the shoulders of giants.”

Defining hyper-preterism is difficult in some respects. This is because there are several main camps with widely divergent views of crucial defining features. But at the very heart of the matter, hyper-preterists are (in one way or another) rejecting three of the key issues highlighted in biblical eschatology: (1) the future, bodily second coming of Christ, (2) the material, eternal, bodily resurrection of the dead, and (3) the final judgment of all men that ends history. These are the very issues a group of theological friends of Gary DeMar put to him, seeking a simple yes or no answer regarding whether or not he accepted them. He declined to answer with a yes or no.
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IMPORTANCE OF BODILY RESURRECTION

Resurrection, Second Coming April 8, 2025 Leave a comment

PMW 2025-027 by Ben WitheringtonWitherington

Gentry note: As I continue daily research for my next book, I have stumbled on a helpful one titled Jesus, Paul and the End of the World by Ben Witherington (IVP 1992). Dr. Witherington is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary and a widely recognized scholar who has written over sixty books on a variety of biblical issues and from leading evangelical publishers. Although I do not endorse everything he states in this work, he has many valuable, well-researched, deeply-exegetical insights that have been profitable for me. This is only an excerpt from pages 187–191 of this work. There is a lot of surrounding context that is necessary for grasping the full force of his argument. But this ought to whet your appetite. And steer you clear from the proto-Gnosticism of hyper-preterists who see the resurrection body as an ethereal, spiritual reality rather than a corporeal, material one.

That which follows is by Witherington and is cited from his book Jesus, Paul and the End of the World:

In 1 Thessalonians 1:10 Christ’s resurrection is connected with the believer’s future deliverance from God’s wrath. In fact, almost always when Paul speaks of Christ’s resurrection he does so in connection with the events that will transpire when Christ returns. He clearly does not see Christ’s resurrection as an isolated historical anomaly but as an eschatological event that is the harbinger and in some sense the trigger or at least the prerequisite of future eschatological events. Paul is surely dealing with Christians in Thessalonica who had speculated about such eschatological matters, and it may even be that the Thessalonian Christians were reflecting the characteristics of a millenarian movement. If so, then it would appear that Paul is trying to offer a certain amount of “eschatological reserve” while still affirming much of the substance of the Thessalonians’ beliefs about the future. Here Paul grounds the believer’s future status in the belief in the past Christ-event. Continue reading →

DABNEY ON THE RESURRECTION BODY (2)

Resurrection, Theologians March 14, 2025 Leave a comment

PMW 2025-021 by Robert L. DabneyGeneral resurrection

Note: This concludes our previous posting presenting Robert L. Dabney’s argument for the physical resurrection of the dead.

Objection From Wonderfulness, Answered
The general objection is from the incredible greatness of the work. That is, since the particles that composed human bodies are scattered asunder by almost every conceivable agency, fire, winds, waters, birds and beasts of prey, mingled with the soil of the fields, and dissolved in the waters of the ocean, it is unreasonable to expect they will be assembled again.

We reply (reserving the question whether a proper corporeal identity implies the presence of all the constituent particles; of which more shortly), that this objection is founded only on a denial of God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and almighty power. The work of the resurrection does indeed present a most wondrous and glorious display of divine power. But to God all things are easy. Continue reading →

DABNEY ON THE RESURRECTION BODY (1)

Resurrection, Theologians March 11, 2025 Leave a comment

PMW 2025-020 by Robert L. Dabneyflower in concrete

Gentry note:

R. L. Dabney (1820–98) was a Reformed Presbyterian theologian who served as professor of systematic theology ot Union Theological Seminary (back when it believed something in particular), then he served as Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy at the University of Texas. This excerpt below is from pp. 832–34 of his Lectures in Systematic Theology. Please note: I have slightly tweaked some of his punctuation, Roman numerals, and nineteenth century style without changing his meaning.

True Meaning of Resurrection
In Scripture the image of a resurrection, anastasis, is a undoubtedly used sometimes in a figurative sense, to describe regeneration (John 5:25; Eph. 5:14). And sometimes to speak of restoration from calamity and captivity to prosperity and joy (Ezek. 37:12: Isa. 26:19). But it is equally certain that the words are intended to be used in a literal sense, of the restoration of the same body that dies to life, by its reunion to the soul. This then is the doctrine. For when the resurrection of the dead (nekron), of those that are in their graves, of those that sleep in the dust of the earth, is declared, the sense is unequivocal. Without at this time particularizing Scripture proofs, we assert that they mean to describe a bodily existence as literally as when they speak of man’s soul in in this life, as residing in a body. And this, though wonderfully changed in qualities, is the same body in the proper, honest sense of the word “same,” which the soul laid down at death. This resurrection will embrace all the individuals of the human race, good and bad, except those whose bodies have already passed into heaven, and those of the last generation, who will be alive on the earth at the last trump. But on the bodies of these the resurrection change will pass, though they do not die. The signal of this resurrection is to be the “last trump,” an expression probably taken from the transactions at Sinai (Exo. 19:16, 19; cf. Heb. 12:26), which may, very possibly, be some literal, audible summons, sounded through the whole atmosphere of the world. But the agent will be Christ, by His direct and almighty power, with the Holy Ghost. Continue reading →

OUR ETERNAL CONDITION

New Creation, Resurrection February 14, 2025 Comments: 6

New Earth 3PMW 2025-013 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

The immediate entrance of our souls into heaven upon departing this life is a glorious expectation. But heaven is not our final destiny. God has more in store for us in the new, renovated earth which he will establish after the Final Judgment.

Scripture teaches that we may expect a reconstituted, material new earth for a variety of reasons. Consider the following evidence in this direction.

First, the biblical analogy

We may expect a renewed earth on the analogy of the transformation of the individual’s body in the resurrection. When Jesus returns he will resurrect the dead into material bodies. Paul teaches that Christ’s own resurrection is the “first fruits” of the full resurrection at the end. So then, whatever Christ’s body is like at his resurrection is a sample of our resurrection bodies (1 Cor 15:20). In Philippians 3:21 we read that Jesus “will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” Continue reading →