Category Archives: Resurrection

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 →

WHY I AM MY BODY, NOT JUST MY SOUL

hyperpreterism, Resurrection, salvation February 11, 2025 Leave a comment

Matthew 10-28PMW 20250-12 by Gregg Allison

Theological anthropology focuses on the doctrine of humanity and explores such topics as the nature and origin of human beings and the image of God. Historically, much discussion has been dedicated to the soul, or immaterial aspect of human nature, with little or no attention given to the body, or material aspect.[1] This essay proposes that the proper state of human beings is embodiment and seeks to rectify some of the historical and (even) contemporary oversight of embodiment. It will pursue this thesis—which I will call the “embodied person” view—by some close interaction with a contemporary theologian, Joshua Farris, and his fine work An Introduction to Theological Anthropology.[2] Both of us hold that humans are composed of soul and body but we emphasize different aspects of that dualist human constitution: Farris, the immaterial; I, the material. Continue reading →

PHYSICAL RESURRECTION AND NEW CREATION

New Creation, Resurrection November 22, 2024 Comments: 2

resurrection of the deadPMW 2024-090 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

A Brief Testimony
When I enrolled at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, I had just converted out of dispensationalism. I had been thoroughly schooled in dispensationalism at Tennessee Temple College in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Upon graduating from Temple with a degree in Biblical Studies, I enrolled in the M.Div. program at another dispensational institution, Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana.

While at Grace I stumbled onto O. T. Allis’ book Prophecy and the Church. This book led me out of dispensationalism and toward a Reformed eschatology. My transformation was not complete upon reading Allis, however. That completion would not be reached until I had studied for two years at Reformed Seminary, to which I transferred after two years at Grace. Continue reading →

VOS ON THE RESURRECTION-BODY

Preterism, Resurrection September 17, 2024 1 Comment

resurrection-bodyPMW 2024-073 by Geerhardus Vos

Gentry Note:
This is part 2 of a two-part study on the believer’s resurrection by Geerhardus Vos. Vos is helpful for countering the heretical arguments of some who deny or greatly alter the historic Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body. The only changes I will make to Vos’ article is to break it into smaller paragraphs to make it easier to read for a modern audience.

VOS ON THE RESURRECTION BODY

The main passage informing us as to the nature of the resurrection body is 1 Corinthians 15:35–58. The difficulty Paul here seeks to relieve does not concern the substance of the future body, but its kind (compare 1 Corinthians 15:35 “With what manner of body do they come?”). Not until 1 Corinthians 15:50 is the deeper question of difference in substance touched upon. The point of the figure of “sowing” is not that of identity of substance, but rather this, that the impossibility of forming a concrete conception of the resurrection body is no proof of its impossibility, because in all vegetable growth there appears a body totally unlike that which is sown, a body the nature and appearance of which are determined by the will of God. We have no right to press the figure in other directions, to solicit from it answers to other questions.
Continue reading →

VOS ON THE RESURRECTION OF BELIEVERS

Preterism, Resurrection September 13, 2024 Leave a comment

resurrection of the bodyPMW 2024-072 by Geerhardus Vos

Gentry Note:
The preterist hermeneutic is a helpful tool for understanding many New Testament prophecies. But it is a tool that for some folks what has some sort of addictive power that leads them off into error. In fact, it has led hundreds of folks into heresy, even denying the historic Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body. A helpful antidote to such confused thinking can be found in the writings of Geerhardus Vos, among others. In this two-part series, I will post a couple of major points from Vos’ “Eschatology of the New Testament.” The only changes I will make to Vos’ article is to break it into smaller paragraphs, since he wrote in a day when paragraphs were virtually book length! So, let’s get started with Vos’ observations.

Vos on the Resurrection

The resurrection of believers bears a twofold aspect. On the one hand it belongs to the forensic side of salvation. On the other hand it belongs to the pneumatic transforming side of the saving process. Of the former, traces appear only in the teaching of Jesus (Matthew 5:9; 22:29–32; Luke 20:35, 36). Paul clearly ascribes to the believer’s resurrection a somewhat similar forensic significance as to that of Christ (Romans 8:10, 23; 1 Corinthians 15:30–32, 55–58). Far more prominent with him is, however, the other, the pneumatic interpretation. Both the origin of the resurrection life and the continuance of the resurrection state are dependent on the Spirit (Romans 8, 10, 11; 1 Corinthians 15:45–49; Galatians 6:8). The resurrection is the climax of the believer’s transformation (Romans 8:11; Galatians 6:8).
Continue reading →

THE END-TIME RESURRECTION (3)

hyperpreterism, Resurrection, Theology May 10, 2024 Comments: 2

Resurrection dayPMW 2024-036 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

In this article I am concluding a three-part series on our resurrection as taught by Paul in 1 Cor 15. This continues the previous presentation outlining Paul’s second argument in his great resurrection chapter. The other two articles need to be consulted before jumping into this one. Unless you are good at back masking, and you can hum well..

(3) Paul’s parallels and contrasts show his concern is not physical v. immaterial, but perishable v. imperishable (v. 42), dishonor v. honor (v. 43a), and weakness v. power (v. 43b). Our resurrected condition is so governed by the Holy Spirit that the weaknesses of our present condition will be totally overcome by the transformational power of the Spirit. Indeed, he emphasizes the difference of glory as the key (vv. 40-41). Continue reading →

THE END-TIME RESURRECTION (2)

Resurrection, Theology May 7, 2024 Leave a comment

PMW 2024-035 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.Resurrection general

This is the second of three articles on our eschatological resurrection as understood in the postmillennial system. For Paul, Christ’s resurrection was a non-negotiable. And it was also the key to our own future resurrection. As I continue the previous study we come now to:

Paul’s First Argument

After insisting that Christ was resurrected from the dead and that this is the foundation of our redemptive hope (vv. 1-19), Paul then powerfully links our resurrection to Christ’s. In other words, his whole point regarding Christ’s resurrection is to lay a foundation for ours. In verse 20 we read: “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits (Gk., aparche) of those who are asleep.” This first-fruits imagery carries a load of theological implications regarding our physical resurrection. Continue reading →