PMW 2023-035 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.
Toward the end of the Apostles’ Creed we declare with the universal, historic, corporate Christian church that we believe “in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” According to Philip Schaff (The Creeds of Christendom, 1:22), in the original language versions of the Creed, the resurrection of the “body” is more exactly declared to be the resurrection of the “flesh.” For in Latin the word carnis was used and in Greek sarkos.
We know that the resurrection is a physical resurrection of the dead body for: (1) all forerunner resurrections (though temporal only) were physical resurrections of the flesh (e.g., John 11:43–44). (2) Old Testament prophecies speak of the resurrection of the flesh (Job 19:25–27; Isa. 26:19–20). (3) Jesus’ own resurrection was a physical of the flesh (σάρκα καὶ ὀστέα; Luke 24:39). (4) Thomas was rebuked by Jesus for not believing he was physically resurrected (John 20:24–29). And (5) Jesus’ resurrection was the “first-fruits” of the eschatological resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20), showing that just as the first-fruits of a wheat crop is wheat, so the first-fruits of the resurrection is like Jesus’: of the flesh.
Furthermore, Scripture speaks of the general resurrection as occurring at one time (John 5:27–29). It occurs at the end of history on “the last day” (John 6:39, 40, 44, 54). When Martha spoke of her belief that her brother Lazarus’ resurrection would be on “the last day” (John 11:24), Jesus did not correct her in any way.
This declaration of belief was an important counter to unbelief from without and Gnostic intrusions within the Christian faith. We see denials of the resurrection of the flesh, not just in modern liberalism, but in antiquity. The Sadducees denied it (Matt. 22:23; Acts 4:1–2; 23:6–8). Jesus even rebuked them for denying the idea of resurrection, noting that they “did not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Matt. 22:29). This is invariably the reason liberals today deny the resurrection, for they care nothing for the Scriptures as God’s word nor do they even recognize the power of God.
The Athenians scoffed at Paul because of it (Acts 17:18, 32). There we read: “Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, ‘What would this idle babbler wish to say?’ Others, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,’—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection” (Acts 17:18). A little further into the context we see how vehemently these unbelievers derided Paul: “Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, ‘We shall hear you again concerning this’” (Acts 17:32).
Hymenaeus and Philetus claimed that it has already occurred in Paul’s day. Thus, we read Paul’s exhortation to Timothy: “avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some” (2 Tim. 2:16–18). Apparently they believed that it was a spiritual resurrection that was undetectable and therefore irrefutable.
There was a disruptive faction in Corinth that also doubted the physical resurrection of the dead. In 1 Corinthians 15:12–17 Paul warned that this destroyed salvation, if true:
Continue reading →
In my last posting I gave a brief survey of Isaiah’s glorious postmillennial hope as found in Isaiah 2. In this one I will quickly summarize this hope as it is found in Isaiah 11, another great chapter embodying the postmillennial hope.
Recent comments