Bodily And Spirtual Death And Resurrection

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh

and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;

nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

Behold, I tell you a mystery:

We shall not all sleep, but we

shall all be changed––in a moment,

in the twinkling of an eye,

at the last trumpet, for the trumpet

will sound, and the dead will be raised

incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on

incorruption, and this mortal

must put on immortality.

I Corinthians 14:50–53

            There is a death, a kind of death of the soul and this death is the putting away of former habits, and former ways of life. How can this be possible? Some who hold to the Arminian theological view seem to hold to a theology that the soul is not damaged by the fall of Adam. They teach that man can save himself. Then there are those that teach of a rapture of the Church, yet that word I not found in the Bible. In fact they only use a few Scriptures to teach such an event. There is much presuppositions read into the Scriptures that are presented and are done in such a manner as to be of the allegorical method used by the theologians in Alexandria that were much influenced by Neoplatonism, or Gnosticism. For instance they use 1Thessalonnians 4:13–18 as one of the their proof texts and this text is not speaking of two returns of Jesus Christ for the only time that we have for the return of Jesus Christ is on the Last Day as Martha spoke to Jesus when Lazarus her brother died: “Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to Him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day’” (Matthew 11:23-24).  Jesus did not take this time to speak of two comings by Him, only to speak of those who are believing in Him will die, but will rise again and live forever. Never does Jesus speak of coming more than once, but when He come it will be with a shout of as of a trumpet, not quietly, but quickly, and it will come as a thief in the night so we who are believing in Him must not worry ourselves about when He is coming for it is on the Last Day, but we are to be aware that He is coming and we should be sober in our thinking and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. Furthermore, Paul used the plural nominative pronoun (ἡμεῖς), the word in black bold is “we” so we should not be confused here for Paul is not teaching that he would be alive when Jesus returns (1Thessalonnians 4:17). I write on this subject to give clarification for as I have written before in my previous blogs, the rise of many heresies gave way for such false teaching as that Jesus would return two times, but Paul is clear that there is one resurrection although occurring in two separate events but in the same moment for the dead rise first, and then those alive on earth who are believers are caught up with them (1Thessalonnians 4:16–17). We should be as Paul wrote: comforted: “Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1Thessalonnians 4:18).

            We put away our former life by repentance which then we dissolve our former way of living and conform ourselves into the image of Jesus Christ. Jesus gave us the better pattern and by this pattern we live according to the truth of His words that give us assured hope that we will live with Him forever in the place where He goes to prepare for us a place to live forever. We will be changed from our mortality to immortality, no flesh and blood inherits the kingdom of God. This prepared place for is a place of perfect happiness and unbroken peace; those things which we cannot fully apprehend in this life, in this world. We are now in preparation for that new immortal life and it is by this preparation that we come to know Authentic Biblical Faith, but there are those who are teaching another Gospel, another Christian life and many have fallen prey to these good sounding words from good speaking men, and Arius was once such early theologian that spoke heresy and many have succumbed to his teaching (Jehovah Witnesses) or to such as Jacobus Arminius who taught a form or Pelagianism that man could save himself leading to men who taught false things in regard to our resurrection by the coming on the Last Day by Jesus Christ. We should be joyous that we do not need to fret for our life is secure. For those who are not conformed into the image of Jesus Christ they face eternal death, a terrible death, and live in this life with no hope and will endure the penalty of sin. For Authentic Biblical Christians faith is assured and we believe that is it so that the children of God rise to by with Him and the wicked rise to endure inconceivable punishment. For God to save some is only by the mercy of God for He will: “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it is not of him who wills, or of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy” (Romans 9:14–16).

            Let us run with endurance and convert through true repentance shown by the changes we make in our lives to conform to Jesus’ commandments which we are formed into His image.

As it is written: “Behold, I lay

            In Zion a stumbling stone

And rock of offense, and whoever

            Believes on Him will not

Be put to shame.

                                    Romans 9:33

Pray for guidance: He Is our help!

Richard L. Crumb