It is quite true that the Scriptures, in many places and in a variety of ways, treat of the resurrection; but they do not, in any instance, that we are aware of, speak of the resurrection of dead material bodies, nor do they in any case make use of language that countenances such a notion.[1]
Before biblical criticism became a science it was customary to cite several passages from the Old Testament which were supposed to prove the resurrection of the body, but it is now admitted that they do not apply to the subject. There may, indeed, linger a disposition in the mind of the populace to retain them in the service, but the learned know that they have been wrested to maintain an idea which they were never intended to express, and therefore they have been placed, by orthodox critics, outside the pale of genuine evidence upon this point. Dr. Kitto, whose authority is respected, and whose "orthodoxy" is undoubted, says,[2] "It is admitted that there are no traces of such a doctrine in the earlier Hebrew Scriptures. It is not to be found in the Pentateuch, in the historical books, or in the Psalms; for Psalm xlix. 15[3] does not relate to the subject, neither does Psalm civ. 29, 30,[4] although so cited by
- ↑ See this view ably treated by Locke in his correspondence on the subject with Stillingfleet. Bishop of Worcester. Locke's Works.
- ↑ "Biblical Cyclopædia"—Art. Resurrection of the body.
- ↑ "God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave; for He shall receive me."
- ↑ "Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created; Thou renewest the face of the earth."
Doctrines of the New Church:" to "The Scriptural Resurrection Asserted and Defended," by the Rev. Dr. Bayley: to "A Lecture on the Scriptural Doctrine of the Resurrection," by the Rev. W. Woodman, etc., etc.
