Besides, nothing is said of such a body, and the raising spoken of refers only to those who see and believe. Moreover that would be a strange sort of everlasting life which is interrupted by thousands of years of natural death, to which the material bodies of myriads must certainly be exposed. The raising spoken of is the elevation of the souls of believers into the enjoyment of heavenly life. It is the spirit which quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing. The soul is raised; the body is buried.
Other passages might be quoted, but these are among the most pointed, with the exception of the celebrated chapter in the epistle of Paul to the Corinthians.[1] And it is amazing that, with the marked distinction which he draws, the positive assertion which he makes, the striking illustrations he has furnished, and the figurative language he has employed, that his argument should ever have been construed into an exposition setting forth the resurrection of the material body. It commences the argument by referring to the fact that "Christ rose from the dead;"[2] hence he contends for the resurrection of man, and says, "Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept: for since by man came death, by man, also, came the resurrection of the dead."[3] From this to the thirty-fourth verse, nothing whatever is said about that body which is the subject of resurrection; but at the twenty-third verse he expressly tells us that "in Christ all shall be made alive: but every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterwards they that are Christ's,[4]
- ↑ 1 Cor. xv.
- ↑ 1 Cor. xv. 12.
- ↑ 1 Cor. xv. 20, 21.
- ↑ It is interesting to notice that the resurrection treated of throughout the whole of this chapter, is only the resurrection of "them that are Christ's;" the resurrection of the wicked is not at all referred to. Hence it is that the apostle, throughout the whole argument, connects the resurrection with regeneration.
