Resurrection of the Flesh (c. 1500)
by Luca Signorelli - based
on 1 Corinthians 15: 52: "the trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed." Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto.
While the Christian doctrine of resurrection conforms to Jewish belief, there is, however, a minority point of view, held by certain Jewish mystics and others, which asserts that those Jewish beliefs are in contradiction with the resurrection as taught by Isaiah (Isaiah 8:16 and 26:19) and Daniel (12:1 and 13) in which the resurrection was understood as being a doctrine of physical 'Rebirth'. *Note - See also The Wheel of Samsara , Excerpt from Gospel of St. Thomas, Article on Aquarius, Rapture.and Definition of Revelation. Excerpt from Gospel of Philip - "Those who say they will die first and then rise are in error. If they do not receive the resurrection while they live, when they die they will receive nothing."
Most Christian denominations teach the concept of eternal life after death, provided through the atonement of Christ as demonstrated by the Resurrection of Jesus. Contrary to the idea of the separation of soul and body the fundamental tenet of Christian doctrine is the resurrection of the flesh at the End Times.
The centrality of this idea for Christian doctrine is early stated in 1 Corinthians 15 by Paul the Apostle:
51 Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must
put on immortality.
and re-emphasised in Nicene Creed, which contains two resurrection clauses within its short length:
· Jesus "was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;
· believers "look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come."
While the Christian doctrine of resurrection conforms to Jewish belief, there is, however, a minority point of view, held by certain Jewish mystics and others, which asserts that those Jewish beliefs are in contradiction with the resurrection as taught by Isaiah (Isaiah 8:16 and 26:19) and Daniel (12:1 and 13) in which the resurrection was understood as being a doctrine of physical 'Rebirth'.
Jesus appears to have been in general agreement with the position held by the Pharisees, as illustrated by his response to a question regarding marriage at the resurrection (Matthew 22:23-32, Mark 12:18-27 and Luke 20:27-40).
Most Christian churches continue to uphold the belief that there will be a general resurrection of the dead at "the end of time", as described Paul when he said, "...he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world..." (Acts 17:31 KJV) and "...there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." (Acts 24:15 KJV).
Many of the early Church Fathers cited the Old Testament examples listed in the Judaism section above as either foreshadowing Jesus's resurrection, or foreshadowing or prophesying a future resurrection of all the dead.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church the body after resurrection is changed in a spiritual, imperishable body:
How? Christ is raised with his own body: "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself";553 but he did not return to an earthly life. So, in him, "all of them will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear," but Christ "will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body," into a "spiritual body":554 [2]
Although Martin Luther personally believed and
taught resurrection of the dead in combination with soul
sleep, this is not a mainstream teaching of Lutheranism and most Lutherans
traditionally believe in resurrection of the body in combination
with the immortal soul.[3]
According to the
According to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints all those who have lived on the earth will be resurrected, regardless of their righteousness. Those who are righteous will be resurrected at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This is referred to as the First Resurrection (Rev. 20:4 KJV). Those who are not righteous will remain until the end of the Millennium, and then resurrected (Rev. 20:5 KJV).
Before the resurrection, souls are believed to exist in a place known as the spirit world, which is similar to the traditional concept of Heaven and Hell. It is believed that the soul retains it's wants, beliefs, and desires in the afterlife. (1 Pet. 3:19 KJV)
The resurrection is believed to unite the soul with the body again. It is commonly believed by the LDS members that the body will be made whole and become incorruptible, meaning immortal.[9]
According to LDS doctrine, Jesus Christ was the first to be resurrected into incorruptibility, however some who had died were shortly resurrected afterward (Matt. 27:52-53 KJV). There is also a belief in Mormon doctrine that a few exceptional individuals were removed from the earth without tasting of death. This is referred to as translation, and these individuals are believed to have retained their bodies even into the next life. Enoch (Gen. 5:24 KJV), Moses (Deut. 34:5-6 KJV), and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11 KJV) would be a few examples of this.
There is some disagreement as to what constitutes resurrection, as different scriptures in the New Testament have been cited in different fashion. One of these arguments centers around whether a soul is immortal and non-physical, or whether it is merely physical, or whether it constitutes a union of spirit and body.[citation needed] Similar arguments were made among Jewish sects in the days of Christ.[citation needed] According to an account in the Book of Luke, after Christ's resurrection he said to his apostles, "handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Luke 24:39 In the Gospel of John Jesus tells Mary "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father." John 20:17 Such permission to touch or touch not can seem in conflict with a corporeal nature. However we find another possible take in Paul's teachings: "...our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel". 2 Timothy 1:10
According to the New Testament, Jesus argued with the Sadducees over the doctrine of the resurrection. These passages are Mark 12:18-27, Matthew 22:23-33, Luke 20:27–40. See also Mark 12. The Gospel of John also contains teachings about the resurrection of the dead (5:25-29, 6:39-59).
The Sign of Jonah (Matthew 12:38-42, 16:1-4, Luke 11:29-32, cf. Mark 8:11-13) may be about the resurrection of the dead. From the Scholars Version translation of Matthew 12:38-42: "...At judgment time, the citizens of Ninevah will come back to life along with this generation ... At judgment time, the queen of the south will be brought back to life along with this generation ..."
The "resurrection of the righteous" is mentioned at Luke 14:14. The "resurrection at the last day" is mentioned at John 11:24-25.
In Acts of the Apostles, the Apostles and Paul of Tarsus argued in support of the doctrine: 4:2, 17:32, 23:6-8, 24:15, 24:21.
In 1 Corinthians 15:13 Paul argues: "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised."
2 Timothy 2:18 warns of some "who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some."
Additional cites are Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 6:14; 15:12-13; 2 Corinthians 4:14; 2 Corinthians 5:1-2; Philippians 3:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:12-16; 2 Timothy 2:11; Hebrews 6:2.
The qualities of the resurrected body will be different from those of the body laid in the grave, but its identity will nevertheless be preserved; it will still be the same body which rises again.
According to the Summa Theologica, spiritual beings that have been restored to glorified bodies will have the following basic qualities:[citation needed]
Main article: Christian conditionalism
Several churches, such as the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Christadelphians, Jehovah's Witnesses, and theologians of different traditions dismiss the idea of the immortality of a non-physical soul as a vestige of Neoplatonism, and other pagan traditions. In this school of thought, the dead remain dead (and do not immediately progress to a Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory) until a physical resurrection of the dead occurs at the end of time. Some groups, Christadelphians in particular, consider that it is at this time of resurrection that the Last Judgment will take place.[citation needed]
Early church fathers defended the resurrection of the dead against the pagan belief that the immortal soul went to the underworld immediately after death.[11] Currently, however, it is a popular Christian belief that the souls of the righteous do go straight to heaven.[12][13]
At the close of the medieval period, the modern era brought a shift in Christian thinking from an emphasis on the resurrection of the body back to the immortality of the soul.[14] This shift was a result of a change in the zeitgeist, as a reaction to the renaissance and later to the enlightenment. Dartigues has observed that especially “from the 17th to the 19th century, the language of popular piety no longer evoked the resurrection of the soul but everlasting life. Although theological textbooks still mentioned resurrection, they dealt with it as a speculative question more than as an existential problem.”[14]
This shift was supported not by any scripture, but largely by the popular religion of the Enlightenment, deism. Deism allowed for a supreme being, such as the philosophical first cause, but denied any significant personal or relational interaction with this figure. Deism, which was largely lead by rationality and reason, could allow a belief in the immortality of the soul, but not necessarily in the resurrection of the dead. American deist Ethan Allen demonstrates this thinking in his work, Reason the Only Oracle of Man (1784) where he argues in the preface that nearly every philosophical problem is beyond humanity’s understanding, including the miracles of Christianity, although he does allow for the immortality of an immaterial soul.[15]
This is not to say that a belief in eternal life in heaven is contradictory to belief in the resurrection of the body. Most evangelicals believe that those who die in Christ go to be with Christ in heaven. But then at the second coming of Christ, there will be a rapture of all believers, including who have already died. ("For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) It is at the point of rapture that the souls of dead believers become reunited with their bodies. Then all believers will continue to live with Christ in their glorified, physical bodies. They will be both body and soul, as humans were originally created.
Interviewed by Time in 2008 senior Anglican bishop and theologian N.T. Wright spoke of “the idea of bodily resurrection that people deny when they talk about their ‘souls going to Heaven,'" adding: “I've often heard people say, ‘I'm going to heaven soon, and I won't need this stupid body there, thank goodness.’ That's a very damaging distortion, all the more so for being unintentional.” Instead, Wright explains: “In the Bible we are told that you die, and enter an intermediate state." This is "conscious," but "compared to being bodily alive, it will be like being asleep." This will be followed by the resurrrection into new bodies, he says. "Our culture is very interested in life after death, but the New Testament is much more interested in what I've called the life after life after death." Early 20th century American preacher Billy Sunday epitomizes the focus on "going to heaven" in his sermon “Heaven: A Wonderful Place; Where There is No More Death; Blessed Hope of the Christian.” In the message Sunday characteristically explained the feelings of his audience by saying “Everybody wants to go to Heaven. We are all curious. We want to know, where Heaven is, how it looks, who are there, what they wear, and how to get there!” Sunday speaks of many aspects of the afterlife such as the nice weather and eternal health, although there is no mention of the resurrection of the dead. He ends with an illustration about a man who dies and goes to heaven exclaiming “Home, home at last!” as if he had arrived at the end of his eschatological journey.[16]
The emphasis on the immortality of the soul in heaven instead
of the resurrection of the dead continues largely in the 21st
century through popular charismatic and evangelical preaching.
Jesus is often spoken of as “the way to heaven” and
personal eschatology is generally seen in terms of whether or not
a person gets into heaven when they die, rather than how they
will fare at the resurrection of the dead. However, there are
many theologians, such as Thomas Oden, popular Christian writers,
such as Randy Alcorn and Christian scholars, such as the Anglican
Bishop of
Formerly, it was widely believed that to rise on judgement day the body had to be whole and preferably buried with the feet to the east so that the person would rise facing God.[18][19][20] A Parliamentary Act from the reign of King Henry VIII stipulated that only the corpses of executed murderers could be used for dissection.[21] Restricting the supply to the cadavers of murderers was seen as an extra punishment for the crime. If one believes dismemberment stopped the possibility of resurrection of an intact body on judgement day, then a posthumous execution is an effective way of punishing a criminal.[22][23][24][25] Attitudes towards this issue changed very slowly in the United Kingdom and were not manifested in law until the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832. For much of the British population it was not until the 20th century that the link between the body and resurrection was finally broken as cremation was only made legal in 1902.[26]
Main article: Qiyamah
Yawm al-Qayamah (Arabic: ??? ???????? literally: "Day of the Resurrection") is the Last Judgment in Islam. Belief in Qayaamah is part of Aqeedah ("creed") and is a fundamental tenet of faith in Islam. The trials and tribulations associated with it are detailed in both the Qur'an and the Hadith, as well as in the commentaries of the Islamic expositors and scholarly authorities such as al-Ghazali, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Majah, Muhammad al-Bukhari, and Ibn Khuzaimah who explain them in detail. Every human, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, is held accountable for his or her deeds and are judged by Allah accordingly (Qur'an 74.38). Al-Qayaamah is the 75th surah of the Qur'an.
Main article: Jewish eschatology
The Sadducees did not believe in an afterlife, but the Pharisees believed in a literal resurrection of the body.[27]
Resurrections of dead people are found in the Tanakh, such as Elijah
and the widow's son at Zarephath: "Behold
your son lives.";[28]
Elisha and the Shunammite woman:
"Take up your son". .[29]
and contact with Elisha's bones reviving a dead man: "as the
man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his
feet". 2 Kings
13:21 Ezekiel's Vision in the
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia article on Resurrection,[31] the topic may be discussed in Job 14:13-15, 19:25-26, Isa 26:19, Dan 12:1-4 and is argued in more detail in the extra-canonical books of Enoch, Jubilees, Apocalypse of Baruch, 2 Esdras and the Maccabees.
Orthodox Judaism holds belief in resurrection to be one of the cardinal principles of Rabbinical Judaism. Jewish halakhic authority Maimonides set down thirteen main principles of the Jewish faith which have ever since been printed in all Rabbinic Siddur (prayer books). Resurrection is the thirteenth principle:
"I believe with complete (perfect) faith, that there will be techiat hameitim - revival of the dead, whenever it will be God's, blessed be He, will (desire) to arise and do so. May (God's) Name be blessed, and may His remembrance arise, forever and ever."[citation needed]
Main article: Zoroastrian eschatology
The Magi rulers, who according to the Gospels came to worship the infant Jesus, were followers of Zoroaster. Zoroastrianism includes a prophecy that the dead will be raised and judged at the end of time. The world will be purified and all creation will be reconciled to God.[32]
Professor of Physics Frank J. Tipler has claimed in his Omega Point theory that in the distant future a civilisation may develop such advanced computational abilities as to have god-like power over the entire universe and bring back the dead from past history into what will effectively be a paradise.
