Taken from the book "Life and Immortality"
by the late Basil Atkinson Ph.D.
Quote:
We have sought in our first two sections (this was as
sectioned in his book - Keith Hunt) to look as thoroughly as
possible into the teaching of Scripture on the nature of man and
the meaning of death. We found that what the Bible says on both
these great subjects consistently agrees that the dead are lying
in their graves in a sleep of profound unconsciousness, in which
they neither know nor remember anything of what happens in the
world.
In this section we study the joyful teaching of God's
victory over death, first in the Lord Jesus Himself, and then in
all His believing people. How are these promises fulfilled? The
teaching of the Bible on this matter is clear, definite and
unmistakeable. It has been rejected and despised by destructive
critics and unconverted theologians, but never by any Bible
believer however tenaciously he may cling to the idea of natural
immortality, because no one can fail to see the teaching in the
Bible.
REVELATION OR INFERENCE?
Those believers who hold to natural immortality add to it
the doctrine of resurrection and accept both. On this point we
will ask three questions. First, how is it that the doctrine of
resurrection is taught clearly and definitely in Scripture,
exactly as we should expect in the case of so momentous a theme,
while the doctrine of survival or immortality of the "soul" is
not once taught definitely? This theme is just as great and
momentous. There are a few passages from which, if they are
taken in isolation (but only so), such a doctrine can be
inferred, but even assuming that such an inference could stand up
against the consistent testimony of Scripture as a whole, is it
reasonable, is it conceivable that such a tremendous truth about
the nature of man and the real meaning of death should be left
to be understood by us by inference? We are left to fall back
on the writer mentioned on page 28, who stated, "The Bible does
not anywhere state the immortality of the soul, it assumes it."
But surely all readers will agree that it is the Word of God
alone which is basic and axiomatic.
RELATIONSHIP OF SURVIVAL AND RESURRECTION
Our second question is this. If the believer at death is
released from the "burden" of his body, is "called home," enters
immediately the presence of his Lord and is reunited with his
loved ones, enjoying complete satisfaction and spiritual bliss,
what is the need or purpose of resurrection? This very question
was once asked of the writer by a thoughtful Christian lady. If
a human being can live in perfect happiness without his body and
exercise all the functions of a full human life, why should he be
burdened again with his body? An answer of course can be given:
"Because the whole man has been redeemed." This is a theoretical
answer which does not really touch the question, but as we
sought to show in our first section the whole man cannot exist
apart from his body. This question is sometimes met by speaking
of "paradise" instead of heaven and assuming incomplete
satisfaction until the last day, but evangelical Christians do
not generally speak like this.
THOSE BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE
There is a third point that needs to be raised. In the Old
Testament there were three restorations of dead persons to life
in the days of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. In the Gospels
there were three people raised by the Lord Himself and in the
period of the Acts there were two raised by the apostles. If
these eight persons had been enjoying a life of bliss in glory,
was it not greatly to their disadvantage, if not positive
cruelty, to bring them back to the weaknesses and troubles of the
world? Again, how is it that not so much as a hint is recorded
to have been given by any one of them of experiences passed
through during the time between death and restoration, which
varied from a few minutes in the case of Eutychus to four days in
that of Lazarus? We may reasonably believe that, had they
enjoyed such experiences, they are likely to have spoken often of
them for the rest of their lives. The stories as they stand all
give us the impression that these persons awoke from a profound
sleep.
EVERLASTING LIFE
There runs throughout the Old Testament a recurring note of
Messianic blessing to come. In the law and the prophets this is
almost wholly national in character. In the Psalms and Wisdom
writings it becomes more personal. It is clearly outside our
scope to follow through all these promises. The absence of
direct references to resurrection in the books of Moses and the
smallness of their number in the rest of the Old Testament has
been remarked upon, the main reason being the occupation of the
Old Testament with the typical temporal blessings of the typical
people of God, all of which may be read in the light of the
Gospel and turned, as it were, into spiritual realities.
When we reach the New Testament, we find that the kingdom of
God and everlasting life, two aspects of the same thing, form the
blessings promised to the individual believer through faith in
Christ. References to resurrection are many more in number in
the New Testament, illustrating the fact that life and
immortality have been brought to light through the Gospel (2 Tim.
1.10). We will examine these references in both Testaments and
we shall find that God's purpose for His people is to give them
victory over death by a glorious resurrection to take place
instantaneously at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory
at the end of the world. At the coming of the Lord, which
will be sudden and instantaneous, the generation of living
believers will be transformed in an instant by the same change as
the dead at the resurrection and be caught up to meet the Lord,
abiding with Him henceforth in eternal glory. The resurrection
of believers will be on the same model as the resurrection of
Christ. God's way of victory is far more glorious and
triumphant and far happier for the believer than the way of
survival and natural immortality.
Christian people shrink from the idea of their loved ones
lying for years in the grave, but they forget that the
unconsciousness of the dead is so profound that time does not
pass for them. Children will sometimes go to bed early to make
the morning come quickly. The moment after the believer draws
his last breath and closes his eyes he opens them again in the
presence of Jesus in resurrection glory with all his loved ones
and the whole loving brotherhood of the church of God around him.
He has his resurrection body, his house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. He never has, nor will have, nor can
have the experience of a strange kind of life without a body,
separated from his loved ones left on earth, a life which, when
all is said and done, can only be described as that of a ghost.
VICTORY OVER DEATH
We will divide our Scriptural references into four sections:
(I) those dealing in a general sense with victory over death, of
which there are only two examples; (2) those dealing with
resurrection; (3) those dealing with the coming of the Lord; and
(4) those dealing with the glory to come.
If we turn first to Isaiah 25. 8, we shall find the first
promise of victory over death "He will swallow up death in
victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all
faces." This passage is quoted by the apostle Paul in I
Corinthians 15.54 and its fulfilment explained to take place at
the resurrection of believers at the coming of the Lord. The
connection with the coming of the Lord is implied in the
following verse Isaiah 25.9, when the people of God are found
expressing their joy at the presence of God and His salvation.
The second passage that promises victory over death is to be
found in Hosea 13.I4: "I will ransom them from. the power of
the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy
plagues; O grave I will be thy destruction." The second part of
this passage differs widely from the Hebrew in the Greek
version and is quoted, again with some alteration, from that
version by the apostle Paul in I Corinthians 15.55, being joined
there with Isaiah 25.8. We thus have the direct testimony of the
New Testament that victory over death comes at the resurrection
of the people of God. If resurrection meant only the
restoration to the godly of a part of their being which they
could live in perfect happiness without, there would be little
point in celebrating it so emphatically as a victory.
RESURRECTION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Our first passage is Isaiah 26.19. Here we find six
separate points: (a). The resurrection of the people of God.
The dead who belong to Him will live, the context showing that by
"live" the prophet means "live again," a usage we so often find
in the New Testament. (b). The resurrection is personal and
individual. "My dead body" will arise at the same time as all
the godly. (c). The godly dead are called upon to awake and
sing. When the call comes to them, they are asleep, and they
will hear the call just as Lazarus heard the Lord's loud can to
him to come out of his grave (John 11.43). Thus one day we
shall hear and shall share in the great song of victory over
death raised by millions of voices. Now would this be a natural
way to address the dead if they were alive in heaven and had been
joining in a song of triumph for centuries? Would they under
such circumstances be told to awake? (d). The dead who are
called upon to awake are said to be dwelling in the dust, not in
heaven or paradise. As we have seen in our second section, this
is the consistent teaching of the Bible about death. (e). The
dead will arise to life, strength, freshness and youth on the
resurrection morning. All this is indicated in the prophet's
words, "thy dew is as the dew of herbs." (f). There will also be
a resurrection of the unjust. When dealing with the rephaim, we
saw that this was the probable meaning of the last sentence of
this verse. In the immediate context we find the coming of the
Lord to judgment connected with the resurrection (ver. 21).
In Ezekiel 37.1-14 we find the then future Gospel revival
and restoration described in terms of resurrection. It is
scarcely possible to see an account of literal resurrection in
verses I to 10, though some have done so. In verses 12 to 14 we
may well see a continuation of the figurative description of
spiritual revival (compare John 5.25), though based on actual
resurrection as it will take place at the last day. We may thus
perhaps look to these verses to be a promise, prophecy and
picture of our resurrection. We find (a) the opening of the
graves, (b) our coming up out of our graves, (c) our being
brought into the land (Greek gee) of Israel. This land is the
new earth (Greek gee) in the eternal glory to come (2 Peter 3.
13). (d) We find the spirit of life put within us.
(An interesting understanding from Atkinson on Ezek.37, but the
words plainly used show there should be no hesitation in
understanding this section to refer to a literal physical
resurrection of Israelites. If God could raise some from their
graves to physical life after the resurrection of Jesus, as
recorded in the Gospels, then it should be nothing for Him to
raise many Israelites to physical life again in due time,
according to this passage in Ezekiel 37 - Keith Hunt).
We now come to Psalm 16. 10, 11, a passage which the apostle
Peter tells us is a prophecy of the resurrection of Christ. We
have dealt with this passage before. The soul (Heb. nephesh) of
Christ, that is Himself, the whole Man, was in sh'ol, that is,
the grave, but He was not left there. After three days He rose
again. He was shown the way of life and joy in the presence of
God with pleasures at His right hand for evermore.
In Psalm 17.15 we find David's prophecy of resurrection
for himself and each individual believer. Here we find (a) that
we shall see the Lord's face, (b) that we shall be righteous
before Him. Our sanctification will then be as perfect as our
justification is now. (c). We shall enjoy satisfaction, (d) we
shall awake, that is, from the grave on the day of resurrection,
(e) we shall be like the Lord. We have exactly the same message
in 1 John 3. 2.
In the book of Job there are two important passages dealing
with resurrection. The first is found in Job 14.14,15. We
have already had occasion to touch on this passage. Job has
spoken of the sleep of death, from which a man does not awake
till the end of the world (ver. 12). He asks to be hidden in
the grave and remembered at the last (ver. 13). He asks in
verse 14 if a man will live again after death. The unexpressed
answer is yes. He will wait in the grave (sleeping and
unconscious) all the time that God appoints for him, till his
change comes. This is the great change to take place at
resurrection (1 Cor. 15.51,52). On that day the Lord will call
to each sleeping saint and he will answer (ver.15), just as
Lazarus answered the Lord's call (John 11. 43).
The second passage in the book of Job is the well-known Job
19. 25-27. Here we find (a) that job has been given by
inspiration knowledge of the last day and the resurrection, (b)
that the living Redeemer will stand at the last day on earth.
The Redeemer is of course the Lord Jesus and Job's reference may
well cover both His first and second comings. (c) Job's body will
come to corruption in the grave, (d) yet he will see God in
a risen and glorified body. There is doubt here about the
preposition translated "in." It may be translated "without." In
this case it means that Job will see God without the old
weaknesses and sinfulness of the natural body which was sown in
the grave. The preposition is perhaps best translated "from." In
this case it means that job will see God on the resurrection
morning from the very eyes which he possessed at the time of
speaking, although they would be transformed and glorified. (e)
We are taught the identity of the individual in resurrection with
the person that he was before death. The last sentence of verse
27 is better rendered in the margin, " my reins within me are
consumed with earnest desire (for that day)."
The last Old Testament passage is to be found in Daniel 12.
2, which looks beyond the Gospel age to the resurrection: "And
many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
some, to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting
contempt." A difficulty here lies in the words "many of them,"
which appear to imply that there will be some among the dead who
will not awake at all. This may be the slender foundation of the
teaching of the Christadelphians on the subject. The explanation
seems to be in the Greek version which translates "some....some"
by "houtoi.. ...houtoi," "these.....these." This allows us to
take the "many" to refer to those who rise to life and the
residue to those who rise to shame. The Apocalypse teaches us
that there will be an interval between the resurrection of the
just and that of the unjust (Rev. 20.5).
The dead here are again described as "them that sleep in the
dust of the earth." This cannot refer to bodies apart from the
real persons who are their owners. Bodies as such can neither
sleep nor wake. Only the whole conscious person, of whom indeed
the body is a vital part, can sleep or wake. It would be untrue
to describe as sleeping those who had been for centuries enjoying
fulness of joy in the Lord's presence.
Verse 3 goes on to describe the blessed and glorious
condition of the righteous after their resurrection. Before we
leave the Old Testament there are two points that should be
noticed. Firstly there are at least two general references to
the power of God to make alive as well as to kill (Deut. 32.39;
1 Sam. 2.6), in which we may see an indirect reference to
resurrection. We notice that if a man is killed he may be made
alive. He is not kept alive at death.
Secondly we may notice that references in Scripture to
death, though they may touch only indirectly upon it, tend to
give the impression that a person as such descends to the grave
and never suggest that he may be alive in some other world.
Naturally it is impossible to follow all these out, but we may
take an example from 2 Samuel 18.17: "And they took Absalom, and
cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap
of stones upon him." Most modem Christians would have written,
"And they took Absalom's body, and cast it into a great pit in
the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon it." We
would venture to ask our readers when reading their Bibles to
keep an eye open for any such references and carefullly judge the
impression which they obtain from them.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
It becomes clear as we read the New Testament that the model
for the coming resurrection of the people of God is that of the
Lord Jesus Christ, on which it is based and with which its nature
is essentially identical.
This is made specially clear by the apostle Paul in
1 Corinthians 15. Thus if we turn to the Gospels we shall
find that His resurrection has the following characteristics:
(1). His tomb was empty, so that He rose in the very body that
He had taken from Mary (Matt. 28.6). If we have been able to
follow the findings to which our study in our previous sections
has led us, this is exactly what we should expect. (2). He met
with and spoke to His disciples after His resurrection (Matt. 28.
9,10,16-20). (3). At their first meeting with the Lord after
His resurrection His disciples did not always recognise Him (Luke
24.16). (4). He was recognised later by a characteristic action
or word (Luke 24.31). (5). In His resurrection body He was
capable of vanishing and appearing suddenly, so that the nature
of His body was completely changed and raised to a higher plane
(Luke 24.31,36). This is what the apostle Paul says in
1 Corinthians 15.45,51. (6). The marks of the nails were still
in His hands and feet (Luke 24. 39). His body was still composed
of flesh and bones (Luke 24.40). (7). He ate food after His
resurrection (Luke 24.42,43). (8). The body of the Lord at the
moment of resurrection had passed through the graveclothes (John
20.4-9) and presumably through the stone at the grave's mouth.
(9). The Lord told Mary Magdalene not to touch Him (John 20.
17), although the other women shortly afterwards clung to His
feet (Matt. 28.9). The significance of this is not
easily understood. (When you understand the typology meaning of
the Feasts of the Lord as outlined in Leviticus 23, then
understanding this is cleared up. The Wave Sheaf offering on the
first day of the week during the feast of Unleavened Bread
represented the risen Christ being accepted as the first fruits
of the first spiritual harvest of God. After Jesus appeared to
Mary Magdalene, who was not allowed to touch Him, He ascended to
the Father and was accepted as the wave sheaf offering of the
first of the first fruits harvest. Then coming back to this
earth, He could be touched, as He was, by some of His other
disciples. All this is fully explained in other studies of mine -
Keith Hunt).
(10).The spear wound was still in the side of the Lord as well
as the nail prints in His hands and feet (John 20.27).
To sum up the nature of the resurrection appearances of the
Lord we find two principles underlying them, (a) identity of
Person and (b) change of nature. It is clear from Scripture that
our own resurrection will be governed by these as well.
RESURRECTION IN THE GOSPELS
We turn first to the direct teaching of the Lord about the
resurrection in answer to the Sadducees who denied it. This is
found in parallel passages in the first three Gospels, Matthew
22.23-33; Mark 12.18-27; Luke 20.27-40. The Sadducees
invented an artificial objection to resurrection with which they
foolishly supposed that they could catch the Lord. They based it
on the law to be found in Deuteronomy 25.5,6, which ordained
that a man should marry the widow of his deceased elder brother
and raise up children in his brother's name. They told the story
of seven brothers, who all married the same woman one after the
other in accordance with this law and asked whose wife she would
be in the resurrection. The Lord answered this foolish
conundrum at once by explaining that there was no sex or marriage
in glory after the resurrection. He then went on to tell the
Sadducees that the fact of resurrection is contained in the words
of the Lord to Moses at the bush, "I am the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac and the God of Jacob" (Exod. 3.6). He states that
God is not the God of the dead but of the living. It is
extraordinary that so many have read into these words the
doctrine of survival and natural immortality, drawing the
conclusion that if God declares Himself the God of the living and
not of the dead therefore Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and an the
departed people of God must be alive now. It is extraordinary
because such a conclusion destroys the whole point of the
passage, which is to prove the resurrection.
If the dead are now living in a disembodied state, to say
that God is the God of the living and not of the dead does not in
any sense prove resurrection.
Instead it removes the necessity of it. The Lord's argument
requires that the dead are not now living in a disembodied or any
other state. God is the God of the living, not of the dead.
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are now dead. Therefore they must come
to life in resurrection in order to fulfil and vindicate God's
declaration. Thus the resurrection is proved, as the Lord says.
The evangelist Luke makes this clearer by adding the sentence,
"For all live unto Him." He means that all the dead live (not
indeed in an absolute sense), but in the sight of God. They do
so in view of the glorious resurrection in which they are to be
restored to life and live for ever with Him in glory.
These passages are among the strongest in Scripture against
survival and natural immortality. It is impossible to reconcile
them with them.
We now turn to Luke 14.14. Here we find the Lord telling
those who entertain the poor and those who cannot entertain them
in return that it will be recompensed them in the resurrection of
the just. Notice that there is no word about recompense at
death. If, as the Lord here distinctly states, recompense does
not come till resurrection, it follows that the departed, if they
are alive, have not got perfect satisfaction and fulfilment.
This is a dangerous and unscriptural doctrine. But difficulty
vanishes if we believe the teaching of Scripture that the dead
are sleeping in their graves.
RESURRECTION IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
In the Gospel of John the Lord Himself gives us four
wonderful promises of resurrection: (1). Raising the dead and
making them alive is the work both of the Father and the Son
(John 5.21). (2). All who are in the tombs will hear the voice
of the One Who is Son of God and Son of man and will come forth,
the good to a resurrection of life and the bad to a resurrection
of judgment (John 5.28). Many have deduced from this verse that
there will be a simultaneous resurrection of the just and the
unjust, but it need not bear this meaning and it seems from
Revelation 20.5 that there will be an interval between the
resurrection of the one and that of the other. (3). The Lord
Jesus will not lose a single one of His believing people, but
will raise up each one at the last day, because it is the
Father's will that everyone that believes on the Son should have
everlasting life and the Lord Jesus will raise him up at the last
day (John 6.40). Thus we are taught that the way to everlasting
life in the final glory is by resurrection on the last day. (4).
We find the marvellous and well-known promise of the Lord Jesus
at the grave of Lazarus: "I am the resurrection and the life; he
that believeth in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoso
liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." (John 11. 25,26).
We are here taught that resurrection and everlasting life are the
gift of Jesus alone, that the believer will be raised to life
even if he dies, as most believers have done already. Here
"live" means "live again," as so often in the New Testament.
Thirdly we are taught that every believer living at the last
day when Christ returns in glory will never die. We may also
give to these words the undoubted meaning that when once a
believer is raised he will never die (Luke 20.36).
We notice that not only in making these promises did the
Lord never say, "Whoever believes in Me I will take home to be
with Me in glory when he dies and will also raise his dead body
at the last day," but that no such promise is once found in any
verse of the New Testament.
RESURRECTION IN THE ACTS AND GENERAL EPISTLES
From the references to resurrection in the Acts of the
Apostles we learn that the apostles preached in Jesus
the resurrection from the dead (Acts 4.2) - It is never said
that they preached any disembodied life between death and
resurrection. At Athens the apostle Paul preached Jesus and the
resurrection (Acts 17-18). Again it is never said that he
preached any other hope. In the course of the same address he
announces the day of judgment with Christ Jesus as judge, the
proof of this being His resurrection (Acts 17.31). Some of his
hearers mocked at the resurrection and some postponed a decision
(Acts 17.32). If he had preached like some of the great
Athenian thinkers the immortality of the soul, they are not so
likely to have mocked.
When the apostle was before the council in Jerusalem, he
declared that the issue at stake was the resurrection of the dead
(Acts 23.6). These references show the extent to which the
resurrection was on his heart and mind. Before Felix the
Governor the apostle declared that he shared with the Jews the
hope that there would be a resurrection both of the just and the
unjust (Acts 2,4-15). The Jews must have known this from Isaiah
26.19. In Acts 26.8 the apostle asks King Agrippa and the
other distinguished members of his audience why it should be
thought incredible among them that God should raise the dead, and
he connects the resurrection with the promise made to the fathers
(Acts 26.6,7).
We may search the book of Acts in vain for any reference
whatever to a disembodied survival between death and
resurrection.
RESURRECTION IN THE APOSTLE PAUL'S EPISTLES
Nowhere in Scripture do we have clearer or more glorious
promises of the resurrection than we do in the writings of the
apostle Paul. Thus he tells us in Romans 6.5 that, if we have
been joined to Christ in His death, we shall be joined to Him in
His resurrection also. In Romans 8. 11 he tells us that, if the
Spirit of the One Who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us,
the One Who raised Jesus from the dead will also make alive our
mortal bodies. Both these passages may include a reference to
the power of the Holy Spirit enabling us to live in newness of
life by sharing the resurrection life of Christ while still in
this world.
In Romans 8.23 in the context of the whole creation
groaning and travailing together he says that we also groan
within ourselves waiting for the adoption, the redemption
of our body. We may notice that he does not say that we groan
within ourselves waiting for the release from our body. What we
wait for is the redemption of our body from the grave by
resurrection, which will make real and external to us the
blessings which we now enjoy in our spirits by faith. But there
would be no sense or point in saying this if we are to be "called
home" at death to glory and perfect satisfaction.
It is in the epistles to the Corinthians that we find the
clearest and most definite teaching about the resurrection in the
two great passages 1 Corinthians 15 and 2 Corinthians 4 and 5.
Before these there is the statement in 1 Corinthians 6. 14: "God
hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by His
power." Our future resurrection follows from the resurrection of
the Lord.
The fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is the great chapter
which deals with the resurrection from every aspect, perhaps in
answer to a question on the subject which had been asked the
apostle by the Corinthian believers. He occupies verses 1 to 8
by affirming the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and
lists six post-resurrection appearances of which the last had
been to himself. In these verses we may notice the apostle's
statement in verse 6 that some of the five hundred brethren who
had seen Him had fallen asleep.
Many Christian writers today would have said, "Some have
been called home." We may also notice that the whole of the
apostle's teaching in this chapter is based upon the resurrection
of Christ and not a word said about, much less based upon, the
survival of Christ between death and resurrection. Some have
thought that such a survival is taught in 1 Peter 3.18, where
Christ is said to have been put to death in flesh but quickened
(that is, made alive) in spirit. But if this text had referred
to survival it could not have said "made alive." It must
have said "kept" or "preserved alive." The "spirit" is the
resurrection nature of Christ (1 Corinthians 15. 45) and the
"spirits" of verse 19 are "the angels that sinned" (2 Pet. 2.4).
In verses 9 to 11 the apostle diverges for a little from his
main topic to emphasise God's grace to him and his own
unworthiness to be entrusted with the Gospel.
He goes on in verses 12 to 19 to ask his readers how it can
be possible for them to deny that there is any resurrection. He
points out that if this is so then Christ is not risen. The
consequences of this are threefold: 1. Faith is vain; 2.
Believers are still in their sins; 3. Those fallen asleep in
Christ are perished. This last is very important. It means that
believers sleeping in their graves would never wake up.
Now the apostle triumphantly declares that Christ is risen.
Resurrection and life came by man, just as death came by man.
Christ rose as the first-fruits, then will rise those who belong
to Him at His coming.
Then comes the end. We cannot tell for certain all that the
apostle means by the end, but it will comprise the complete
victory of Christ over all His enemies, the last to be destroyed
being death. God will then be all in all (verses 20 to 28).
Here the apostle diverges again to introduce arguments for
the truth of the resurrection drawn from the experience of his
readers and of himself (verses 29-34). If there is no
resurrection, he says, there is nothing left in life but to enjoy
the present, and he gives a solemn warning against sin and
ignorance.
From verses 35 onwards he works up to his grand climax at
the end of the chapter. Dealing with the question of the method
of resurrection he compares death and resurrection to the sowing
of seed in the ground and the appearance of the grain when it
comes up. The one is utterly unlike the other, yet an
identity runs through them. The bodies of those who rise differ
as the various earthly creatures differ and as the heavenly
bodies differ. The body is sown in weakness, but raised in
power. It is sown a natural (Greek psychikon) body, it is raised
a spiritual body. This agrees with the fact that the first man
Adam was made a living soul (Greek psychee) and the last Adam,
Christ Jesus, was made a life-giving spirit (Greek pneuma). As
we have borne the image of the earthly, so shall we bear the
image of the heavenly.
The apostle goes on in verse 50 solemnly to declare that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. He continues,
"Behold, I shew 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 trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall
be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed". Dead and
living will be changed instantaneously and glorified at the
coming of the Lord when the trumpet sounds. Now could the
apostle have said, "We shall not all sleep," if none of us are
ever going to sleep at all, but to live in glory in a disembodied
state? It would be a strange way of putting the facts. It is a
person who sleeps, not a dead body as such. Waking and sleeping
are not words which can properly apply to a body apart from a
whole person. If a modern Christian had written this passage, he
would have written somewhat as follows: "We shall not all die,
but those who die will be changed at the moment of death. When
the trumpet sounds, the glorified spirits will be reunited to
their bodies, and we shall be changed." But we shall find that
it is safer and happier and better to believe that the inspired
writers meant exactly what they said and used words according to
their accepted meaning among their contemporaries.
When the resurrection to incorruption and immortality has
taken place, then the final victory over death will have been
won. In view of these wonderful facts we may know that our
labour in the service of the Lord is not in vain (verses 53-58).
Another great passage relating to the resurrection is to be found
in 2 Corinthians 4.14 to 5.10. In 4.14 the apostle says that
in all the trials and pressures of his ministry he is sustained
by the knowledge that the One Who raised up the Lord Jesus will
raise him up also with Jesus and present him with the Corinthian
believers. But if he knew that he was going to be in glory in a
disembodied condition immediately upon his death, is not this the
very place where he would have mentioned this as being at least
part, if not the whole, of the hope that, sustained him? Yet no;
he fixes his hope on the resurrection. He knows, at least he
does not mention, any other hope. And it is after his
resurrection, not before, that he expects to be presented in
the presence of God. In verse 16, his outer man is his Adamic
nature, his soul, himself as he is in this world. His inner man
is his regenerate nature, obtained from the Spirit of God at his
new birth. In verse 18 he contrasts temporal things and eternal
things.
If we turn on to 5.1, we find the apostle speaking of our
earthly house of this tabernacle and the possibility of its being
dissolved in death. This earthly house is the natural body of 1
Corinthians I5. 44 and the tabernacle which the apostle Peter
knew he must soon put off (2 Peter. 1.13,14). If this is
dissolved, that is, if we die, we have a building of God, a house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. This is the
spiritual body of 1 Corinthians 15.44, which we are given in
resurrection. We do not have this building immediately upon
death and the apostle does not say here that we do. A verse or
two later on he denies it.
Now if the apostle had expected to be with Christ in glory
in a disembodied state, could he have passed this expectation
entirely over in a context such as this and fixed his
whole hope on his resurrection body? "We know that if our
earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved.....," why this is
exactly the place to say "....we shall be in spirit in the
presence of the Lord in heaven." But he did not say it. The only
reason can be that he knew of no such hope.
He goes on to say that in this tabernacle we are in
distress. We long to be clothed upon with our house which is
from heaven, that is, our resurrection body (ver.2), "if so be
that being clothed we shall not be found naked" (ver.3). An
equally possible translation of the Greek words ei ge (if so be)
is "inasmuch as." Whatever exactly is the apostle's meaning in
this verse, it is clear that he is not looking for, nor does he
desire to be "naked," that is, in a disembodied condition. He
repeats this in verse 4. Though distressed in this tabernacle,
his desire is not to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that
mortality might be swallowed up of life. This is the same thing
as he describes in 1 Corinthians 15. 53. It has been thought
that to speak of the body as a building or a garment implies a
spirit or person that continues to live separately from it. But
this natural figure of speech need mean no more than that there
is a mind within the body and joined to it and indeed in view of
the direct Scriptural teaching that we have reviewed can mean no
more. Man is indeed what is called today a psychosomatic unity.
He has an outward physical man and an inward man of thought and
emotion. This readily intelligible figure of speech cannot by
itself sustain the doctrine of the survival of the spirit or the
immortality of the soul, especially in the absence of any
Scriptural statement of either.
In verses 6 to 8 the apostle says that we know that when we
are present in the body we are absent from the Lord. Yet we
desire rather to be absent from the body and present with the
Lord. Many have taken this to mean present with the Lord in a
disembodied state. But this is not so because (1) the whole
context of the passage deals with resurrection (4.I4 and
onwards), (2) the apostle does not desire a disembodied
condition (5.3,4), (3) "the body" in verses 6 and 8 means this
earthly body, as is clear from verse 10, (4) the only possible
way in which the apostle can be present with the Lord is by
resurrection (1 Thess. 4.17, which we shall study shortly). The
apostle has in mind only two states, the present earthly one in
this "natural" (Greek psychikon) body and the one in resurrection
glory. Here we are absent from the Lord. There we shall be
present with Him. He knows of course that the generation living
at the end will pass from the one to the other instantaneously
without experiencing death, and he was like us completely
ignorant of the time when that moment would be. This view of the
apostle's meaning is confirmed by his references to the judgment
at the conclusion of the passage (ver.10), which takes place at
the end of the world.
The apostle's language here is also consistent with the
fact that in the dying believer's subjective experience he passes
instantly from this world to resurrection glory. So profound is
his unconsciousness in death that on closing his eyes he opens
them at what to him is the next instant on the resurrection
morning.
This fact, as our next passage shows, formed an important
element in the apostle's hope.
We pass on to Philippians 1.20-27. The apostle speaks of
his expectation and hope that he will be ashamed in nothing, but
that in all boldness both always and at the moment Christ would
be magnified in his body, whether by life or by death. He is
ready to live or die, whichever brings greater glory to his Lord.
To him, he says, to live is Christ. This is one of the
great, deep, heart-searching statements of the Bible. The
apostle was absorbed in the interests, and glory of his Lord.
His whole life was devoted to them alone. For him to die was
gain. There were two reasons for this. One was his own
personal gain in passing out of this toilsome and troublous world
and finding himself in an instant of time on the resurrection
morning, as he win do. The other reason was the ultimate gain to
the Lord's cause and the increase of the Lord's glory that his
death would bring, if it proved to be God's purpose and way of
witness for him. He says that he is being pressed between the
two, his desire being fixed on "departing and being with Christ,"
as this is very much better. The "departure" is his dissolution
in death (Greek analusai), but this will bring him instantly into
the presence of Christ with his loved ones and the whole church
about him in resurrection glory.
The words "to depart and be with Christ" are represented in
Greek by two infinitives prefixed by a single definite article,
the effect being to bring together in a startling way two things
which are different and apart. Thus in the believer's experience
the moment after closing his eyes in death he is in his glorified
body in the eternal state. How much better, more joyous and more
triumphant is God's promise and God's purpose for His children
than the expectation that so many of them have of going at death
to heaven in a disembodied state, leaving behind their loved ones
on earth and obliged to wait for years or centuries as ghosts for
the final consummation. Some dread the idea of lying for years
in the grave. But they know nothing of this interval. They are
translated in experience to final glory and will awake to look
in the face of Jesus just as they have been hoping to at death,
but with far greater glory, joy and wonder than possibly could be
the case if they were in a disembodied state.
Indeed we shall see from 1 Thessalonians 4.17 that the only
way of being with Christ is by resurrection. Here we may indeed
see the reason for the statements of the New Testament that "the
coming of the Lord draweth nigh." It is nigh to every believer,
who only has to wait for it till he closes his eyes in death.
Yet such was the devotion of the apostle's life that in spite of
this wonderful prospect before him he realised that to remain in
this world would be more necessary and more profitable for the
believers under his care, and he was content to do so.
In the same epistle the apostle mentions again the great
change that will take place at our resurrection (see
1 Corinthians 15.43,49,53). He speaks of the Lord Jesus
Christ Who at His coming will change the body of our humiliation
and fashion it like unto the body of His glory, and he says that
it is for this Saviour that we look (Phil. 3.20,21).
We pass on for a moment to 1 Thessalonians 4.16. We will
study the whole context when we come shortly to deal with the
predictions of the coming of the Lord. Here the apostle says,
"The dead in Christ shall rise first." This does not mean before
the dead out of Christ, but before the living believers are
changed, even if it be only an instant before. At the end of
verse 17 we find the words "and so shall we be for ever with the
Lord." The words "together with them" a little earlier in the
verse make it clear that these final words apply to the dead as
well as the living. Now the word "so" is Greek houtos, which
means "in this way." Its place here at the beginning of the
sentence makes it emphatic, so that the meaning of the sentence
becomes "And this is way that we shall be for ever with the
Lord," implying that there is no other way and leading us to
conclude that we shall not be with the Lord till the day of
resurrection.
We conclude the references which occur in the apostle Paul's
writings by looking at Hebrews 6.2, the epistle being included
in the Pauline corpus, if not directly by his hand. This is a
rather striking passage. The apostle lists six subjects which he
calls elementary principles of the Christian faith, which
believers are to leave behind and build upon. The fifth of these
is the resurrection of the dead. Now if this is an elementary
principle, part of the foundation, how much more would the
immortality of the "soul" be if it were an actual fact? Yet
it is not mentioned among the fundamentals of the faith, just as
it is not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture, though it is
definitely contradicted in such passages as Ezekiel 18.4.
RESURRECTION IN THE APOCALYPSE
Only two passages concern us here. The first is Revelation
1.18. Here the Lord Jesus as He gives to the apostle the great
vision of Himself in His risen glory says to him, "I am He that
liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore." He
goes on to explain that as a consequence of His own resurrection
He has the keys of death and the grave. This means that He will
unlock the gates of death and the grave and let His people out of
them in resurrection. The same thing is said of the Lord in
Psalm 68.20.
Our last passage is the rather mysterious Revelation 20.
4-6. It remains mysterious because it has not yet been fulfilled
and therefore we cannot yet be certain of its meaning, though it
has caught the imagination of many who have dogmatised fiercely
upon it and contradicted each other. The quotations at the
beginning of verse 4 from Daniel 7 make it probable that this is
a picture of the day of judgment with the saints judging the
world (Matt. 19.28; 1 Cor. 6.2,3). In any case the passage
deals with resurrection.
Misunderstanding of the Scriptural meaning of the word
"souls" (Greek psychas) in verse 4 has caused some to regard
those here seen sitting upon thrones as being in a disembodied
state. The word in fact leads us to the opposite conclusion.
Here are the souls, the persons, the very selves, of the martyrs
living and reigning in resurrection and life. This must be an
actual resurrection, because all are agreed that the
resurrection of the rest of the dead, who are the wicked dead,
mentioned in verse 5, is their actual resurrection. The two
resurrections referred to in verse 5 cannot be of a totally
different nature. The language would be forced and harsh. Thus
there seems to be an interval of the period called in this
chapter a thousand years between the resurrection of the just and
that of the unjust. Here we see the saints risen and reigning.
END OF PART ONE, on the RESURRECTION, as taken from Basil
Atkinson's book called "Life and Immortality."
.......................
January 2001
The Resurrection #2Second part of Resurrection topic as found in the Bible Taken from the book "Life and Immortality" by the late
Basil Atkinson, PhD.
The NT(New Testament) makes clear the close connection
between the RESURRECTION and the COMING of the Lord (all
capitalization for emphasis is mine - Keith Hunt).The two take
place at the same moment of time. It will therefore be desirable
to look at the more prominent of the passages which predict the
second coming......
The OT(Old Testament) writers have much to say of then
future Messianic blessing, but it was not generally given to them
to distinguish the INTERVAL BETWEEN the first and second
comings.....
There are however THREE passages in the later Minor Prophets
and TWO in the Psalms where we can definitely distinguish the
SECOND coming.
1. Haggi 2:6, where we have the prophecy that it will not be
long before the Lord of hosts shakes the heaven and the earth.
This is quoted by the apostle in Hebrews 12:26 and referred to
the end of the world.
2. Zechariah 9: 14. Here the prophet says the Lord will be
seen over the people. This we may take to refer to the
gathering.....of the saints. His arrow will go forth as
lightning. Here we see His destroying wrath against the wicked.
The Lord will blow the TRUMPET. This is the trumpet that will
summon the blessed dead.
3. Zechariah 14: 5. Here it is a quite definite prediction
of the SECOND COMING:
"And the Lord my God shall COME, and all the SAINTS WITH THEE."
(He is coming WITH the saints not because they were already in
heaven at their death, but because at the moment of His coming
the resurrected saints rose to meet Him in the air, in the
clouds, and so be with Him - 1 Thes.4. The last trumpet sound was
sounded and the resurrection took place - 1 Cor.15. Jesus, with
the saints CONTINUE to come from the clouds of the air to descend
and to touch their feet on the mount of Olives - Zech.14: 1-4,
see my study called "Mantions in the Sky?" - Keith Hunt).
4 and 5. Psalm 96: 13 and 98: 9, "for he cometh to judge the
earth." Here the last judgment appears, which is the other great
event associated with the resurrection and the second coming.
THE SECOND COMING IN THE GOSPELS
In the Gospels we have the wonderful account of the SECOND
COMING given us by the Lord Himself in the great parallel
passages of Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. It comes at the
climax of the apocalyptic prophecies dealing with the seige of
Jerusalem and the subsequent troubles both for the Jews and the
church. (see my study called "Armageddon and the Age to come" -
Keith Hunt). We find:
(1) That it is to take place immediately at the end of the Gospel
age (Matt.24: 29; Mark 13: 24).
(2) It is to be preceded by signs, astronomical or international,
or both (Matt.24: 29; Mark 13: 24; Luke 21: 25,26).
(3) The people of the earth will mourn in despair (Matt. 24: 30).
(4) They will see Christ's coming on the clouds with power and
great glory (Matt.24: 30; Mark 13: 26; Luke 21: 27).
(5) He will send His angels (Matt.24: 31; Mark 13: 27).
(6) With a loud sound of a trumpet (Matt.24:31).
(7) The angels will gather the elect (Matt.24: 31; Mark 13: 27).
We also learn that the DAY and the HOUR of the coming are
UNKNOWN and that the world will NOT EXPECT IT up to the LAST
MOMENT.
We find the same picture in Luke 17: 24-37. Here we find the
instantaneous suddenness of the day (verse 24); the continuance
of the world socially and commercially until the day (verses
26-30); the revelation of Christ (verse 30); the urgency of being
ready (verses 31-33); the separation of the righteous and the
wicked (verses 34,35).
In Luke 18: 8 we find a suggestion that when Christ comes He
will not find MANY BELIEVERS on the earth. (The Greek here is,
"When the Son of man comes, shall He find THE faith on the earth"
- Keith Hunt).
In John 14: 3 we have the Lord's lovely promise that He will
come again and receive us unto Himself. He would hardly have said
this if He had been going to receive each one of us unto Himself
at our DEATH. It is His COMING that teaches us to look to,
that glorious coming at the END of the world, which has the
TWOFOLD purpose of RECEIVING His people and JUDGING the world.
(Again, on a full study of John 14:1-4 I refer you to my article
"Mantions in the Sky?" - Keith Hunt).
THE SECOND COMING IN THE ACTS AND THE GENERAL EPISTLES
We find an important reference to the second coming in Acts
1:11. It immediately follows the account of the ascension of
Christ. It consists of the promise given to the disciples by the
two angels that the same Jesus whom they had seen going into
heaven would so come in like manner as they had seen Him go, that
is, that there would be a personal bodily return from heaven.
Thus the Scriptures build up for us a clear picture of the Lord's
glorious return.
In the General Epistles there are twelve references to the
Lord's coming. In James we read, "Be patient therefore, brethren,
unto the coming of the Lord." It is then that the reward will
come and the coming draws nigh (vers 8).
It draws nigh to every believer because it is the very next
thing that he will know after he closes his eyes in death. At the
same time we should notice the apostle does not say, "Be patient
until your 'home-call' at death."
In the same way the apostle Peter tells us to have hope to
the end for the grace that will be brought to us at the
revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13). Again our hope
is directed to the second coming.
In 1 Peter 4:5 we are directed again to the day of judgment,
when the wicked will give account of their lives and in 1 Peter
4:7 the apostle tells us that the end of all things has drawn
nigh. The way in which it is near to all men we have already
seen. In verse 13 of the same chapter the apostle tells us to
rejoice in sharing the sufferings of Christ, that we may rejoice
at the revelation of His glory. He does not speak of rejoicing at
any "home-call" at the time of death.
Again he tells the shepherds that when the Chief Shepherd
appears they will receive the crown of glory that does not fade
away (1 Peter 5:4). We may notice that he does not say that they
will receive it when called into the Lord's presence at the time
of their death. He knows nothing of such a call. It would not be
victory over death but an evasion of it........
There are three references to the coming of the Lord in the
first epistle of John. The first is in 2:28, "And now, little
children, abide in him, that if he appear we may have boldness
and not be ashamed before Him at His coming." The word "if" does
not indicate a condition but is used simply as an argument. He
certainly will appear. His coming is His appearance and
manifestation. It is then that we shall meet Him with confidence
or with shame, but this could not be said if our meeting with Him
was going to be centuries or years beforehand at death.
Again in 1 John 3:2 we read, "Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be. We know that
if He appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He
is." We notice that it is when He appears that we shall see Him
as He is, not as disembodied spirits at death.
Again in 1 John 4:7 the apostle speaks of our having
boldness in the day of judgment. Thus he consistently sets before
us for our expectation the coming of the Lord and the day of
judgment.
The apostle Jude refers to the same great event as having
been foretold by Enoch the seventh from Adam: "Behold, the Lord
comes with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon
all" (Jude 14). (He comes with "saints" because the resurrection
of the saints has taken place and He and the saints continue down
from the clouds to the Mount of Olives - Zech.14 - Keith Hunt).
THE COMING OF THE LORD IN THE EPISTLES OF THE APOSTLE PAUL
We have seen that NONE of the apostles who were the authors
of the General Epistles mention any hope or promise of being with
the Lord in a disembodied state at death. All point us to His
coming at the end of the world as the time when we shall see
Him and be with Him.
In the same way in the writings of the apostle Paul
(including Hebrews) there are eighteen references to His second
coming.
Thus in Romans 2:15-16 the apostle gives us his prophecy of
the great day of judgment. He calls it the day of wrath and of
the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, in which both
just and unjust will receive their reward. It is the day when God
judges the secrets of men. The judgment of this great day forms
the whole background of his doctrine of justification by faith.
Similarly in Romans 14:10 he says, "We shall all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ," or, as other manuscripts
say, "of God."
The apostle connects the coming of the Lord with the
judgment in 1 Corinthians 4:5, "Judge nothing before the time,
until the Lord come, who will bring to light the hidden
things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the
hearts." All judgment of others is to be left to the Lord.
In Ephesians 4:30 the apostle reminds us that we have been
sealed by the Holy Spirit of God unto the day of redemption. This
is the day of our redemption of our bodies (Rom.8:23). We may
notice that he does not say "unto our home call at death." But
would he not surely have done so, if he had known of such an
event and been looking forward to it?
We have already noticed the apostle's statement of the
resurrection in Philippians 3:21. We may add here that he
connects this immediately with the coming of the Savior
(Phil. 3:20). He says that we look for the coming of the Savior,
thus clearly fixing our hope for the future upon that event and
not upon death.
The apostle directs our attention to the same event in
Colossians 3:4, "When Christ who is our life, shall appear, then
shall you also appear with Him in glory." To appear here means to
be revealed or made manifest. It is when Christ comes that we
shall be made manifest with Him in glory, not at death.
The epistles to the Thessalonians are the most explicit of
all the apostle's writings on the subject of the coming of the
Lord. Thus in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 he tells us that to wait for
God's Son from heaven is one of the two main purposes of
conversion. If we are to wait for His coming, it is clear that we
cannot also be waiting for a "home call" to enter His presence at
death.
In 1 Thes.2:19 the apostle tells us that nay whom we may by
grace have led to Christ will be our joy, crown and glory before
our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming. but if they had been going
to meet us in heaven in a disembodied state between death and the
resurrection, would they not have been so there?
One of the GREAT passages of Scripture relating to the
SECOND coming of the Lord is found in 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-17.
We have already dealt with it in connection with the
resurrection. It ranks with Matthew 24: 30,31, on which it is
based, and 1 Corinthians 15: 51,52. In verses 16 and 17 of this
chapter the apostle speaks of a shout and the voice of the
archangel (Matt.24: 30, the Son of man coming); the clouds
(Matt.24: 30, the clouds of heaven); we shall be caught up (Matt.
24: 31, the angels will gather together His elect). We have
already noticed that this is the way we shall be for ever with
the Lord (1 Thes. 4:17).
In 1 Thessalonians 5: 23 we have the apostle's prayer that
our whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto
(R.V. "at" which is better) the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We noticed this text in our first section (the first section of
Atkinson's book on this Website is under the studies "Death, Hell
and Immortality" - Keith Hunt).
There is an important reference to the Lord's coming to judgment
in 2 Thessalonians 1: 7-10. The apostle says that troubled
believers will all have rest together at the revelation of the
Lord Jesus from heaven. This surely, to say the least, suggests
strongly that the apostle never thought of any of them having
rest before that great event. He speaks also a mighty angels;
flames of fire; the punishment of the wicked, which we shall
study in our fourth section (on this Website that section is
under the studies "Reward of the wicked" - Keith hunt); of Christ
being glorified in His saints and admired in all those who
believe.
When we turn to the epistle of the Hebrews, we find three
references to the coming of the Lord. 1) Hebrews 9: 28, "To them
that look for Him He shall appear the second time without sin
unto salvation." Our salvation will be completed at the
appearance of the Lord. 2) Hebrews 10: 37, "For yet a little
while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." The
coming of the Lord will not be long delayed. We have seen how
this will be so in the case of every believer. 3) Hebrews 12: 26,
"Whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised
saying, Yet once more I shall shake not the earth only, but also
heaven." The first shaking was at Sinai, the second will be at
His coming.
We find five references to the coming of the Lord in the
Pastoral Epistles.
In 1 Timothy 6:14,15 it is called "the appearing of our Lord
Jesus christ, which in His times He shall show, who is the blest
and only Potentate." This tells us that God knows the time of the
appearing and will bring it about when it is due.
In 2 Timothy 1:12 we find the well known confident
expression of the apostle, "I know whom I have believed and am
persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed
unto Him against that day." It is worth noting that the apostle
does not say "against my home call."
In 2 Timothy 4:1 the apostle speaks of the judgment of
Christ Jesus of the living and the dead, His appearance and His
kingdom.
We turn to the apostle's famous words in 2 Timothy 4: 6-8.
He speaks of his approaching departure and looks back over his
victorious life. "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness." Now if he excepted this at death here is just the
place to say it - "which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give
me" - when I am called home to be present with Him at my
departure? No - "shall give me AT THAT DAY." Till then the crown
is "laid up" in waiting and it will be given to "all who love His
appearing," the whole number of the people of God together.
Our final passage is in Titus 2: 13. Here the apostle tells
us that we are to live in this world "looking for the blessed
hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior
Christ Jesus." His appearing is the hope of the church. We are to
live looking for it, not looking for glory or blessedness at
death.
THE SECOND COMING IN THE APOCALYPSE
In Revelation 1 :7 we have a great declaration of the coming
of the Lord, which we might say is here set before us as the goal
of history, "Behold, He comes with clouds." This is taken from
Daniel 7: 13 and agrees with the declaration of the angel in Acts
1: 11. "Every eye shall see Him and they also which pierced Him."
This is taken from Zechariah 12: 10. He will be universally
visible. Probably the Jews as a whole are meant by those
who pierced him......"All the tribes of the earth shall wail
because of him." this also is taken from Zechariah 12: 10 and
refers to the despair of the wicked at the last day, though it
may also refer to the mourning of repentance that comes in
greater or less degree to every believer at conversion (at the
coming of the Lord in glory many peoples from many nations will
repent and acknowledge Him, this many prophecies fortetell, as
well as nations wailing their destruction that comes upon them
when He return, see Revelation 18 - Keith Hunt).......
In the last chapter we have the promise, "Behold, I come
quickly" (Rev.22:12). None of us, as we have seen, has long to
wait. Almost at the very end of the Bible the promise is repeated
in Revelation 22: 20, "Yes, I come quickly," and the waiting
church echoes back the prayer, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
Thus throughout the New Testament the coming of the Lord is
prominently emphasised and set before the believer as the one
great hope towards which he is to press........
PARADISE
Twice in the New Testament the world to come is referred to
as Paradise. This is the Greek word borrowed from the Persian
meaning an orchard or fruit garden. It suggests the restoration
of the garden of Eden with the innocence and happiness that
man enjoyed there, and we may be sure that the eternal garden
will be greater and better than the one on earth which adam lost.
The first of the two occurrences of this name is found in
the Lord's words to the dying thief on the cross (Luke 23: 43).
These read in our version, "Verily I say unto you, Today shalt
thou be with me in Paradise." These words might possibly be taken
in the apostle's sense in Philippians 1: 23, but not very
honestly. As they stand they strongly imply, if they do not
require it, the survival both of the Lord Jesus and of the thief
in a disembodied state after their death and their presence
together in Paradise on that day, and in this sense they are very
often taken, with every excuse in the case of those who
do not know the original, although they contradict everything
that the Bible has to say elsewhere on the subject.
When however we look into the original we find that,
although the words can quite well be translated as they are found
in our version, they can be translated even more agreeably to the
Greek, "Verily I say unto you TODAY, thou shalt be with me in
Paradise." The point of saying, "I say unto thee today" is
twofold. First, it is an accustomed phrase in the Hebrew. We
often find Moses saying, "The commandments which I command thee
this day." Secondly, the day on which the Lord spoke to the thief
was the very day which made the thief's entry into paradise
possible by the mighty event of the Lord's suffering and death,
which was taking place upon it. Thus the Lord's answer was an
exact response to the poor thief's request that He would remember
him WHEN HE CAME INTO HIS KINGDOM (verse 42).
That this is the right interpretation of the Greek is made
clear by the second occurrence of the name Paradise, which is in
Revelation 2: 7. Here the overcomer is promised access to the
tree of life, "which is in the Paradise of God"......
(Putting all what the Bible says about death, eternal life,
resurrection, and reward, together, it is clear as Basil Atkinson
says, that we receive life eternal, glory, rewards, our crown of
righteousness, not at our death, but at the second coming of the
Lord Jesus, when He shall come into His kingdom, which is also
the kingdom of perfect paradise for those resurrected into it -
Keith Hunt).
EVERLASTING LIFE
This is the description that we find in John's Gospel of the
glory to come. In John 5: 24 we have the assurance that the
believer has everlasting life and will not come into condemnation
but is passed from death to life.....In John 8: 51 we have the
promise that the one who keeps Christ's word will never see death
(actually the Greek reads as in Berry's Interlinear, "shall not
die forever" - indeed so, because there will be a resurrection
- Keith Hunt). At the end of his life on earth his death is
turned by the fact of the coming resurrection into sleep and he
will never be touched by the second death.
Again, the Lord Jesus promises that He gives to His sheep
everlasting life and they shall never perish (John 10: 28). In
John 14: 2 we find the precious promise that the believer's place
in eternity will be in the Father's home. "In my father's house
are many mansions....I go to prepare a place for you." (I have a
full study on this verse on my Website called "Mansions in the
Sky?" - Keith Hunt).
Again in the great prayer of John 17 the Lord Jesus tells us
the Father's purpose is that the Son should give eternal life to
all the Father has given Him.
Eternal life is the basis of the glory to come. It stands in
CONTRAST to the eternal death of the wicked and to the mortal
condition of the believer and all men on earth.
THE INHERITANCE AND THE CROWN
If we turn to the Epistles of the apostle Peter, we find
four references to the glory to come.
In 1 Peter 1:4 it is called "an inheritance, incorruptible
and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for
you" and in the following verse it is called "salvation ready to
be revealed in the last time."
This makes it clear that we reach the inheritance by
RESURRECTION at the COMING of the Lord. Had it been ready to be
revealed at death, the apostle must surely have said so. This
wonderful salvation is the inheritance of the people of God.
In 1 Peter 5: 4 the pastors who fed the flock are told that they
will receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away. We should
notice that this crown will be received "when the chief Shepherd
shall appear," not at death.
In 2 Peter 1: 11 the apostle tells us that if we do our
diligence to make our calling and election sure, an abundant
entrance will be ministered to us into the everlasting kingdom of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ........
GLORY, HONOR AND IMMORTALITY
This is the comprehensive description of the eternal state
which the apostle Paul tells us that the righteous seek (Rom.2:
17). He also calls it glory, honor and peace (Rom.2: 10). It
stands in contrast to indignation and wrath, tribulation and
anguish (verses 8 and 9).......
For "well-doing" the Greek says, "a good work." What this
good work is is explained in John 6: 29. It is to believe in
Jesus. It is in contrast to the works (in the plural) both here
and in John 6: 28.
The believer in the world to come will share the glory and
honor of Jesus, will never die and will possess perfect and
permanent peace.
We notice that the apostle tells us that the righteous SEEK
FOR immortality (as the Greek says, "incorruptibility").
Thus the apostle confirms our contention that immortality is
not natural to all men but is God's gift to those who believe in
Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 13: 12 we find the moving description of
the glory to come as the state in which we have perfect vision of
God's face and perfect knowledge of Him.
A reference to eternal glory is found in Ephesians 1: 18,
where the apostle speaks of the hope of His calling and the
riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints...........
END OF QUOTES from Basil Atkinson's book "Life and Immortality."
The last part of Atkinson's book is entitled "The Doom of the
Lord" - which you will find on my Website under "Reward of the
Wicked" - Keith Hunt
...........................
Compiled December 2001
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