Untitled article by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 30, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 50.

Bible Answers to Bible Questions.—No. 6.

By Editor

LAST week the Bible question which we noticed was, "How are the dead raised up?" To that question we gave the Bible answer. In immediate connection with that question is this one, "With what body do they come?" The whole verse reads: "But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?" 1 Cor. 15:35.

This is an important question or the Bible would not ask it. It is one which we have a right to study or it would not be presented thus in the Bible. And the Bible having asked the question, we believe that the Bible answers it, because God does not trifle with men. The Bible is his revelation to man, and in it God has laid before us that which it is important and for our good to know. We have yet found no question asked in the Bible which is not answered by the Bible, unless it be of those questions which carry the answers in themselves. This question is not an exception. The Bible answers the question as to with what body the dead come when they are raised up. And, like all the other questions which we have examined, the Bible is the only place where the correct answer to this question can be found. And what the Bible says on the subject must settle the matter at once, for that is the truth, and nothing contrary to it can be.

Remember that the subject of the whole chapter in which this question is found is the resurrection of the dead. In verse 20, we read, "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept." The first-fruits was the sample, and of the best of the great harvest that was to follow. There is to be a harvest of the earth. Of those who shall be gathered from the earth into the everlasting garner of God, Christ is the sample. His glorious resurrection body is the sample, the pattern of all that shall be received by him from the earth. For says the Scripture, he "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body." Phil. 3:21. And "we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." 1 John 3:2.

But Christ says, "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell [the grave] and of death." Rev. 1:18. And that same body that died on the cross; that same body that was pierced with the Roman spear; and that was laid in Joseph's new tomb; that same body came forth from the tomb and lived again. That same body that died came forth from the dead. And so really was it so that he could say to them who had been with him before his death, "Handle me and see that it is I myself." "Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side." And when he came forth from the dead, the napkins which had enwrapped his sacred head, and the linen clothes that had been about his holy form, were laid in places by themselves, while every vestige of the body was gone from the sepulcher. Thus the Saviour rose from the dead with the same body that died. He, says the Scripture, is "the first-fruits," the sample, of those who shall come from the dead. Therefore, the dead come from the dead with the body that died, only that in the case of those who are Christ's, the body will be immortal as his glorious body instead of the mortal body that was laid in the grave.

This is clearly stated by the scripture in Isaiah 26:19: "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." Now, how could it be possible for the "dead body" of any person to arise unless it be the body that died? Yet bear in mind that when the dead body—the body that died—arises, if it be the body of a righteous person, it arises immortal instead of mortal as it died. For says the Scripture, "Behold, I show 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. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Cor. 15:51-54.

Next the Scripture uses a simile to illustrate this. Death and burial are likened to the sowing of grain. And so we read, "That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain; but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body." Verses 36-38. As, therefore, death and burial are likened to the sowing of seed, and as God giveth to every seed his own body, it is plain by this word that when the one who has died is quickened, is made to live again,—to every one is given his own body; not the body of some one else nor some other body, but "his own body." When Christ was brought again from the dead he came with "his own body." As he was the sample of all the harvest, so every one who shall be brought from the dead will come as he did, and as the Scripture declares, with "his own body."

But the Scripture carries the subject yet farther. "All flesh is not the same flesh; but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds." Verse 39. And as God gives to every seed—every person—his own body, it follows that when men's flesh is sown, it will be men's flesh and not beasts, nor birds, nor fishes' flesh, that will be raised at the resurrection of the dead.

Again says the Scripture: "There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another." Verse 40. Every person will have his own body, but it will be immortalized and glorified so that its nature and capabilities will as far transcend our bodies at present as the glory of Heaven transcends the earth. For "there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." Notice in all this that it is the same thing that is sown that is raised. "It is sown," "it is raised." The man who died is raised from the dead. The body that is sown, that body is raised, for God giveth to every seed "his own body." Yet it is a changed body; changed from mortal to immortal, from corruptible to incorruptible, from weakness to power, from natural to spiritual, from dishonor to glory, for Christ "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself."

We know that many attempt to apply scientific tests to the resurrection of the dead, as nowadays they do to every phase of revelation, and in the application of these scientific tests they cannot see how the dead can be raised, they cannot see how the body can be brought again from the dust. But it is not a scientific question at all. It is not susceptible of scientific tests. It is solely a question of the power of God, and science cannot touch it.

Yet it is said that though it be not itself a question of science, it must be according to science, for God cannot violate his own laws. It is not becoming for any one to say that what God says he will do, would be contrary to science. It may be indeed that it would be contrary to what man knows of science; it might be against man's ideas of philosophy. But does it follow that therefore it must be contrary to the science or the philosophy of the universe as known to God? We think not, for of a truth there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy. We do not believe that God is obliged to raise the dead according to men's ideas of science or philosophy. Jevons justly says:—

"We perpetually find ourselves in the position of finite minds attempting infinite problems, and can we be sure that where we see contradiction an Infinite Intelligence might not discover perfect logical harmony?"

As for the idea that "God cannot violate his own laws," we put the thing just the other way, that as God is the source of all law, it is impossible that anything which he should do could be a violation of law.

We know that a piece of lead, or any other metal except gold or silver, can be transformed by heat in contact with air, into a powder or species of ashes or lime. Those ashes can then be taken and heated in a crucible with some grains of wheat, and the metal will be seen rising from its ashes and reassuming its original form and properties. And if chemistry can do this, faith says that though the human body be reduced to ashes or to the dust of earth, the power of God can cause the body to arise from its ashes, and to re-assume its original form; and that this renewed form will be immortal, spiritual, and glorious, according to the working whereby the Christ-God is able to subdue all things unto himself. The Bible question is, "With what body do they come?" The Bible answer is, God giveth it a body as pleaseth him, and to every seed (every person) "his own body."