The Resurrection by J. D. Morton

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 22, 1863

The Resurrection.

By J. D. Morton

THERE is no doctrine more clearly taught in the word of God than that man shall have a literal resurrection from the dead. Says Paul, 1 Cor. xv, 22, For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Old men, little children, and the middle aged, alike have to "bow to sceptered Death." And the same will come up again when the trump shall sound to wake the sleeping dead.

It is believed by many that there is no need of a literal resurrection from the dead; that when a man dies, he at once leaves this cumbrous clay, and soars above and there lives on amidst the shouts and songs of the happy throng in heaven. Could we believe this, we too would respond, There is no need of a literal resurrection from the dead.

But hear the apostle still further: Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead then is Christ not risen. 1 Cor. xv, 12, 13. The apostle not only teaches by this that Christ rose from the dead, but that we must have a resurrection through him, and without this, we have no hope of the future.

The apostle further says: For if the dead rise not, then is Christ not raised. And if Christ be not raised, then your faith is vain: ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 1 Cor. xv, 16-18. This is the apostle's great cleaver. This must carry death to the popular theology of the day, that man enters upon his reward at death.

"So man lieth down and riseth not: till the heavens be no more they shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep. Oh that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret until thy wrath be past; that thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me." Job xiv, 12, 13. Job looked forward unto the resurrection, and understood that man was to rest in the grave until that time. And while meditating on the time of trouble and the wrath of God as it is to be poured out on this guilty world, it is not strange that he should break out in the language we have just quoted: "Oh that thou wouldest hide me in the grave."

In the following verse Job asks the question, If a man die shall he live again? then proceeds to answer it in the following language: Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee. Job, with all the righteous from Abel down to the advent of our Lord, will answer this call by coming forth from their dusty beds when the trump of God shall sound.

But it is urged that it would be impossible for man to have a literal resurrection of the body; for, says the objector, how can God gather together the different particles of dust that have been scattered apart for thousands of miles? To such we would say in the language of our Lord, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the Scriptures neither the power of God. Mark xii, 24. Again, is it necessary that the same identical dust should be brought together to constitute the same person? May not the resurrection mean the same organism re-animated and brought to consciousness and life again? Those who have been partakers of the divine nature, and have sought immortality through Christ, will be raised incorruptible, and have eternal life; while the wicked will come up mortal, and therefore subject to the second death.

"But some men will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?" Paul illustrates this by the seed we sow or plant. The seed sown moulders to dust; and in due time behold a resurrection of that grain. Not the same identical body sown, but one like unto it; as the apostle has said, God giveth it a body as it has pleased him, and to every seed his own body. 1 Cor. xv, 35, 38.

Are we not living near this solemn time to which apostles and prophets have looked with the deepest interest? We believe it; and it brings hope and light to God's people. It unfolds the future and removes the gloom and darkness that must otherwise have hung over the fallen race of man, and points to joys far brighter than this dark world can give, and bids us all prepare to meet our God.

J. D. Morton.

Coldwater, Mich.