“But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead…Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell 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 trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will 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 has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

 “O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”

The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Cor 15:20,21,50-58.)

“There are few features of truth on which Christian people in general seem to have greater need for Bible study than that of the resurrection. There are many systems of religion in the world, but none but Christianity teaches a resurrection of the DEAD. We mean true Christianity – the Bible teaching; for alas! with deep regret we write it, Churchianity (as distinct from Christianity) does not believe in the resurrection of the dead: it has adopted the heathen theory that the dead are not dead, but alive; hence, whatever resurrection it teaches is along that line – of a resurrection of the LIVING.

Its claim is that at death something leaves the body (although they have not the slightest evidence of such departure, except that breath and vitality leave it); they claim that dying is a release, a benefit, an advantage; an UN-PRISONING of the one who appeared to die, but who, they claim, is really more alive than ever. However, finding the doctrine of resurrection in the Bible, they do not wish to ignore it entirely and, hence, teach that its beneficiaries, whom we will call “shades” or “ghosts” (“spirits” if you will) have hankerings after their bodies – even though most having long since died, (but yet somehow, still live?) have existed on without such for centuries. This hankering for a body (which they claim is unnecessary to existence and happiness) God proposes to gratify, and by and by the resurrection of their bodies will take place.

They anticipate a grand, glorious time in which they will get back into bodies, bodies which they describe as being similar to their present bodies (Supposedly composed of “flesh and bone”, howbeit glorified bodies). Strange that they had previously suggested that physical bodies are “prison-houses.” Surely there is inconsistency enough in such a theory to nauseate almost anybody, and it is not surprising that great confusion prevails throughout Christendom on this subject which, as we shall see in examining our present lesson, finds so prominent a place in the Scriptures.

The Scripture teaching is most explicitly to the contrary of the above, but seems obscure, because of certain doctrinal errors which the great Adversary has introduced. One of these is a confusion of thought respecting what constitutes a soul. Churchianity’s view of a soul was expressed by a Methodist bishop in these words:

“It is without interior or exterior; without body, shape or parts – and you could put a million of them in a nutshell.” The bishop’s definition of a soul would be a proper definition of nothing, and one could just as readily put ten thousand-millions of nothings in a nutshell, – and still have room left.

In the Bible, the word “soul” is used to signify being, or person; and a human being, or human person, is made up of two parts; viz., a body (or organism) and its vitality, otherwise called the spirit of life, or breath of life. The body is not intelligent of itself, neither is vitality intelligent; but when the two are brought together, intelligence, being, or soul, commences. So it was with Father Adam: the Lord formed his body (from the dust of the earth, from physical matter taken from the earth), but it was not yet a soul, – it was merely so much organized matter (which was combined or constructed into the form of what God determine an earthly man should resemble).

Next God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives” – the vitality common to all living creatures, but not a soul. It was when these two things, organism and vitality, (the “breath” or “power of life”) were properly united that man came into existence, a living, thinking being – “man became, – a living soul.” (Gen 2:7)

We must notice carefully that the lesson is not that man has a soul, but that man is a soul, or being.

Let us take an illustration from nature – the air we breathe: it is composed of oxygen and nitrogen, neither of which is atmosphere, or air; but when the two combine, as they do in proper chemical proportions, the resulting thing is atmosphere. Just so with soul. God speaks to us from this standpoint, of our being each a soul. He does not address our bodies nor our breath of lives, but he does address us as intelligent beings, or souls. In pronouncing the penalty of violating his law, he did not address Adam’s body specifically, but the man, the soul, the intelligent being: “Thou!” “In the day that thou eat thereof thou shalt surely die.” “The soul that sins IT shall die.” – Gen 2:17; Ezek 18:20.

When we perceive, then, that it is the soul that dies, we perceive also that it is the soul that will need the resurrection from death. Death is the dissolution of the union between organism and vitality, whether it be in man or in beast, in fish or in fowl. Scientists agree that a general repair of the tissues of our bodies is continually in progress; some elements constantly sloughing off, and new ones as constantly being added; they assert that this process renews the body every seven years. If, therefore, God had pronounced the death sentence merely against Adam’s body, it would have been paid within seven years. But the penalty was not against Adam’s body, but against Adam himself, the soul, the ego, the being, and hence, the sloughing off of the atoms of his body did not pay the penalty. It required the sacrifice of another soul to redeem him. Hence, we read that our Lord Jesus made “his soul [being] an offering for sin“; that he “poured out his soul unto death.” – Isa 53:10,12.

The Apostle Peter points out that the soul of our Lord Jesus was not left in death – in hades – and he quotes from the Prophet David in corroboration. David declares, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol [Greek, hades – the death-state].” The Apostle explains that David was a prophet, and spoke, not of himself, but of the Lord Jesus, that “his soul was not left in hades.” (Acts 2:25-32). This constituted the Apostle Peter’s argument regarding the resurrection of our Lord – that his soul was not left in hades – in the death-state; that God raised him up by his own power. And this is the proper thought respecting all death and all resurrection from death.

It is the soul that dies – the being is dissolved by death. Then the body, subject to corruption, returns to dust. If it was our Lord’s soul that died and was raised, and if he gave himself a ransom, a corresponding price, for the being, the soul-Adam (and his race in his loins at the time of his transgression) the thought now must be that all the souls of Adam’s race are to be recovered from that death penalty; – and that the resurrection is for the purpose of restoring these souls of Adam’s race, who have been bought back from destruction by the soul of the Redeemer.” (R3174)

Continued with next post.