Gospel Gleanings, “…especially the parchments”

Volume 31, Number 20 May 18, 2014

The truth of resurrection that Isaiah surfaced in For many deceivers are entered into the world,
Chapter 25 he now repeats with greater personal who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the
emphasis. Not only does our Lord swallow up flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. (2
death in victory, but He claims that victory by the John 1:7)
certain promise of personal, individual resurrection
for each—and all—of His beloved, chosen people. According to John, “Antichrist” is not a demonic
While the Scriptures teach a general resurrection personality that shall appear near the end with
(Daniel 12:2; John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15), the prophet supernatural and sinister powers. Antichrist was a
here singles out God’s people for special comfort in label that John, inspired by the Holy Spirit to write
this reminder of a personal, individual, literal bodily truth and only truth, attached to false teachers in his
resurrection to come. day who dared to deny that Jesus came and lived in
Thy dead men shall live. We should read this a literal, physical, human body. John expands the
simple clause with amazement. Only God could point; anyone who embraces this errant idea at any
direct a prophet to state such a profound truth so time is no less antichrist than the people in his
clearly and so simply. This is the way it is. This is lifetime of whom he writes.
a fact that God has promised His people from the Together with my dead body…. As a point of
beginning. Job put the point in the form of a precise accuracy, this passage teaches the truth of
question, “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job Jesus’ personal, bodily resurrection, as well as our
14:14) Job comforts himself that he will remember own literal, physical, bodily resurrection. This truth
this truth “…all the days of my appointed time…till echoes Paul’s words.
my change come.”
Together with my dead body shall they arise. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then
Many ancient non-Christian religions held to various is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen,
beliefs that included some form of life after death, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also
but the Judeo-Christian idea of God becoming a vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of
man, living, dying, and rising again stands alone. God; because we have testified of God that he
This sentence reads more like a New Testament raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be
quote from Jesus’ mouth. We cannot isolate the that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not,
Biblical doctrine of the resurrection from Jesus’ then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not
resurrection. Further, we cannot accept the truth of raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
this prophecy and hold any view that rejects Jesus’ (1 Corinthians 15:13-17)
literal, physical human body, a body that lived,
suffered, and died, but also a body that arose from When Isaiah wrote the words “Together with my
death, witnessed His literal resurrection for forty dead body…” he linked our personal resurrection
days, and then ascended to glory. How can anyone with Jesus’ literal bodily resurrection. Take great
reject Jesus’ literal “Incarnation,” His coming in a comfort in these words. When Jesus arose from
literal, physical, human body? John warns us that the dead and left that borrowed tomb, the event
those who dare to deny this truth are antichrist. guaranteed our own resurrection so surely that the
prophet associates our resurrection with that event,
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit “Together with my dead body….”
that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the The language of this passage adds to the clarity
flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth and the certainty of a literal, physical, bodily
not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not resurrection. Words could not make the point more
of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, clearly, “Together with my dead body….” If Jesus
whereof ye have heard that it should come; and didn’t have a literal body, how could He speak
even now already is it in the world. Ye are of these prophetic words?
God, little children, and have overcome them: Sadly often, preachers and Bible teachers affirm
because greater is he that is in you, than he that the truth of resurrection, but fail to link that truth to
is in the world. (1 John 4:2-4) the believer’s life in the here and now. Scripture
abounds with this truth and uses our certain literal
resurrection to urge us to live today like “A child of ignored? We would logically expect to see an
the King.” erosion of moral consistency in the conduct of those
believers? And what, in fact, do we see in the
And you, being dead in your sins and the greater Christian culture of our day? Barna and a
uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened number of other Christian groups have conducted a
together with him, having forgiven you all survey’s, asking extensive questions about
trespasses. (Colossians 2:13) respondents’ moral outlook. With sad consistency,
these surveys report that there is no significant
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things difference between the moral perspective and
which are above, where Christ sitteth on the conduct of Christians and non-Christians. This idea
right hand of God. Set your affection on things should alarm the serious Bible student/believer.
above, not on things on the earth. For ye are More to the point, we need to seek any insights we
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. can find in Scripture to reverse this rudderless ship.
(Colossians 3:1-3) The answer is not in more sermons against lying
and stealing or a higher respect for marriage as an
I include Colossians 2:13, for this verse links the institution that God established and defined. Those
forgiveness of our sins and our new birth with teachings should be intertwined in all sound Biblical
Jesus’ death and resurrection, “…quickened teaching. However, merely teaching people that
together with him.” Notice the similarity of these things are wrong will not transform them. The
language. Isaiah 26:19, “Together with my dead answer lies in a return to the clear teachings of
body shall they arise.” Colossians 2:13, “hath he Scripture on the Second Coming and our literal,
quickened together with him.” If we are joined with bodily resurrection! Isn’t that Paul’s point when he
Jesus in His death, we cannot be separated from writes, “If ye then be risen with Christ…”?
Him in His resurrection! And that is the point made In several instances in the New Testament, the
in Isaiah’s words, “Together with my dead body word translated “conversation” in our King James
shall they arise.” Bible was translated from a word that refers to
We cannot question that Paul wrote these words one’s citizenship in first century Greek language.
in simple, understandable language. Our hope of
heaven cannot stand apart from the literal …to conduct oneself with proper reference to
resurrection of Jesus. And our belief in His literal, one’s obligations in relationship to others, as
physical, bodily resurrection appears in Scripture as part of some community1
the bedrock foundation for our hope of a literal, …to behave as a citizen. Any public measure,
physical, bodily resurrection at the Second Coming. administration of the state, the condition or life of
Take this truth from Christian faith, and you have a citizen. In the NT, the state itself, community,
nothing left. commonwealth, used metaphorically of
Why preach the resurrection? What difference Christians in reference to their spiritual
does it make in the here and now? Evidently, Paul community and their status as citizens of heaven
and other New Testament writers understood what (Phil. 3:20).2
we sometimes neglect. “If ye then be risen with
Christ….” Paul’s teaching that believers should live The principle idea of the word identifies behavior
a transformed life that sets them apart from that is compatible with one’s citizenship, the country
unbelievers around them is all based on the of origin or home. If we truly are a stranger here,
foundational truth of the resurrection. To be and if heaven is our home, we owe our citizenship
precise, he based this teaching on our indissoluble through this pilgrimage the ethical debt of living like
union with the Lord Jesus Christ, including His citizens of heaven. And the link that compels this
death and His resurrection. Earlier I mentioned the ethical conduct is the resurrection.
deficiency of this teaching in many contemporary
Christian pulpits. In one subculture of Christianity, Little Zion Primitive Baptist Church
you hear a near obsessive and speculative 16434 Woodruff
framework of ideas that secularize the Christian Bellflower, California
faith regarding the Second Coming in the “Left
Behind” imaginative, but unbiblical teaching. In Worship service each Sunday 10:30 A. M.
other subcultures, this errant teaching has Joseph R. Holder Pastor
effectively intimidated believers, even preachers,
into ignoring Biblical teaching and leaving a gigantic 1
void of teaching. This subculture almost wholly Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida,
ignores any teaching at all regarding the Second Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament:
Coming. If the tight logical and Scriptural link exists Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United
between the Second Coming and our ethical Bible Societies, 1996), 507.
conduct, what might we expect to see in those NT (New Testament)
2
Christian subcultures where either significant error Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study
is taught obsessively or where the whole subject is Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN:
AMG Publishers, 2000).