Resurrection
Resurrection
Also see ‘Death.’
Seek the Truth with all your heart.
Glorious destiny beyond death.
It is impossible for human finite minds to fully comprehend GOD’s work of redemption and eventual resurrection. We may understand and experience the beginning of a redeemed life through personal relationship with Jesus, but the results reach into eternity, which is something we can understand but not fully comprehend.
Our earthly body is physical. Our eternal body will be spiritual.
At our resurrection we - who love GOD - will be given new perfect spirit bodies that will never die and will always be in perfect health; and in which we will have potential and abilities that are beyond imagination.
So this is not a resurrection of our same body; it is raising us up as a new creation for eternity - a perfect person in a perfect body for a perfect life in a perfect kingdom.
Isaiah 65:17 “Behold I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.”
Isaiah 66:22 “As the new heavens and the new earth, that I make will endure before me,” declares the LORD, “so will your name and descendants endure.”
Matthew 16:27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his FATHER’S glory with His angels, and then He will reward each person according to what they have done.
John 5:25 Jesus said “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of GOD and those who hear will live.”
John 5:28-29 Jesus said “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out; those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.”
John 11:25 ‘Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though they die.”
John 14:1-3 ‘Jesus said “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in GOD; trust also in Me. In My FATHER’S house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.”
Romans 6:3-5 ‘Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the FATHER, we too may live a new life.
For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His.’
Verses 8-11 ‘Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to GOD.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to GOD in Christ Jesus.
Verse 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of GOD is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 ‘However, as it is written: What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived – the things GOD has prepared for those who love Him – these are the things GOD has revealed to us by HIS Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of GOD.’
1 Corinthians 15:35-36 ‘But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.’ Read in the Bible verses 37-49, It is additional magnificent news for those who will be saved.
1 Corinthians 15:42-58 ‘So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, 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.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being,” the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the Earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the Earthly man, so are those who are of the Earth; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are of heaven. And Justas we have borne the image of the Earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly Man.
I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood (physical bodies) cannot inherit the kingdom of GOD, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep (die) , but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to GOD; HE gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.’
2 Peter 3:9 ‘The Lord is not slack concerning His promises, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.’
To undermine the Jewish-Israeli underpinnings of the faith; the commemoration of the death and resurrection of Yeshua (Jesus) was switched in the 4th century from Passover to Easter, with all its pagan connotations. This controversial decision ignited heated debate.
What on Earth do rabbits and eggs have to do with Jesus and His resurrection.
Your glorious destiny beyond death.
Isaiah 25:8 ‘GOD will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces.’
Isaiah 26:19 ‘But YOUR dead will live, LORD; their bodies will rise – let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy – your dew is like the dew of the morning; the Earth will give birth to her dead.’
Philippians 3:10-11 ‘I want to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.’
Philippians 3:20-21 ‘But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.’
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 ‘For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of GOD, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.’
Revelation 20:6 ‘Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of GOD and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.’
Revelation 20:13-15 ‘The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, they were thrown into the lake of fire.’
Revelation 21:3 ‘And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of GOD is with men, and HE will live with them. They will be HIS people, and GOD Himself will be with them and be their GOD. HE will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Luke 6:23a “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.”
As spirit beings we will not be limited by time and space. We will be able to travel to the most distant galaxies, at the speed of thought. The entire universe will be ours to rule. GOD will give HIS children ‘all things.’ We will inherit the universe.
We will be eternally thankful to GOD our FATHER, for the glorious destiny HE has planned for us beyond this life and death - sleep - and following our coming resurrection.
“Thank YOU FATHER!”
The Rapture is NOT scriptural
Rapture Teaching As Originally Taught Is Not Scriptural.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUyjymEYnsg (19 minutes)
Many have believed that GOD’s children will be removed from the Earth before the Tribulation happens. This is not so, and the word rapture does not exist in the Bible.
Matthew 24:40-41 ‘Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken, and the other left.’
Matthew 28:16-20 ‘Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on Earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the FATHER and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
John 17:14-15 Jesus said: ‘I have given them YOUR (GOD’s) Word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that YOU take them out of the world but that YOU protect them from the evil one.’
JESUS crucifixion and death, burial in the guarded tomb, and resurrection, is all recorded in Matthew 27 & 28. Mark 15 & 16. Luke 23 & 24.
After Jesus death, one of the Roman guards speared His side, and blood and water flowed out. The separation of blood and water can only happen in a dead body. Joseph of Arimathea was given permission to take Jesus’ body, wrap it and bury it in his own tomb nearby, which had been carved (chiselled) out of solid stone. The tomb was sealed by a very large, heavy, circular stone, about 10-12 inches (25-30cm thick,) which was rolled in a stone channel. It was then secured by a strong iron shaft-type of bolt which was positioned up against the circular stone and driven into the stone face behind.
Acts2:32 ‘GOD has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.’
1 Corinthians 15:6-8 ‘After that (rising from the dead), He (Jesus) appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all He appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.’
1 Corinthians 15:20-32 ‘But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in their own turn: Christ, the first-fruits; then, when He comes, those who belong to Him. Then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to GOD the FATHER after He has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For He “has put everything under His feet.” Now when it says that everything has been put under Him, it is clear that this does not include GOD Himself, WHO put everything under Christ. When He has done this, then the Son Himself will be made subject to HIM WHO put everything under Him, so that GOD may be all in all.’
Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I die every day, I mean that, brothers and sisters, just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised.’
Good news.
How does GOD judge very young children and babies, including pre-birth babies right from their beginning at conception, who have died from natural causes, accidents, and abortions? Will they be in heaven? Yes.
All babies and young children who have died before their age of accountability - before true understanding, and awareness of right and wrong, rational choice, decision making, and the ability to exercise rational analytical thinking; which includes all who died or were aborted in their mother’s womb; who were obviously too young to have been corrupted by wrong influences, and wilful sinful behaviour – will be seen by GOD as being innocent.
The age of accountability will vary from one child to another.
They will be resurrected to enter heaven and eternal life in their GOD-given fully developed and perfect form, as will all other GOD-loving children and GOD-loving adults of all ages.
Judgement is based on each individual’s relationship and standing with GOD.
1 John 4:8 & 16 ‘So we know and rely on the love GOD has for us. GOD is love.’
Evidence of JESUS’ resurrection
From Archaeology Newsletter 298: Archaeological investigations in Jerusalem, near the empty tomb of Jesus Christ, by Jonathan Gray, archaeologist and author.
A brief review.
The Romans had driven an iron shaft into the stone face of the tomb to stop the 13-foot seal-stone from being rolled to the side and the tomb being opened.
Their purpose was that no one could ever remove the body. The record states that the stone was then “sealed.” (Matthew 27:60 & 66)
It would be impossible to bend the 35 centimetre (1.4 inch) thick shaft, much less snap it off, simply by pushing the seal-stone against it.
As noted, to move the great stone even one inch, the shaft must first be taken out.
However, when we examined the hole that held the metal shaft, we found that the remainder of the shaft was still in there.
It was sheared off, level with the wall.
The appearance of the metal was consistent with its having been sheared off when struck with a tremendous force from the right-hand side.
According to an engineer, the shear strength of this peg was to resist up to approximately 60 to 80 tons.
I mentioned that it would be impossible, humanly speaking, to snap off that metal shaft from a dead start. There was no room for leverage.
But the seal-stone has gone. Someone pushed the stone aside without taking out the metal peg.
Who was it?
Eyewitness writings of the time claim that nothing less than a shining heavenly entity had rolled away the stone with super-human force.
After taking into account the body of archaeological evidence uncovered, we were compelled to find that such a claim was consistent with the physical findings.
I invited anyone - skeptics included - to submit any possible counter-evidence.
Virtually everyone who responded saw the evidence as convincing. Then there was one helpful man who presented this thought: Perhaps someone chiselled off the protruding end of the metal rod that held the seal-stone in place, so that the stone could be moved away. That would open the tomb so that Jesus' body could be removed. In other words, there was nothing supernatural involved. Some person or group did it.
Under ordinary circumstances, one would probably agree. It could be an idea worth considering.
Detective principles would need to consider these four indisputable facts:
1. It would be much easier to just pull out the peg, rather than go to all that hard work of chiselling it away. (The rod was as thick as two of my fingers.)
2. The authorities were determined to keep Jesus in the tomb. That is why it was under guard. So it would be logistically impossible for anyone to get past the guards to attempt any such chiselling.
3. Anyone daring to break the seal and remove the body would, in any case, face the death penalty. (Addressed lower down.)
4. The archaeological evidence:
(a) We found no tool marks on the portion of the plug that remains. Tool marks would have to be on the left side of the plug, because the right side was flush against the seal-stone, jamming it in place.
(b) The appearance of the metal was consistent with its having been sheared off when struck with a tremendous force from the right-hand side.
The examining engineer confirmed my conclusion.
“I could see that the end had been torn slightly sideways - perhaps a quarter inch - to the left, even though it was now slightly rusted,” he said.
“It was an incredible sight, to witness what had happened; which must have been accomplished by moving the stone in one simple move.”
The evidence also shows that the stone was moved with great speed, by some colossal super-human force which did NOT require taking out the metal rod.
Such a feat is unexplainable by human action, but it did happen.
It was humanly impossible; but it was done. The implication is that a supernatural power was involved, just as the gospels state.
Like it or not, the physical evidence today stares us in the face.
Regarding the death penalty mentioned above:
As stated previously, Jesus said he would rise from the dead, so they had his tomb guarded by 16 crack Roman soldiers. If any one of them fell asleep on guard duty, their whole group would be burned alive in their clothing. So of those 16 guards, none of them dared to even yawn.
The seal of Rome was placed on the huge stone which blocked the grave entrance. If anyone broke that seal, the Roman FBI and CIA would hunt for them and crucify them upside down.
The prophecy and the empty tomb:
Jesus had prophesied that he would rise from the dead after 3 days. Let's be realistic, if he was a deluded madman, or a liar, we could discount Him.
If, as he claimed, he was truly our Messianic Eternal Life Giver visiting in human flesh, then you could expect his prophecy to come true.
A fact undisputed by the Romans and the Jews was that on the third day (April 29, AD 31) the tomb-stone was indeed rolled away and his tomb became empty.
In that case, what happened to his body?
If it was a hoax that established worldwide Christianity, if its central character Jesus Christ never rose from the dead; then whatever became of his body within three days after burial must be the world’s most intriguing unsolved mystery.
Who moved the stone:?
The Roman guards? Not likely. Military law could demand the death penalty for soldiers who lost their prisoner.
The fear of punishments produced faultless attention to duty, especially in the night watches. Why should the guards want to risk death? And what would be their motive for removing the body.? None.!!
Did the Jews steal the body.?
No, that didn’t make sense. They were jealous of his influence and character. They would have done anything to discredit Jesus as the Messiah, by His body still being in the tomb.. Yet, even when he was in the tomb there was something about his prophecies that bothered them.
Firstly, in their own Scriptures were predictions about the anticipated Messiah.
Secondly, in Jesus’ life, those prophecies, one by one, were claimed to be coming true. One of which hinted that the Messiah was to come alive again after a violent death. (Isaiah 53:7-11) Jesus had claimed that he would die and rise again after three days.
So to make sure that Jesus’ body could not be taken from the tomb, the Jewish leaders themselves had called upon Roman help to keep the body in the tomb. At their own suggestion and under their supervision, the tomb was sealed. (Matthew 27:62-66)
It was sealed so well, that no one could break it open; and the Roman guards were ordered to guard it.
When the guards reported that the tomb was open and the body missing, the Jews themselves paid a large sum of money to the soldiers to spread the story that Jesus’ disciples had stolen his body away.
Now, I ask you, If the Jews themselves had stolen the body, why would they bribe the soldiers to say the disciples had done it.?
The proof that a force exceeding the power of a group of armed soldiers, had opened the tomb, stunned the religious leaders.
The facts that:
1. They bribed the soldiers to hush up the facts.
2. They bribed the Roman governor not to punish the soldiers for their story.
Demonstrated that they were trying to hide ‘an admission of the fact.’
Efforts to prevent any resurrection, and to circulate a false report concerning it, served only to provide additional confirmation of it as being a historical fact.
What would have been one of the greatest proofs that Jesus was still dead.?
Surely finding and publicly exhibiting his body.? All the Jewish leaders had to do to disprove the resurrection story, was to discover and produce the body of Jesus.
Such an event would have been the most important talking point for Jews from that day to this.
If the Jewish religious leaders had stolen his body, and knew where that body was, and could produce the dead body, then why did these same Jews finally persecute and even murder, at the jeopardy of their own lives, to stop those who went about teaching that Jesus had risen from the dead.?
Just think about this. The Jews are the most resourceful and untiring race on earth. You may recall that they searched the whole world relentlessly, until they discovered the whereabouts of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.
They investigated, searched, scanned, and scoured, until they found him.
They were able to find Eichmann, even though he was in South America; yet they were unable to produce the dead body of Jesus, in tiny Judea.
Why.? Because there was no dead body.
Did His friends steal the body:?
Okay, then, did Jesus’ disciples come while the guards were asleep, roll away the stone, steal the body, rebury it, and cover up the affair, so as to trick people into thinking he had risen from the dead?
If the disciples had stolen the body, why did the Jewish priests find it necessary to bribe the guards to say so.?
If the guards at the tomb, had slept, would not those angry Jewish priests have been foremost in accusing them to the governor.? Instead they secured the safety of the soldiers, for telling that story.
If those soldiers slept while on guard, and while sleeping, their prisoner was taken away, then by military law they merited the death penalty for failing to prevent it. So why were they not placed under arrest if the story was true.?
Was it because Governor Pilate knew the guards had not been sleeping when the body came out - but that something else had happened.?
The soldiers’ exemption from arrest would indicate that the body of Jesus was not stolen while they slept.
Anyway, even if all those guards had been asleep, surely they would have been awakened by the heavy noise of the massive stone door rolling along the stone channel outside the tomb.?
But, in my investigation, something else nagged at me. Was it likely that all the guards would be asleep at the same time.? Especially since provision was made to avoid weariness by changing the guard regularly during the night watches.
The thing that concerned me most, was the conduct of the disciples. The faith of the disciples had collapsed after Jesus’ death on the cross. They were extremely worried that their Lord and leader was dead.
Just seven weeks after this, the resurrection of Jesus was made known by them throughout the length and breadth of the land.
Those men who had cowered and hidden in dismay, then came forth boldly, full of confidence in Jesus being alive and being able to be with Him in Jerusalem, the very place from which they had fled.!
Now they walked everywhere with confidence and heads held high as men whose Master and Lord of heaven and earth had been restored to life and to them.
This empowered them to shake the world.
They were so filled with power and conviction, that they went out enthusiastically announcing against all opposition, even at the risk of their lives, that Jesus had risen.?
As a hard-nosed investigator, I asked myself, ‘Would Christians be torn limb from limb, thrown to wild beasts, drawn and quartered, sawn in half, hung upside down, burnt at the stake – for something they knew to be a deliberate hoax.?
Witnesses:
It occurred to me that if there was no dead body, that if the resurrection had occurred; there would surely have to be people who saw him alive.
So I searched for eyewitness evidence, and this skeptical archaeologist found that fifty days after Jesus vacated the tomb, the disciple Peter addressed a huge crowd in Jerusalem. His evidence convinced 3,000 local citizens that Jesus had risen from the dead. “We all are witnesses,” said Peter. (v.32).
It appears that possibly as many as 15,000 residents of Jerusalem (about 15% of the population) became believers within days of the event.
I have been through the facts many times, looking for a flaw, and I have kept coming back to the fact that there were too many witnesses to the event for it to be denied.!
These witnesses were not resting their faith on an empty tomb, but upon physical appearances of Yeshua on many different occasions.!
Accounting to records, Jesus was seen alive after his resurrection at least ten times.
He was seen by groups of two, seven, ten, eleven, and even 500.
More than five hundred people had seen him after his resurrection and under many different circumstances.
Jesus talked, walked, taught, ate, prepared a fire for breakfast, and showed His crucifixion nail scars. He permitted sceptical Thomas to touch and examine his body.
During all those occasions, witnesses spoke with him, touched him and dined with him; and he ordered them to spread the news to the world. (Matthew 28:5-10, 16-17; Luke 24:86-48; John 20:19-29; 21:4-13; 1 Corinthians 15:6).
The verdict of a doctor named Luke was that these were “infallible proofs.” (Acts 1:3).
Legal verdicts.
Professor Thomas Arnold, author of a famous three-volume History of Rome, who was appointed to the chair of Modern History at Oxford, stated, concerning the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus:
“Thousands of people have gone through it piece by piece, as carefully as judges summing up an important cause.
Wilbur M.A. Smith stated in “Therefore Stand” pages 425-426: "I have myself done it many times over - I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort.” A countless number of eminent lawyers give the same verdict.
Sir Edward Clarke, K.C., wrote: “As a lawyer, I have made a prolonged study of the evidences for the events - and to me the evidence is conclusive, and over and over again in the High Court, I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling.”