A Body Resurrection, "Yes" Or "No"?
The scriptures declare that man will die. Heb. 9:27. Most everyone attest to this truth. Our concern in this article is in regards to the resurrection of the dead. Will the physical body be reunited with the spirit at the resurrection; or will the spirit be clothed with a body which is not physical?
There are those in the church who are advocating a physical resurrection of the body. I fail to find such taught in the word of God. In fact, I believe this to be an impossible conclusion.
When God made man, He formed him out of the dust of the ground. Gen. 2:7. After man's sin, God said, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground: for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Gen. 2:19.
Jesus informs us that the hour is coming when all that are in their graves shall hear his voice and come forth. John 5:28. The kind of body is not here mentioned. This teaches that there will be a resurrection of all who are in their graves.
Paul gives us what I believe is convincing proof that the resurrection of the physical body is not going to be realized. "But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come! Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened (made alive, ell), 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." I Cor. 15:35-38.
After pointing out the different kinds of flesh, bodies that are celestial and terrestrial, etc. Paul adds, "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised incorruption: 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. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." I Cor. 15 :42-44.
The physical body is corruptible and mortal. The physical body will be returned to the ground from whence it was formed. The spirit of man, which departs the body when death occurs, shall be clothed with a body that is incorruptible and immortal on the day of the resurrection.
Paul once again speaks, "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." I Cor. 15: 52-53.
There would be no apparent purpose served in the physical resurrection of the physical body, for in a moments time the dead will have been clothed with a body which is both incorruptible and immortal. The facts show the lifeless body returning to the ground from where it was first formed; and the spirit of man being housed with a spiritual body following the resurrection.
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