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RESURRECTION: Not Just a New Testament Belief
It has amazed me to read about some groups who claim to be Christians yet deny the resurrection of Christ! To hear that some leaders of some churches are denying the importance of the bodily resurrection of Christ is hard to believe, but it is happening.
Nevertheless, the bodily resurrection of Christ is still central to the preaching of the gospel as 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 indicates. Paul says, “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” Then Paul details in the next few verses a list of witnesses to whom the Lord personally appeared. (1 Corinthians 15:5-8) Christ’s resurrection was not just wishful thinking or merely a “spiritual resurrection” as some have claimed. His resurrection was personal and witnessed. I’m sure the Lord would make the same statement to today’s skeptics as He made to doubting Thomas: “Reach here your finger, and see my hands: and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing.” (John 20:27)
But, we need to realize that the belief in the bodily resurrection of people is not an invention of the first century. As a matter of faith, it is not a vain hope at all. Yet, it is a belief that is also found in the Old Testament. Of course, as already mentioned, Paul alluded to the Old Testament Scriptures which prophesied of the resurrection of the Christ to come. He would have included Psalm 16:10 in that allusion. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter also referred to that same verse as proof of Jesus fulfilling one of the prophecies about the Messiah. (Acts 2:31)
Moreover, there are three other good examples of Old Testament belief in the resurrection. First, there is Job. He was the one who had asked the question, “If a man dies, will he live again?” (Job 14:13-15), then Job later confirms his belief that after death his flesh will see God (Job 19:25-27). Second, there is Isaiah. In Isaiah 26:19a, it says “Your dead will live; their corpses will rise.” Third, there is Daniel. Daniel makes the belief in a coming resurrection even plainer when he says, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.”(Daniel 12:2) Although Jesus spoke similarly (John 5:28-29), it should be apparent from these verses that faith in a resurrection is not just a New Testament belief.
Ronaldo Ricardo Guzmán
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