The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
David Henke
"And if Christ be not risen (bodily), then is our preaching in vain, and your faith is also vain.... But some man will say, `How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?'" (I Corinthians 15:35)
The Jehovah's Witnesses take a firm stand in support of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or do they?
Though they say they believe the doctrine, the problem lies in what they believe about the doctrine.
The Watchtower Position...
1. On Jesus. He was raised a glorious spirit creature, but not in a fleshly body. His body was dissolved into gasses.
2. On the 144,000. This resurrection will copy the resurrection of Jesus in every detail, that is, a re-creation, or copy, of the original personality.
3. On the Great Crowd. It will be a bodily resurrection because they expect to live on a paradise earth. In reality, this is a re-creation of both body and personality from the memory of God.
The Biblical Doctrine of Resurrection
The Bible is very clear in teaching that Jesus rose physically from the tomb in the same body of his death.
It is also very clear in teaching that every believer will receive a glorified physical body fashioned like Jesus' glorified physical body. To deny the bodily resurrection of Christ is to deny His resurrection completely.
Watchtower Objections To A Bodily Resurrection
1. He would be taking His body off the altar, thus removing the ransom sacrifice.
Answer: It was the blood of Jesus which was shed for our redemption.
In the Old Testament sacrifices which typified Christ it was the blood which was carried into the Holy of Holies, not the body. Likewise it is Jesus' blood which paid the debt for our sins, (Hebrews 9:22).
Would not the taking back of his life be equally disastrous according to this Watchtower logic? But Jesus said he had power to lay down His life and take it again, (John 10:17-18).
2. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God," (1 Corinthians 15:50
Answer: The expression "flesh and blood" occurs only five times in the New Testament. We must derive our definition of its meaning from these occurrences. Webster's Dictionary is of no use here.
Examine the following references and see if the writers are not just as often speaking of "flesh and blood" as "fallen man" as they are of the physical body.
-Matt. 16:13-17: "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven." Is this speaking of the physical flesh, or corrupt, sinful man not revealing Christ's identity to Peter?
-Eph. 6:12: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood..." A case can be made either way in the interpretation of this text.
For instance, because Christians do not physically wrestle with their opposition, Paul may not be referring to the physical body, but rather that Christians wrestle against sinful corruption of man and the spiritual forces of evil influencing him.
-Heb. 2:14: "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same...."
Here the text does refer to the physical flesh because Jesus did not take on Himself a sinful nature.
-I Cor. 15:50: "...flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God...."
Paul is answering the question of what kind of body believers will have in the resurrection (vs. 35). It will be a "spiritual body" (vs. 44).
A "spiritual body" must be defined by the ONLY example we have of one, the body of Jesus.
3. He was not recognized by His followers; therefore, He must not have been raised in the body of His crucifixion.
Answer: He was not recognized for several reasons, all of which are indicated by the contexts.
-John 20. It was early in the morning and still dark, (vs. 1), and Mary was not expecting to see Jesus alive. Nowhere does the text say Jesus appeared to Mary as a gardener. It was Mary's mistake, not Jesus' appearance.
-John 21:4-12. Jesus was on the seashore, while the disciples were at sea in a ship. It was early morning. The disciples were 200 cubits (approx. 100 yards) from the land. Fog would have been raising from the water at that early hour obscuring the disciple's view.
Jesus' subsequent actions were those of someone possessing a body.
-Luke 24:16. The eyes of these disciples were "holden," or "veiled."
Jesus did this so they could not recognize Him because though He was the Living Word and had taught them for over three years He now wanted to direct their attention to the written Word.
When they saw from the scriptures that Jesus must suffer and be raised again He then unveiled their eyes so they could recognize Him.
The implication is very plain if Jesus had not "veiled" their eyes they would have recognized Him. If He was in "another form" there would have been no need to veil their eyes at all.
4. He was raised "in the Spirit." I Peter 3:18
Answer: True, he was raised "in the Spirit," but not "as a spirit." In Romans 8:9, all the believers in Rome are said to be "in the Spirit." Were they spirit creatures? The expression "in the Spirit" simply means "in the power of the Spirit." I Peter 3:18 demonstrates that the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead and quickened Him.
Direct Evidence Of Jesus' Bodily Resurrection
-John 2:19-21. "Jesus answered and said unto them, `Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.' But he spoke of the temple of his body."
-Luke 24:38-39. "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."
-Colossians 2:9. "For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." (This was written in the present tense and after Jesus' ascension.)
-Acts 2:25, 26. "...my flesh shall rest in hope." (of what?)
-Zachariah 13:6. "...`What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer,, `Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends...'" (In what will Jesus show these wounds upon his return, a spirit form?)
Direct Evidence Of The Believer's Bodily Resurrection
-Philippians 3:21. "Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body...,"
-Romans 8:11. "...He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken up your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."
-Romans 8:23. "...waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."
-I Corinthians 15. (This entire chapter contrasts the present sin-corrupted body with the future glorified body that is fitted for heaven. It never says the physical body is done away with, but rather is "changed." What its "sown," the physical body (vss. 35-38), is raised an incorruptible body.)
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear that we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." I John 3:2.
Questions For Further Thought
1. Is there evidence in the Bible of two kinds of resurrections, some in the body and some as spirits?
2. What was resurrected in the case of Jesus? His body? His soul? His spirit? According to Watchtower doctrine, the soul is the combination of the body plus its life force, or spirit (an unbiblical teaching).
Thus, the extinction of the life force (spirit) is also the extinction of the soul (the person himself) leaving only the body.
The Watchtower is left with no continuity between the person who died on Calvary and the person who rose three days later.
The risen Jesus is not the Jesus who died on Calvary, but a clone, a facsimile, a duplicate, but not the original.
Thus, they teach a re-creation, not a resurrection.
3. If the body was not to be raised, why did Peter and John race to the tomb to verify that Jesus was indeed raised? (John 20:3-9)
And if the Jews believed in a spiritual resurrection, why would they want a guard placed on the tomb?
4. Who raised Jesus from the dead according to John 2:19-21? Would not Jesus have to be consciously existing somewhere to effect His own resurrection?
5. If "the man Jesus is dead, forever dead" (Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 5, p. 454), who is the man mentioned in 1 Timothy 2:5 and Acts 17:31?
