The resurrection of the flesh of Jesus Christ

by hooberus 58 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • hooberus
    hooberus

    The church has traditionally held to the resurrection of the flesh of Jesus Christ:

    Ignatius (who according to ancient sources was a disciple of the apostle John)

    http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-21.htm

    Chapter III.-Christ Was Possessed of a Body After His Resurrection.

    For I know that after His resurrection also He was still possessed of flesh, 18 and I believe that He is so now. When, for instance, He came to those who were with Peter, He said to them, "Lay hold, handle Me, and see that I am not an incorporeal spirit." 19 And immediately they touched Him, and believed, being convinced both by His flesh and spirit. For this cause also they despised death, and were found its conquerors. 20 And after his resurrection He did eat and drink with them, as being possessed of flesh, although spiritually He was united to the Father. And I know that He was possessed of a body not only in His being born and crucified, but I also know that He was so after His resurrection, and believe that He is so now. When, for instance, He came to those who were with Peter, He said to them, "Lay hold, handle Me, and see that I am not an incorporeal spirit." 21 "For a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have." 22 And He says to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger into the print of the nails, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side; " 23 and immediately they believed that He was Christ. Wherefore Thomas also says to Him, "My Lord, and my God." 24 And on this account also did they despise death, for it were too little to say, indignities and stripes. Nor was this all; but also after He had shown Himself to them, that He had risen indeed, and not in appearance only, He both ate and drank with them during forty entire days. And thus was He, with the flesh, received up in their sight unto Him that sent Him, being with that same flesh to come again, accompanied by glory and power. For, say the [holy] oracles, "This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen Him go unto heaven." 25 But if they say that He will come at the end of the world without a body, how shall those "see Him that pierced Him," 26 and when they recognise Him, "mourn for themselves? " 27 For incorporeal beings have neither form nor figure, nor the aspect 28 of an animal possessed of shape, because their nature is in itself simple. Justin Martyr

    http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-51.htm#P5945_1314536

      Chapter II.-Objections to the Resurrection of the Flesh.

    They who maintain the wrong opinion say that there is no resurrection of the flesh; giving as their reason that it is impossible that what is corrupted and dissolved should be restored to the same as it had been. And besides the impossibility, they say that the salvation of the flesh is disadvantageous; and they abuse the flesh, adducing its infirmities, and declare that it only is the cause of our sins, so that if the flesh, say they, rise again, our infirmities also rise with it. And such sophistical reasons as the following they elaborate: If the flesh rise again, it must rise either entire and possessed of all its parts, or imperfect. But its rising imperfect argues a want of power on God's part, if some parts could be saved, and others not; but if all the parts are saved, then the body will manifestly have all its members. But is it not absurd to say that these members will exist after the resurrection from the dead, since the Saviour said, "They neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but shall be as the angels in heaven? " 1 And the angels, say they, have neither flesh, nor do they eat, nor have sexual intercourse; therefore there shall be no resurrection of the flesh. By these and such like arguments, they attempt to distract men from the faith. And there are some who maintain that even Jesus Himself appeared only as spiritual, and not in flesh, but presented merely the appearance of flesh: these persons seek to rob the flesh of the promise. First, then, let us solve those things which seem to them to be insoluble; then we will introduce in an orderly manner the demonstration concerning the flesh, proving that it partakes of salvation.

    http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-51.htm#P5945_1314536

      Chapter IX.-The Resurrection of Christ Proves that the Body Rises.

    If He had no need of the flesh, why did He heal it? And what is most forcible of all, He raised the dead. Why? Was it not to show what the resurrection should be? How then did He raise the dead? Their souls or their bodies? Manifestly both. If the resurrection were only spiritual, it was requisite that He, in raising the dead, should show the body lying apart by itself, and the soul living apart by itself. But now He did not do so, but raised the body, confirming in it the promise of life. Why did He rise in the flesh in which He suffered, unless to show the resurrection of the flesh? And wishing to confirm this, when His disciples did not know whether to believe He had truly risen in the body, and were looking upon Him and doubting, He said to them, "Ye have not yet faith, see that it is I; " 20 and He let them handle Him, and showed them the prints of the nails in His hands. And when they were by every kind of proof persuaded that it was Himself, and in the body, they asked Him to eat with them, that they might thus still more accurately ascertain that He had in verity risen bodily; and He did eat honey-comb and fish. And when He had thus shown them that there is truly a resurrection of the flesh, wishing to show them this also, that it is not impossible for flesh to ascend into heaven (as He had said that our dwelling-place is in heaven), "He was taken up into heaven while they beheld," 21 as He was in the flesh. If, therefore, after all that has been said, any one demand demonstration of the resurrection, he is in no respect different from the Sadducees, since the resurrection of the flesh is the power of God, and, being above all reasoning, is established by faith, and seen in works.

    Irenaeus

    http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-63.htm#P8900_2545577

      Chapter VII.-Inasmuch as Christ Did Rise in Our Flesh, It Follows that We Shall Be Also Raised in the Same; Since the Resurrection Promised to Us Should Not Be Referred to Spirits Naturally Immortal, But to Bodies in Themselves Mortal.

    1. In the same manner, therefore, as Christ did rise in the substance of flesh, and pointed out to His disciples the mark of the nails and the opening in His side 35 (now these are the tokens of that flesh which rose from the dead), so "shall He also," it is said, "raise us up by His own power." 36 And again to the Romans he says, "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies." 37 What, then, are mortal bodies? Can they be souls? Nay, for souls are incorporeal when put in comparison with mortal bodies; for God "breathed into the face of man the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Now the breath of life is an incorporeal thing. And certainly they cannot maintain that the very breath of life is mortal. Therefore David says, "My soul also shall live to Him," 38 just as if its substance were immortal. Neither, on the other hand, can they say that the spirit is the mortal body. What therefore is there left to which we may apply the term "mortal body," unless it be the thing that was moulded, that is, the flesh, of which it is also said that God will vivify it? For this it is which dies and is decomposed, but not the soul or the spirit. For to die is to lose vital power, and to become henceforth breathless, inanimate, and devoid of motion, and to melt away into those [component parts] from which also it derived the commencement of [its] substance. But this event happens neither to the soul, for it is the breath of life; nor to the spirit, for the spirit is simple and not composite, so that it cannot be decomposed, and is itself the life of those who receive it. We must therefore conclude that it is in reference to the flesh that death is mentioned; which [flesh], after the soul's departure, becomes breathless and inanimate, and is decomposed gradually into the earth from which it was taken. This, then, is what is mortal. And it is this of which he also says," He shall also quicken your mortal bodies." And therefore in reference to it he says, in the first [Epistle] to the Corinthians: "So also is the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in corruption, it rises in incorruption." 39 For he declares, "That which thou sowest cannot be quickened, unless first it die." 40

    2. But what is that which, like a grain of wheat, is sown in the earth and decays, unless it be the bodies which are laid in the earth, into which seeds are also cast? And for this reason he said, "It is sown in dishonour, it rises in glory." 41 For what is more ignoble than dead flesh? Or, on the other hand, what is more glorious than the same when it arises and partakes of incorruption? "It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: " 42 in its own weakness certainly, because since it is earth it goes to earth; but [it is quickened] by the power of God, who raises it from the dead. "It is sown an animal body, it rises a spiritual body." 43 He has taught, beyond all doubt, that such language was not used by him, either with reference to the soul or to the spirit, but to bodies that have become corpses. For these are animal bodies, that is, [bodies] which partake of life, which when they have lost, they succumb to death; then, rising through the Spirit's instrumentality, they become spiritual bodies, so that by the Spirit they possess a perpetual life. "For now," he says, "we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but then face to face." 44 And this it is which has been said also by Peter: "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom now also, not seeing, ye believe; and believing, ye shall rejoice with joy unspeakable." 45 For our face shall see the face of the Lord 46 and shall rejoice with joy unspeakable,-that is to say, when it shall behold its own Delight.

  • hooberus
    hooberus

    Some Biblical texts supporting the resurrection of Christ's flesh:

    Luke 24:39-40

    "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. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet." Luke 24:39-40

    Acts 2:30 (KJV)

    "Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;" Acts 2:30 KJV

    Acts 2:31-32

    "He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses." Acts 2:31-32

    2 Timothy 2:8 (compare with Romans 1:3)

    "Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:" 2 Timothy 2:8

    "Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;" Romans 1:3

  • hooberus
    hooberus

    The Watchtowers main text that they appeal to for a denial of the resurrection of the flesh of Jesus Christ:

    1 Peter 3:18

    "Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison," 1 Peter 3:18-19 ASV

    The phrase "being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit" from 1 Peter 3:18 does not mean that Christ was not raised in the flesh. Compare with Romans 8:8-9 where believers with their bodies of flesh are said to be "not in the flesh, but in the spirit"

    "Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison," 1 Peter 3:18-19 ASV

    "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." Romans 8:8-10

    1 Peter 3;18 says that Christ was "made alive in the spirit." It does not say that he was made alive as "a spirit." Remember Jesus' words:

    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. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet." Luke 24:39-40

  • ellderwho
    ellderwho

    Good stuff.

  • ozziepost
    ozziepost
    1 Peter 3;18 says that Christ was "made alive in the spirit." It does not say that he was made alive as "a spirit." Remember Jesus' words:

    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. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet." Luke 24:39-40

    The WTS' take on this is that it was a con job! Jesus was conning his disciples!.

    "Look at my hands. See, you can see the nail marks!" (wink, wink)

    Sorta like a circus act. It's repeated to Thomas to 'prove' that the man was indeed Jesus, but if Jesus body was a spirit body, that wouldn't prove a thing, would it?

  • stillajwexelder
    stillajwexelder

    Fair enough but you can not have it always -- if Jesus was resurrected in the Flesh and Almighty God is a spirit Jesus CANNOT be almighty God - so no TRINITY ---QED

  • ozziepost
    ozziepost

    Not the Trinity again!

  • stillajwexelder
    stillajwexelder

    well hooberus always seems to have a TRINITY AGENDA -- I alaways have a Unitarian agenda - I am a monotheist

  • Kenneson
    Kenneson

    Stillajwexelder,

    So if the Father is a spirit and the Holy Spirit is a spirit and Jesus is now a spirit, does that make a Trinity?

  • ellderwho
    ellderwho

    Come on Herk get the trinity thing going

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