4. The resurrection of the dead.

4. The resurrection of the dead.

(De resurrectione mortuorum.)

The fact of the resurrection of the dead is not only doubted by human reason, 1 Cor. 15:35, but also mocked, Acts 17:32. This happens in contradiction with the natural knowledge of God. Since human reason already recognizes

1805b) Cf. Dr. Weizmann's words at the laying of the foundation stone for the Jewish university on the Mount of Olives L. u. W. 1920, p. 93. Also the construction of a temple building is possible, because the Jews have the necessary funds and an exact description of the temple is available in the Old Testament (1 Kings 6 and 2 Chron. 3). But the reestablishment of the temple worship is impossible because it requires priests from the house of Aaron and the tribe of Levi (Ezra 6:62; Neh. 7:64), but the Jewish genealogical registers have been lost. (Cf. Baumgarten, Glaubenslehre II, 160 f. Winer, Realwörterb. 3 II, 516. Eusebius, Kirchengesch. I, 6.)

601 > The Last Things. [English ed. ~ 534-535.]

an almighty God from the works of creation (Rom. 1:19-20), it should at least admit the possibility of the resurrection of the dead. Therefore Paul says of the deniers of the resurrection 1 Cor. 15:34: "Some know nothing of God" and Christ Matth, 22:29: You do not know "the power of God". As far as the Holy Scriptures are concerned, the resurrection of the dead is not only consistently taught as a certain fact in the New Testament,1806) but is also already clearly testified in the Old Testament. To the Sadducees, who had only the Old Testament Scriptures, Christ exhibits the testimony that they did not know the Scriptures because of their denial of the resurrection of the dead (μη ειδότες τάς γραφάς). At the same time, Christ points to a large class of Old Testament passages in which the resurrection of the dead is taught, "Have ye not read of the resurrection of the dead, which is told you of God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? Now God is not a God of the dead, but of the living." 1807) So where we find in the Old Testament the divine promise of grace, "I am your God," as in the institution of circumcision, Gen. 17:7, and often,1808) there is taught the resurrection of the dead. The same is to be said of Gen. 3:15. If the seed of the woman is to crush the head of the serpent, thus destroying the devil's dominion and works, then the abolition of death is also promised, as surely as death is merely a consequence of sin, which came into the world through the seduction of the devil. Luther rightly remarks on Genesis 3:15: "This passage contains at the same time the redemption from law, sin and death and shows a clear and certain hope of resurrection and renewal in the other life after this one. For if the serpent's head is to be crushed, death must also be abolished and annihilated." 1809) The Christian faith is as old as the first promise of Christ, Genesis 3:15, and includes in itself, as well as salvation from sin, salvation from death. Of course, in more recent times it has become quite common practice to

1806) Joh. 5:28-29; 6:39-40; 1 Thess. 4:16; 1 Cor. 15 etc.

1807) Matt. 22:31-32. The words are about the resurrection of the dead, περί της άναστάσεως των νεκρών, as Christ explicitly says, not merely about the survival of souls after death.

1808) Gen. 26:24; 28:13; Ezek. 37:27 etc.

1809) St. L. I, 240. Likewise III, 84 f.; especially in detail in a sermon given in 1526 on Gen. 3:15, III, 650 ff.

602 > The Last Things. [English ed. ~ 535-536.]

allow the belief in the resurrection to develop only very gradually among the "Old Testament pious". Luthardt also says: "In the Old Testament the doctrine of the resurrection emerges only very gradually." 1810) When asking about the doctrine of resurrection in the Old Testament, one then refers to some passages in the later Old Testament writings, namely Dan. 12:2, also probably to Ps. 17:16 and to "exemplary" passages like Hos. 13:14; Is. 26:19; Ezek. 37; at most also to Job 19:25-27. Likewise Voigt thinks: "The doctrine of resurrection is found only in the later books of the Old Testament."1811) But this opinion reveals a humiliation of the Old Testament understanding of the doctrine and directly contradicts Christ Himself, who expressly says that in the words of Exodus 3:6, "I am the God of Abraham," etc., the resurrection of the dead is taught.1812) In contrast, Hofmann, under the contradiction of Luthardt, says:1813) "Nothing can be more erroneous than the opinion that the resurrection of the dead is an idea that arose late only through human reflection, the first traces of which, if it did not even come to the Jews from the Parsees, we are to meet in Isaiah and Ezekiel, perhaps also already in the Psalms of David. … There is no time to be found where faith could be thought without this hope, and no time after the first promise where it could have arisen first. … Hengstenberg once says that where death was regarded as the punishment of sin, faith in eternal life necessarily had to spring up as soon as the hope of redemption had taken root. The hope of redemption took root, however, when that serious word of God after the sin of the first created said of the victory of mankind" (should mean: of the victory of the woman's seed) "over her deceiver. In this victory also death is swallowed up. But what was promised to mankind, should not the faith of the individual take this into account? If they knew

1810) Dogmatics11 , p. 412.<w:t xml:space="preserve">1811) Biblical Dogmatics, p. 239

1812) The author of the article "Resurrection" in the Calwer Bibellexikon thinks himself justified to accuse Christ of wrong exegesis: "What Jesus already reads out of the name 'God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob', that the fellowship of the faithful with God extends beyond death (Matt. 22 32), that was generally still hidden to these men themselves and to the believers of the Old Covenant in general. According to this, Christ would have unjustly reproached the Sadducees for not knowing the Scriptures.

1813) Dogmatik, p. 412.

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that their sin was forgiven, how could they but take comfort in the hope that they would not abide in death?"1814)

That the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead belongs to the fundamental doctrines, without whose acceptance the Christian faith cannot exist, is clearly expressed in Scripture. It says of Hymenaeus and comrades, who accepted the resurrection of the dead as having already happened, thus denying the bodily resurrection on the Last Day, that they lacked the truth (περί την αλήθειαν ήστόχησαν) and were shipwrecked in the faith" (περί τήν πίστιν ενανάγηοαν).1815)

The raising of the dead is never man's work, but in every case a work of divine omnipotence, 2 Cor. 1:9: ό ϑεός ό εγείρων τους νεκρούς. Rom. 4:17: ό ϑεός ό ζωοποιών τους νεκρούς και καλών τα μή όντα. But because the divine omnipotence belongs to the three persons of the holy Trinity without division and without multiplication, as was set forth at length in the doctrine of God, so also the Son of God says of himself the numerical one act (eandem numero actionem), as of preserving the world,1816) so also of raising the dead, John 5:21: "As the Father raiseth up the dead, and maketh them alive, so also the Son maketh alive whom he will." At the same time, Scripture teaches with great emphasis that the divine act of raising the dead and the final judgment takes place through the incarnate Son of God, that is, in and according to the human nature of Christ. Jn. 5:22: "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son," and indeed v. 27: on ότι νϊός ανϑρώπου έστίν, "because He is Son of Man,"1817) Therefore also (v. 28) let no one be surprised at the fact that the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear His — the Son of Man's — voice. According to the divine economy, it stands that the Redeemer of the world is also the Reviver of the dead and the judge of the world. Just as the Son of God did not become the sin-bearer of the world as ασαρκος, but as ενσαρκος, namely in the assumed human nature, and thereby destroyed the works of the

1814) Schriftbeweis 2 II, 2, p. 490; quoted in agreement by Philippi, Glaubenslehre VI,. 80, note.

1815) 2 Tim. 2:18-19; 1 Tim. 1:19-20.

1816) John 5:17-20.

1817) More detailed exposition II, 177, and note 370.

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devil, so also in the assumed human nature the judgment of the world and the preceding raising of the dead takes place "through one man in whom he has decreed it", εν άνδρι φ ώρισεν, Acts 17:31. The opinion that the human nature of Christ could not be communicated the actions (actiones) of the Godhead is found in Reformed writings, but not in Holy Scriptures.1818)

To the question who will be resurrected (subiectum quod resurrectionis), Scripture answers: All men, not only the believers but also the unbelieving, John 5:28: Πάντες oi έν τοϊς μνημείοις, and Paul before Felix, Acts 24:15: άνάστασιν μέλλειν εοεσϋαι δικαίων τε και αδίκων. As is well known, the resurrection of unbelievers has been denied in ancient and modern times.1819) But it is different with the bodily resurrection than with the spiritual. Christ's request for spiritual resurrection in the time of grace, that is, for faith in the gospel,1820) can be resisted,1821) because in the time of grace Christ works through means. Christ's call to bodily resurrection on the Last Day must be obeyed by all men, because here Christ appears εν τῇ δόξη αντον, in revealed majesty, and therefore works efficacia irresistibili.1822) — To the question of what is resurrected (subiectum quo resurrectionis), Scripture answers: That which is of men "in the graves," that is, men according to their bodies. The identity with the bodies that men have had on earth is already stated by the expression "resurrection," άνάστασις. That stands up and becomes alive which before had fallen down and was dead. Vox άναατάσεως importat iteratam stationem eius, quod ante steterat et ceciderat. He who denies the numerical identity of the dead and resurrected bodies denies eo ipso the resurrection of the dead. Just as the instantaneous transformation (άλλαγηοόμεΰ) of those living on the

1818) Cf. II, 273 ff.

1819) Cf. the antithesis in Gerhard, L. de resurrectione, §100-102; in Günther, Symbolik 4, p. 422 f. (Socinians, Adventists, Russellites, Christadelphians) [See Popular Symbolics, pp. 132, 357, 419, 416.] . Strong, Syst. Theol., 1016, against Stevens, Pauline Theol., p. 357.

1820) Matt. 11:29: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden."

1821) Matt. 23:37: "You have not wanted."

1822) Matt. 25:31-32.

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Last Day 1823) does not abolish the identity of the bodies, neither does the resurrection of the dead. Concerns like these: Components of the body disintegrated into dust had passed into other bodies, etc., are covered by Christ's Word: "Ye know not the power of God." But the bodies of the pious will be of a spiritual nature, σώματα πνευματικά,1824) What is to be understood by a "spiritual body" we cannot, of course, determine speculatively, but can only learn from the revelation of Scripture. In Scripture the resurrection bodies are described as imperishable, glorious, full of vitality, in contrast to their nature in this life: εγείρεται εν άφϑαραία — εν όόξῇ — έν δυνάμει, 1 Cor. 15:42-43. The "glorious" is still further explained in Phil. 3:21: "similar (σύμμορφον) to the transfigured body of Christ", and Matt. 13:43: "the righteousness will shine like the sun." The "equal to the angels" (ίσάγγελοι, Luke 20:36; ώς άγγελοι, Matt. 22:30) receives its closer definition from the appended: "They shall neither free nor be freed." So angelicity is not to be extended to incorporeality nor from sexlessness. With respect to sexlessness Baier correctly says: Recipient sexum et partes seu membra omnia, qnae in hac vita habuerunt, licet non ad veterem usum redintegrandum, tamen ad integritatem corporis organici. [Google]1825) Since seed and harvest, food and clothing, etc., cease with this course of the world, then — as Luther expresses it1826) — the spiritual body "will no longer be an eating, sleeping, digesting body, but will be spiritually fed and sustained by God, and will even have life in it."1827) As far as the body size (stature) of the resurrected is concerned, the opinion of those who assume that everyone will be resurrected in the stature

1823) 1 Cor. 15:51. 52.

1824) 1 Cor. 15:44: Σπείρεται σώμα ψυχικόν, εγείρεται σώμα πνευματικόν.

1825) Comp. ed. Walther II, 248. Likewise Luther IX, 122: "The body in its nature remains, but not the same custom of the body."

1826) St. L. IX, 1243.

1827) Cf. op. cit. Luther's explanation of the "natural body," σώμα ψυχικόν, which is also classical from a linguistic point of view: "The word animale corpus, which we have interpreted as 'a natural body,' comes from the Hebrew nephesh, anima, and means not only a matter of man, as we Germans call the soul, but means the whole man, as he lives in the five senses and must maintain himself with food, drink, house and farm, wife and child." So correctly also Meyer on this passage

606 > The Last Things. [English ed. ~ 539]

in which he died is the more probable.1828) In the pious, of course, all bodily defects (deformitas), even the traces of old age, will be erased, because all bodily defects, even growing old, are only a consequence of sin. Because in the unbelievers the sin remains in a solidified measure, so also in their bodies the consequences of the sin (the deformitas) will be more sharply pronounced than in this life.1829