The Trumpet Shall Sound and the Dead Shall Be Raised.

'We might go farther and prove by the Scriptures that neither believers nor unbelievers, Jews nor Greeks, had any idea of such a mythical resurrection as is now taught by men of various faiths in these days.

But it is not at all necessary, for if a bodily or physical resurrection is not proved by the points here noticed, then language cannot be framed to teach it. We now notice,

3. That Jesus, in his resurrection, was “the first-fruits of them that slept.” 1 Cor. 15:20. This language is significant of kind as well as of order. We have seen that, in the New Testament, in the case of the Saviour, his resurrection was of a material body.

It is also said that the bodies of many saints left the graves at the time of his resurrection.

Mat 27:52  And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, 

Mat 27:53  And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

And this is an assurance that the resurrection of all the saints will be that of the body also.

(((MY THOUGHTS interjected here not Waggoner's.

The graves were opened- Jesus had just died on the cross and suddenly, inexplicably graves were opened. Stop for a moment and think about that. This isn't something lightly to pass over. We've seen movies where people have dug themselves out of shallow graves, newly buried, thought dead but are not dead, people. We've seen movies of zombies, still dead people digging themselves out of graves. We've seen other fictionalized shows with people magically rising from the dead. The key word there is FICTIONALIZED acts of resurrection. These fictionalized acts are very dramatic (or supposed to be) because they are indicating something unnatural. Now jump to reality and imagine you were living back when Jesus died. You are going back in HISTORY not entered a fairy tale. There you are, one of your loved ones has been dead for years and buried in a grave you've often visited. Then on the day of Jesus' death their grave is MIRACULOUSLY opened up, an unseen force at work dispersed the dirt, moved the stones, and then up out of the ground, and off of the stone your long decayed and gone back to dust loved one is suddenly transformed into life once more. The dust reformed instantly into flesh, blood and bone. Walking from their burial place this resurrected in the flesh loved one goes and appears to many. THE MIRACLE of it all! This has NEVER happened before. Yes, Lazarus and others were brought back from the dead during Jesus' ministry, but not those long dead in the graves, not many at one time, not on such a miraculous scale as this momentous occasion. The dead brought to life upon the death of Jesus!  And yes, this is something that we need to contemplate, because up until this point those saints that were dead were NOT living! How ludicrous to even imagine for a single moment that they were in a living spirit form enjoying their life with God in heaven without any limitation of a body, only to be thrust back into flesh and bone to live out the agonies of life all over again. I can't imagine that for a moment, I just can't.  I can imagine and even comprehend a saint sleeping in death without any awareness, without any knowledge of life on going after they died, being woken from that sleep. There would be no new spirit life they were taken from.  Did these people, like Jesus after His resurrection (not immediately but after a short period of times) rise to heaven in their bodily forms? Or did they again live out their lives here on earth and die again? We don't know, we aren't told. Either way, the miraculous happened, the dead were resurrected in a way they'd never been before and why? Why such a miracle? What was it for? It was for those then and us now to comprehend the resurrection on a much deeper level. It was/is for those who doubt a resurrection at all, and it was/is for those who doubted Jesus' ministry to no longer have doubts.  The dead WILL rise. All those who are Jesus', all those who are His saints will be resurrected from death when He returns for them. Those are His words, the words of the Holy Spirit, the words of God. They are TRUTH. We must not be deceived!))))

'We say the first-fruits indicates kind as well as order. The first-fruits of any product was paid from that product, and not from something else. A sheaf of barley would not be the first-fruits of a field of wheat. A measure of wheat would not be the first-fruits of an olive orchard. Such a reckoning or rendering of first-fruits would be considered only absurd. But that would be no more absurd than to make the resurrection of Jesus from a physical death and a burial in the grave, the first-fruits of immortal souls, which never died and could not die!

No greater incongruity could be presented. Surely, they who teach such fanciful theories cannot have well considered the result of their action. “They know not what they do.” Nothing but the literal resurrection of physical or material bodies will answer to the first-fruits presented in the resurrection of our Saviour.

4. We will briefly present some direct proofs of the resurrection; we shall select such as have a bearing on its nature. (1) “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption.” Ps. 16:10. This is one of the last texts which would be selected by those who spiritualize the Scriptures, to prove the resurrection of the body; but to that it refers, for inspiration says it is a prophecy of the resurrection of Christ “according to the flesh.” Acts 2:30, 31.

- 193 - J. H. Waggoner

(2) “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” Isa. 26:19.

(3) “Thus saith the Lord, Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.” Jer. 31:16.

We learn from Matt. 2:16-18 that this language was spoken to those mothers whose little children were slain by Herod. Death is the enemy (1 Cor. 15:26) from whose land they will be brought.

1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 

 (4) “Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.” Eze. 37:12. The vision of the valley of dry bones is often spoken of as a prophecy of a spiritual reviving. But the words quoted above are from the Lord’s explanation of the vision; and no one should presume to explain the Lord’s explanation. It is plain, and in harmony with the other scriptures.

 (5) “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Dan. 12:2.

(6)“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death; O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction.” Hos. 13:14.

(7) “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 by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Rom. 8:11.

(8) “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Rom. 8:22, 23.

(9) “We shall not ail sleep, but we shall all be changed, 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

The Atonement - 194

be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Cor. 15:51-53.

If every word shall be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses, there is no need that this line of proof should be carried any farther. Not one of these declarations can fail, for “the Scriptures cannot be broken.” And we rejoice in the assurance. We do indeed “groan within ourselves;” our sicknesses and pains are evidences of our mortality. We long for the day when this mortal shall put on immortality; when death shall be swallowed up in victory; when redemption’s work for the suffering saints shall be complete.

(To be continued)

(Excerpt from-) THE ATONEMENT PART SECOND:

THE ATONEMENT AS REVEALED IN THE BIBLE

 (1884)

BY   ELDER J. H. WAGGONER