Is the Resurrection Necessary?

 When did man get an immortal soul? The short answer is- never. Take a few moments to ask yourself a couple of questions. When Abel died, was he resurrected? No. If, when Abel died he had a supposed immortal soul and it went to heaven, why was it a bad thing? Heaven is our goal, isn't it? Salvation. 

The thing is, why would we need a resurrection at all, whatsoever, if we go directly to heaven without any pesky bodies? 

If my loved ones are in a place of peace and happiness without any anguish, without any sin- why would God subject them to a resurrection from their dead state? It makes no sense. Will He pull their spirit forms from heaven and put them back into their bodies?

If being dead means you simply leave this flesh world to possess a spirit form- why would you want flesh back? Remember, in heaven the idea is that everything is wonderful. You aren't missing your flesh at all. So, I ask again, why would you want it back? When Jesus returns and calls all who died as His followers to rise from the graves and meet Him in the air, do you realize if you believe you are living on in some spirit form in heaven because your soul is immortal and not subject to true death, then you will have to be put back into the grave in order to be called from it when that last trump sounds. Does that sound even remotely logical to you in any fashion?

The excerpt study we are undertaking is really thought provoking, please read the excerpts- they are a lot more insightful than my words.

May the Lord bless and keep us as His now and always!!!!!!! Amen. 

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(The Immortality of the Soul, Is it a Scriptural Doctrine?)

Continued from yesterday…

1 Corinthians 15:16-18

1Co 15:16  For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 

1Co 15:17  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. 

1Co 15:18  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 

1. In verse 16, his premise is,

"If the dead rise not."

The first conclusion from that is, "Then is not Christ raised;" 

then upon this conclusion follows the logical sequence,

"Your faith is vain," 

and upon that another, 

"Ye are yet in your sins." 

From his premise,-

"If the dead rise not," the second conclusion is, verse 18,

"Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished."

 

Nothing can be plainer than that this statement and the doctrine of the immortality of the soul cannot both be true. 

For if the soul be immortal, as is held, it cannot perish, and, therefore, so far as its existence is concerned, it is utterly independent of the resurrection of the dead. Is it not supposed by all those who believe the soul to be immortal that all who have passed from this world in the faith of Christ, have gone to heaven, and are now enjoying its bliss?-Assuredly it is. 

Then, if that be the truth, upon what imaginable principle can it be conceived that they "are perished," if there be no resurrection?

What need have they of a resurrection? 

Have they not, without a resurrection, all that heaven can afford?- 

Upon that theory they certainly have. Then it just as certainly appears that not one of them has perished, even though there never be a resurrection.

Over against this theory stands the word of God, that "if the dead rise not, then they which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." That word is the truth. Therefore it follows that if there be no resurrection of the dead, there is no hereafter for any who have ever died, or who shall ever die.

But God has given assurance to all men that there shall be a hereafter, and that assurance lies in the fact "that he hath raised him [Christ] from the dead" (Heb. 9:27; Acts 17:31). The resurrection of Christ is the God-given pledge that there shall be a resurrection of all the dead: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive," and, "There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." Therefore it is by virtue of the resurrection of the dead, and not by the immortality of the soul, that there will be any hereafter for the dead, whether just or unjust. 

(EXCERPT) (Written 131 years ago) 

The Immortality of the Soul, Is it a Scriptural Doctrine?

BY A. T. JONES.

[Pacific Press Publishing Association] [Oakland, Calif.] [September 1890]

[Bible Students' Library No. 70]