We have seen in our second article how the doctrine of the immortality of the soul undermined the truth about the kingdom of God. The same doctrine also affected the true teaching of the resurrection of the dead. Most of Christendom still retains the doctrine of resurrection in the official tenets of their faith: they recite the Apostles’ Creed – “I believe…in the resurrection.” But that teaching has definitely lost its importance in their view of salvation. It is the soul’s “abode in heaven” that one hears about at funerals, not the resurrection from a state of unconscious sleep that awaits the faithful in the last day. (John 11:24).
Some groups have quite abandoned the idea of bodily resurrection, asserting that the word applies to the “freeing” of the soul at death. “Dust thou art, to dust returneth, was not spoken of the soul,” conjectured a famous poet.
Other groups have made bodily resurrection meaningless by asserting that the conscious soul goes to a place of blessing or of condemnation at the time of death. While they may officially acknowledge a resurrection of the body, in fact, such a resurrection is of minimal importance to the individual. If we are enjoying our ultimate reward in a soul-state immediately after death, why should we care whether or not the body is ever raised to be re-inhabited by the soul? With such an unscriptural idea, for all we know, the resurrection might never happen for it is just a technical formality.
The early emphasis
In browsing through church writings from the first three centuries, we have been struck with Christianity’s difference in perspective between that period and the present. Even while the false ideas of the immortality of the soul were developing, the emphasis on bodily resurrection is remarkable. It is obvious that this doctrine had been clearly taught and emphasized by those who immediately followed the apostles. Along with their belief in the coming kingdom, the early believers were sustained by their strong belief in a future resurrection. To them, it was an absolute necessity if they were ever to be relieved of the unconscious state of death.
Because of the importance of the subject, and because of the very strong emphasis placed upon it in the second century, we believe that an article on resurrection is appropriate.
Polycarp
We have already quoted the pertinent phrases on the subject of resurrection which appear in the brief writings of this early writer (“Tidings” 3/91). Polycarp, in his dying prayer, speaks of his hope for a future life. “0 Lord God Almighty, the Father of Thy beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the knowledge of Thee, the God of angels and powers, and of every creature, and of the whole race of the righteous who live before Thee, I give thanks that Thou hast counted me worthy of this day and of the hour, that I should have a part in the number of Thy martyrs, in the cup of Thy Christ, to the resurrection of eternal life, both of soul and body, through Thy Holy Spirit” (Martyrdom of Polycarp).
Another early witness
The Epistle of Barnabas is one of the earliest Second Century writings. It offers this interesting comment, attesting to the writer’s belief in resurrection and the coming kingdom. “Attend, my children, to the meaning of this expression, ‘He finished in six days.’ This implies that the Lord will finish all things in six thousand years, for a day is with Him a thousand years. And He Himself testifies, saying, ‘Behold, today will be as a thousand years.’ Therefore, my children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, all things will be finished. ‘And He rested on the seventh day.’ This means: when His Son, coming again, shall destroy the time of the wicked man, and judge the ungodly, and change the sun, and the stars, then shall He truly rest on the seventh day…Wherefore also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead” (ch. xv).
Justin Martyr
“For the prophets have proclaimed two advents of his: the one, that which is already past, when he came as a dishonored and suffering Man; but the second, when, according to prophecy, he shall come from heaven with glory, accompanied by his angelic host, when also he shall raise the bodies of men, and shall clothe those of the worthy with immortality” (First Apology, ch. lxx).
“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 it is I;’ and he let them handle him, and showed them the prints of the nails in his hands” (On the Resurrection, ch. ix).
Irenaeus
“As, therefore, those who were healed were made whole in those members which had in times past been afflicted; and the dead rose in the identical bodies, their limbs and bodies receiving health, and that life which was granted by the Lord, who prefigures eternal things by temporal, and shows that it is He who is Himself able to extend both healing and life to His handiwork, that His words concerning its future resurrection may also be believed; so also at the end, when the Lord utters His voice ‘by the last trumpet,’ the dead shall be raised, as He Himself declares: ‘The hour shall come, in which all the dead which are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall come forth; those that have done good to the resurrection of life, and those that have done evil to the resurrection of judgment'” (Against Heresies, V, xiii).
“He promised to drink of the fruit of the vine with his disciples, thus indicating both these points: the inheritance of the earth in which the new fruit of the vine is drunk, and the resurrection of his disciples in the flesh…The predicted blessing, therefore, belongs unquestionably to the times of the kingdom, when the righteous shall bear rule upon their rising from the dead” (ch. xxxiii).
Other Second Century witnesses
“And on this account we believe that there will be a resurrection of bodies after the consummation of all things” (Tatian: Address to Greeks, ch. vi).
“For God has given us a law and holy commandments; and every one who keeps these can be saved, and, obtaining the resurrection, can inherit incorruption” (Theophilus: To Autolycus, II, xxvii).
Tertullian
“Accordingly, when the body shakes off its slumber, it asserts before your eye the resurrection of the dead by its own resumption of its natural functions” (Treatise on the Soul, ch. xliii).
“He spake of its ‘drawing nigh,’ not of its being present already; and of ‘those things beginning to come to pass,’ not of their having happened: because when they have come to pass, then our redemption shall be at hand, which is said to be approaching up to that time, raising and exciting our minds to what is then the proximate harvest of our hope” (ch. xxii).
The Third Century
“See, therefore, how for our consolation all nature suggests a future resurrection. ..We must wait also for the springtime of the body” (The Octavius of Minucius Felix, ch. xxxiv).
This writer contrasts the false hopes of pagans with the Christian confidence in a future resurrection. He then concludes: “Still we adorn our obsequies (funeral rites) with the same tranquility with which we live; and we do not bind to us a withering garland, but we wear one living with eternal flowers from God, since we, being both moderate and secure in the liberality of our God, are animated to the hope of future felicity by the confidence of His present majesty. Thus we both rise again in blessedness, and are already living in contemplation of the future” (ch. xxxviii).
Commodianus (AD 240) writes: “From heaven will descend the city in the first resurrection…We shall rise again to him, who have been devoted to him. And they shall be incorruptible, even already living without death. And neither will there be any grief nor any groaning in that city” (The Instructions, xliv) .
Hope of resurrection diminished’
Even Origen testifies to the importance of the subject of resurrection, though he also advances views that would undermine that faith. “That alone is to be accepted as truth which differs in no respect from ecclesiastical and apostolical tradition,” he writes (De Principiis, Preface). Had he held firmly to that wise maxim, the apostasy might have been deferred. He affirmed the truth concerning resurrection and condamned those heretics who “take offence at the creed of the Church, as if our belief in the resurrection were foolish.” “It can be a matter of doubt to no one that they rise again,” he attests, “in order that we may be clothed with them (our bodies) a second time at the resurrection” (De Principiis, II, x, 1). But, at the same time, he ascribes to a belief that does not wait for the resurrection.
“And therefore we hope, after the troubles and struggles which we suffer here, to reach the highest heavens, and receiving…the fountains of water that spring up unto eternal life” (Against Celsus, VI, xx).
From the time of Origen (AD 230) on, teaching concerning the resurrection would all but disappear, replaced in effect by a belief that made the reward more immediate — at death. The doctrine of resurrection had been too solidly set out for the Catholic Church to discard it altogether, but its importance as the foundation hope of the believer was lost forever, except to those who have obeyed the injunction to “come out of her, my people” (Rev. 18:4).
Once again, a clear teaching of scripture became extinct, the victim of a mixture of man’s speculation and Greek philosophizing. Paul’s words are the authority on this important subject, “But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ is not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain” (I Cor. 15:13,14).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One