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Summary of the Divine
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The Message of the Kingdom

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Three Spheres

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Alphabetical Analysis

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HOPE

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THE ABOVE HEAVENS

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"Practical Truth in
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A Study in Pentecost

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Heavenly Places

by Charles H. Welch
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Gementria in Christ's
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"THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY"

By E.W. Bullinger

There are few subjects that are made
more of in the word of God, and there are few subjects that are more set
at nought by the traditions of men, than the doctrine of the Resurrection.
I believe that it was the late Mr. Spurgeon who lamented the fact that our
English theology, while it was rich in every department of Christian
doctrine, does not contain a single satisfactory work upon it; and a
reference to a bibliography of the subject, such as you find in Alger's
Future State, will convince anyone of that fact--a fact as instructive as
it is remarkable. We are all constantly confessing in our Creed, "I look
for the resurrection of the dead". Do we look for it`? We are all as
constantly confessing, "I believe the forgiveness of sins". Do we believe
it? I think that the two may go together; and we may say of them that all
the thousands who take the Christian name upon their lips know little
about the forgiveness of sins, and look but little for the resurrection of
the dead. It was with special reference to the resurrection that our
blessed Lord said to His enemies, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures,
nor the power of God". And we err with regard to this subject of the
transformation of His people, because we are ignorant of what the word of
God has to say about it; and we are ignorant, upon the other hand, about
all that flows from the knowledge of the forgiveness of sin, because we
are ignorant of the blessed standing and privilege which He has given us.
We separate ourselves from Christ; we separate this great doctrine from
Christ; and hence it is that, while He holds out the blessed hope for
troubled hearts, and says, "If I go away, I will come again and receive
you unto Myself", and "I am coming to gather My saints, to raise them that
are asleep, and to change them and those that are alive and remain", we
reply practically, "No, Lord, Thou needst not come for me; I am going to
die, and come to Thee".

While we may draw our own inferences from
what the Scriptures state, we shall all agree that it is highly important
that we should clothe those views in Scriptural terms, and that we should
ask and answer how far it is that this popular saying hope of the Lord's
coming again to fulfil His promise, to receive us to Himself; and how far
it has practically blotted out the hope of resurrection and disestablished
it from the place it occupies in the word of God, and disestablished it
altogether from the Church's various hymn-books as a great object of hope.
This error crept into the Church at a very early date. You remember how
the apostle speaks to some in the 15th chapter of the lst Corinthians, who
say that there is "no resurrection of the dead"; and in writing to Timothy
he refers to Hymenaeus and Philetus, who had led away some from the faith
by saying that "the resurrection is past already". It is remarkable, and
it is instructive and worthy of all attention, that, though there is so
little said about death in the New Testament, and nothing about it at any
rate as a hope; and though there is so much said about the blessed hope of
the transformation of His people at their resurrection, yet in the 6th of
John, four times in a few verses, Jesus says, "This is the Father's will
which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose
nothing, but should raise it up again at tire last day"; and again, "This
is the will of Him that sent Me" (so that the words of Jesus really are
the Father's will), ."that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on
Him, may have everlasting life"; and, more than that, "1 will raise him up
at the last day". And again, "No man can come to Me, except the Father
which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise hire tip at the last day".
And again, "Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal
life; and I will raise him up at the last day". (John vi. 39, 40, 44,
54.)

The greatest comfort which the greatest Comforter that the
world ever knew had to give to a sister who had been bereaved of a beloved
brother was, "Thy brother shall rise again". All hope is bound up with
this great subject: and, if our Theology has no place in it for this great
hope, then the sooner we change it the better; for remember that this
subject is one wholly of revelation. There is not a man on the face of the
earth who can tell us anything whatever about it, except what he himself
learns from the word of God. It is not therefore a question of human
reasoning; it is not a question of the opinion of great or learned men; it
is not a question of any system of doctrine or of philosophy; but it is
purely a question of Divine revelation.

Our eyes see at every street corner at the present moment a placard
advertising a book, Death and afterwards, by a poor mortal woman; and what
can she tell us about it? What does she know about it, except the lies
that she has been taught by demons and evil angels? True, even with the
Word of God in our hands, we know only "in part"; but, thank God, a time
is coming when we shall know in whole, when "that which is perfect is
come".

The great fact of the resurrection of the dead was known all
along the ages, and it was the hope of God's people; but a great secret
was made known with regard to it by Jehovah to the Apostle Paul. Our Lord
had previously given a hint of it when, coming down from the mountain of
transfiguration (see the 9th chapter of Mark), he said that they should
tell no man of the things they had seen until the Son of man were risen
"from" the dead. The disciples would not have been puzzled if the Lord had
spoken simply of resurrection. He had merely spoken of resurrection, when
He told Martha that her brother should rise again. She said, "I know that
he shall rise again". But here He spoke of a different thing. He said
here, "Till the Son of man be risen FROM the dead", and it says that they
kept that saying to themselves, questioning one with another what the
rising FROM the dead should mean. The resurrection of the dead-of dead
people-that they knew. As to this resurrection from among the dead, they
wondered what it could mean. But the revelation was made to the Apostle
Paul, and he writes in 1 Cor. xv. 51, "Behold, I show you a mystery"; that
is, "Behold, I tell you a secret. I am going to tell you something that
has hitherto remained hidden and been kept secret", just as the secret
with regard to the Church--the Body of Christ-had been kept. "Behold, I
tell you a secret. We shall not all sleep." And the heathen world before,
and the world to-day who are ignorant of this secret, say one to another,
"Ali, there are many things that are uncertain, but there is one thing
that is certain, we must all die!" Thank God, we know a secret about that.
We shall not all die; but whether we are alive and remain, or whether we
fall asleep, we know that we shall be changed and raised at His
coming.

I ought to remark, in passing, that wherever the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is spoken of, and wherever the
resurrection of His people is spoken of, it is always with this
preposition, "From among the dead". It is not always observed in the
Authorized Version, but I believe that in the Revised it is uniformly
rendered "from"; so that, in studying this subject for yourselves, if you
take the Revised Version you will make
no mistake about the true usage
of the reference in this matter of the resurrection.

But now it is time for us to ask, "How are the dead raised up?" Of
course, man has got his thoughts upon it, many thoughts; and of one thing
we are perfectly sure, that we shall find that they are contrary to God's
thoughts. We may summarize the whole of them in four great classes. We may
call the first one the GERM theory. It is a very ancient theory. It is an
ancient Jewish theory. At any rate, it is a theory of the Talmud. It was
entertained by some of the Fathers, such as Tertullian and Gregory of
Nyssa and Basil. They supposed that there is a bone, or a certain
substance, in the human body which nothing can destroy, and they say the
name of it is "luz". You may pulverize it in a mortar, but you cannot
destroy it. You cannot dissolve it in acids, or in other substances, and
nothing upon earth can destroy it; and that is the germ from which the
resurrection body will be made.

Well, after all, that is only an hypothesis. There is no Scripture for
that at any rate, and what saith Scripture? It distinctly says, "That
which thou sowest is not quickened except it die"; but this germ never
dies, and therefore it cannot be quickened. "It is sown a natural body; it
is raised a spiritual body." "That which is born of the flesh [and this
germ is flesh] is flesh." The seed which is spoken of by the Holy Ghost in
1 Corinthians xv. is only an illustration. I think we can hardly say that
it is intended to be an exactly analogous identical process; but it is an
illustration, just as when the Lord said with regard to Himself, "Except a
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die [and that means to dissolve and
to go to corruption] it
abideth alone; but if it die it bringeth forth
much fruit". He referred to His own body. His own body did not die in that
sense. It saw no corruption. And therefore the "much fruit" which it has
produced shows that this is only an illustration.

And then the second great class of ideas may be included under
the term of the IDENTITY theory. This is a later theory, but it was an
early Christian theory, and several of the Fathers professed it. Tatian
and Tertullian and others believed that cripples would rise cripples, that
infants would rise infants. Jerome believed that everyone would rise at
about thirty years of age, at whatever age he died. Of course, that is
only theory. The Mahometans hold this; and the mediaeval or scholastic
Fathers held that as a person died so he would be raised. That is why, at
this very moment, if a Mahometan is wounded in battle, he will never
suffer his limb to be amputated. He would rather die in any agony, because
he believes that he will rise again exactly as he dies. But this theory is
met by such scriptures as these: "Thou sowest not that body that shall
be"; "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." We know that the
earthly house of this tabernacle is to be dissolved, and that we are to
have a new house, a house from heaven. These scriptures effectually
dispose of what we may call the identity theory.

And then the third
theory we may call the: RE-INCARNATION theory. That is the theory of the
great ancient religions of the East. It is being revived to-day under the
guise of theosophy. Re-incarnation is one of the cardinal features of
theosophy, the teaching of evil angels at the present moment. Satan is
getting a circulation for this lie now, in order to prepare for the moment
when he is to re-incarnate the man of sin. And there are many Christian
writers who verge very closely on this theory. Even Archbishop Whately did
in his Future State. There is something akin to it in Bishop Westcott's
writings and in Bishop Perowne's. They illustrate it thus, that it is all
the same if the spirit inhabits another body; it is only another house.
You may take this house down, and you may build another house with the
same material, and it is practically the same house. But it is not the
same thing. The body is a home for us, and if the house of our childhood
were taken down and another house were built, we should go to it and
should want to find the room where we found the Saviour. We should want to
find the room where our mother died, or where some holy and hallowed scene
took place. No; it says, "We are at home in the body"; and Job says, "I
shall see Him for myself. Mine eyes shall behold Him, even though my reins
be consumed within me". The Scriptures always assume that it is ourselves;
and that has led to what we have called the identity theory.

You
remember the words of the Lord Jesus which we have just repeated, "I will
raise it up again", "I will raise him up again", four times in John vi.
Then the apostle says to the Thessalonian saints, "I pray God your whole
spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ". "Who shall change our vile bodies"-the bodies of our
humiliation, our humble bodies-"and make them like His own body of glory".
"We shall be changed." We ourselves shall be changed. "He that raised up
Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit
that dwelleth in you". The law of continuity is utterly broken down by
this theory of re-incarnation.

And then, fourthly, there is what we may call the SPIRITUAL BODY
theory. It is the Swedenborgian theory; it is the theory of the
spiritualists, the teaching of demons. It is much more popular than you
imagine. But this is also an ancient error, and it leads, as it did lead,
to the denial of the resurrection altogether. According to this theory,
resurrection practically takes place at death by a spiritual body which is
evolved from the mortal body: but this utterly destroys resurrection as a
hope; because the hope which is held out to us is, that those who are
Christ's will be all raised together at His coming; not merely that we
which are alive and remain are to be transformed together, but that those
who are asleep are to be first raised, and then caught up together with
the living ones to meet Him in the air. We are to be raised in a definite
order-"Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His
coming". (1 Cor. xv. 23, 24.) We are to be raised at a definite time, at
the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ; and that day is not the hour of
each believer's death, but it is the hour of the Lord's appearing. We are
distinctly told by a direct revelation from the Lord, in 1 Thess. iv. 15
(R.V.), "that we that are alive that are left unto the coming of the Lord,
shall in no wise PRECEDE them that are fallen asleep". Why shall we not
precede them, or get before them? Why! Because they are to be raised
first; and then, when they are raised and changed, we shall be changed and
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.
It cannot be that they have ' so preceded us! But this spiritual body
theory utterly and entirely destroys this blessed hope of resurrection as
a hope. It utterly reverses the teaching of Scripture as to death and as
to judgment. It makes a mockery of those two great solemn statements,
"Thou shall surely die", and, "There shall be no more death". And what
utterly negatives this spiritual body theory is, that the resurrection
body is to be like Christ's, and we know that His body was not such a
body. His was a glorious body, and His body is the very type and the
likeness and the illustration and the definition of what the raised bodies
of the saints are to be. "We know", in spite of all these hypotheses and
thoughts and imaginations, "that when He shall appear we shall be LIKE
111M". How do we know it? Because God has told us that we shall be like
Him. And What was He like? What was His resurrection body like? Well, as
He came from the sepulchre the women held Him. So it was a body that could
be held. He said to them, "Handle me, and see". So it was a body which
could be handled, and a body which could be seen. lie said to Thomas,
"Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands: and reach hither thy hand,
and thrust it into My side". So that it could be seen and handled and
touched. The spear marks were visible, the prints of the nails must have
been visible. And there is great meaning in those solemn words which refer
to Israel, and yet await their fulfilment "They shall look upon Me whom
they have pierced". We may imagine for a moment that solemn supper scene
at Emmaus, when they knew not who He was; how when lie blessed the bread,
and lifted up His hands in blessing, they may have seen the marks of the
nails. He is the firstborn from the dead. He will have many brethren. It
was by a resurrection of the dead that He was declared to be the Son of
God. (Rom. i. 2.) And that is how ire shall be declared to be the sons of
God. We have the blessed and high and holy privilege now; but it has to be
"declared", it has to be "manifested", and we are told in Rom. viii. 19
when that manifestation will take place. It will be when the body shall be
redeemed from the grave, and the manifestation of the sons of Clod shall
take place at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in the air. Resurrection
was His right, because lie was Who He was. It is our blessed privilege and
hope, because we are Whose ire are.

Again we may ask, "How are the
dead raised up?" And the answer to the question is, "By the power of God".
Nicodemus asked, "How can these things be?" What was the answer? "God so
loved the world, that He GAVE His only begotten Son". God's gift,
therefore, was the answer to Nicodemus's "How?" And so in the next
chapter, when the woman of Samaria asked, "How is it that Thou, being a
Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?" Jesus said, "If
thou knewest the GIFT of God, and who it is that with to thee, Give Me to
drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee
living water". And so it is in 1 Cor. xv. 35. "But some man will say",
says the apostle, "How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they
come?" What is the answer? "God GIVETH it a body as it bath pleased Him."
(a. 38.) The gift of God, the power of God as manifested in the gift of
God, is the only answer to all our questions; and, thank God, we know
this. "We know", as it says in 2 Cor. v. 1, "that if our earthly house of
this tabernacle were dissolved". We know that "If it shall be dissolved".
The particular Greek word for "if" there, with the mood of the verb that
follows it, show that it is not at all a certainty. "If the house of our
earthly tabernacle be dissolved." It is not at all certain that it will
be. It may be. Of course, if we fall asleep in Jesus, it must be. But it
may not be, because we may be "alive and remain" at His appearing. But,
supposing that it should be dissolved, then we know that we blue a better
one. We know that we have a house that God Himself shall build. We know
that we have no longer an earthly house, but a heavenly one. And when
shall we have it? Many commentators-in fact, all that I have looked at-say
that we have this at death. But you notice that this chapter begins with
the word "For"; and it is one in a series of reasons for a statement that
has been previously made in the 14th verse of the 4th chapter: "Knowing
that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus,
and shall present us with you". How do we know it? By the next verse. "For
all things", etc.; the next, "For which cause", etc.; the next, "For our
light affliction", etc.; and then the verse of the next chapter, "For we
know", etc. This is another of the reasons how it is that the Spirit which
raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up and present us with Him. How?
"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,
we have a building of God." And that is how we shall be raised up, and
that is how we shall be presented. It is no mere transition, it is no mere
evolution; but it is a transformation, it is a manifestation, it is a
transfiguration, it is a resurrection, it is "the redemption of our body"
(Rom. viii. 23), it is the manifestation of our sonship. The Greek does
not say "waiting for the adoption", but waiting for the sonship, waiting
for the manifestation of our sonship in the resurrection of our bodies.
So, while identity is not the word, CONTINUITY is the word, which really
expresses the truth as to the transformation of God's people. The bodies
that we possess at this moment are the same bodies in one sense as when we
were children. We have photographs of ourselves, doubtless, at different
ages-one taken in infancy, another in childhood, another in youth, and now
those that have been recently taken. It is the same body, and yet
philosophically and scientifically it is not the same. It is all the same
for us, at any rate. "He that was dead came forth." Lazarus it was who
came forth, and not another. "He that was dead sat up, and began to
speak", and not another. "Women received their dead raised to life again",
and they knew them and spoke to them. The grave, thank God, has already
been robbed of some of its prey, and there are those who are to escape
death altogether. The grave has been robbed of many, and death has been
baffled by two; and, if we may answer this question, "How are the dead
raised up"? in a definite statement, I would express it by the words
CONTINUITY and re-creation: and that is why we are exhorted in 1 Peter iv.
19, "Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit
the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful
Creator". In fact, the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is
the type of the resurrection body, and that was a visible body. Moses and
Elijah "appeared in glory", it says. But Christ's body was so glorious,
and His raiment so white, "as no fuller on earth can white them". It was
the glory of the revelation of the King. It is a specimen of the King
coming in His kingdom with those who had been raised from the dead and
those who had been changed.

But let us for a moment pay a visit, as
Jeremiah did, to the potter's house, in Jeremiah xviii. 1-4. "The word
which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to the
potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear My words. Then I went
down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter:
so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make
it." In the margin we read "he returned and made". If we look at the
immediate context, we will find that the interpretation of these words
refers to the house of Israel; but there is an application of the words
that goes very much farther than their interpretation. The context shows
that the interpretation belongs solely to the house of Israel; but we may
apply the passage as exhibiting a great and divine principle which we see
in all the works of God.

You see it, for example, in the COVENANT
of works which He made with Israel. That was made, and man has always
marred everything with which God has ever entrusted him. "Which My
covenant they brake". The first covenant of works was like that vessel
marred upon the wheels; and then He made another as seemed good to the
potter to make it. And it is written of this covenant that if the first
"had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second"
(Heb. viii. 7); but it was broken by His faulty people, and therefore a
new covenant was made as it pleased the potter to make it.

And so
it is with regard to THE EARTH. The earth was created in glory and beauty,
but it has been marred. Sin entered, the curse was pronounced, and this
earth has been marred in the hands of the potter. It is not going to be
mended, but there is going to be a new one. "I saw a new heaven and a new
earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away." (Rev.
xxi. l.) And it was made "as it seemed good to the potter to make
it".

It is true of our OLD NATURE that it has been marred in our
first parents, and we know how it is marred in each one of us. It is never
God's principle to mend that which man has marred. He always makes
something new. And so He now makes a new creation in Christ Jesus. As the
old nature is fallen and marred, man must have a new nature given to him.
The new wine cannot be put into old wine skins, the new piece of cloth
cannot be put upon the old garment; but the new wine must be put into new
wine skins, and then both are preserved. And so with our bodies. These
BODIES of humiliation, which are made of clay like the vessel of the
potter, have been marred upon the wheel. As soon as we are born we begin
to die. There are the seeds of suffering and disease and death in every
one of us. We are made of clay, and marred upon the wheel. But the potter
"returned" and made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to the
potter to make it. And so with these transformed bodies at the
resurrection, when the great potter Himself shall return. He will make
them again another body, as it hath pleased Him: and so, whether it be the
old nature, whether it be the heart, whether it he our bodies, they are
never mended or repaired or improved or reformed; but they are condemned,
and a new nature and a new heart is given, and by-and-by new bodies will
be bestowed. Oh, what a depth of meaning there is in those few simple
words-"He made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to
make it". "God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him." (I Cor. xv.
38.)

And so you find in Hebrews x., with reference to the
sacrifices and offerings which were under the first covenant, it is said
they are all taken away because they were marred in their use; and then He
said, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God". In each case "He taketh away the
first, that fie may establish the second". (Heb. x. 9.) Thank God, THE
SECOND IS ALWAYS ESTABLISHED. And so it will be with these new glorious
bodies. They will be established. These poor vile bodies will be soon
taken away and disestablished; but that which is to come will be
established for ever and ever in glory.

This is our hope, and you
will see how it is all bound up in Christ. It shuts us up entirely to Him;
but people do not heed it. The shepherds went and told the people about
His first corning. It says, the people "wondered". That is all. The people
wondered, and they went on talking about the topics of the day. The topics
of the day were very much like the topics of our day-taxes, and commerce,
and politics. Augustus had just made a taxing throughout the empire, and
that was doubtless the great matter of conversation. They "wondered", and
passed on with their business. But the early Christians cherished this
blessed hope, and the testimony of Gibbon is worth repeating. It is
contained in a few words from the 15th chapter of his 1st volume. This
great truth of the Lord's coming, and our being raised at His coming, was
universally believed among these early Christians. He says, "The approach
of this event had been predicted by the apostles. The tradition of it was
preserved by their nearest disciples, and those who understood in their
literal sense the discourses of Christ Himself were obliged to expect the
coming of the Son of man before that generation was totally extinguished".
[That is where Gibbon was wrong. They were not obliged to expect it before
that generation was extinguished; but the fact remains that they did.] "As
long as for wise purposes this error" [you see we have the testimony of an
enemy who does not believe this truth himself] "as long as for wise
purposes this error was permitted to subsist in the church, it was
productive of the most salutary effect on the faith and practice of
Christians". There is the testimony of an enemy then to this truth, as to
the effect it produced upon the lives of those who held it. Oh, that
Christians to-day would try this experiment! Oh, that we might be
influenced by this blessed hope now! that we might accustom ourselves to
looking for it, just as an army is practised in meeting a night attack, or
just as upon a vessel the crew is practised by a false alarm of fire, so
that each man may go to his right station. Oh that we might rehearse for
ourselves, and practice for ourselves, the waiting for this assembling
shoutthe waiting to hear the voice of the archangel and the trump of God!
That will be an assembling shout. The trump of God is for the same
purpose. See in Numbers x. 7, "When the congregation IS TO BE GATHERED
TOGETHER, ye shall blow". And when His people are to be gathered together
in the air this trump of God shall sound. But He says, "Ye shall not sound
an alarm". No, it will be the signal for our being gathered together unto
Him. It will not. be an alarm for us, but it will be a blessed assembling
shout and gathering trump. As Christ is the blessed object and centre of
our hope, so He is presented to us in this great subject. "He that bath
this hope in Him"-not in himself. "He that hath this hope in Christ". What
hope? Why the hope of being like Him at His appearing, when we shall see
Him as He is. He that hath this hope fixed upon Him, what does he do? What
is the effect of it? "Every one that hath this hope in Him purifieth
himself, even as He is pure." Yes, it is a purifying hope. And why is the
low standard of walk among Christians at the present day so much deplored?
Why are so many efforts put forth for raising the standard of this walk?
Because that standard has been changed. And why? Because this purifying
hope is not held. Why are other methods tried and sought after for the
promotion of purity of life, and this great divine advent method not
tried? Here is God's method to secure our purity of life and walk. "He
that hath this hope" (of the transformation of His people)-he that hath
this blessed hope fixed upon him-"purifieth himself". And this Divine
method cannot be carried too far. Other methods which men may propose to
you may be carried too far. They are carried too far; but you will never
carry this one too far. You can never look to Christ too much. You can
never look for Christ too much. There will never be any ill effect from
looking to Him; and, whatever may be left uncertain from the consideration
of this subject, we may be sure that, with all our knowledge and all our
thoughts about it, we shall surely say, when this blessed hope is
realized, "The half was not told me". It will surely be beyond all that we
have ever expected: it will surely exceed all that we ever desired: for
"it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is".

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