Can you believe we now have an immortal soul that is now a natural body that will die, be buried, and be resurrected a spiritual body? Or is this speaking of the resurrection of the person, not just something that is now in a person?
None of the above says anything about a deathless soul or a deathless spirit that has no substance, that is now immortal and not subject to corruption, all four are speaking of a PERSON that can die, can be sown (buried), and be resurrected; the PERSON that is now corruptible but will be resurrected incorruptible, the PERSON will have glory and power, the PERSON that now has a natural body but will have a spiritual body in the image of Christ.
EARTHLY BODY | RESURRECTED BODY OF THOSE IN CHRIST
"As WE have borne the image | WE SHALL also bear the
Of the earthy 1 Cor. 15:49 | image of the heavenly" 1 Cor. 15:49
"Flesh and blood cannot | WE SHALL all be changed in a moment, in
inherit kingdom of God"15:50| the twinkling of an eye, at last trump]
Buried a perishable body - Raised an imperishable body 1 Cor. 15:42
Buried a natural body - Raised a spiritual body 1 Cor. 15:44
Buried (sown) in dishonor - Raised in glory 1 Corinthians 15:43
Buried (sown) in weakness - Raised in power 1 Corinthians 15:43
The dead in Christ - Raised incorruptible 1 Corinthians 15:52
Living saints - Will be Changed in a moment 1 Cor. 15:52
"This corruptible - must put on Incorruption" 1 Corinthians 15:53
"This mortal - must put on Immortality" 1 Corinthians 15:53
Body of humiliation |"Conformed to the body of his glory" Phil 3:21
Earthly tent |"A house not made with hands" 2 Cor. 5:1-10
Earthly image of Adam | Heavenly image of Christ 1 Corinthians 15:49
Adam a living soul | Christ a life giving spirit 1 Corinthians 15:45
All now have the body of Adam | Saints to be like Christ 1 John 3:2
“It is not yet made manifest what WE shall be. WE know that when He appears, WE shall be like Him, because WE shall see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2). “Just as He is,” just as Christ is now, not as He was when He was in the flesh and blood image of Adam.
THE PERSON IS (a deathless soul cannot be buried):
BURIED a perishable body - RAISED an imperishable body 1 Cor. 15:42
BURIED a natural body - RAISED a spiritual body 1 Cor. 15:44
BURIED (sown) in dishonor - RAISED in glory 1 Corinthians 15:43
Buried (sown) in weakness - RAISED in power 1 Corinthians 15:43
The dead in Christ - RAISED incorruptible 1 Corinthians 15:52
Living saints - Will be Changed in a moment 1 Cor. 15:52
“How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body:” According to this chapter we –not a soul - will have a body. “Body” or “bodies” are mentioned eleven times (15:35; 15:37; 15:38—2 times; 15:40—2 times: 15:44—4 times: 15:44). The first time in verse 35 asks the question what kind of body will we have in the resurrection. That the body that is put in the ground is not the body that will be resurrected is illustrated by giving an example of planting a seed; the body that comes forth is nothing like and is far greater than what was put into the ground, but it is a body, not a bodiless thin air nothing. The BODY that is put into the ground is not the BODY that shall be resurrected. A bodiless soul that we are told leaves the body at death, but is not dead is not resurrected from the dead.
· “It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body.”
o The body we now have is put buried and it perishes, it is perishable.
o The body that is resurrected is imperishable, but it is a body, not just an immaterial, invisible, no substance nothing that existed before “it is raised an imperishable body” at the resurrection.
§ The “perishable” body that is in the image of Adam that is buried. “Corruption” King James Version. It is the person’s body that is perishable or corruptible that is put in the grave, not Plato’s bodiless soul.
§ The “imperishable” or “incorruptible” body that is resurrected is in the image of Christ. It is the person’s changed body that is resurrected imperishable in the image of Christ, not Plato’s bodiless soul.
· “It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.” The decaying body that is put in the grave has no honor, in the resurrection the saints will be resurrected like Christ, “It has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2). “Who (Christ) will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory” (Philippians 3:21), not an immortal soul that will be in glory before it is raised, or not be transformed (changed), and see Him and be like Him at death; if it were at death, it would make these passages mean less.
· “It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.” The earthly body that is put in the grave has no power, and it is a body, not a soul, that will be resurrected with power.
· “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” The “natural body” is the image of the earthy Adam, the first man, the “spiritual body” with which the saints will be resurrected with is the image of the second man from Heaven (1 Corinthians 15:42-49). There is (1) this earthly, natural body that now is and (2) the spiritual body after the resurrection, there is no kind of body between death when it is “sown a natural body,” and the resurrection when it is “raised a spiritual body.” Nether are there two kinds of bodies before death; there is not a “spiritual body” before it is “raised a spiritual body,” at the second coming of Christ. “Natural” is translated from psukikos, which is derived from psukee; psukee is the natural body (life) we now have, not an immaterial, invisible, no substance something that has no body, and that no one knows what it really is, or what it is like.
It is this corruptible mortal person that will put on incorruption and immortality, not a soul that already is both incorruptible and immortal.
"This corruptible - must put on Incorruption" 1 Corinthians 15:53
"This mortal - must put on Immortality" 1 Corinthians 15:53
If we have a soul that is now immortal, how could this immortal soul it be changed to immortal?
1. “This mortal” is without doubt the earthly person in the image of Adam; even those that believe we now have an immortal soul do not believe this soul is now mortal. It is the saved person that is now mortal that will put on immortality, not an immortal soul that would already be immortal. This is speaking of the saved at the resurrection, nothing is said about the lost who will also be resurrected for judgment at the same time, nothing about them being changed from the image of Adam to the image of Christ, or being raised in glory and power, or about them putting on immorality.
2. It is this mortal person that is to be changed to an immortal person, not a soul that is already immortal changed from immortal to immortal.
3. It is the person that is now in the image of Adam that will be changed to the image of Christ.
· I know of no one that believes the immortal soul they believe in is now in the image of Adam, but this soul will “be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” or that an immortal soul they say is now immortal is now “this mortal.”
· To change 1 Corinthians 15 from speaking about a person, and make it be speaking about a deathless immortal soul or about a deathless immortal spirit makes it pure nonsense.
Fred P. Thompson: “Neither Paul nor any other main-stream Christian theologian has been content with the idea of immortality without resurrection. Some kind of body is essential to personality as we know it. Resurrected, we shall not be naked but appropriately clothed, not phantoms or pure spirits but embodied persons.” Page 168, What The Bible Says About Heaven And Hell, College Press, 1983.
It is the person that is now in the image of Adam that will be in the image of Christ, not as taught by Plato, an immaterial soul that has no substance that was never in the image of Adam.
Wayne Jackson “Do Hunan Beings Have an Immortal Soul?” Christians Courier, says First Corinthians 15:53 speaks of the nature of the future resurrected body.
· Then it is the corruptible person that must put on (become) an incorruptible person (1 Corinthians 15:53).
· Then it is the mortal person that must become an immortal person (1 Corinthians 15:53).
If the person is resurrected an incorruptible and immortal person, a spiritual being, and if there were an immortal spiritual being already in a person, then there would be two immortal spiritual being.
1. The immortal spiritual “soul.”
2. The immortal spiritual person.
Will the two ever know each other anymore that the person can now know the soul that he or she is told is in them? I know nothing about an “immaterial, invisible” (Vine, page 588) being that is nothing but “mental thoughts” (Merey, “Death And The Afterlife,” page 79); it has not contacted me or in any way let me know it is in me; I know no more about “it’ than a person that has never heard of the Bible or about “it.” But I am told that I must believe, repent, and be baptized to save “it” from Hell.
A STRANGE CHANGE: When I first became a Christian in the fifties all most every sermon ended with an invention in which the sinners were told to repent and be baptized to save the soul that is in them from Hell. Today “soul” is almost never used in preaching and it has been years since I have heard anyone told to “save your soul” or God will forever torment “it” in Hell.
Body of humiliation |"Conformed to the body of his glory" Phil 3:21
Earthly tent |"A house not made with hands" 2 Cor. 5:1-10
Earthly image of Adam | Heavenly image of Christ 1 Corinthians 15:49
Adam a living soul | Christ a life giving spirit 1 Corinthians 15:45
All now have the body of Adam | Saints to be like Christ 1 John 3:2
“For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then they that are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Corinthians 15:21-23). It is strange that when that when many read this they see:
· A soul that cannot die but it dies.
· A soul that is dead but it is not dead, nevertheless that soul is made alive by the resurrection.
It is the mortal person that dies—the same mortal person that will be made alive by the resurrection, not a deathless soul make alive by the resurrection.
"Behold, I tell you a mystery: WE all shall not 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 be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). (1) IT IS THE PERSON THAT IS ASLEEP THAT WILL BE INCORRUPTIBLE WHEN THE PERSON IS RAISED FROM THE DEAD, (2) AND THE PERSON THAT IS ALIVE WHEN CHRIST COMES THAT WILL BE CHANGED. “Changed” means something will be changed, it is the mortal person that will be changed to an immortal person, not an immortal soul or spirit changed to an immortal soul or spirit. “And WE shall be changed," not “our souls or our spirits shall be changed.” Why do those that say they do not change the Bible change the “we” to “it”? It is the transformation of the person that is in the image of Adam to the person in the image of Christ, the survival of the person, not a soul. It is not a soul, whatever you believe a soul to be that will be raised from the dead; it will be you changed from mortal to immortal. It is you that will always live in Heaven with Christ, or you that will always be dead. That it is only a soul, not you, that will be in Heaven is the doctrine of man. The resurrection means the restoring of the person, not just something that is in the person and will leave the person at death.
1. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 15:50).
2. "WE all shall not 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" (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). It is the transformation of the flesh and blood body to a spiritual body; without the transformation from earthly to heavenly, no person could inherit the kingdom of God. For both those that will be asleep and those that will be living when Christ returns, both will experience the same change to the image of Christ.
· Those that are asleep and those that will be living are both changed in the same moment at the sound of the trumpet; therefore, no one is changed at the moment of death without the resurrection.
3. "And THE DEAD shall be raised incorruptible" (1 Corinthians 15:52).
4. "And WE shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52). Not a soul or spirit changed.
5. "For this corruptible must put on incorruption" (1 Corinthians 15:53).
6. "And this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:53). This mortal person, not this mortal soul or spirit.
“But some one will say, ‘How are the dead raised and with what manner of body do they come’…you sow not the body that shall be…God gives it a body even as it pleased Him” (1 Corinthians 15:35-49).
· “It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption” not “sown and raised in corruption, then changed to incorruption.”
· “It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory” not “sown and raised in dishonor then changed to honor.”
· “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body” not “sown and raised a natural body then changed to spiritual body.” It is a spiritual body that is raised, not an “immaterial invisible no substance” soul or spirit that is not dead and has no body.
Nowhere is it said only a soul will be resurrected, only a soul will be in Heaven. The Bible always says it is the person that will be resurrected, and the mortal person that will put on immortality, it is the person that is now in the image of Adam and will be in the image of Christ.
"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 be changed" 1 Corinthians 15: 52. If all the saved are alive in Abraham's bosom, who are the dead that shall be raised? If the dead are neither mortal – in the image of Adam nor immortal – in the image of Christ, then if they are now living, what kind of being are they, what image are they in? How can anyone deny that 1 Corinthians 15:53 is speaking of persons being changed from mortal bodies to immortality bodies, not of immortal souls being changed to immortal souls—that would be no change? It is persons that will be changed from mortal to immortal persons that will be in Heaven, not souls that are now living in the persons,
· New International Version: “For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.”
· New American Standard Bible: “For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
· American Standard Version: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
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