THE RESURRECTION HOPE HAS POWER

IN THE early 1890's, the public press reported on a unique sermon given by a clergyman in Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.  He said that the resurrection will consist of regathering and reviving all the bones and flesh that ever  made up a human body, whether it was destroyed by fire or by accident, was eaten by a beast or became fertilizer.  The preacher held that on a certain 24-hour day, the air would become black with hands, arms, feet, fingers, bones, sinews and skin of the billions of human dead.  These parts would be seeking  other portions of the same body.  Souls would then come from  heaven and hell  to inhabit these resurrected bodies.

Resurrection through a reorganization of original atoms is illogical, and humans do not have an immortal soul.  (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10; Ezekiel 18:4)  Jehovah, the God of resurrection, does not need to reassemble atoms of matter that originally constituted a human body.  he can fashion new bodies for those resurrected.  To his Son, Jesus Christ, Jehovah has granted the power to raise the dead, with the  possibility of everlasting life.  (John 5:26)  So Jesus said:  "I am the resurrection and the life.  He that exercises faith in me, even though he dies, will come to lie."  (John 11:25, 26)  What a heartwarming promise!  It strengthens us to endure trials and even to face death as faithful Witnesses of Jehovah.

The resurrection does not harmonize with the idea that humans have an immortal soul-a view held by the Greek philosopher Plato.  So, what happened when the apostle Paul witnesses to prominent Greeks on the Areopagus in Athens, alluded to Jesus, and said that God resurrected him?    "Well," says the account,   "when they heard of a resurrection of the dead, some began to mock."  (Acts 17;29-34)  Many who had seen the resurrected Jesus Christ were still alive and, despite ridicule, testified that he had been raised from the dead.  But false teacher linked with the congregation in Corinth denied the resurrection.  Paul therefore made a powerful defense of this Christian teaching in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.  Careful study of his arguments proves beyond doubt the sureness and power of the resurrection hope.

Next time: Solid Proof of Jesus' Resurrection

Watchtower, 2000