Eschatology
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There will be no physical resurrection of the dead |
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All
the sects which base their teachings and practices on the writings of
spiritist Emmanuel Swedenborg deny the resurrection of the dead, for
Swedenborg affirmed: ‘The spirit of man, after the death of the body, appears
in the spiritual world in a human form, altogether as in the world; he enjoys
also the faculty of seeing, of hearing, of speaking, of feeling, as in the
world; and he is endowed with every faculty of thinking, of willing, and of
acting as in the world. In a word, he is a man as to all things and every
particular, except that he is not encompassed with that gross body which he
had in the world; he leaves that when he dies, nor
does he ever re-assume it. This continuation of life is what is understood by
the resurrection’ (quoted in Melton J. Gordon, Religious Creeds, |
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Even
some Protestants deny the resurrection of the dead. Italian Waldensian
theologian Giovanni Luzzi (1856-1948) wrote in one of his books: ‘The
resurrection, therefore, is an universal event because all will rise again; but at the same time
it is an event which takes place for
each individual at his death. Death is nothing but a crisis, man dies and
rises again at the same time’ (Giovanni Luzzi, La religione cristiana secondo la sua
fonte originaria, [The christian religion according to its
original source], Roma 1939, page 359) |
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Confutation |
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The
Holy Scripture clearly teaches that those who die will take back their body. |
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This
will take place at the resurrection, when the soul of every dead man will be
reunited with his body. So the Scripture teaches that there will be a
physical resurrection of the dead. |
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Jesus
said: “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in
the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to
the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection
of condemnation” (John 5:28-29 – NKJV); and Paul said “that there will be a
resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust” (Acts 24:15 –
NKJV). |
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As
for the resurrection of the just, it will take place at the coming of Christ,
as it is written: “But now Christ is risen from the
dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For
since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For
as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one
in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at
His coming ….” (1 Corinthians |
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As
for the resurrection of the unjust, it will take place at the end of the
thousand-year reign (which Christ will establish at His coming and during
which Christ will reign on the earth with the saints), as it is written in
the book of Revelation: “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before
God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the
book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written
in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead
which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the
lake of fire” (Rev. 20:12-15). |
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Beloved, let no one deceive you with empty words,
for the resurrection is not an event which takes place at the death of every
human being which consists in the continuation of life, but a future event
which will consist in the reunion of the body and the soul of every human
being. |