- Discussion:
-A common proof text of the Jehovah's Witnesses cited in their rejection of Jesus Christ resurrecting bodily from the grave and for its so-called special class of 144,000 being resurrected as spirit beings is 1 Corinthians 15:50, which is cited as follows:
"Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable."
Notice how Jesus Christ said that He had flesh and bones so as to prove to His disciples that He was not merely a ghost (Luke 24:39-40). The presence of His hands and feet shows that He was not only immaterial, for it would have been impossible for Him to do so had things been otherwise. Moreover, God took His faithful servant Enoch directly into heaven in his physical body (Genesis 5:24). We are given no indication of him becoming only a spirit being.
The final resurrection of the dead will not involve us leaving our mortal bodies behind to decompose. Rather, we will "put on" the imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:53-55). God will eventually perfect our physical bodies. Our nature will be restored back to what it was prior to the fall. This process will be done instantaneously (1 Corinthians 15:52). The phrase "flesh and blood" is a euphemism for humanity in its fallen state.
We must be raised up and glorified to enter into the New Heavens and New Earth in the same manner that Christ was. He has a real, tangible body. He ascended in a human body (Acts 1). He currently is a man mediating between believers and God (1 Timothy 2:5). He will come again to judge the world as a man (Acts 17:31). In Christ dwells (present tense) all the fullness of deity in bodily form (Colossians 2:9).
"Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable."
Notice how Jesus Christ said that He had flesh and bones so as to prove to His disciples that He was not merely a ghost (Luke 24:39-40). The presence of His hands and feet shows that He was not only immaterial, for it would have been impossible for Him to do so had things been otherwise. Moreover, God took His faithful servant Enoch directly into heaven in his physical body (Genesis 5:24). We are given no indication of him becoming only a spirit being.
The final resurrection of the dead will not involve us leaving our mortal bodies behind to decompose. Rather, we will "put on" the imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:53-55). God will eventually perfect our physical bodies. Our nature will be restored back to what it was prior to the fall. This process will be done instantaneously (1 Corinthians 15:52). The phrase "flesh and blood" is a euphemism for humanity in its fallen state.
We must be raised up and glorified to enter into the New Heavens and New Earth in the same manner that Christ was. He has a real, tangible body. He ascended in a human body (Acts 1). He currently is a man mediating between believers and God (1 Timothy 2:5). He will come again to judge the world as a man (Acts 17:31). In Christ dwells (present tense) all the fullness of deity in bodily form (Colossians 2:9).
