In the Old Testament, Israel's concepts of the resurrection were born out of her relationship to God in her tumultuous history. At first glance the prophet Isaiah seems to express a view that the resurrection is for the faithful and that the wicked may not arise. The Jewish loyalist of the book of 2Maccabees apparently agreed that for some there will be no resurrection to life.

If a favour is shown to the wicked,
he does not learn the meaning of integrity.
He does evil in the land of uprightness,
he fails to see the majesty of Yahweh.

Yahweh, your hands is raised,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your jealous love for this people and be ashamed,
let the fire prepared for your enemies consume them.

Yahweh, you are giving us peace,
since you treat us
as our deed deserve.

Yahweh our God,
other lords than you have ruled us,
but we acknowledge no one other than you,
no other name than yours.

The dead will not come to life,
their ghosts will not rise,
for you have punished them, annihilated them,
and wiped out their memory.

Enlarge the nation, Yahweh, enlarge it,
to the nation grant glory,
extend all the frontiers of the country.

Distressed, we search for you, Yahweh;
the misery of oppression was your punishment for us.
As a woman with child near her time
writhes and cries out in her pangs.

so we are, Yahweh, in your presence:
we have conceived, we writhe
as if we were giving birth;
we have not given the spirit of salvation to the earth,
no more inhabitants of the world are born.

Your dead will come to life,
their corpses will rise;
awake, exult,
all you who lie in the dust,
for your dew is radiant dew
and the land of ghosts will give birth. - Isaiah 26:10-19 -

But prophet Daniel announced "Of those who lie sleeping in the dust of the earth many will awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting disgrace. - Dan. 12:2 -

The New Testament consistently teaches hope in the resurrection of the believer based on the resurrection of  Jesus Christ as the 'firstborn from the dead.' This resurrection is also expressed in terms of such images as a transformed body. - Phil. 3:21; 2Cor. 5:2-4; Rev. 6:11 -

Now if Christ raised from the dead is what has been preached, how can some of you be saying that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ himself cannot have been raised, and if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless and your believing it is useless...But Christ has in fact been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have been asleep............ Never give in then, my dear brothers, never admit defeat; keep on working at the Lord's work always, knowing that, in the Lord, you cannot be labouring in vain. - 1Cor. 15:12-58 -

Now the Church is his body,
he is its head.
As he is the Beginning,
he was first to be born from the dead,
so that he should be first in every way. - Col. 1:18 -

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has given us a new birth as his sons, by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, so that we have a sure hope and the promise of an inheritance that can never be spoilt or soiled and never fade away because it is being kept for you in the heavens. Through your faith, God's power will guard you until the salvation which has been prepared is revealed at the end time. - 1Peter 1:3-5 - 1Thess. 4:14-18 -

The Gospel of Saint John contrast resurrection to life with resurrection to judgment. "Those who did good will rise again to life; and those who did evil, to condemnation." - John 5:29 - Acts 24:14-16 - Apparently a similar contrast lies behind the statements in Revelation 20 about "the first resurrection" - 20:5 - and "the second death." - 20:14 -

So significant is the resurrection of Jesus Christ that without it there would be no Church or Christianity, and we would still be in our sins. - 1Cor. 15:17 -

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.


HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -