The Resurrection

The Resurrection

By Richard P. Joseph

You would think that a discussion on the resurrection would be an open and close case but it is not quite that easy.  Depending on who you ask, you might be surprised at the answers you receive.  Hopefully I can simplify it and make sense out of the confusion.  The first thing we need to do is separate the two main types of resurrection.

One resurrection belongs solely to Jesus Christ.  His resurrection out of the grave is unique to all mankind.  Since Jesus was a sinless being and he was God incarnate, he had the power to lay his life down and to pick it up again, ostensibly proving that he is who he said he was.  He rose from the grave, showed himself to the apostles and then went back to the father whence he came.  There is not much argument about that resurrection but there is about the resurrection of all other humans.

The bible also indicates a second resurrection event.   This is where the confusion comes in for some people.  There are probably many views but I will only mention three at this time.  One is called the Individual Body View, one is called the Collective Body View and one is the Futurist view.  

I will eliminate any futurist view immediately because there is no mention of

prophetic fulfillment after the year AD70.  Jesus and Daniel said that all prophecy and vision will be finished once the power of the Holy People is shattered.  All of the law was fulfilled in Jesus and finished by AD70.  If you are not familiar with that then please refer to my older posts on preterism.     

The next view I will eliminate is the Collective Body View.  I would explain it to you but I can’t figure it out even after doing some research on it.  It seems to morph as it goes by.  The best I can do to explain it is by saying that someone is getting the New Covenant mixed up with a resurrection event and coming up with a concocted mess.  Jesus instituted the New Covenant sealed with his blood.  This new covenant was the fulfillment of the Old Covenant which God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  This new covenant seals the Christian people as the new covenant people.  

Matthew 26:27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is My blood of the new[c] covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. 29 But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

Rev:21 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 2 Then I, John,[a] saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.

The new covenant is a new order of being between God and Man.  It was the fulfillment of the Mosaic law.  God’s covenant is no longer with the Nation of Israel but now with Spiritual Israel.  The proponents of the corporate body view, what I can gather, believe that this was the resurrection.  In other words they believe that the body (believers) were resurrected out of the old law and came to life in the new covenant.   This has a way of eliminating the personal element from the equation.  Nobody doubts that there is a new covenant but it should not be mixed up with the resurrection itself.  The Corporate Body View has led many astray into various cultish type beliefs that I will not mention here.  Suffice it to say that I do not support this doctrine.  I have read several of Don Preston’s works and he labors and labors over scripture but never seems to express any exact or precise conclusion.  He has many good things to say but I still can’t figure out what his view on the resurrection really is.  I think it is what I described above but I cannot confirm it.  This leaves us with the first choice I mentioned above.

The Individual Body View makes the most sense from a scriptural and historical point of view.  This view has been promoted heavily by Ed Stevens (http://www.preterist.org).  I strongly advise you to visit his website for a complete explanation of his views.  The individual body view follows the flow of scripture without having to tweak any of it to make it fit.  It also considers that God is in the people business and not necessarily in the nation business.  

At the last supper, Jesus made it very clear that he was in this to save souls of men, not to start another cultus type of nation.  In John 14 Jesus lets the disciples know that they will all personally be with him in his eternal kingdom soon.  

14 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions;[a] if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.[b] 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself;

When Peter, Paul and the other New Testament authors commented on the resurrection doctrine they always had an individual person aspect attached to it.  Even Revelation 20:5 talks of a first resurrection and then later describes what appears to be a second resurrection then Hades and death were cast into the Lake of Fire.  As confusing as that sounds there is one common thread that laces through it and that is the idea of personal souls being raised up into God’s everlasting heavenly realm.  The sequence is always; millennium(40 year transition period) including first resurrection, tribulation of the saints, rapture of the living saints and resurrection of the souls in hades, then Hades and death cast into the lake of fire, then the wrath is poured out on those that rejected Christ in Israel.   Resurrection is not mixed up with a covenant change even though they may occur at the same time.  Since Hades was emptied of its contents, there is no future resurrection.  We now are ushered directly to heaven or hell at our death.  Hades only existed as a holding place until the Messiah finished his redemptive work.  There is no need of this intermediate place after Christ finished his priestly duty.  We are not part of some corporate blob, we are individuals who must personally account for our lives on this earth.  We will personally meet and bow down before Jesus Christ.   We will enjoy a real heaven and behold the glory of God in our new immortal bodies.  If we do not have a personal relationship with God then why are we wasting our time?    

Time Markers

Time Markers

By Richard P. Joseph

I was flipping the channels the other night wasting my valuable time and I came across the Jack Van Impe show.  I saw his wife talking to some pastor about the civil war in Syria.  He then started quoting Isaiah 17:1 where Isaiah says something about Damascus becoming a ruinous heap.   

I love to watch these people pulling scripture out of nowhere, out of context and out of time and just plug them in any where they “feel” that would advance their preconceived notions.  This would be about as smart as going to a third world country where they still fight certain pestilences or locust swarms that ravish their crops or wipe out their populations and then start quoting from the book of exodus and shouting “Here comes the ten plagues that Moses said would come”.   When Moses warned Pharaoh of the plagues to come there was certainly a timetable attached to them.   I would sound pretty dumb getting on TV and warning that the ten plagues are about to come on the Dominican Republic if they don’t let “my” people go.  

So, that begs the question of why they get on TV today and start proclaiming that the end is coming because of certain world events and then start attaching their own timetable to them?  What ever happened to all of the timetables that Jesus and the apostles attached to their end times events?  Do you just pretend that they are not there?  Do you just ignore them?  Do you just explain them away?  I guess the answer is, you do all of those things because the millions of dollars they are scamming from people are worth it.  It seems to pay off big time if you are in the business of selling your soul to gain the whole world.  

In Matthew 24 we are all familiar with the world events of “False prophets, wars and rumors of wars, of nation fighting against nation and kingdom against kingdom and of famines, pestilences and earthquakes”.   In reality, any generation can come up with some of these events.  Perhaps not all in a row or all at once but these things were not  unique only to the first century.  In other words, if Jesus did not qualify these events and put them in a certain time frame, then anything goes.  That is why Jesus qualified his predictions with a specific time frame that those things must occur in. Isaiah didn’t only give oracles against Damascus, he gave them against multiple city-states (nations) such as Babylon, Edom, Arabia, Jerusalem, Tyre, Sidon etc.  How come the TV scammers didn’t mention any of them?  The answer is because they didn’t fit his preconceived narrative.  Jesus made it plain and clear that his prophecy would occur within the generation of the apostles.   Paul, Peter, John, Stephen et al all made it clear that those predictions in Matthew 24 were going to be fulfilled within their generation or else Jesus was a false prophet.  When Jesus said:

34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.   

Was he joking?  Was he mistaken?  Was he ignorant?  

When he said:

27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.28 “Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”

Was he joking, mistaken or ignorant?  

When he said:

When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

Was he mistaken?

I think not.  The point to all of this is to have real faith.  A practical test would be to understand that if you think one thing and scripture says another thing then you must decide who is correct; you or scripture.  I have come to the solid conviction that it would be me that is making the mistake, not Jesus or the inspired Apostles.  It takes guts and faith to do that.  One has to stop and contemplate that they just may have been feed faulty theology either by mistake or by crook but it must be corrected in order to really understand God’s plan for this world.  If you really want to be free then let the truth set you free.  You would no longer be bound to the chains of always having to explain away scripture.  It is invigorating once you come to that conclusion.  

Ps, Jack Van Impe has been predicting the end times since I was in College.  I don’t even know if he is still alive.  He has been telling us that the end is just a year or two away ever since he started his scam operation but it just never seems to come but if you want to know when it is coming all you need to do is buy his video, cassette tape, CD, or download his junk; whatever is in use at the time.  His show has been on so long that his first sales are archaic but funny enough still says the same thing from 35 years ago.  As long as he can hold the carrot in front of ignorant people he can line his pockets with green stuff.  

The embarrassing verse!

The embarrassing verse

By Richard P. Joseph

“Say what you like,” we shall be told, “the apocalyptic beliefs of the first Christians have been proved to be false. It is clear from the New Testament that they all expected the Second Coming in their own lifetime. And worse still, they had a reason, and one which you will find very embarrassing. Their Master had told them so. He shared, and indeed created, their delusion. He said in so many words, ‘this generation shall not pass till all these things be done.’ And he was wrong. He clearly knew no more about the end of the world than anyone else.”

    It is certainly the most embarrassing verse in the Bible

http://merecslewis.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-most-embarrassing-verse-in-bible.html

C.S. Lewis, "The World's Last Night" (1960)

    C. S. Lewis must have never read the entire New Testament because if he thinks that this one verse is embarrassing, he ain’t seen nothin’ yet!  Lewis was an educated idiot.  He apparently understood the bible from a philosophical point of view instead of a life changing spiritual vantage point with absolute no historical faults.  Unfortunately, most seminary trained pastors fall right in line with Lewis.  They regurgitate the garbage that their seminary professors spewed on them without ever stopping to wonder how the professor became the inspired prophet but Jesus and the apostles were not.  I am writing all of these articles for one main purpose and that is to encourage Christians to stop and listen to what they are saying to themselves.  

I have actually heard many preachers say what C. S. Lewis said above as if somehow the preacher is the inspired apostle but Jesus, Peter, John,  Paul et al are uninspired and made mistakes.  Can someone please explain that one to me?  Lewis mentions only one verse but somehow forgets to mention dozens of others that say or mean the same thing.  In other words the entire New Testament centers around the idea that the second coming was to occur in the first century.  Lewis, using intellectual reasoning,  ended up committing blasphemy.  If anyone wants to know what blasphemy is, please re-read the opening statement of this article.  Preterism now becomes more important than ever.  I was going to start quoting scripture but that would not really serve my purpose.  If I were to pull one or two scriptures out of the bible that show that the parousia was to occur in the first century, that could be challenged by the futurists.  The reality of the situation is, is that the entire New Testament has an eminency threaded throughout every page.  This is not the case of some cult pulling one obscure scripture out and trying to make a point.  A first century parousia is the undercarriage of the entire New Testament.  How can you miss it?  If you are someone who is new to preterism then my first advice to you is to stop and take a deep breath.  Then say to yourself, my preacher is not inspired like the apostles were.  Then say, the apostles were indeed inspired and could not make this type of mistake.  Then read the entire New Testament with an open mind.  Read some solid preterist material and see if it begins to make sense.  For me the pieces of the puzzle fall right into place.  I do not have to make any excuses why Jesus is an “embarrassment”.  The second coming indeed came exactly 40 years after the cross and it is well documented.  Please stop listening to your pastor and start believing the scripture.

Wrath for who?

Wrath for who?

By Richard P. Joseph

In Matthew 23 we find Jesus addressing the religious leaders of Israel; and it wasn’t nice!  Chapter 23 is followed by chapter 22 (of course) in which Jesus was pelted with backhanded questions by the Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees and the Herodians.  These groups were usually somewhat opposed to each other but seemed to find a common enemy in Jesus, so it is not surprising to find Jesus lambasting them in chapter 23.  

Jesus started out saying that the Leaders were in an important position to lead the people but never followed their own advice.  He gives a series of woes that are followed by terms such as hypocrites, blind guides, brood of vipers and fools who love to be recognized in public but never lifted a finger to advance the kingdom of God.  He reminds them that they are full of extortion and self indulgence.   He continues by saying:

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.   

Jesus was building a case against them that would win in God’s court of law:

29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’

Jesus makes it clear that they are a guilty party and that their punishment is soon to come.  He sets out to prove that they were implemented in the crimes that were against the righteous prophets and that they will also be charged with killing the messiah and his disciples.  He told them that he was about to prove that they were the guilty party and that their end was in sight:

31 “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. 33 Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Jesus then laments over Jerusalem because he knew that it’s glory was about to be stamped out.  He leaves them one more prophecy in which they also ignored:

38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”[g]

My point in all this is to ask one simple question; “Who was Jesus’ wrath for”?  If you ask a futurist they will tell you it is for us today.  That, of course, is not totally wrong because those that reject Jesus today will end up in the same place that the religious leaders ended up.  But Jesus warned that “their” house would be left desolate.  It seems the wrath that he was warning them about was his second coming and that is why he capped it all off by proclaiming that they will not see him again until they learned to say “blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”.  

It was at the parousia that they finally understood that their house was indeed left desolate and that he truly was He who came in the name of the Lord.  Anyone who studied the last 3 ½ years of Jerusalem’s ancient history will clearly see the absolute desolation that came upon that generation.  Jesus clearly stated in verse 36 that it would be “their” generation that would experience this catastrophe.  He was not talking about our generation or any other generation and he was not talking about the United States or Russia or Europe, he was talking about the first century generation Israel only.  So if you are one that believes that Jesus was talking about some other generation than the one he specifically identified then please show me where he said that in scripture so that I can review it.  Otherwise, I assume Jesus didn’t make any mistakes and his second coming was to deal with Jerusalem and to reward those that stood strong through it all.