The Late ELDER H. B. JONES: THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

What do the scriptures teach on the subject? Who or what are the subjects of it? Those are pertinent questions and important ones to all who wish to be guided by the word of God – all who believe the Bible is the only inspired, divinely authorized, and infallible standard, or rule of faith and practice for true worshippers of God. 

The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is a fundamental principle of the doctrine of God our Saviour, the denial of which is a denial that our Saviour, Jesus Christ, did what the holy scriptures say he came into the world to do, i. e., “Save His people from their sins.” However there were those – even in the church before the apostles had passed off the stage of action who denied it, for we hear an apostle saying, “But shun profane and vain babblings for they will increase unto more ungodliness and their words will eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymeneus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already and overthrow the faith of some.” I have gathered the idea from the writings of some prominent among Old School or Primitive Baptists, as writers, that there were those in the church at Corinth in the days of the Apostle Paul who denied that Christ had risen from the dead which gave rise to Paul’s argument in first Cor. 13th chapter. That is, this was their idea about it. But this looks hardly reasonable, for one could hardly have retained a position in the church any length of time who denied a fact so vital and important. But it is evident that there were those in the church at Corinth who denied the future resurrection of the dead, and this was the heresy the apostle was opposing. The apostle was basing his argument on the fact that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Such had been preached among them, and such they had believed. 1st Cor. 15:11. But this (i. e. that Jesus Christ had been put to death, been buried, and had arisen from the tomb) was a falsehood, if so be that the dead are not raised.

“But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen, and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain... “For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.” 1st Cor. 15:13-20. Since then Jesus (that same Jesus that was buried in and came up out of Joseph’s new tomb) arose and “became the first fruits of them that ‘slept’ the raising up of all them who sleep in Him is sure. By reference to the latter clause of the 6th verse of this same chapter, we get the idea as to who or what it is that sleeps. A prominent writer and editor, writing on this subject a few years ago, after quoting Mat. 22:31, 32 said “Thus we see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, while dead to us as men, are living unto God and are really not dead at all.” (How about David? see Acts 2:29) “All of God’s people are just this way, none of them die.” (Then, I would ask, can there be any further resurrection of the dead?) Christ having risen from the dead, and they being partakers of this first resurrection, the second, or corporal death, can have no power over them. Above this, in the same article, we find this language. “Those for whom Christ died cannot die; they have everlasting life. The second death, the death of the mortal body, has no power over them, for while their mortal bodies do die and return to the dust, the spirit or life cannot die,” etc. “When the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, they shall be clothed upon with that building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Two different houses, but the same child of God that now dwells in this earthly house shall dwell in that other house not made with hands,” etc. Those quotations embody a theory that denies the resurrection and change of our physical, material, or mortal bodies. (I do not want to misrepresent anyone, and if I am mistaken, or wrong in my deduction, and the writer I am quoting believes in the future resurrection or that those bodies are the children or any part of the children of God, I will gladly make the correction.)

In my humble judgment, it also teaches the theory of Hymeneus and Philetus, “that the resurrection is past already.” 2nd Tim. 2:18 “The child of God” is a being that dwells in this mortal body or “earthly house” until this mortal body dies, or the house is dissolved, and then simply changes houses or goes into another house. If there is any future resurrection of the dead in this theory, I have to confess I am too dull of comprehension to see it. This is the theory, evidently, that the apostle was combatting, in 1st Cor 15th chapter, and that I understand the scriptures everywhere contradict. It is true that in a sense, the saints do not die. As Jesus says, “He that liveth and believeth on Me shall never die.” John 11:26. It is just as true that in another sense they do die. To assert unqualifiedly that the saints or believers do not die is to contradict the Apostle Paul in Acts 20:10, “and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the high priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.” I presume that none will deny that the terms saints, believers, and children of God, as used in the scriptures, allude to the same characters. We learn from the above that the apostle considered men and women (children of the earthly Adam) saints, as he could not have “shut up” spirits in prison or “put them to death.” The children of God bear a relationship to two different heads – the one earthly, the other heavenly. “The first man Adam, who was of the earth earthy,” the second Adam, a quickening spirit.” His first or earthly relationship must be dissolved. He cannot die. In other words, Adam must die. In Jesus, he never dies. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order. Christ the first fruits, afterwards they that are Christ’s at His coming, 1st Cor. 22:23.

“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Heb. 9:28. If we would know something of this second appearing of our Saviour, let us turn to Acts 1:9-11. “And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel who also said, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” Again we read, “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 2nd Thess. 4:18. This will not fit the theory that teaches that the “appearing” of Jesus is only in the personal experience of each individual believer and that “the last day” is the day of each one’s death, because it speaks of His coming as a second coming, and “without a sin.” This signifies beyond a doubt that there was a previous appearance of sin. That evidently was when He came the first time bearing our sins in His own body, etc. In the personal experience of the saints (with some of them at least), there are many “appearings” when Jesus is revealed as precious to their faith. Then the testimony is that some of the saints shall not die, but “shall be changed,” etc. For it is written, “Behold I shew you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed.” (not merely exchanged). “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” 1st. Cor. 15:51-55. If the dead are not raised up at the last day, as God hath appointed and this corruptible never puts on incorruption, nor this mortal never puts on immortality, then the saying that is written, “O death, where is thy sting. O grave where is thy victory,” will never be brought to pass. The theory that the “inner man, as an enduring spirit just dwelling in this mortal visible body only, is the “Child of God,” the subject of regeneration, and the resurrection, can never be harmonized with the above quotation, and many other passages we might quote, for we cannot reckon this innermost soul or spirit,” which takes its leave of this body at death, to be mortal, or corruptible, and in the resurrection of the dead “corruptible is changed to incorruptible and mortal to immortal.”

It has been said the word ‘‘mortal” means ‘‘subject to death, destined to die; as man is mortal,” which definition is correct, but the deductions drawn from this declares all the above scripture untrue, because it is said “the body after death is not mortal for the reason the life that made it mortal has taken its flight.” It is very clear that our bodies now are mortal, but that “the life made it so,” is not so clear, but it is clear that the writer does not believe that our bodies which are now mortal, is that which “is sown a mortal body and is raised an immortal body, is sown a natural body and raised a spiritual body.” Is the mortal that is put on immortality the thing resurrected and changed, reckoned a “vile body”? Can this be said of either the inner man or of the church collectively? In Phil. 3:21 we read “Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He can subdue all things unto Himself.” In Rom. 8:11 “But if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also, (in like manner) quicken your mortal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth in you.” The advocates of the theory above mentioned have contended that the quickening mentioned in this verse means a quickening in a personal experience here in time, as to life in duty, etc. But it seems clear that the words “shall also” imply that God hath raised up our Saviour from the tomb, and that we shall be raised up the same way. I cannot understand the word resurrection as used in the scriptures to apply to something living, but always to the dead. There is no room for guessing when it comes to what the penalty was passed upon when the law was violated in the Garden of Eden, for it is written, “For dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.” Gen. 3:19. This same evidently is the subject of salvation, hence the subject of the resurrection of the dead.

We are not unmindful that this subject is composed of soul, spirit, and body. In 1st. Thess. 5:23-24 we read, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” If the theory that denies the resurrection and change of those mortal bodies from mortal to immortal is true, then this test, among many others, is untrue, for the body as well as the spirit and the soul are preserved blameless, and neither can be lost. “Why should it be thought a thing incredible” with anyone “that God should raise the dead.” Acts 26:8. Is not our Bible a record of miraculous works that God hath wrought? We read “that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.” Acts 24:15.

This text does not say that there has been, or that there is going on now, but that “there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.” “The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation.” John 5:28-29. The scriptures teach therefore that there is a time appointed, when Jesus Christ, our blessed Saviour and Redeemer will come again to this earth “the second time,” and all the dead shall be raised up, both the just and the unjust. Do we believe it? But do we want to spiritualize the facts away? It is not much for us to know the work will be done, or how we shall appear after death. But do we believe we shall (all of us, spirit, soul, and body) appear at all? Shall this “vile body” be raised up at the last day, changed and fashioned like the glorious body of Jesus? Shall we stumble at the fact, that since the beginning of time, so many of Adam’s race have existed on the earth, and have died in so many ways, perishing by thousands on the battlefields, buried at sea, burned to ashes and hundreds of other ways, in which the dust is mingled with other dust, and often scattered to the winds? I say shall all this stagger our faith in the word and promise of God? The inspired writers knew all these things, yet they clearly assert the resurrection of the dead, in that future day which God hath appointed. We who believe the doctrine should do likewise, offering no apologies, and asserting no more than the scriptures assert in endeavoring to explain. The general Arminian theory of the future state is as far from the truth as the one we have been opposing. In corporal death, we are separated from all earthly relationships, and shall live in them no more. And in the kingdom of heaven, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are one in Christ Jesus.” Gal. 3:28. “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven,” Matt. 22:30. “Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he is.” Like David, may all his children say, “As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Thy likeness.” Psalm 15:17. Our corporal death is not the “second death” mentioned in Rev. 2:11, 20:14, 21:8. That evidently alludes to the final state of the wicked. But our death is only a falling asleep in Jesus, from which we are to be awakened. 1st Thess. 4:13. 

Winnsboro, Texas 

H. B. JONES (His article appeared in Zion’s Landmark of March 1, 1926)