By Rev. JAMES MACLEOD.
It has been brought to my notice that certain statements in my article entitled “Burial of the Dead,” which appeared in the Free Presbyterian Magazine of March, 1948, have been interpreted otherwise than I intended, and I regret that I inadvertently made an unbalanced statement which I withdraw. I adhere unreservedly, and at all times, to the doctrine of The Confession of Faith on “The State of Men after Death and of the Resurrection of the Dead.”
The article was about how men and women should conduct themselves on such solemn occasions. It was not laying any stress whatever on the resurrection of the body at the great day. The matter before our mind at the time was to remind our own people how the Reformers abolished “prayer at the grave,” and we must not compromise on this practice, whoever will, if we carry out the instructions given us in the Confession of Faith. If Free Presbyterians are alone in this (as in many other religious practices), that is no proof that they are wrong. Noah was alone in his day and generation, but we read in the Word of God, that, “By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”
This is what the Confession of Faith says about the resurrection of the body (chap. xxxii.): “Of the State of Men after Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead. (I.) The bodies of men after death return to dust, and see corruption; but their souls (which neither die nor sleep), having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous, being made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies; and the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day. Besides these two places for souls separated from their bodies the Scripture acknowledge none. (II.) At the last day, such as are found alive shall not die, but be changed; and all the dead shall be raised up with the self-same bodies, and none other, although with different qualities, which shall be united again to their souls forever.” The proofs adduced from Scripture are as follows:— Gen. iii. 19; Acts xiii. 36; Luke xxii. 43; Eccl. xii. 7; Heb. xii. 23; II. Cor. v. 1; Acts iii. 21; I. Thes. iv. 17; I. Cor. xv. 51, 52; Job xix. 26, 27; I. Cor. xv. 42, 43, 44, etc. (III.) “The bodies of the unjust shall, by the power of Christ, be raised to dishonour; the bodies of the just, by His Spirit, unto honour, and be made conformable to His glorious body.” Acts xxiv.; John v. 28, 29. Philip. iii. 21. That is what the Confession of Faith says on the above subject with proofs from the Word of God.
The Confession of Faith states that the bodies of the unjust* and just shall be raised at the great day. They state that the just are “waiting for the full redemption of their bodies.” “And all the dead shall be raised up with selfsame bodies, and none other, although with different qualities, which shall be united again to their souls forever.” The unjust, as well as the just, shall be raised up with the selfsame bodies, and none other, although with different qualities. The one shall be raised to dishonour, the other to honour. That is the teaching of the Confession of the Westminster Divines on the general resurrection of the just and unjust at the great day, which we believe to be in strict accordance with the Word of God. The Holy Spirit declares through the Apostle Paul (I. Cor. xv. 35): “But some man will say, how are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh; but there is one kind of flesh of men, another of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There is also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. . . . So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. . . . For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
* We have no statement in Scripture telling us of the nature of the resurrection body of the unregenerate. There has been confusion in the minds of not a few, who take I. Cor. xv. to refer to both the bodies of the regenerate and unregenerate. It is not so, as the Apostle refers only to the bodies of the regenerate.—Editor.
The Larger Catechism, Q. 87.—”What are we to believe concerning the resurrection? A.—We are to believe, that at the last day there shall be a general resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust; when they that are then found alive shall in a moment be changed; and the selfsame bodies of the dead which were laid in the grave, being then again united to their souls forever, shall be raised up by the power of Christ. The bodies of the just, by the Spirit of Christ, and by virtue of His resurrection as their Head, shall be raised in power, spiritual, incorruptible, and made like His glorious body; and the bodies of the wicked shall be raised up in dishonour, by Him, as an offended Judge.” See Confession of Faith with proof adduced from Scriptures. Q. 52—”How was Christ exalted in His resurrection? A.—Christ was exalted in His resurrection in that, not having seen corruption in death (of which it was not possible for Him to be held), and having the very same body in which He suffered, with the essential properties thereof (but without mortality, and other common infirmities belonging to this life), really united to His soul, He rose again from the dead the third day by His own power; whereby He declared Himself to be the Son of God, to have satisfied divine justice, to have vanquished death, and him that had the power of it, and to be Lord of quick, and dead, all which He did as a public person, the Head of His Church, for their justification, quickening in grace, support against enemies, and to assure them of their resurrection from the dead at the last day.”
No doctrines of the New Testament Church have been more assailed than the doctrines concerning the resurrection of our Lord. The Jewish Sanhedrin prepared to attack it before the Lord rose from the dead. “Now the next day, that followed the day of preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while He was yet alive, after three days I will rise again.” In modern days the pens and tongues of men have spared no effort to follow the Jewish priests and elders, who took counsel and gave large money unto the soldiers, bribing them to say: “His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we slept.” Jews and Gentiles joined hearts and hands in denying the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We have proof of this from the writings of men who call themselves Christians, Pastors, Professors in Colleges, and Teachers of the youth of this nation, and in other nations. But we must return to the objections that we mentioned above. We will try and set before our people what the (some of them, as space will not allow to enlarge) conservative divines say on the resurrection of the body. But before we come to that let it be said that we do not believe, nor hold the opinion that this “world is to be renovated by a process of fire, and restored to its original glory!” That fanciful idea originated not with Christians, but with the heathen long before the Christian era. It is no doubt a twin brother of the more recent doctrine of purgatory. It is material fire that is supposed to purge the dross of sin from the inmates of the Pope’s prison-purgatory! But some man will say, how are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? It is sown a natural body (Calvin—animal body); it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
Matthew Henry, on Job xix. 23-29.
“He believes the happiness of the redeemed, and his own title to that happiness, that, at Christ’s Second Coming, believers shall be raised up in glory and so made perfectly blessed in the vision and fruition of God; and this he believes in application to himself. (1) He counts upon the corrupting of this body in the grave, and speaks of it with a holy carelessness, and unconcernedness; though after my skin (which is already wasted and gone, none of it remaining but the skin of my teeth, v. 20) they destroy (those that are appointed to destroy it, the grave and the worms in it of which he had spoken) (ch. xvii. 14) this body.” The word body is added: “Though they destroy this, this skeleton, this shadow (ch. xvii. 7), this that I lay my hand upon.” . . . This that you see, call it what you will; I expect that shortly it will be a feast for the worms. Christ’s body saw not corruption, but ours must. And Job mentions this, that the glory of the resurrection he believed and hoped for, might shine more brightly. Note, it is good for us often to think not only of the approaching death of our bodies, but of their dissolution in the grave; yet let not that discourage our hope of their resurrection, for the same power that made man’s body at first, out of common dust, can raise it out of its own dust. Even my reins (says Job) shall be consumed within me (v. 27); the innermost part of the body, which perhaps putrifies first. (2) He comforts himself with the hopes of happiness on the other side of death and the grave: “After I shall awake (so the margin reads it), out of my flesh shall I see God.” Soul and body shall come together again. That body which must be destroyed in the grave shall be raised again, a glorious body: “Yet in my flesh I shall see God.”
Again, Matthew Henry on I. Cor. xv.:
“But he (the apostle) specifies some particulars, as: (1) It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown. Burying the dead is like sowing them; it is like committing the seed to the earth, that it may spring out of it again. And our bodies, which are sown, are corruptible, liable to putrify and moulder, and crumble to dust; but, when we rise, they will be out of the power of the grave, and never more liable to corruption. (2) It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. Ours is at present a vile body (Phil. iii. 21). Nothing is more loathsome than a dead body; it is thrown into the grave as a despised and broken vessel, in which there is no pleasure. But at the resurrection a glory will be put upon it; it will be made like the glorious body of our Saviour; it will be purged from all the dregs of the earth, and refined into an ethereal substance, and shine out with a splendour resembling His (that is, Christ’s glorified body).”
It will be of profit and enlightenment to any who is seriously minded to follow out the rest of Matthew Henry’s exposition on this chapter to the end. The want of space will not allow us to write out the whole of this wonderful and clear exegetical exposition on the resurrection of the dead at the great day. The saints of God have a vile body in this world, but at the resurrection that vileness is forever separated from their bodies. They will have then a spiritual body, not liable to death, or misery for ever.
Calvin:—
“Thou sowest not that body that will spring up. This comparison consists of two parts: First, that it is not to be wondered that bodies rise from rottenness, inasmuch as the same thing takes place as to seed; and secondly, that it is not at variance with reason, that our bodies should be restored in another condition, since, from bare grain, God brings forth as many ears of corn, clothed with admirable contrivance, and stored with grains of superior quality. As, however, he might seem to intimate, by speaking in this way, that many bodies will therefore rise out of one, he modifies his discourse in another way, by saying that God forms the body as it pleases Him, meaning that in that also there is a difference in respect of quality. . . . It is sown in corruption. That there may be no doubt remaining, Paul explains himself, by unfolding the difference between their present condition, and that which will be after the resurrection. Christ will change our vile body that He may make it like His own glorious body.”
Now let us observe that all the vileness and corruption is left behind. It is a glorious body that is raised up by the power of Christ at the great day. It was a person that sinned against God. It is a person that is raised up at the great day. It is a complete person that Christ came to redeem from sin, guilt, corruption, death, and from all the vileness which is attached to this person in soul and body.
Calvin:
“It is sown an animal body. As he (Paul) could not express each particular by enumerating one by one, he sums up all comprehensively in one word, by saying that the body is now animal, but it will then be spiritual. Now that is called animal which is quickened by (anima) the soul: that is spiritual which is quickened by the Spirit. Now it is the soul that quickens the body, so as to keep it from being a dead carcase. Hence it takes its title very properly from it. After the resurrection, on the other hand, that quickening influence, which it will receive from the Spirit, will be more excellent. Let us, however, always bear in mind, what we have seen previously—that the substance of the body is the same, and that it is the quality only that is here treated of. Let the present quality of the body be called, for the sake of great plainness, animation; let the future receive the name of inspiration. For as the soul now quickening the body, that is effected through the intervention of many helps; for we stand in need of drink, food, clothing, sleep, and other things of a similar nature. Hence the weakness of animation is clearly manifested. The energy of the Spirit, on the other hand, for quickening, will be much more complete, and, consequently, exempted from necessities of that nature. This is the simple and genuine meaning of the Apostle; that no one may, by philosophizing farther, indulge in airy speculations, as those do, who suppose that the substance of the body will be spiritual, while there is no mention made here of substance, and no change will be made upon it.”
Let us now observe what the precious Calvin had to say on Phil. iii. 21.
“Who will change? By this argument he (Paul) stirs up the Philippians still farther to lift up their minds to heaven, and be wholly attached to Christ—because this body which we carry about with us is not an everlasting abode, but a frail tabernacle. Besides, it is liable to so many miseries, and so many dishonourable infirmities, that it may justly be spoken of as vile and full of ignominy. Whence, then, is its restoration to be hoped for? From heaven, at Christ’s Coming. Hence, there is no part of us that ought not to aspire after heaven with undivided affection. We see, on the one hand, in life, but chiefly in death, the present meanness of our bodies; the glory which they will have, conformably to Christ’s body, is incomprehensible by us; for if the disciples could not endure the slight taste which He afforded in His transfiguration (Matt. xvii. 6), which of us could attain its fulness? Let us for the present be content with the evidence of our adoption, being destined to know the riches of our inheritance when we shall come to the enjoyment of them.”
Matthew Pool: I. Cor. v. 53, says:
“God has so decreed that our flesh and blood, in the state wherein now it is, shall not be glorified; it shall be the same body as to the substance, but not as to the qualities; it is now corruptible and mortal, it must be put into a state of incorruption and immortality, before it can enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Charles Hodge, D.D., on “Nature of the Resurrection Body”:
“It is obvious that this is a subject of which we can know nothing, except from divine revelation. We are of necessity as profoundly ignorant of this matter, as of the nature of the inhabitants of the planets or of the sun. The speculations of men concerning the nature of the future body have been numerous; some merely fanciful, others revolting. There are two negative statements in the Bible on this subject, which imply a great deal. One is the declaration of Christ. That in the resurrection men neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God. The other is the words of Paul in I. Cor. xv. 50: ‘Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.’ There seem to be plainly three things implied or asserted in these passages. (1) That the bodies of men must be specially suited to the state of existence in which they are to live and act. (2) That our present bodies, that is, our bodies as now organised, consisting as they do of flesh and blood, are not adapted to our future state of being. And (3) that everything in the organisation or constitution of our bodies designed to meet our present necessities, will cease with the life that now is. Nothing of that kind will belong to the resurrection body. If blood be no longer our life, we shall have no need of organs of respiration and nutrition. So long as we are ignorant of the conditions of existence which await us after the resurrection, it is vain to speculate on the constitution of our future bodies. It is enough to know that the glorified people of God will not be cumbered with useless organs, or trammelled by the limitations which are imposed by our present state of existence. That our bodies after the resurrection will retain the human form. Every time Christ appeared to His disciples not only before, but also after His ascension, as to Stephen, Paul, and John, it was in human form. We know certainly that the future bodies of believers are to be: (a) Incorruptible; not merely destined to decay, but not susceptible of corruption. By the certain action of physical laws, our present body, as soon as deserted by the soul, is reduced to a mass of corruption, so revolting that we hasten to bury our dead out of our sight. The future body will be liable to no such change; neither, as we learn from Scripture, will it be subject to those diseases and accidents which so often mar the beauty or destroy the energy of the bodies in which we now live. Being unsusceptible to decay, they will be incapable of, or at least, carefully preserved from suffering, by Him who has promised to wash all tears from our eyes. (b) The future body is to be immortal. This is something different from, something higher than incorruptible; the latter is negative, the other positive; the one implies immunity from decay; the other merely immunity from death, but perpetuity of life. There is to be no decrepitude of age, no decay of the faculties, no loss of vigour; but immortal youth.”
Much more could be added to the above from the writings of the conservative divines of the Reformation period, and the post-Reformation writings of men like Owen, Edwards, and Boston. But we think that what we have written from the works of Calvin, Henry, Pool, and Hodge is sufficient to shew what we hold, and believe to be true, and in accordance with the Word of God. (1) That the dead shall be raised at the great day, both the just, and unjust. (2) That the bodies of the saints will be made like the glorious body of our Lord. (3) That the corruption, vileness, and bodily infirmities is separated from them forever. (4) That our future bodies are to retain the human form. (5) That they will glorify God eternally. (6) We do believe that the bodies of the wicked shall be raised up, judged, and depart to the place prepared for the devil and his angels. The most learned and the most gracious of the divines of the Reformed Churches—from Calvin to Edwards believed that this material universe shall disappear at the appearance of our Lord and Saviour when He shall come again at the great day. “What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch.”