Scripture Blog

This weblog is my personal online scripture journal. I try to read the scriptures each morning as I exercise on my cross-trainer. It has a great impact on my life and my testimony of the Savior and his restored church. The journal is really for my own benefit but I have set it up as a web log in hopes to benefit anyone else that may be interested. "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost..." 1 Nephi 10:19

Thursday, August 25, 2011

1 Corinthians 15

As Paul taught that -

"...as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (New Testament | 1 Corinthians 15:22)

...the question seemed to arise -

"...How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?" (New Testament | 1 Corinthians 15:35)

Paul first seemed to want to make it clear the nature or difference between the conditions of our bodies and that of a "raised" body teaching -
"...There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." (New Testament | 1 Corinthians 15:44)

The first, a natural body, being our present state where -

"The first man is of the earth, earthy..." (New Testament | 1 Corinthians 15:47)

And this "earthy" or "natural body", or -

"...flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God..." (New Testament | 1 Corinthians 15:50)

Suggesting that only a spiritual body can inherit the kingdom of God. A body of "flesh and blood" would suggest an earthy body whose life is supplied by "blood". When there is no life sustaining blood, the natural body dies. The "spiritual body" then would be where life is sustained by the spirit. The resurrected Savior stated -

"Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." (New Testament | Luke 24:39)

A spiritual body would then be a body of "flesh and bones". President Howard W. Hunter taught -

"There is a separation of the spirit and the body at the time of death. The resurrection will again unite the spirit with the body, and the body becomes a spiritual body, one of flesh and bones but quickened by the spirit instead of blood. Thus, our bodies after the resurrection, quickened by the spirit, shall become immortal and never die. This is the meaning of the statements of Paul that "there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body" and "that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." The natural body is flesh and blood, but quickened by the spirit instead of blood, it can and will enter the kingdom." (Teachings of Howard W. Hunter)

In answer to the question -

"...with what body do they come?" (New Testament | 1 Corinthians 15:35)

Paul explained -

"All flesh is not the same flesh..." (New Testament | 1 Corinthians 15:39)

"There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead..." (New Testament | 1 Corinthians 15:40 - 42)

Of this, Joseph Fielding Smith taught -

"In the resurrection there will be different kinds of bodies; they will not all be alike. The body a man receives will determine his place hereafter. There will be celestial bodies, terrestrial bodies, and telestial bodies, and these bodies will differ as distinctly as do bodies here,...Bodies will be quickened according to the kingdom which they are judged worthy to enter. Elder Orson Pratt many years ago in writing of the resurrection and the kind of bodies which would be raised in these kingdoms said:

"...There will be several classes of resurrected bodies; some celestial, some terrestrial, some telestial, and some sons of perdition. Each of these classes will differ from the others by prominent and marked distinctions..."" (Doctrines of Salvation)

But what is of greatest distinction, President Smith continued -

Some will gain celestial bodies with all the powers of exaltation and eternal increase. These bodies will shine like the sun as our Savior's does, as described by John. Those who enter the terrestrial kingdom will have terrestrial bodies, and they will not shine like the sun, but they will be more glorious than the bodies of those who receive the telestial glory.

In both of these kingdoms there will be changes in the bodies and limitations. They will not have the power of increase, neither the power or nature to live as husbands and wives, for this will be denied them and they cannot increase.

Those who receive the exaltation in the celestial kingdom will have the "continuation of the seeds forever." They will live in the family relationship. In the terrestrial and in the telestial kingdoms there will be no marriage. Those who enter there will remain "separately and singly" forever.

Some of the functions in the celestial body will not appear in the terrestrial body, neither in the telestial body, and the power of procreation will be removed. I take it that men and women will, in these kingdoms, be just what the so-called Christian world expects us all to be-neither man nor woman, merely immortal beings having received the resurrection." (Doctrines of Salvation)