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the Kingdom.
III. The Resurrection of the Dead
The discussion of the second advent of Christ naturally leads on to a consideration of its
concomitants. Foremost among these is the resurrection of the dead or, as it is sometimes
called, “the resurrection of the flesh.”
A. THE DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION IN HISTORY.
In the days of Jesus there was a difference of opinion among the Jews respecting the
resurrection. While the Pharisees believed in it, the Sadducees did not, Matt. 22:23; Acts 23:8.
When Paul spoke of it at Athens, he met with mockery, Acts 17:32. Some of the Corinthians
denied it, I Cor. 15, and Hymenæus and Phyletus, regarding it as something purely spiritual,
asserted that it was already a matter of history, II Tim. 2:18. Celsus, one of the earliest
opponents of Christianity, made especially this doctrine the butt of ridicule; and the Gnostics,
who regarded matter as inherently evil, naturally rejected it. Origen defended the doctrine over
against the Gnostics and Celsus, but yet did not believe that the very body which was deposited
in the grave would be raised up. He described the body of the resurrection as a new, refined,
and spiritualized body. While some of the early Christian Fathers shared his view, the majority
of them stressed the identity of the present body and the body of the resurrection. The Church
already in the Apostolic Confession expressed its belief in the resurrection of the flesh (sarkos).
Augustine was at first inclined to agree with Origen, but later on adopted the prevalent view,
though he did not deem it necessary to believe that the present differences of size and stature
would continue in the life to come. Jerome insisted strongly on the identity of the present and
the future body. The East, represented by such men as the two Gregories, Chrysostom, and
John of Damascus, manifested a tendency to adopt a more spiritual view of the resurrection
than the West. Those who believed in a coming millennium spoke of a double resurrection, that
of the righteous at the beginning, and that of the wicked at the end of the millennial reign.
During the Middle Ages the Scholastics speculated a great deal about the body of the
resurrection, but their speculations are mostly fanciful and of little value. Thomas Aquinas
especially seemed to have special information about the nature of the resurrection body, and
about the order and manner of the resurrection. The theologians of the period of the
Reformation were generally agreed that the body of the resurrection would be identical with
the present body. All the great Confessions of the Church represent the general resurrection as
simultaneous with the second coming of Christ, the final judgment and the end of the world.
They do not separate any of these events, such as the resurrection of the righteous and that of
the wicked, and the coming of Christ and the end of the world, by a period of a thousand years.
The Premillenarians, on the other hand, insist on such a separation. Under the influence of