Basic HTML Version
701
Rationalism and with the advance of the physical sciences some of the difficulties with which
the doctrine of the resurrection is burdened were accentuated, and as a result modern religious
liberalism denies the resurrection of the flesh, and explains the Scriptural representations of it
as a figurative representation of the idea that the full human personality will continue to exist
after death.
B. SCRIPTURAL PROOF FOR THE RESURRECTION.
1. IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.
It is sometimes said that the Old Testament knowns of no
resurrection of the dead, or knows of it only in its latest books. The opinion is rather common
that Israel borrowed its belief in the resurrection from the Persians. Says Mackintosh: “Strong
evidence exists for the hypothesis that the idea of the resurrection entered the Hebrew mind
from Persia.”[Immortality and the Future, p. 34.] Brown speaks in a somewhat similar vein:
“The doctrine of individual resurrection first appears in Israel after the exile, and may have
been due to Persian influence.”[Christian Theology in Outline, pp. 251 f.] Salmond also
mentions this view, but claims that it is not sufficiently warranted. Says he: “The Old Testament
doctrine of God is of itself enough to explain the entire history of the Old Testament conception
of a future life.”[The Christian Doctrine of Immortality, pp. 221 f.] De Bondt comes to the
conclusion that there is not a single people among those with whom Israel came in contact,
which had a doctrine of the resurrection that might have served as a pattern for the
representation of it that was current among Israel; and that the faith in the resurrection which
finds expression in the Old Testament does not find its basis in the religions of the Gentiles, but
in the revelation of Israel’s God.[Wat Leert het Oude Testament Aangaande het Leven na dit
Leven, pp. 263 f.] It is true that we find no clear statements respecting the resurrection of the
dead before the time of the prophets, though Jesus found that it was already implied in Ex. 3:6;
cf. Matt. 22:29-32, and the writer of Hebrews intimates that even the patriarchs looked forward
to the resurrection of the dead, Heb. 11:10,13-16,19. Certainly evidences are not wanting that
there was a belief in the resurrection long before the exile. It is implied in the passages that
speak of a deliverance from sheol, Ps. 49:15; 73:24,25; Prov. 23:14. It finds expression in the
famous statement of Job, 19:25-27. Moreover, it is very clearly taught in Isa. 26:19 (a late
passage, according to the critics), and in Dan. 12:2, and is probably implied also in Ezek. 37: 1-
14.
2. IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.
As might be expected, the New Testament has more to say on the
resurrection of the dead than the Old, because it brings the climax of God’s revelation on this
point in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Over against the denial of the Sadducees, Jesus argues
the resurrection of the dead from the Old Testament, Matt. 22:23-33, and parallels, cf. Ex. 3:6.
Moreover, He teaches that great truth very clearly in John 5:25-29; 6:39,40,44,54; 11:24,25;