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it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” Change is not
inconsistent with the retention of identity. We are told that even now every particle in our
bodies changes every seven years, but through it all the body retains its identity. There will be a
certain physical connection between the old body and the new, but the nature of this
connection is not revealed. Some theologians speak of a remaining germ from which the new
body develops; others say that the organizing principle of the body remains. Origen had
something of that kind in mind; so did Kuyper and Milligan. If we bear all this in mind, the old
objection against the doctrine of the resurrection, namely, that it is impossible that a body
could be raised up, consisting of the same particles that constituted it at death, since these
particles pass into other forms of existence and perhaps into hundreds of other bodies, loses its
force completely.
3. IT IS A RESURRECTION OF BOTH THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED.
According to Josephus
the Pharisees denied the resurrection of the wicked.[Ant. XVIII. 1,3; Wars II. 8.14.] The doctrine
of annihilationism and that of conditional immortality, both of which, at least in some of their
forms, deny the resurrection of the ungodly and teach their annihilation, embraced by many
theologians, has also found favor in such sects as Adventism and Millennial Dawnism. They
believe in the total extinction of the wicked. The assertion is sometimes made that Scripture
does not teach the resurrection of the wicked, but this is clearly erroneous, Dan. 12:2; John
5:28,29; Acts 24:15; Rev. 20:13-15. At the same time it must be admitted that their resurrection
does not stand out prominently in Scripture. The soteriological aspect of the resurrection is
clearly in the foreground, and this pertains to the righteous only. They, in distinction from the
wicked, are the ones that profit by the resurrection.
4. IT IS A RESURRECTION OF UNEQUAL IMPORT FOR THE JUST AND THE UNJUST.
Breckenridge
quotes I Cor. 15:22 to prove that the resurrection of both saints and sinners was purchased by
Christ. But it can hardly be denied that the second “all” in that passage is general only in the
sense of “all who are in Christ.” The resurrection is represented there as resulting from a vital
union with Christ. But, surely, only believers stand in such a living relation to Him. The
resurrection of the wicked cannot be regarded as a blessing merited by the mediatorial work of
Christ, though it is connected with this indirectly. It is a necessary result of postponing the
execution of the sentence of death on man, which made the work of redemption possible. The
postponement resulted in the comparative separation of temporal and eternal death, and in
the existence of an intermediate state. Under these circumstances it becomes necessary to
raise the wicked from the dead, in order that death in its widest extent and in all its weight
might be imposed on them. Their resurrection is not an act of redemption, but of sovereign
justice, on the part of God. The resurrection of the just and the unjust have this in common,