Christ’s resurrection, literal, physical, eternal.

Norman L. Geisler writes

Down through the centuries orthodox Christians have always confessed with the Apostles’ Creed: "I believe…in the resurrection of the flesh.” This affirmation of faith in the believer’s resurrection is grounded in faith in Christ’s resurrection. A major purpose of the latter resurrection was to make possible the former; thus they are both of the same nature (2 Cor. 4:14; 1 Cor. 15:20-23, 48; Phil. 3:21). The two doctrines are therefore interdependent, and will be treated as one doctrine in this article.
In spite of the historic church’s unwavering belief in the resurrection of the flesh, there are those today who call themselves "orthodox” but do not adhere to the doctrine. In the past, those who deviated from this venerable truth of apostolic Christianity did so by denying the reality of the resurrection. Today, some veer from course by denying its materiality. What makes their view unique is that they affirm an "empty tomb” while ironically denying that a material body emerged from it. In short, while they deny the materiality of the Resurrection they confess its objectivity, and on the basis of this confession they conclude that their faith remains biblical.
Wolfhart Pannenburg is a case in point. He believes Jesus left an empty tomb behind but that the resurrection body was by nature invisible and immaterial. He declares that for Paul "the future body will be a different one from the present body, not a fleshly body ”” as he says ”” a ‘spiritual body.'”1 Southern Baptist professor E. Glenn Hinson agrees, adding, "Paul was convinced that the Christ who appeared to him belonged to another order of existence than the Christ the disciples had known in the flesh. The risen Christ has not a physical but a spiritual body.”2 Professor Murray Harris of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School provides yet another example. He argues "that after his resurrection his [Jesus’] essential state was one of invisibility and immateriality.”3 He adds that the resurrection body of Christians "will be neither fleshly nor fleshy"4 (emphasis added). According to this view, Jesus’ resurrection body was not the same physical body He had before His death, but a second embodiment.
Why should these men be classified as "unorthodox” for simply denying that Jesus rose in the same physical body in which He died? Why did Jesus have to rise in the flesh, as long as His tomb was vacated and death was conquered? The answer to these questions has both historical and theological components.
THE CONFESSION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
First, the confession of the Christian church is instructive. The church has not only always affirmed the immortality of the resurrection body, but also its materiality. While it has agreed with the apostle that the resurrection body is a "spiritual” (i.e., spirit-directed) body (1 Cor. 15:44), it has never denied that it is a material body.
The Apostolic Testimony
The Christian church has from the beginning confessed that the same physical body of flesh that was laid in Jesus’ tomb was raised immortal. This belief is based on several explicit New Testament references and extensive tangible evidence. Jesus Himself said His resurrection body was one of "flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39; cf. 13:37). Speaking of the resurrection of Christ, Peter insisted that His "flesh did not see corruption” (Acts 2:31). Writing after the Resurrection, John declared that Jesus "came [and remained] in the flesh” (1 John 4:2; cf. 2 John 7). The body that emerged from the tomb on Easter morning was seen (Matt. 28:17), heard (John 20:15-16), and even touched (Matt. 28:9) on many occasions after the Resurrection. Moreover, Jesus ate food at least four times after the Resurrection (Luke 24:30; 24:42-43; John 21:12-13; Acts 1:4). He also showed His crucifixion scars on two occasions, once challenging doubting Thomas: "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe” (John 20:27).
The "Ante-Nicene” Testimony
Following the apostolic testimony, the church down through the centuries has confessed its belief in "the resurrection of the flesh” ”” both that of Jesus in particular and of humanity in general. "Ante-Nicene” (i.e., before the 325 A.D. Council of Nicea) father Justin Martyr (A.D. 100-165) said plainly: "The resurrection is a resurrection of the flesh which dies.”5 As for those who "maintain that even Jesus Himself appeared only as spiritual, and not in flesh, but presented merely the appearance of flesh: these persons seek to rob the flesh of the promise.”6 Justin even insisted that Christ’s ascension shows that it is possible "for flesh to ascend into heaven.”7 Tertullian (c. A.D. 160-230) declared the resurrection of the flesh to be the church’s "rule of faith,” saying it "was taught by Christ” and only denied by heretics.8 In his treatise on "The Resurrection of the Dead” (ch. 3), second century Christian teacher Athenagoras concluded that God’s "power is sufficient for the raising of dead bodies, and is shown by the creation of these same bodies. For if, when they did not exist, He made at their first formation the bodies of men, and their original elements, He will, when they are dissolved, in whatever manner that may take place, raise them again with equal ease: for this, too, is equally possible to Him.”9
The "Post-Nicene” Testimony
In the fourth century, The Second Creed of Epiphanius (A.D. 374) confessed that "the Word became flesh,…the same suffered in the flesh; rose again; and went up to heaven in the same body;…is coming in the same body in glory to judge the quick and the dead.”10 Cyril of Jerusalem (A.D. 315-386) considered any view heretical that claims "the resurrection of the Saviour was phantom-wise, and not real, not heeding Paul who says, ‘Who was made flesh of the seed of David according to the flesh;’ and again ‘By the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead.'”11 The preeminent theologian, St. Augustine (A.D. 354-430), declared: "It is indubitable that the resurrection of Christ, and His ascension into heaven with the flesh in which He rose, is already preached and believed in the whole world.” Augustine even held that God would reassemble in the resurrection body "all the portions which have been consumed by beasts or fire, or have been dissolved into dust of ashes….”12
The Medieval Testimony
St. Anselm of Cantebury (A.D. 1033-1109) insisted on the material nature of the resurrection body. Speaking on the topic, "How man will rise with the same body which he has in this world,” he argued that "if a man is to be perfectly restored, the restoration should make him such as he would have been had he never sinned….Therefore, as man, had he not sinned, was to have been transformed with the same body to an immortal state, so when he shall be restored, it must properly be with his own body as he lived in this world.”13 The great theologian, Thomas Aquinas (A.D. 1224-1274), said of the resurrection: "The soul does not take an airy or heavenly body, or a body of another organic constitution, but a human body composed of flesh and bones and the same members enjoyed at present.”14
The Reformation Testimony
The Protestant Reformation continued the orthodox affirmation of the material nature of the resurrection body. The Lutheran Formula of Concord (A.D. 1576) reads: "We believe, teach, and confess…the chief articles of our faith (of Creation, of Redemption, of Sanctification, and the Resurrection of the flesh)….”15 The French Confession of Faith, prepared with the help of John Calvin and approved by the Synod of Paris (A.D. 1559), pronounced that "although Jesus Christ, in rising from the dead, bestowed immortality upon his body, yet it did not take away from the truth of its nature, and we so consider him in his divinity that we do not despoil him of his humanity.”16 The Belgic Confession (A.D. 1561), adopted by the Synod of Dort (A.D. 1619), declares that "all the dead shall be raised out of the earth, and their soul joined and united with their proper bodies in which they formerly lived.”17 Further, the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion of the Church of England (A.D. 1562) confess that "Christ did truly rise again from death, and took again his body, with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of Man’s nature; wherewith he ascended into Heaven….”18 And the Westminster Confession (A.D. 1647) proclaimed that Jesus "was crucified, and died; was buried, and remained under the power of death, yet saw no corruption. On the third day he arose from the dead, with the same body in which he suffered; with which he ascended into heaven….”19
Even some who deny that Christ rose in the flesh admit that "until the time of the Reformation the creeds of the West spoke only of the resurrection of the flesh.”20
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH
Having examined the historical evidence, we must now turn to the theological question: What difference does it make whether Christ arose in the same body of flesh in which He lived and died? The New Testament’s response is clear and unequivocal. Without Christ’s physical resurrection there is no salvation (Rom. 10:9), for the Resurrection is at the very heart of the gospel by which we are saved (1 Cor. 15:1-5). The apostle Paul listed a litany of consequences that follow a denial of the physical resurrection. If Christ did not rise, then :1) Our faith is useless; 2) We are still in our sins; 3) Our departed loved ones are lost; 4) The apostles are false witnesses; and 5) We are the most to be pitied of all men (1 Cor. 15:14-19).
In addition to this sobering list of dire results for denying the literal resurrection, there are some crucial theological problems that follow failure to join the apostolic confession of "the resurrection of the flesh.”
The Problem of Creation
God created the material universe (Gen. 1:1) and pronounced it "very good” (v. 31). Sin, however, brought death and decay to God’s creation: "Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men….” (Rom. 5:12). Furthermore, because of man’s sin "the creation was subjected to frustration….” (Rom. 8:20). Thus, the creation has been groaning and waiting "to be liberated from its bondage to decay” (v. 21). Likewise, believers "wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we are saved” (vv. 23-24).
Since God’s material creation fell, it is clear that in order for redemption to be effective it must restore this material creation. Humans sin and die in material bodies and they must be redeemed in the same physical bodies. Any other kind of deliverance would be an admission of defeat. Likewise, just as the world God created and which subsequently fell was material, even so God will eventually deliver this material universe from decay by recreating a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21:1-4). If redemption does not restore God’s physical creation, including our material bodies, then God’s original purpose in creating a material world would be frustrated. As Professor Robert Gundry aptly noted, "Anything less than that undercuts Paul’s ultimate intention that redeemed man possess physical means of concrete activity for eternal service and worship of God in a restored creation.” So, "to dematerialize resurrection, by any means, is to emasculate the sovereignty of God in both creative purpose and redemptive grace.”21
The Problem of the Incarnation
The denial that Christ came in human flesh is called docetism. Hence, the denial that He rose in human flesh is a kind of neodocetism. Both diminish the full humanity of Christ, one before and the other after His resurrection. A similar doctrinal deviation existed in the first century. John addressed it when he warned against those who deny that ‘Jesus Christ has come [and remains] in the flesh’ (1 John 4:2). The use of the perfect participle ("has come”) implies that Jesus came in the flesh in the past and He remained in the flesh when John penned these words after the Resurrection. In the parallel passage (2 John 7) John used the present tense, warning against those "who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.” This makes it even clearer that John considered it wrong to deny flesh of Christ either before or after His resurrection. The reason is obvious: human flesh is part of our true human nature as God created it. Hence, to deny that Christ was resurrected in human flesh is to deprive Him of full humanity.
The Problem of Salvation
Among other things, salvation is victory over death (1 Cor. 15:54-55). Since the death which resulted from sin directly involved the material body, the body that is raised again must be material for there to be real victory over death. Failure to confess that Christ rose in a material body undercuts the very gospel itself.
In his definitive work on the nature of "body” (Greek: soma) in the New Testament, Professor Gundry noted that unless Christ rose in the same physical body in which He died, then "the relationship of the two bodies to each other is extrinsic and to that degree unimpressive as a demonstration of Christ’s victory over death.”22 Hence, "the resurrection of Christ was and the resurrection of Christians will be physical in nature.”23 Anything less undercuts God’s redemptive purposes for the human race.
The Problem of Deception
There is also a serious moral problem. Some claim that Christ’s appearances were merely "materializations” aimed at convincing the disciples of His reality but not His materiality. But Jesus said: "Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have” (Luke 24:27). Jesus challenged Thomas to put his finger into the scar in His hand and to put his hand into the wound in His side and "stop doubting and believe” (John 20:27).
Given the identity of the scars with His preresurrection body, the only impression these words could have left on the disciples’ minds was that Jesus was claiming to have resurrected in the same literal, material body in which He died. However, if He did not rise in this physical body, He was intentionally misleading His disciples. In short, either Jesus rose in the same material body in which He died, or else He lied.
The Problem of Immortality
A denial of the material nature of the resurrection body is fatal for Christian immortality. Unlike the ancient Greeks, Christians believe true immortality involves the whole person, including the body; not just the continuing existence of the soul. But if Christ did not rise in the same physical body in which He died, then we have no real hope that we will ever attain true immortality either. Paul declared that Christ "has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10). It is only through Christ’s victory over physical death that believers can proclaim: "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55). Otherwise, as Paul informed the Corinthians, "if Christ has not been raised…those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost” (1 Cor. 15:18).
The Problem of Verification
A nonmaterial resurrection has no evidential value. If Christ did not rise in the same material body placed in the tomb, then the Resurrection loses its value as an evidence for His claim to be God. However, Jesus often offered His resurrection as a proof of His claims (John 2:19-22; 10:18). On one occasion He offered it as the unique sign of who He is, declaring that no other sign would be given to that unbelieving generation (Matt. 12:40).
The apostles also offered Jesus’ resurrection appearances as "many convincing proofs” (Acts 1:3). They used the Resurrection as the basis of their fearless preaching of Christ over and over again (Acts. 2:22-36; 4:2,10; 13:32-41; 17:1-4,22-31). Paul told the philosophers of his day that God "has given proof…to all men by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).
There is a very good reason for this repeated connection between the fact of the physical resurrection and the truth of Christianity: there is no real evidential difference between an immaterial resurrection and no resurrection at all. An immaterial body has no verifiable connection with a material body. The only objective way the world could know that Christ rose was if He rose in the same material body in which He died. As the poet John Updike powerfully stated,
Make no mistake; if He rose at all
it was as His body,
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the
molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fail.
Dr. Geisler is Dean of the Liberty Center for Research and Scholarship and Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Liberty University, Lynchburg, Virginia. He is the author of nearly 30 books, including the forthcoming The Battle for the Resurrection (Thomas Nelson Publishers).

Every resurrection that the Bible speaks of, the same body that died was raised back to life.

It is not another body; that would be a replacement, not a resurrection. The bodies did not disintegrate and neither does the soul.

Look at all the resurrections in the Scripture, they all came back in the same body. No body disappeared then to reappear after as different body or new spirit vaporous and ethereal like body.

1 Cor. 15:12-14 "Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.”
Who and what was raised?

So where did Jesus’ body go when he died if he did not rise literally, bodily but just a spirit being?

Neodocetism does not believe in a resurrection as described in the Bible. Their faith is not a Biblical faith, it is vain (according to 1 Cor.15). To say something like this that the Bible does not even hint at is absurd.

But they not only propose this but "We deny that he was raised in the flesh, and challenge any statement to that effect as being described”

Matt 28:5-6 The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. (Mk.16:16;Lk.24:6)

So if he has not risen that makes Jesus a liar. That means the neodocetism is contrary to the Bible.

Mark 10:34 They will "kill Him. And the third day He will rise again." The "He” is not a different body but the same body. That’s what a resurrection is, the same body that died is raised back to life (Gr. anastasis soma). Every person Jesus or the apostles raised were in the same body that died.

neodocetism departs from the Bible in the most obtuse manner.

1 John 4:2 says "that every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.” Verse 3 then states that every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.”

Those who deny that Jesus came in the flesh are of the anti-Christ spirit. This is one of the ways to discern a false teacher or false teaching on the nature of Jesus.

John is writing after the resurrection and is using perfect tense in Greek, which denotes a past action with continuing results into the present and continuing on into the future. He came in the flesh, rose in the flesh, and is still in the flesh. The same body that He was born and died with, He rose with. If one claims that Christ rose as a spirit creature, and not physically, they are of the anti -Christ spirit and are denying the third point of the Gospel. And they are not saved by the gospel, because they deny it.

The present tense in Greek is applied to something in the past, and continues in the present forever. This same tense is applied to Jesus’ bodily resurrection. 2 Jn.7 also addresses this warning "For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, this is a deceiver and an antichrist”.

In this epistle John uses the present tense in Greek which focuses specifically on the future coming of the Lord. People who deny Jesus has come in the flesh and rose in spirit, not in the body, are of the spirit of antichrist. (1 Jn. 4:2 focuses on the past, continuing to the future. 2 Jn. 7 focuses specifically on the future). The fact is that Jesus rose again in the same body and is coming back in this SAME body. As Acts 1:11 he will come in the same manner he left, visibly to all with the physical eye and in the Fathers glory which he had before the world began (Jn.17:5,2; Mt 24:30.)

The is another gospel that some here proclaim.

Yes, they speak of Jesus death and a resurrection but the meaning they give is entirely opposed tho the Word of God.

why?

Jesus denied He is a spirit creature Luke 24:39-40 "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.

Jesus told them ahead of time Jn.2:19: "Destroy this temple and I will raise it up.” V. 21 "He was speaking of the temple of His body.” The body that was alive at the time he spoke this was what died. It is the same body raised from the dead, because that is what a resurrection means.

1 Peter 3:18 "being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit”
His body was made alive by the Holy Spirits power. Scripture does not say

Jesus became a living spirit creature, they have intentionally distorted the words because they have a narrative to keep, there own made up belief system.

1 Peter 3:18 But quickened in the spirit zooopoieetheis (NT:2193 a) de (NT:1151) pneumati (NT:4100). First aorist passive participle of [zooopoieoo] rare (Aristotle) verb (from [zooopoios], making alive), to make alive. The participles are not antecedent to apethanen (NT:593), but simultaneous with it. There is no such construction as the participle of subsequent action. The spirit of Christ did not die when his flesh did, but "was endued with new and greater powers of life"(Thayer’s). See 1 Cor 15:22 for the use of the verb for the resurrection of the body.”(Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament) underline mine
The body that emerged from the tomb was seen (Matt. 28:17), heard (John 20:15-16), and even touched (Matt. 28:9) on many occasions after the Resurrection. It was the same Jesus that died.

1 Cor. 15:42-45 "So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, 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. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.” Jesus is a life giving spirit to all who believe

Spiritual body in Greek-pnuematikos soma.

1 Cor. 15:44 The resurrection body is not wholly pneuma (NT:4100). Caution is needed here in filling out details concerning the psuchee (NT:5524) and the pneuma (NT:4100). But certainly he means to say that the "spiritual body" has some kind of germinal connection with the "natural body," though the development is glorious beyond our comprehension though not beyond the power of Christ to perform (Phil 3:21)” (from Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament)

Just read some of the posts from the last 4-5 months and you will see the few
who are of that spirit. They sound almost orthodox except they deny who Jesus was/is and will forever be. It is not a small matter.

These individuals have already clearly expounded this antichrist heresy repeatedly, Just read the posts, the foreign jesus they espouse glows right through as they deny and reject the Jesus Christ of the Bible with their clever doctrinal dissertations denying the person and work of the Lord. Might seem trivial to you but it is anther jesus and another spirit that is being promoted.

As per the comments of the moderator and some others naming names is not
permisable. However the numerous statements aligning themselves with this spirit and teaching can be located using the search function on Sermon Index. By quoting them myself I am in fact identifying the practitioners of these strange antichrist doctrines. You can email me if you would like direct quotes.

"So where did Jesus’ body go when he died if he did not rise literally, bodily but just a spirit being?"

Good question. If his physical body dissipated and rotted according to the spiritual resurrection proponents suggest then they are clearly denying Christ and are antichrist as 1 John states.

You also posted this and it is very true:

" John 4:2 says "that every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.” Verse 3 then states that every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.”

Those who deny that Jesus came in the flesh are of the anti-Christ spirit. This is one of the ways to discern a false teacher or false teaching on the nature of Jesus.

John is writing after the resurrection and is using perfect tense in Greek, which denotes a past action with continuing results into the present and continuing on into the future. He came in the flesh, rose in the flesh, and is still in the flesh. The same body that He was born and died with, He rose with. If one claims that Christ rose as a spirit creature, and not physically, they are of the anti -Christ spirit and are denying the third point of the Gospel. And they are not saved by the gospel, because they deny it.

The present tense in Greek is applied to something in the past, and continues in the present forever. This same tense is applied to Jesus’ bodily resurrection. 2 Jn.7 also addresses this warning "For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, this is a deceiver and an antichrist”.

In this epistle John uses the present tense in Greek which focuses specifically on the future coming of the Lord. People who deny Jesus has come in the flesh and rose in spirit, not in the body, are of the spirit of antichrist. (1 Jn. 4:2 focuses on the past, continuing to the future. 2 Jn. 7 focuses specifically on the future). The fact is that Jesus rose again in the same body and is coming back in this SAME body. As Acts 1:11 he will come in the same manner he left, visibly to all with the physical eye and in the Fathers glory which he had before the world began (Jn.17:5,2; Mt 24:30.)"

not you Todd

Jesus' physical resurrection

"Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 20 The Jews therefore said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body," (John 2:19-21).

"When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you." 20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord," (John 20:19-20).

"And He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have," (Luke 24:38-39).

It's clear that Jesus' physical resurrection is a reality.

Finally, it is our bodies that are redeemed as well--not just our spirits.

"And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body," (Rom. 8:23).

The body here spoken of is the physical one--not a "spiritual" non-flesh body.

1 Pet. 3:18 does not say that Jesus was raised a spirit creature. It says that He was "made alive in the spirit." This means that Jesus was raised in an imperishable body.
1 Cor. 15:35-45 says when it refers to the body as being sown perishable but raised imperishable, sown in dishonor and raised in glory, sown a natural body and raised a spiritual body, etc. Jesus was the "Last Adam"--a life giving spirit. Paul is typifying the resurrection body. In this passage Paul is talking about the resurrection of all people. All Christians will be raised in physical bodies. It was the same with Jesus.

"See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have" (Luke 24:39)--not "flesh and blood."

"And Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven," (Matt. 16:17).

Jesus had shed His blood on the cross. It quite literally had drained out of His body. We see that when Jesus rose from the dead, He still had the holes in His hands and feet (Luke 24:39). Since He retained the characteristics of His bodily ordeal, it is logical to state that His blood, which was literally drained from His body, was likewise still shed. Therefore, His body could be raised, and the
blood remained shed as the thing that "makes atonement":

"For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement," (Lev. 17:11).

That is why after the resurrection--to prove that He had risen in the same body He died in--Jesus told people to touch His hands and feet because it was the hands and feet that had the holes in them. What more proof do you need to but see and touch the very same hands and feet that had the holes in them from the nails on the cross! Furthermore, in the same statement Jesus said that He possessed flesh and bones--not flesh and blood. He had risen!

The truth is that Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross (1 Pet. 2:24) and took our place (2 Cor. 5:21). His body was used as the means to shed the blood that cleanses of sin.

"For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement," (Lev. 17:11).

"And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness," (Heb. 9:22).

The blood of Christ is what removes our sin, and the physical resurrection of Christ is proof that the sacrifice was accepted by the Father.

Why is the Resurrection so Important?
Randy Alcorn

In the late 1990s, a group of scholars assembled to evaluate whether Jesus actually said the things attributed to him by the Gospel writers. Although they employed remarkably subjective criteria in their evaluation of Scripture, members of the self-appointed "Jesus Seminar” were widely quoted by the media as authorities on the Christian faith.

Marcus Borg, a Jesus Seminar leader, said this of Christ’s resurrection: "As a child, I took it for granted that Easter meant that Jesus literally rose from the dead. I now see Easter very differently. For me, it is irrelevant whether or not the tomb was empty. Whether Easter involved something remarkable happening to the physical body of Jesus is irrelevant.”1

As a child, Borg was right. As an adult””though considered a spokesman for Christianity””he couldn’t be more wrong. What Borg calls irrelevant””the physical resurrection of Christ’s body””the apostle Paul considered absolutely essential to the Christian faith. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins... [and] we are to be pitied more than all men” (1 Corinthians 15:17-19).

The physical resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of redemption””both for mankind and for the earth. Indeed, without Christ’s resurrection and what it means””an eternal future for fully restored human beings dwelling on a fully restored Earth””there is no Christianity.

Resurrection Is Physical

The major Christian creeds state, "I believe in the resurrection of the body.” But I have found in many conversations that Christians tend to spiritualize the resurrection of the dead, effectively denying it.”  They don’t reject it as a doctrine, but they deny its essential meaning: a permanent return to a physical existence in a physical universe.

Of Americans who believe in a resurrection of the dead, two-thirds believe they will not have bodies after the resurrection.2 But this is self-contradictory. A non-physical resurrection is like a sunless sunrise. There’s no such thing. Resurrection means that we will have bodies. If we didn’t have bodies, we wouldn’t be resurrected!

The biblical doctrine of the resurrection of the dead begins with the human body but extends far beyond it. R. A. Torrey writes, "We will not be disembodied spirits in the world to come, but redeemed spirits, in redeemed bodies, in a redeemed universe.”3 If we don’t get it right on the resurrection of the body, we’ll get nothing else right. It’s therefore critical that we not merely affirm the resurrection of the dead as a point of doctrine but that we understand the meaning of the resurrection we affirm.

Genesis 2:7 says, "The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” The Hebrew word for "living being” is nephesh, often translated "soul.” The point at which Adam became nephesh is when God joined his body (dust) and spirit (breath) together. Adam was not a living human being until he had both material (physical) and immaterial (spiritual) components. Thus, the essence of humanity is not just spirit, but spirit joined with body. Your body does not merely house the real you””it is as much a part of who you are as your spirit is.

If this idea seems wrong to us, it’s because we have been deeply influenced by Christoplatonism.” ”  From a christoplatonic perspective, our souls merely occupy our bodies, like a hermit crab inhabits a seashell, and our souls could naturally””or even ideally””live in a disembodied state.

It’s no coincidence that the apostle Paul’s detailed defense of the physical resurrection of the dead was written to the church at Corinth. More than any other New Testament Christians, the Corinthian believers were immersed in the Greek philosophies of Platonism and dualism, which perceived a dichotomy between the spiritual and the physical. The biblical view of human nature, however, is radically different. Scripture indicates that God designed our bodies to be an integral part of our total being. Our physical bodies are an essential aspect of who we are, not just shells for our spirits to inhabit.

Death is an abnormal condition because it tears apart what God created and joined together. God intended for our bodies to last as long as our souls. Those who believe in Platonism or in preexistent spirits see a disembodied soul as natural and even desirable. The Bible sees it as unnatural and undesirable. We are unified beings. That’s why the bodily resurrection of the dead is so vital. And that’s why Job rejoiced that in his flesh he would see God (Job 19:26).

When God sent Jesus to die, it was for our bodies as well as our spirits. He came to redeem not just "the breath of life” (spirit) but also "the dust of the ground” (body). When we die, it isn’t that our real self goes to the intermediate Heaven and our fake self goes to the grave; it’s that part of us goes to the intermediate Heaven and part goes to the grave to await our bodily resurrection. We will never be all that God intended for us to be until body and spirit are again joined in resurrection. (If we do have physical forms in the intermediate state, clearly they will not be our original or ultimate bodies.)

Any views of the afterlife that settle for less than a bodily resurrection””including Christoplatonism, reincarnation, and transmigration of the soul””are explicitly unchristian. The early church waged major doctrinal wars against Gnosticism and Manichaeism, dualistic worldviews that associated God with the spiritual realm of light and Satan with the physical world of darkness. These heresies contradicted the biblical account that says God was pleased with the entire physical realm, all of which he created and called "very good” (Genesis 1:31). The truth of Christ’s resurrection repudiated the philosophies of Gnosticism and Manichaeism. Nevertheless, two thousand years later, these persistent heresies have managed to take hostage our modern theology of Heaven.

Our incorrect thinking about bodily resurrection stems from our failure to understand the environment in which resurrected people will live””the New Earth. Anthony Hoekema is right: "Resurrected bodies are not intended just to float in space, or to flit from cloud to cloud. They call for a new earth on which to live and to work, glorifying God. The doctrine of the resurrection of the body, in fact, makes no sense whatever apart from the doctrine of the new earth.”4

Continuity Is Critical

Paul says that if Christ didn’t rise from the dead, we’re still in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:17)””meaning we’d be bound for Hell, not Heaven.

Paul doesn’t just say that if there’s no Heaven, the Christian life is futile. He says that if there’s no resurrection of the dead, then the hope of Christianity is an illusion, and we’re to be pitied for placing our faith in Christ. Paul has no interest in a Heaven that’s merely for human spirits. Ultimately, there is no Heaven for human spirits unless Heaven is also for human bodies.

Wishful thinking is not the reason why, deep in our hearts, we desire a resurrected life on a resurrected Earth instead of a disembodied existence in a spiritual realm. Rather, it is precisely because God intends for us to be raised to new life on the New Earth that we desire it. It is God who created us to desire what we are made for. It is God who "set eternity in the hearts of men” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). It is God who designed us to live on Earth and to desire the earthly life. And it is our bodily resurrection that will allow us to return to an earthly life””this time freed from sin and the Curse.

That’s God’s idea, not ours. Our desires simply correspond to God’s intentions, because he implanted his intentions into us in the form of our desires.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Becoming a new creation sounds as if it involves a radical change, and indeed it does. But though we become new people when we come to Christ, we still remain the same people.

When I came to Christ as a high school student, I became a new person, yet I was still the same person I’d always been. My mother saw a lot of changes, but she still recognized me. She still said, "Good morning, Randy,” not "Who are you?” I was still Randy Alcorn, though a substantially transformed Randy Alcorn. This same Randy will undergo another change at death, and yet another change at the resurrection of the dead. But through all the changes I will still be who I was and who I am. There will be continuity from this life to the next. I will be able to say with Job, "In my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes””I, and not another” (Job 19:26-27).

Conversion does not mean eliminating the old but transforming it. Despite the radical changes that occur through salvation, death, and resurrection, we remain who we are. We have the same history, appearance, memory, interests, and skills. This is the principle of redemptive continuity. God will not scrap his original creation and start over. Instead, he will take his fallen, corrupted children and restore, refresh, and renew us to our original design.

Theologian Herman Bavinck, writing in the early twentieth century, argued that a parallel continuity exists between the old and New Earth: "God’s honor consists precisely in the fact that he redeems and renews the same humanity, the same world, the same Heaven, and the same earth that have been corrupted and polluted by sin. Just as anyone in Christ is a new creation in whom the old has passed away and everything has become new (2 Corinthians 5:17), so this world passes away in its present form as well, in order out of its womb, at God’s word of power, to give birth and being to a new world.”5

The New Earth will still be Earth, but a changed Earth. It will be converted and resurrected, but it will still be Earth and recognizable as such. Just as those reborn through salvation maintain continuity with the people they were, so too the world will be reborn in continuity with the old world (Matthew 19:28). In fact, writes Bavinck, "the rebirth of humans is completed in the rebirth of creation. The kingdom of God is fully realized only when it is visibly extended over the earth as well.”6

If we don’t grasp redemptive continuity, we cannot understand the nature of our resurrection. "There must be continuity,” writes Anthony Hoekema, "for otherwise there would be little point in speaking about a resurrection at all. The calling into existence of a completely new set of people totally different from the present inhabitants of the earth would not be a resurrection.”7

Continuity is evident in passages that discuss resurrection, including 1 Corinthians 15:53: "For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.” It is this (the perishable and mortal) which puts on that (the imperishable and immortal). Likewise, it is we, the very same people who walk this earth, who will walk the New Earth. "And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thessalonians 4:17, emphasis added).

Pointing out that God says he is, not was, the God of the patriarchs, Christ says to those denying the resurrection of the dead, "He is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Matthew 22:32).

The Nature of Our New Bodies

The empty tomb is the ultimate proof that Christ’s resurrection body was the same body that died on the cross. If resurrection meant the creation of a new body, Christ’s original body would have remained in the tomb. When Jesus said to his disciples after his resurrection, "It is I myself,” he was emphasizing to them that he was the same person””in spirit and body””who had gone to the cross (Luke 24:39). His disciples saw the marks of his crucifixion, unmistakable evidence that this was the same body.

Jesus said, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19). John clarifies that "the temple he had spoken of was his body” (John 2:21). The body that rose is the body that was destroyed. Hence, Hank Hanegraaff says, "There is a one-to-one correspondence between the body of Christ that died and the body that rose.”8

In its historic crystallization of orthodox doctrine, the Westminster Larger Catechism (1647) states, "The self-same 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.”9 The Westminster Confession, one of the great creeds of the Christian faith, says, "All the dead shall be raised up, with the self-same bodies, and none other.”10 "Self-same bodies” affirms the doctrine of continuity through resurrection.

This, then, is the most basic truth about our resurrected bodies: They are the same bodies God created for us, but they will be raised to greater perfection than we’ve ever known. We don’t know everything about them, of course, but we do know a great deal. Scripture does not leave us in the dark about our resurrection bodies. Because we each have a physical body, we already have the single best reference point for envisioning a new body. It’s like the new upgrade of my word processing software. When I heard there was an upgrade available, I didn’t say, "I have no idea what it will be like.” I knew that for the most part it would be like the old program, only better. Sure, it has some new features that I didn’t expect, and I’m glad for them. But I certainly recognize it as the same program I’ve used for a decade.

Likewise, when we receive our resurrected bodies, we’ll no doubt have some welcome surprises””maybe even some new features (though no glitches or programming errors)””but we’ll certainly recognize our new bodies as being ours. God has given us working models to guide our imagination about what our new bodies will be like on the New Earth.

Christ’s Resurrected Life Is the Model for Ours

Not only do we know what our present bodies are like, we also have an example in Scripture of what a resurrection body is like. We’re told a great deal about Christ’s resurrected body, and we’re told that our bodies will be like his.

The Lord Jesus Christ . . . will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Philippians 3:20-21)

Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:49)

The difference between Adam and Christ is not that one was a physical being and the other wasn’t. It was that Adam was under sin and the Curse, and Christ was untouched by sin and the Curse. Jesus was and is a human being, "in every respect like us” (Hebrews 2:17), except with respect to sin.

Though Jesus in his resurrected body proclaimed, "I am not a ghost” (Luke 24:39), countless Christians think they will be ghosts in the eternal Heaven. I know this because I’ve talked with many of them. They think they’ll be disembodied spirits, or wraiths. The magnificent, cosmos-shaking victory of Christ’s resurrection””by definition a physical triumph over physical death in a physical world””escapes them. If Jesus had been a ghost, if we would be ghosts, then redemption wouldn’t have been accomplished.

Jesus walked the earth in his resurrection body for forty days, showing us how we would live as resurrected human beings. In effect, he also demonstrated where we would live as resurrected human beings””on Earth. Christ’s resurrection body was suited for life on Earth, not primarily life in the intermediate Heaven. As Jesus was raised to come back to live on Earth, so we will be raised to come back to live on Earth (1 Thessalonians 4:14; Revelation 21:1-3).

The risen Jesus walked and talked with two disciples on the Emmaus road (Luke 24:13-35). They asked him questions; he taught them and guided them in their understanding of Scripture. They saw nothing different enough about him to tip them off to his identity until "their eyes were opened” (Luke 24:31). This suggests that God had prevented them from recognizing Jesus earlier, which they otherwise would have. The point is that they didn’t see anything amiss. They saw the resurrected Jesus as a normal, everyday human being. The soles of his feet didn’t hover above the road””they walked on it. No one saw bread going down a transparent esophagus when he swallowed.

We know the resurrected Christ looked like a man because Mary called him "sir” when she assumed he was the gardener (John 20:15). Though at first she didn’t recognize his voice, when he called her by name, she recognized him (John 20:16). It was then that she "turned toward him.” Because modest women didn’t look male strangers in the eye, this phrase suggests that she hadn’t gotten a good look at him before.

Jesus spent remarkably normal times with his disciples after his resurrection. Early one morning, he "stood on the shore” at a distance (John 21:4). He didn’t hover or float””or even walk on water, though he could have. He stood, then called to the disciples (John 21:5). Obviously his voice sounded human, because it traveled across the water and the disciples didn’t suspect it was anyone but a human. It apparently didn’t sound like the deep, otherworldly voices that movies assign to God or angels.

Jesus had started a fire, and he was already cooking fish that he’d presumably caught himself. He cooked them, which means he didn’t just snap his fingers and materialize a finished meal. He invited them to add their fish to his and said, "Come and have breakfast” (John 21:12).

In another appearance to the disciples, Christ’s resurrection body seamlessly interacted with the disciples’ mortal bodies (John 20:19-23). Nothing indicates that his clothes were strange or that there was a halo over his head. He drew close enough to breathe on them (John 20:22).

On the other hand, though the doors were locked, Christ suddenly appeared in the room where the disciples were gathered (John 20:19). Christ’s body could be touched and clung to and could consume food, yet it could apparently "materialize” as well. How is this possible? Could it be that a resurrection body is structured in such a way as to allow its molecules to pass through solid materials or to suddenly become visible or invisible? Though we know that Christ could do these things, we’re not explicitly told we’ll be able to. It may be that some aspects of his resurrection body are unique because of his divine nature.” ” ” 

By observing the resurrected Christ, we learn not only about resurrected bodies but also about resurrected relationships. Christ communicates with his disciples and shows his love to them as a group and as individuals. He instructs them and entrusts a task to them (Acts 1:4-8). If you study his interactions with Mary Magdalene (John 20:10-18), Thomas (John 20:24-29), and Peter (John 21:15-22), you will see how similar they are to his interactions with these same people before he died. The fact that Jesus picked up his relationships where they’d left off is a foretaste of our own lives after we are resurrected. We will experience continuity between our current lives and our resurrected lives, with the same memories and relational histories.

Once we understand that Christ’s resurrection is the prototype for the resurrection of mankind and the earth, we realize that Scripture has given us an interpretive precedent for approaching passages concerning human resurrection and life on the New Earth. Shouldn’t we interpret passages alluding to resurrected people living on the New Earth as literally as those concerning Christ’s resurrected life during the forty days he walked on the old Earth?

The Promise of Imperishable Bodies

When Paul speaks of our resurrection bodies, he says, "The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, 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. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

The following summarizes the contrasts in this passage:

EARTHLY BODY \tRESURRECTION BODY
Sown a perishable body\tRaised an imperishable body
Sown in dishonor \tRaised in glory
Sown in weakness\tRaised in power
Sown a natural body\tRaised a spiritual body
When Paul uses the term "spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:44), he is not talking about a body made of spirit, or an incorporeal body””there is no such thing. Body means corporeal: flesh and bones. The word spiritual here is an adjective describing body, not negating its meaning. A spiritual body is first and foremost a real body or it would not qualify to be called a body. Paul could have simply said, "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spirit,” if that were the case. Judging from Christ’s resurrection body, a spiritual body appears most of the time to look and act like a regular physical body, with the exception that it may have (and in Christ’s case it does have) some powers of a metaphysical nature; that is, beyond normal physical abilities.

Paul goes on to say, "And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable... We will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ ” (1 Corinthians 15:49-55).

When Paul says that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” he’s referring to our flesh and blood as they are now: cursed and under sin. Our present bodies are fallen and destructible, but our future bodies””though still bodies in the fullest sense””will be untouched by sin and indestructible. They will be like Christ’s resurrection body””both physical and indestructible.

A body need not be destructible in order to be real. Our destructibility is an aberration from God’s created norm. Death, disease, and the deterioration of age are the products of sin. Because there was no death before the Fall, presumably Adam and Eve’s original bodies were either indestructible or self-repairing (perhaps healed by the tree of life, as suggested in Revelation 22:2). Yet they were truly flesh and blood.

Many of us look forward to Heaven more now than we did when our bodies functioned well. Joni Eareckson Tada says it well: "Somewhere in my broken, paralyzed body is the seed of what I shall become. The paralysis makes what I am to become all the more grand when you contrast atrophied, useless legs against splendorous resurrected legs. I’m convinced that if there are mirrors in heaven (and why not?), the image I’ll see will be unmistakably ‘Joni,’ although a much better, brighter Joni.”11

Inside your body, even if it is failing, is the blueprint for your resurrection body. You may not be satisfied with your current body or mind””but you’ll be thrilled with your resurrection upgrades. With them you’ll be better able to serve and glorify God and enjoy an eternity of wonders he has prepared for you.

Randy Alcorn is the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries and the author of over 40 books. Eternal Perspective Ministries www.epm.org (Used by permission)

”  For Paul’s exposition of the resurrection of the dead, see 1 Corinthians 15:12-58.

” ”  The basic principles of Christoplatonism are explained in chapter 6, and a more complex explanation of Christoplatonism’s false assumptions can be found in appendix A.

” ” ”  Even if Christ’s resurrection body has capabilities that ours won’t, we know we’ll still be able to stretch the capacities of our perfected human bodies to their fullest, which will probably seem supernatural to us compared to what we’ve known.

1 Marcus J. Borg and N. T. Wright, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998), 129-31.

2 Time (March 24, 1997): 75, quoted in Paul Marshall with Lela Gilbert, Heaven Is Not My Home: Learning to Live in God’s Creation (Nashville: Word, 1998), 234.

3 R. A. Torrey, Heaven or Hell (New Kensington, Pa.: Whitaker House, 1985), 68-69.

4 Anthony A. Hoekema, "Heaven: Not Just an Eternal Day Off,” Christianity Today (June 6, 2003), http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/122/54.0.html.

5 Herman Bavinck, The Last Things: Hope for This World and the Next, ed. John Bolt, trans. John Vriend (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 157.

6 Ibid., 158.

7 Anthony A. Hoekema, The Bible and the Future (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 251.

8 Hank Hanegraaff, Resurrection (Nashville: Word, 2000), 68-69.

9 Peter Toon, Longing for Heaven: A Devotional Look at the Life after Death (New York: Macmillan, 1986), 141.

10 The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chap. XXXI, "Of Synods and Councils,” Presbyterian Church in America, http://www.pcanet.org/general/cof_chapxxxi-xxxiii.htm.

11 Joni Eareckson Tada, Heaven: Your Real Home (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 39.

REV posted

"Once we understand that Christ’s resurrection is the prototype for the resurrection of mankind and the earth, we realize that Scripture has given us an interpretive precedent for approaching passages concerning human resurrection and life on the New Earth. Shouldn’t we interpret passages alluding to resurrected people living on the New Earth as literally as those concerning Christ’s resurrected life during the forty days he walked on the old Earth?"

good solid truth here

The antichtist spirit sounds so religious and yet is demonic in it's nature.
Denying the physical, literal resurrection of Jesus Christ and yet sounding almost orthodox in other matters. But no matter when the jesus one professes is another jesus, one who is not the risen Lord of Glory but a replacement, spiritual jesus you are dealing with the devil's jesus,

In this place you have a few of this spirit. They are allowed to present this other jesus repeatedly without any objection it seems. This is not a matter of opinion,
they themselves tell us that their jesus is a spiritual jesus, a jesus who is not the Jesus who rose from the dead in the same body that he died in, This is anti-christ spirit and yet its seems almost no one takes offence to this gross misrepresentation of the King of Kings, The Lord of Lords, The son of David the Lord Jesus Christ. Is this jesus okay here?

"So where did Jesus’ body go when he died if he did not rise literally, bodily but just a spirit being?"

If his physical body dissipated and rotted according to the spiritual resurrection proponents suggest then they are clearly denying Christ and are antichrist as 1 4:2 John states.

John 4:2 "that every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.” Verse 3 then states that every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.”

Those who deny that Jesus came in the flesh are of the anti-Christ spirit. This is one of the ways to discern a false teacher or false teaching on the nature of Jesus.

John is writing after the resurrection and is using perfect tense in Greek, which denotes a past action with continuing results into the present and continuing on into the future. He came in the flesh, rose in the flesh, and is still in the flesh. The same body that He was born and died with, He rose with. If one claims that Christ rose as a spirit creature, and not physically, they are of the anti -Christ spirit and are denying the third point of the Gospel. And they are not saved by the gospel, because they deny it.

The present tense in Greek is applied to something in the past, and continues in the present forever. This same tense is applied to Jesus’ bodily resurrection. 2 Jn.7 also addresses this warning "For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, this is a deceiver and an antichrist”.

In this epistle John uses the present tense in Greek which focuses specifically on the future coming of the Lord. People who deny Jesus has come in the flesh and rose in spirit, not in the body, are of the spirit of antichrist. (1 Jn. 4:2 focuses on the past, continuing to the future. 2 Jn. 7 focuses specifically on the future). The fact is that Jesus rose again in the same body and is coming back in this SAME body. As Acts 1:11 he will come in the same manner he left, visibly to all with the physical eye and in the Fathers glory which he had before the world began (Jn.17:5,2; Mt 24:30.)"

These few post their satanic antichrist heresies here in a public forum and therefore they should also be held to public scrutiny as well. This is very serious and deviant misrepresentation of who Jesus is that these individuals post here. As 1 John states this is an antichrist spirit. It must be counterbalanced with the scriptures as has been done.

Thank your for you opinion concerning my motives.