The Resurrection Promise – Part 2
Without the resurrection, we cannot be saved
2 Corinthians 4:14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
If Jesus did not rise, there is no resurrection.
If Jesus did not rise, none of the dead will rise. The dead will stay dead.
And if Jesus did not rise incorruptible, the elect will not either. The elect would rise corruptible. The dead would rise guilty of sin.
Romans 4:25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
Jesus must have been resurrected or we are not justified.
He could pay for our sins with his death, but yet if we are not raised again / born again, there is no righteousness imputed, there is so justification.
We had to be born again, in heaven, as sons of God with that righteousness. Born in the Spirit.
1 Peter 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
Without the resurrection, we are not born again, and made heirs with our father Abraham in heaven.
The resurrection is the promise of eternal life. We must have hope in His resurrection, and in our resurrection by Him, being fully persuaded that God’s promise will be kept.
Romans 10:8-9 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Here is the gospel: The Lord, Jesus, died for us and rose again for us, and if we believe and confess Him, we are saved. Believe that, and only that, and you are saved. Is that all you have to believe? Yes, but you have to understand it:
Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
There is an understanding of it. But the simplicity of the gospel of Christ is really simple:
Repent of works + Believe the resurrection promise + Confess the Lord Jesus = Saved (righteousness imputed)
This is how men are saved. If we cannot believe, if we cannot be fully persuaded of the promise – the resurrection, both His and ours – we cannot be saved.
The resurrection doctrine is as important as any salvation doctrine that a Real Christian holds, and we must not let it be leavened, or souls cannot be saved.
2 Timothy 2:17-18 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; 18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
If you defile the resurrection doctrine, you defile the faith. And if some believe your false resurrection doctrine, those some will not be saved. They will not be trees of righteousness with good fruit, but they will be SPOILED. Their fruit STOLEN.
And it is those WORDS (false doctrine) that are the CANKERWORMS.
“Oh, the resurrection is just spiritual and not literal.”
“Oh, Jesus didn’t resurrect himself.”
“Oh, its not our physical bodies that are resurrected.”
These words eat like a cankerworm. There cankerworDs… are really cankerworMs.
It doesn’t take much to eat up the vine. Just a little cankerworm. It’s like leaven. Just add a little, and mix until the whole is leavened. Just add one canker spoil the fruit. If there is just one canker, it will multiply and eat the whole vine. One cankerworD becomes an army of cankerworDs.
Nahum 3:15-17 There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts. 16 Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away. 17 … when the sun ariseth they flee away …
These are the words of false prophets. They are cankerworms: cankerwords.
This is what hirelings do: promise life to the flock, but when the wolf comes, they flee away, and cannot deliver. When the sun rises, they and all their trees wither.
Jonah 4:7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
Beware of the cankerwords!
Jesus resurrected Himself, with His own power
2 Timothy 2:18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
Remember that we emphasized how critical the resurrection of Jesus Christ is. If you mess up the resurrection of Jesus, and/or you mess up our own resurrection by Him, and you overthrow the faith.
It is incredibly easy to ruin the doctrine of Christ. Just take a thing or two out, just add a thing or two in. Observe:
If Jesus is God, as some churches teach, who resurrected Jesus?
Jesus is not God—whose name is Jehovah—but he is the Son of God. Jehovah resurrected Jesus from the dead. (Romans 10:9) One Bible scholar comments: “It is unthinkable that anyone—even Christ—could raise himself.”
- https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/wp20130301/resurrection-of-jesus/
This is incredibly dangerous. These words will eat as doth a canker. This is not a faithful saying. These words will overthrow faith. So I think its very much worth our time to strengthen our faith in the resurrection.
–
When Paul preached the resurrection, he had open resistance.
Acts 17:30-32 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. 32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
Jesus and His apostles dealt with those that outright denied, mocked the resurrection. In Jesus’ and Paul’s day, many Jews and Jewish converts didn’t even believe in a resurrection of the dead.
Paul preached to a the Jewish proselyte King Aggripa:
Acts 26:8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?
The Lord put all this confusion to SHAME with his answers to the Sadducees.
Mark 12:24-27 And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? 25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; … 27 … ye therefore do greatly err.
And so now, no organization that I am aware of, that calls themselves “Christians”, still maintains that there is “no resurrection” of the dead or that Jesus did not “rise”. So we don’t encounter that doctrine very often when dealing with the false brethren. But, there are those that defile the resurrection in other ways. And here is one way: they take the power of resurrection away from Christ. If God raised Jesus, but Jesus is not God, then Jesus did not raise Himself.
“It is unthinkable that anyone—even Christ—could raise himself.”
It is unthinkable, incredible, to a JW, that Christ could raise Himself. I agree: it is indeed “unthinkable” that a JW would be able to comprehend that Jesus Christ could raise Himself, because the JW refuses to BELIEVE the words written of and spoken by Jesus Christ. The JW refuses to give Jesus the honour of God (John 5:23) or to give Him His own glory (John 17:5). And he refuses to give Jesus the wisdom and the power of God.
1 Chronicles 16:28-29 Give unto the LORD, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength. 29 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: …
If we give Jesus the glory due Him, as the Creator, the Holy One that made the heavens and the earth by His wisdom and by His power, why is it “unthinkable” and “incredible” that He could conquer death of His own power?
Philippians 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
The resurrection is a power of God, and a power that Christ, as God, had in Himself.
Could the Father hold this power and the Son, Christ, not have it?
1 Corinthians 1:23-24 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Christ raised himself. Being the power of God and the wisdom of God, He raised Himself by His own power and wisdom.
You won’t get this from all the theorizings and reasonings, theology and philosophy, of the Watchtower cult. But from Scripture alone, we see that Christ very clearly has and had POWER to resurrect Himself.
John 10:17-18 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
Nobody handed Jesus His eternal life. Jesus TOOK IT. He took His own life up again, by His own power.
John 5:26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
This is spoken before the crucifixion and resurrection, not AFTER. Jesus already had the power of eternal life in Himself.
Whatever power of life was in the Father to resurrect the dead, the same was in the Son.
John 2:19-21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? 21 But he spake of the temple of his body.
Jesus did not say, “it will be raised up” or “my Father will raise it up”. He said, “I will raise it up”.
So, if the JWs are right, and Jesus could not raise Himself from the dead, then Jesus was a liar. He took credit for the Lord’s work, which He Himself did not do. He did not sanctify the Father, but rather His own self before men.
If Jesus did not raise himself, then He committed the same sin as Moses did at Meribah, and should receive the same punishment as Moses: death, and rejection from the promised land.
Acts 2:24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
Who is “he”?
It was not possible that HE (Jesus) could be holden of death. Well then, you must admit that Jesus had power to conquer death, and raise himself. Death could not hold Him.
It was not possible that HE (God) could be holden of death. Well then, you must admit that Jesus is God.
Death had power to hold every man before Christ. But it was not possible that death would hold God himself. It is “unthinkable”, “incredible”, unimaginable, impossible, that it could.
—
Hebrews 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
It was Jesus who conquered death and destroyed the devil.
1 Corinthians 6:14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
Not God raised up the Son. But God raised up God. God raised up HIMSELF.
How could you know who Jesus is, and still think that Jesus could not raise himself?
John 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: …
Why should it be “unthinkable” that Christ, who IS the resurrection, could resurrect himself?
Unless Jesus is just a liar.
If you don’t believe in “the resurrection”, then you don’t believe in Jesus. Because that is who Jesus is.
And if you take the power of resurrection out of Jesus, you take away His own power and glory.
John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
John 5:26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
John 5:21-23 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. … 23 That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
But that is exactly what the JWs refuse to do: honour the Son with the same life and power that they give to the Father. They deny that Jesus has life IN HIMSELF.
To say that Jesus could not raise Himself is a denial of the record of Jesus Christ:
1 John 5:10-12 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. 11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
Do you see how just a little leaven, can leaven the whole lump?
Do you see how just a little cankerword, can destroy the whole tree of life?
To say that Christ could not raise Himself is to speak foolish, blasphemous cankerwords.
Matthew 22:28-29 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
Mark 12:27 … ye therefore do greatly err.
They do err, not knowing Jesus, who is the power of God, and who is the resurrection!
They don’t understand Jesus, and they don’t understand the resurrection. They do greatly err.
But this is what happens when fools bring their own reason and logic and philosophy into Bible interpretation. They greatly err, and they overthrow the faith of some.
In his own body
2 Timothy 2:18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
Another defiling of the resurrection doctrine that Satan can do to “overthrow the faith of some” is to deny the bodily resurrection. JWs believe Jesus came back as a spirit / an angel and not as a man with a man’s body.
“When someone is resurrected to heaven, he is not brought back to life as a human with a human body. He is resurrected to life in heaven as a spirit person. … Jesus was not resurrected with a human body. The apostle Peter explains that Jesus “was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” (1 Peter 3:18) Jesus was brought back to life as a powerful spirit person!”
- https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/bible-study/there-will-be-a-resurrection/
Is that so? Jesus was made alive “in the spirit”?
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
Jesus was not quickened as a spirit, or in the spirit, but “by the Spirit”.
Not only is this a bold and clear lie. This is an incredibly dangerous lie. This is a big deal. A lie about the resurrection overthrows faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
IF you mess up the resurrection, you mess up the gospel: You mess up eternal life.
What I’m learning is that the JWs don’t change the Bible doctrines that are obvious and well-understood. What they rather do is more subtle. Like their father the devil: “yea, hath God said…?”
They are very good at seizing on the natural mind’s confusions and unknowns, they prey on men concerning the mysteries of Christ, and where men are uncertain or confused, where we just “see through a glass darkly”, THEN, they insert their own private interpretations and doctrines. And of course, they then must obscure and change the words of God to support their interpretation.
But here are a few quick thoughts to build up your faith and instill confidence in Jesus’ bodily resurrection, and thus also OURS.
Luke 24:36-40 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. 38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? 39 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. 40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.
Nowhere in the OT do we have men touching and handling angels.
Maybe Jacob wrestling with the Angel? But this particular “Angel” was also called “a man”, and “God”. This WAS Jesus that Jacob wrestled with.
There was something very different about Jesus standing before them with flesh and bones, and saying “handle me”.
—
The JWs belief is that Jesus’ body was destroyed completely, and instead Jesus resurrected as a spirit, as an angel: the archangel Michael. Well, I believe that doctrine is completely proven a lie by this:
Acts 2:31 He [David] seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
Acts 13:37 But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.
Jesus’ body was not completely destroyed. From this, I would say it didn’t even begin to be destroyed.
Why is that important? Because OUR bodily resurrection is dependent on His bodily resurrection.
Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Acts 2:25-26 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: 26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
We say “RIP – rest in peace”, but for a Christian, it should be “Rest in Hope”.
Job 19:26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Philippians 3:21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
We are not going to lose our body and it be replaced by a spirit. It is a body that Jesus has, and that we will have.
1 Corinthians 15:42-44 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
IT is sown and IT is raised. Not “it is sown and we are raised.” The same IT that was sown is the same IT that is raised.
It, is not just “a spirit”. It, is “a spiritual body”.
That is all I can tell you. Because this is all WE KNOW. I can’t explain it more because the rest of it… WE DON’T KNOW.
1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
But where WE DON’T KNOW, and where men have not understood or been stablished, where we see things through a glass darkly, this is where Satan and the false prophets work subtilly to confuse Christians and leaven the doctrine (in this case the resurrection).
The Holy Spirit does not teach that Christ is come back NOT in the flesh. The spirit that teaches that Christ is risen NOT in the flesh, is a spirit of antichrist.
1 John 4:2-3 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
2 John 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Is not just that Jesus Christ WAS come in the flesh, but that He also IS NOW come in the flesh.
We can be assured that Jesus resurrected in His own body, and through Him, we can be assured that we will be resurrected in our own bodies as well.
And we can be assured that the Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower organization is of the devil. It is a deceiver, and an antichrist.
You might say, “so what? I don’t care if I come back in this body or as an angel, so long as I am alive and conscious of myself and have no more pain, sadness, etc. etc.” But doctrinally, it must have been a physical resurrection, as a man, and not as a spirit.
God came to save man. So when The Lord came down from heaven to save man, He did not take on the form of an angel, but of a man. And when God resurrected from the dead and ascended on high as the true High Priest bearing His own blood to perform reconciliation for the sins of man, He did so again, as a man. God did not resurrect himself as an angel to atone for man, but as a man.
If Christ died and was resurrected as an angel, the fallen angels have redemption, and not mankind.
If Christ is not resurrected in a man’s body, mankind is not to be resurrected, and the elect of them are not to be saved. He did not come as a spirit, nor go as a spirit, but as a man with flesh and bones.
Jesus didn’t come to raise spirits. He didn’t come to redeem the devils, or any fallen angels.
He came to redeem mankind. He came to resurrect Adam’s mankind: who are made of flesh and bones.
It had to be the physical body of Jesus resurrected. Our faith is in the resurrection of Jesus’ physical body, because our resurrection and eternal life depends on it.
2 Corinthians 4:14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
Apr 11 2021
The Resurrection Promise – Part 2
&nbps;
Downloadable Word document:
The Resurrection Promise – Part 2
The Resurrection Promise – Part 2
Without the resurrection, we cannot be saved
2 Corinthians 4:14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
If Jesus did not rise, there is no resurrection.
If Jesus did not rise, none of the dead will rise. The dead will stay dead.
And if Jesus did not rise incorruptible, the elect will not either. The elect would rise corruptible. The dead would rise guilty of sin.
Romans 4:25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
Jesus must have been resurrected or we are not justified.
He could pay for our sins with his death, but yet if we are not raised again / born again, there is no righteousness imputed, there is so justification.
We had to be born again, in heaven, as sons of God with that righteousness. Born in the Spirit.
1 Peter 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
Without the resurrection, we are not born again, and made heirs with our father Abraham in heaven.
The resurrection is the promise of eternal life. We must have hope in His resurrection, and in our resurrection by Him, being fully persuaded that God’s promise will be kept.
Romans 10:8-9 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Here is the gospel: The Lord, Jesus, died for us and rose again for us, and if we believe and confess Him, we are saved. Believe that, and only that, and you are saved. Is that all you have to believe? Yes, but you have to understand it:
Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
There is an understanding of it. But the simplicity of the gospel of Christ is really simple:
Repent of works + Believe the resurrection promise + Confess the Lord Jesus = Saved (righteousness imputed)
This is how men are saved. If we cannot believe, if we cannot be fully persuaded of the promise – the resurrection, both His and ours – we cannot be saved.
The resurrection doctrine is as important as any salvation doctrine that a Real Christian holds, and we must not let it be leavened, or souls cannot be saved.
2 Timothy 2:17-18 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; 18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
If you defile the resurrection doctrine, you defile the faith. And if some believe your false resurrection doctrine, those some will not be saved. They will not be trees of righteousness with good fruit, but they will be SPOILED. Their fruit STOLEN.
And it is those WORDS (false doctrine) that are the CANKERWORMS.
“Oh, the resurrection is just spiritual and not literal.”
“Oh, Jesus didn’t resurrect himself.”
“Oh, its not our physical bodies that are resurrected.”
These words eat like a cankerworm. There cankerworDs… are really cankerworMs.
It doesn’t take much to eat up the vine. Just a little cankerworm. It’s like leaven. Just add a little, and mix until the whole is leavened. Just add one canker spoil the fruit. If there is just one canker, it will multiply and eat the whole vine. One cankerworD becomes an army of cankerworDs.
Nahum 3:15-17 There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts. 16 Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away. 17 … when the sun ariseth they flee away …
These are the words of false prophets. They are cankerworms: cankerwords.
This is what hirelings do: promise life to the flock, but when the wolf comes, they flee away, and cannot deliver. When the sun rises, they and all their trees wither.
Jonah 4:7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
Beware of the cankerwords!
Jesus resurrected Himself, with His own power
2 Timothy 2:18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
Remember that we emphasized how critical the resurrection of Jesus Christ is. If you mess up the resurrection of Jesus, and/or you mess up our own resurrection by Him, and you overthrow the faith.
It is incredibly easy to ruin the doctrine of Christ. Just take a thing or two out, just add a thing or two in. Observe:
If Jesus is God, as some churches teach, who resurrected Jesus?
Jesus is not God—whose name is Jehovah—but he is the Son of God. Jehovah resurrected Jesus from the dead. (Romans 10:9) One Bible scholar comments: “It is unthinkable that anyone—even Christ—could raise himself.”
This is incredibly dangerous. These words will eat as doth a canker. This is not a faithful saying. These words will overthrow faith. So I think its very much worth our time to strengthen our faith in the resurrection.
–
When Paul preached the resurrection, he had open resistance.
Acts 17:30-32 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. 32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
Jesus and His apostles dealt with those that outright denied, mocked the resurrection. In Jesus’ and Paul’s day, many Jews and Jewish converts didn’t even believe in a resurrection of the dead.
Paul preached to a the Jewish proselyte King Aggripa:
Acts 26:8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?
The Lord put all this confusion to SHAME with his answers to the Sadducees.
Mark 12:24-27 And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? 25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; … 27 … ye therefore do greatly err.
And so now, no organization that I am aware of, that calls themselves “Christians”, still maintains that there is “no resurrection” of the dead or that Jesus did not “rise”. So we don’t encounter that doctrine very often when dealing with the false brethren. But, there are those that defile the resurrection in other ways. And here is one way: they take the power of resurrection away from Christ. If God raised Jesus, but Jesus is not God, then Jesus did not raise Himself.
“It is unthinkable that anyone—even Christ—could raise himself.”
It is unthinkable, incredible, to a JW, that Christ could raise Himself. I agree: it is indeed “unthinkable” that a JW would be able to comprehend that Jesus Christ could raise Himself, because the JW refuses to BELIEVE the words written of and spoken by Jesus Christ. The JW refuses to give Jesus the honour of God (John 5:23) or to give Him His own glory (John 17:5). And he refuses to give Jesus the wisdom and the power of God.
1 Chronicles 16:28-29 Give unto the LORD, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength. 29 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: …
If we give Jesus the glory due Him, as the Creator, the Holy One that made the heavens and the earth by His wisdom and by His power, why is it “unthinkable” and “incredible” that He could conquer death of His own power?
Philippians 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
The resurrection is a power of God, and a power that Christ, as God, had in Himself.
Could the Father hold this power and the Son, Christ, not have it?
1 Corinthians 1:23-24 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Christ raised himself. Being the power of God and the wisdom of God, He raised Himself by His own power and wisdom.
You won’t get this from all the theorizings and reasonings, theology and philosophy, of the Watchtower cult. But from Scripture alone, we see that Christ very clearly has and had POWER to resurrect Himself.
John 10:17-18 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
Nobody handed Jesus His eternal life. Jesus TOOK IT. He took His own life up again, by His own power.
John 5:26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
This is spoken before the crucifixion and resurrection, not AFTER. Jesus already had the power of eternal life in Himself.
Whatever power of life was in the Father to resurrect the dead, the same was in the Son.
John 2:19-21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? 21 But he spake of the temple of his body.
Jesus did not say, “it will be raised up” or “my Father will raise it up”. He said, “I will raise it up”.
So, if the JWs are right, and Jesus could not raise Himself from the dead, then Jesus was a liar. He took credit for the Lord’s work, which He Himself did not do. He did not sanctify the Father, but rather His own self before men.
If Jesus did not raise himself, then He committed the same sin as Moses did at Meribah, and should receive the same punishment as Moses: death, and rejection from the promised land.
Acts 2:24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
Who is “he”?
It was not possible that HE (Jesus) could be holden of death. Well then, you must admit that Jesus had power to conquer death, and raise himself. Death could not hold Him.
It was not possible that HE (God) could be holden of death. Well then, you must admit that Jesus is God.
Death had power to hold every man before Christ. But it was not possible that death would hold God himself. It is “unthinkable”, “incredible”, unimaginable, impossible, that it could.
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Hebrews 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
It was Jesus who conquered death and destroyed the devil.
1 Corinthians 6:14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
Not God raised up the Son. But God raised up God. God raised up HIMSELF.
How could you know who Jesus is, and still think that Jesus could not raise himself?
John 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: …
Why should it be “unthinkable” that Christ, who IS the resurrection, could resurrect himself?
Unless Jesus is just a liar.
If you don’t believe in “the resurrection”, then you don’t believe in Jesus. Because that is who Jesus is.
And if you take the power of resurrection out of Jesus, you take away His own power and glory.
John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
John 5:26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
John 5:21-23 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. … 23 That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
But that is exactly what the JWs refuse to do: honour the Son with the same life and power that they give to the Father. They deny that Jesus has life IN HIMSELF.
To say that Jesus could not raise Himself is a denial of the record of Jesus Christ:
1 John 5:10-12 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. 11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
Do you see how just a little leaven, can leaven the whole lump?
Do you see how just a little cankerword, can destroy the whole tree of life?
To say that Christ could not raise Himself is to speak foolish, blasphemous cankerwords.
Matthew 22:28-29 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
Mark 12:27 … ye therefore do greatly err.
They do err, not knowing Jesus, who is the power of God, and who is the resurrection!
They don’t understand Jesus, and they don’t understand the resurrection. They do greatly err.
But this is what happens when fools bring their own reason and logic and philosophy into Bible interpretation. They greatly err, and they overthrow the faith of some.
In his own body
2 Timothy 2:18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
Another defiling of the resurrection doctrine that Satan can do to “overthrow the faith of some” is to deny the bodily resurrection. JWs believe Jesus came back as a spirit / an angel and not as a man with a man’s body.
“When someone is resurrected to heaven, he is not brought back to life as a human with a human body. He is resurrected to life in heaven as a spirit person. … Jesus was not resurrected with a human body. The apostle Peter explains that Jesus “was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” (1 Peter 3:18) Jesus was brought back to life as a powerful spirit person!”
Is that so? Jesus was made alive “in the spirit”?
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
Jesus was not quickened as a spirit, or in the spirit, but “by the Spirit”.
Not only is this a bold and clear lie. This is an incredibly dangerous lie. This is a big deal. A lie about the resurrection overthrows faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
IF you mess up the resurrection, you mess up the gospel: You mess up eternal life.
What I’m learning is that the JWs don’t change the Bible doctrines that are obvious and well-understood. What they rather do is more subtle. Like their father the devil: “yea, hath God said…?”
They are very good at seizing on the natural mind’s confusions and unknowns, they prey on men concerning the mysteries of Christ, and where men are uncertain or confused, where we just “see through a glass darkly”, THEN, they insert their own private interpretations and doctrines. And of course, they then must obscure and change the words of God to support their interpretation.
But here are a few quick thoughts to build up your faith and instill confidence in Jesus’ bodily resurrection, and thus also OURS.
Luke 24:36-40 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. 38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? 39 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. 40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.
Nowhere in the OT do we have men touching and handling angels.
Maybe Jacob wrestling with the Angel? But this particular “Angel” was also called “a man”, and “God”. This WAS Jesus that Jacob wrestled with.
There was something very different about Jesus standing before them with flesh and bones, and saying “handle me”.
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The JWs belief is that Jesus’ body was destroyed completely, and instead Jesus resurrected as a spirit, as an angel: the archangel Michael. Well, I believe that doctrine is completely proven a lie by this:
Acts 2:31 He [David] seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
Acts 13:37 But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.
Jesus’ body was not completely destroyed. From this, I would say it didn’t even begin to be destroyed.
Why is that important? Because OUR bodily resurrection is dependent on His bodily resurrection.
Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Acts 2:25-26 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: 26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
We say “RIP – rest in peace”, but for a Christian, it should be “Rest in Hope”.
Job 19:26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Philippians 3:21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
We are not going to lose our body and it be replaced by a spirit. It is a body that Jesus has, and that we will have.
1 Corinthians 15:42-44 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
IT is sown and IT is raised. Not “it is sown and we are raised.” The same IT that was sown is the same IT that is raised.
It, is not just “a spirit”. It, is “a spiritual body”.
That is all I can tell you. Because this is all WE KNOW. I can’t explain it more because the rest of it… WE DON’T KNOW.
1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
But where WE DON’T KNOW, and where men have not understood or been stablished, where we see things through a glass darkly, this is where Satan and the false prophets work subtilly to confuse Christians and leaven the doctrine (in this case the resurrection).
The Holy Spirit does not teach that Christ is come back NOT in the flesh. The spirit that teaches that Christ is risen NOT in the flesh, is a spirit of antichrist.
1 John 4:2-3 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
2 John 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Is not just that Jesus Christ WAS come in the flesh, but that He also IS NOW come in the flesh.
We can be assured that Jesus resurrected in His own body, and through Him, we can be assured that we will be resurrected in our own bodies as well.
And we can be assured that the Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower organization is of the devil. It is a deceiver, and an antichrist.
You might say, “so what? I don’t care if I come back in this body or as an angel, so long as I am alive and conscious of myself and have no more pain, sadness, etc. etc.” But doctrinally, it must have been a physical resurrection, as a man, and not as a spirit.
God came to save man. So when The Lord came down from heaven to save man, He did not take on the form of an angel, but of a man. And when God resurrected from the dead and ascended on high as the true High Priest bearing His own blood to perform reconciliation for the sins of man, He did so again, as a man. God did not resurrect himself as an angel to atone for man, but as a man.
If Christ died and was resurrected as an angel, the fallen angels have redemption, and not mankind.
If Christ is not resurrected in a man’s body, mankind is not to be resurrected, and the elect of them are not to be saved. He did not come as a spirit, nor go as a spirit, but as a man with flesh and bones.
Jesus didn’t come to raise spirits. He didn’t come to redeem the devils, or any fallen angels.
He came to redeem mankind. He came to resurrect Adam’s mankind: who are made of flesh and bones.
It had to be the physical body of Jesus resurrected. Our faith is in the resurrection of Jesus’ physical body, because our resurrection and eternal life depends on it.
2 Corinthians 4:14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
By Pastor • Salvation • 0