Just Tryin’ to Determine Which “Old Biddy” Rules the Roost

Excerpt From Newsletter

But someone will say: “How are the dead raised? And in what kind of body do they come?” Fool! What you sow is not made to live unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow as the body it will become, but a naked kernel of perhaps wheat or some of the rest. But the {Living} God gives it a body just as He desired, and to each of the seed its own body. All flesh is not the same flesh; but one is of men, and another a flesh of beasts, and another a flesh of birds, and another a flesh of fish. Also, {there are} heavenly bodies and earthly bodies: but the glory of the heavenly {bodies} is different than that of the earthly {bodies}. {There is} one glory of sun, and another glory of moon, and another glory of star, for star differs from star in glory. Just as also the resurrection of the dead: It {the body} is sown in decomposition; it is raised incapable of decomposition. It is sown in disgrace; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a soul-body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a soul-body, there is also a spiritual {body}. Just as also it is written: “The first man—Adam—became a living soul,” the last Adam a life-giving Spirit. However, the spiritual {body} is not first, but that of the soul; then the spiritual {body}. The first “man” is from the Earth; the second “Man” is from Heaven. As the {body} of dirt, so also are the {bodies} of dirt; and as the heavenly {Body}, so also are the heavenly {bodies}. And just as we have borne the image of the {body} of dirt, we will also bear the image of the heavenly {Body}. But I say this, brothers, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither {can} the decomposition inherit what is incapable of decomposition. Look! I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in an instant, in a blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For it will sound, and the dead will be raised incapable of decomposition, and we will be changed. For this—the decomposing—must clothe itself with what is incapable of decomposition, and this—the mortal—must clothe itself with immortality.
(1 Corinthians 15:35–53) —my interim translation

In that passage, Paul is explaining how the flesh of the physical body of the first Adam was like a seed from which God created the flesh of the resurrected physical body of Jesus Christ, the Second Adam. That is nothing more than parabolic imagery that comes directly out of the ancient Egyptians’ view of the Resurrection. They thought the physical body somehow “sprouted” in the Resurrection. But if you read very carefully what Paul says, you will discover the resurrected immortal body of Jesus Christ has the same “flesh and bone” (not “flesh and blood”) characteristics of the mortal body in which we now reside, but it is somehow complete-ly different. That seemingly impossible conundrum is due to the fact that the Living Word of God has once again done something complete-ly incomprehensible.

The Truth is, in talking about the different kinds of created flesh in connection with the resurrected body of Jesus Christ, Paul has just told you that God not only transformed the flesh of the physical body of Jesus Christ into “a life-giving Spirit,” He also allowed it to retain some of the same physical characteristics it already had. That is, God transformed the mortal flesh of Christ’s physical body into a new kind of immortal flesh—hence, Paul’s rather long-winded diatribe against the “fool” who can’t quite get it through his thick skull that God has already created the “flesh” of various kinds of earthly and heavenly bodies, so what’s the big deal if He somehow saw fit to create the flesh of an entirely new heavenly Body that is both spiritual and physical at the same time?

If you don’t believe that impossible feat is possible, you are quite obviously worshiping a lesser god. And if now, as a direct result of me sarcastically demeaning your former illogical position, you have suddenly chosen to believe it might be possible for the Almighty God to create something that is both physical and spiritual at the same time, but you still don’t believe He actually did that, you obviously don’t believe the Bible.

Luke did, as a matter of fact, say the eyes of the disciples on “The Way” to Emmaus were “held fast” so as to prevent them from recognizing the physical features of the resurrected body of Jesus Christ, which He later showed the other disciples was most definitely “flesh and bone.” Logic alone should tell you that means the first group of disciples would have been able to recognize the physical features of Jesus had some unseen force not controlled their eyes’ ability to see.

But Luke also tells us that when the eyes of those disciples were “opened” so that they could recognize Jesus’ physical features, He immediately vanished into thin air, only to suddenly reappear out of thin air when He met with all of His disciples in Jerusalem.

“Just Tryin’ to Determine Which ‘Old Biddy’ Rules the Roost,” The Voice of Elijah^®, April 2007, p. 9

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