Phillip - I actually arrived this type of view on my own, when I started comparing scriptures with scriptures then later learned that others taught that already. I am not a very good writer, but there are others much more well studied, such as Don Preston, Sam Frost, and Max King that would take a similar view. While I would not say that I have nailed it. I do think that this is closer to Paul's idea of the "body of Christ" and resurrection.
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Let us remember that it was Hymenaeus & Philetus who were saying things like, "Since the 1st resurrection of the just that is already past was all about people "coming to spiritual/covenant life" in Christ (Rev 20:4), the resurrection of the rest of the dead when Jesus comes back will be about everybody else "coming to spiritual/covenant life" in Christ (Rev 20:5), too: nobody but the Devil is going to Hell!" (2 Tim 2:11-18 Phillippians 3:10-13). This is how Pre-70AD Millennialism's Gnostic-style "spiritual/covenant resurrection" leads directly to Universalism.
If resurrection was simply "re-animated bodies" etc then
A) Those that say Eijah and Enoch went straight to heaven and were "raptured" got resurrection before Jesus.
B) People were resurrected long before Jesus was, so he would not be the first-fruitts from the dead.
C) Therefore: Even Jesus "resurrection" is more than just his re-animation. It is more significant than that. His physical rising from the grave was simply a sign of something greater.
Kenneth Perkins wrote this in regards to the futurist view...I thought it was worth sharing. Very solid.
My answers, straight answers, no dancing:
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A) TRUE. Elijah and Enoch were caught up to heaven. Let’s see how that conclusion is inescapable when one actually looks at the Scriptures. Gen 5:24 and 2 Kings 2:11
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B) FALSE. While it is true that people were resurrected long before Jesus was, (Elijah & Moses ~ Mat 17:3-4, Abraham, Isaac & Jacob ~ Mark 12:26-27 and John 5:21), it would be false to conclude that Jesus was not the First Fruits offering from the dead just because He was not the first to be resurrected from the dead. Per Lev 19:23-25, the first fruit offered from a tree were NOT the first fruit it ever produced.
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C) TRUE. So, MichaelB admits that Jesus’ “resurrection” was his bodily re-animation. And all the further significations of Christ’s resurrection are all derived from this fact. One of the significations is this: Jesus' bodily re-animation is the very definition and demonstration of “resurrection,” and “come to life” (Rev 20:4-5) that the New Testament writers eagerly anticipated following their new birth into the New Covenant at water baptism. (2 Tim 2:17-18, Philippians 3:11-12).
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MichaelB goes on to expound his position further:
(1) Jesus' resurrection was after three days; according to this logic, the believer's resurrection should also be after three days. (Even those who believe in a future resurrection obviously deny this.)
(2) Jesus' body never decayed in the grave; according to this logic, the believer's body should not decay in the grave. (Objective observation disproves this notion.)
(3) Jesus was resurrected with the wounds inflicted during His lifetime; according to this logic, the believer will spend eternity with the wounds and impairments of physical life.
My responses:
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(1) FALSE. Jesus preached that those who heard him preaching would have to wait til He came back to execute Judgment before they would be raised, John 5:26-29. This was obviously to take longer than 3 days but would occur later at Jesus’ Return. Those who died before He Returned would have to wait, wait longer than 3 days, til He Returned before they all died.
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(2) FALSE. Though Jesus’ biological body never decayed in the grave, this does not mean that the believer’s biological body should never decay in the grave. Jesus’ biological body was a notable exception as a prophetic sign (Acts 13:22-38). Should the death&resurrection of each Christian be the cause of preaching the forgiveness of sins, too, just like Jesus’? Further, following Christ’s resurrection of His flesh & bone body, a body He made a point to demonstrate was no ghost (Luke 24:36-43) by actually eating fish and honey before their very eyes, Jesus ascended and was glorified. Now, whether Jesus received His glorified, spiritual body upon presenting His flesh & bone body as a sin offering for Mankind to the Father in Heaven OR Jesus’ resurrected, flesh & bone body was “changed/exchanged in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” per 1 Cor 15:52, we do not know. But we do know that following Christ’s ascension, He does not appear in flesh & bone form ever again, Acts 22:6-8 and 1 John 3:2 and Rev 1:10-18). Throughout the period in which the New Testament was being written 30-70AD, born again believers looked forward to their resurrection at Christ’s Return with eager anticipation. But Christ’s Return brought a blessed change in the resurrection process, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth” (Rev 14:13). What blessing? There is no longer an interval between their death, resurrection, and glorification. From Christ’s Return circa 70AD and onward, God’s Chosen People are resurrected, ("exchanged in a twinkling of an eye" per 1 Cor 15:52), straight from their old biological, natural bodies into their spiritual bodies without delay: this is the blessing of Rev 14:13 and the reason we do find discarded biological bodies in the graves of Christians ever since.
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(3) FALSE. See answer number (2) above.
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BONUS:
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IF "resurrection" is the answer to "death,"
THEN we might gain some insight into the meaning of "resurrection" by reviewing some facts about "death."
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FACT: God warned Adam that he would "die" the "day" he ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil. "Day" had already been defined in this context by saying "there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day," etc., (Gen 1:31), the period between "evening&mornings" in which Adam was made. Since God cannot lie, (Heb 6:18), Adam "died" that very day, (no poetic or prophetic or figurative license taken). And yet, Adam's biological body remained animated unitl he "died" (same exact word whether Hebrew or Greek Text), 930 years later, Gen 5:5, when Adam's biological, natural body ceased to be animated. Adam "died" 2 times: Adam "died" the very day he ate the fruit per Gen 2:17 AND Adam "died" 930 years later, as well per Gen 5:5 : "died" is the same exact word in both cases, (whether Hebrew MT or LXX Greek Old Testament texts). Add to this the entirety of the Biblical record of uses of the word "died." (There is a very powerful reason why God kept Adam from eating from the Tree of Life after Adam's soul died that day he ate the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil, Gen 3:22-24).
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Evidently, Bible teaches that there are 2 distinct dimensions to "death," (Mat 10:28, Rev 2:11, Rev 20:6, Rev 20:14-15):
1) "Death" when the inner man, the soul of man, "dies" when separated from intimate fellowship with Life, ie, God Himself.
2) "Death" when the outer man, the biological, natural body, "dies" when separated from its animating soul.
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THEREFORE,
God's answer to this "Death" with 2 distinct dimensions.
must be a godly "Resurrection" with 2 distinct dimensions.
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2 Distinct Dimensions of godly Resurrection:
1) "Resurrection" of the soul of man via being Born-Again per John 3:16 and
2) "Resurrection" of the body of man via the resurrection that all the New Testament writers eagerly anticipated with Christ's Return per encouraging promises in passages such as 2 Tim 2:17-18, Philippians 3:11-12, and Rev 20:4-5. But woe to the man whose body is resurrected while his soul remain dead, separated from fellowship with God. Such is the fate of "the rest of the dead who come to life" in Rev 20:4-6, Rev 20:11-15. There is a very powerful reason why God kept Adam from eating from the Tree of Life after Adam's soul died that day he ate the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil (Gen 3:22-24) and it wasn't to keep Adam from being born again. It was to keep Adam's body from living forever while his soul remained dead. God wanted to bring about the redemption/resurrection of Adam's soul BEFORE granting him immortality of body, a spiritual body, a spiritual body that would be glorified at judgment rather than condemned.
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But those who obtain "resurrection" of the inner man via being born again in obedience to John 3:7 obtain one dimension of the "everlasting life" of John 3:16 immediately. Their inner man can no longer die. When such an individual's outer man, his biological, natural body, goes on to physically die, the Christian is described as being not "dead" but "asleep" (1 Cor 15:16, 1 The 4:13-15, 2 Pet 3:4). His outer man is dead but his inner man remains very much alive. So sure is this promise within that remains remains alive, this promise that the outer man will be resurrected, come to life per Philippians 3:11-12 & Rev 20:4, that the experience is rightly described as "being asleep." One whose inner man has been resurrected via the New Birth has more certain confidence that he will awake again into an animated body than the confidence he had that he would wake up every morning throughout his biological experience. The Christian has within him the promise that the 2nd Death will not affect him (Rev 2:11). But when he "sleeps," (biological, natural death), this time, he awakes into a spiritual body (1 Cor 15:44), his old, biological, natural body being "exchanged in twinkling of an eye" for his new, glorified, spiritual body (1 Cor 15:50-55). Hallelujah! Glory to God through Jesus Christ, the Firstborn from the Dead who is now the Judge of the Living and the Dead! Hallelujah!
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Job 19:25-27
25 I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.
26 And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
27 I myself will see him
with my own eyes — I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!
NIV
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It really is unwise
to confuse the two dimensions of "death"
as well as
to confuse the two dimensions of "resurrection"
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The 30-70AD Millennium view, that the resurrection that Paul and the Apostles looked forward to was the spiritual/covenant life they already had via faith in Christ, is fatally flawed, (2 Tim 2:11-18 Phillippians 3:10-13). It leads directly to
Universalism, the kind of
preterist Universal Salvation that rallys around
Max King aka “
Comprehensive Grace” that goes "
Beyond Salvation" as presented by Jesus and His Apostles in the New Testament record. This is forthrightly explained at this link:
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Let us remember that it was Hymenaeus & Philetus who were saying things like, "Since the 1st resurrection of the just that is already past was all about people "coming to spiritual/covenant life" in Christ (Rev 20:4), the resurrection of the rest of the dead when Jesus comes back will be about everybody else "coming to spiritual/covenant life" in Christ (Rev 20:5), too: nobody but the Devil is going to Hell!" (2 Tim 2:11-18 Phillippians 3:10-13). This is how Pre-70AD Millennialism's Gnostic-style "spiritual/covenant resurrection" leads directly to Universalism.
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And this is love, that we walk after Christ's commandments. ~2 John 6