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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
April 1926
A Real Resurrection:
THE CROSS AND THE SCRIPTURES W illiam O lney
Body, Soul and Spirit EDWARD M. BOUNDS
"The fact without the Word is dumb; The Word without the fa c tjs empty.”
Q u oted by the late D r . P . T . F o rsyth in T h e P erson and w ork o f Jesus C h rist
A pastor, a preacher, a teacher, a forceful writer and a deep thinker was Mr. Bounds. For several years he was editor o f the St. Louis Christian Advocate. His book "Preacher and Prayer” has been styled a classic in its line. With him praying was a business. One quotation suggests the spirit o f the man: “ Man is looking for better methods; God is looking for bet ter men. Man is God ’ s method. Our readers will find in this article a basic principle concerning the resurrection which cannot but strengthen their faith. HE resurrection of the Identical body that was laid in the grave Is the doctrine of the Bible. This lit eral resurrection Is the foundation stone of New Testament revelation. • Nothing Indicates our defection and driftings more than the views of the resur rection which are finding favor in high and low places among preachers, teachers, and people. With many, fiction and philosophy are substituted for the truth as it is in Jesus. We are inhaling our religious opinions from the tainted atmosphere of rationalism instead of the Bible. We have surrendered faith to philosophy, reduced revelation to reason, and deem ourselves wiser, if not better, than our fathers; but every departure, even In a less or remote degree from the orthodox doctrine that the resurrection is a literal raising of the body, Is a departure from the Bible and a lessening of the tenacity and strength of our personal faith. This Same Body “ I believe In the resurrection of the body,” Is Christen dom’s universal creed. The orthodox explanation of this Item of the creed is thus summed up by Bishop Pearson: ••We can therefore, not otherwise expound this article than by asserting that the bodies which have lived and died shall live again after death, and that the same flesh which Is cor rupted shall be restored. Whatsoever alterations shall be made shall not be of their nature but of their condition, not of their substance but of their qualities; which expli cation Is agreeable to the language of the Scripture, to the principles of religion, to the constant profession of the Church against the Orlgenlsts of old and the Soclnians of late.” The Bible statement is direct, unmistakable In its mean-, ing that these same bodies which have been the vehicles as well as the abode of the soul, Its partner as well as its servant, shall be raised. The man is as much body as soul, and the Bible doctrine holds to the resurrection of the body — this body— Its Identity well maintained, and Its dust rekindled to life and beauty. This same body, which has Bhared so fully In the trials and sorrows of this earthly life, shall share In all the ultimate triumphs of the Hie to come. In the eighth chapter of Romans we have this most explicit statement: “ But If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by
I saw a Cross. On it the God-Man hung. I did not understand.
The mystery o f it did my thought engross. Suddenly, as by Choirs o f Heaven sung, God’s Word put the blest Secret in my hand—
“ Christ died on Calvary To set the guilty free.”
I heard a Word. It told o f pardoning Grace. How could such favor b e ! . Faith unveiled to my eyes the dying Lord! Lovingly gazed I on the marred Face! NOW the same Word was filled with certainty — “ To set the guilty free Christ died on Calvary.”
His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” It Is the mortal body, the dead body, which Is to be quickened Into life. In the fifth chapter of First Thessalonlans we have a prayer which has a strong bearing on this point: ’ And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The body is to be sanctified, set apart In all Its uses and members to God sealed as His property; and In that case to be Preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord— blameless, no cause for censure, the body kept pure, free from blame. We have the word “ preserved.” which means guarding, watching, take care of, to guard, to watch, to keep, as a prisoner Is kept with sleepless vigilance. Who is to guard the sDirit* God. Who is to guard and keep the body? God. God Is to watch over the body, keep It as He keeps the spirit. So God will guard the body’s sleeping dust till Jesus comes, and then bring It with Him. Soul, spirit, body, kept by God’s power till Jesus comes! The common and simple meaning of Scripture Is that the same body will be raised from the grave. There would be no triumphant strain, triumph would not be admissible, If the body was not delivered from death! “ O death, where Is thy sting. O grave, where is thy victory?” would have neither fitness nor place; but how appropriate the enrapturing notes of victory to a body laid low and humbled by the enemy death, and now released and all-victorious! The rigid Bible and orthodox view has been almost wholly surrendered by modern theology. The following quotation will perhaps show the commonly received opinion, or “ The Modern Idea” : “ The modern doctrine repudiates this Idea of a literal resurrection of the flesh. Yet it holds that the spirit has In another world some sort of organism through which it acts, and by which It has its connection with the material universe. What that organism is, and how It operates, no one pretends to know. Swedenborg (Continued on page 247)
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