Rise Up

and Walk

Sergio Drumond 1
Apologetics Free Course: Lesson 1 – The Resurrection

Rise Up and Walk

By Sergio Drumond

Cover: Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene, by Charles La Fosse 2

 Rise Up and Walk
One of the most crucial aspects of Christianity is the belief in the resurrection. Without the hope of eternal life
Jesus Christ can be elevated to the level of the greatest philosopher who ever passed through earth, but offering
no more than an ideal set of rules of behavior for those left on earth after he died. Ralph Waldo Emerson,
America’s greatest philosophers, summarized the view of many other philosophers like him, who have failed to
see Jesus for what He claimed and proved to be: the Son of God.

Is it so bad to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and
Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh.

By equating Jesus with other great minds Emerson missed Jesus’ most important mission on earth, which
wasn’t to teach us how to live harmoniously with others, or spouse great and divine causes that most of us fail
to grasp and act upon, but as He Himself pointed out, “to seek and save that which was lost.”(Luke 19:10) It’s
important, therefore, to set Jesus apart from all others if we are to see Him as He clearly presented Himself to
mankind. Historian Philip Schaff says:

How in the name of logic, common sense and experience, could an impostor -- that is a deceitful, selfish,
depraved man -- have invented, and consistently maintained from the beginning to the end, the purist and
noblest character known in history with the most perfect air of truth and reality? How could He have conceived
and successfully carried out a plan of unparalleled beneficence, moral magnitude and sublimity, and sacrificed
his own life for it, in the face of the strongest prejudices of his people and age?

1. Jesus and other gods

Note that the title of this section has the word ‘gods’ spelled in minuscule. That’s because, as the Bible states,

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1Ti 2:5

There is no historical record of any other man, worshipped as a god or not, to have been resurrected. Jesus only
claimed to be one with God, prophesied His own death for the salvation of the world, and proved His claims by
doing exactly what He said: He raised up again three days after His death. In relation to these other great
philosophers, they never claimed to be God and never experienced resurrection, if they are now worshipped as
gods. The great author and apologist C. S. Lewis beautifully illustrated this point in Mere Christianity:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready
to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must
not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral
teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he
would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a
madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or
you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about
His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

A quick look at other religions’ gods and their own claims will elucidate this point.

Buddha: In a talk to high school students in America, Buddhist monk and teacher Kusala Bhikshu explains:
There is nothing in the teachings of the Buddha that suggest how to find God or worship the god's of India,
although the Buddha himself was a theist (believed in gods), his teachings are non-theistic.
3
The Buddha was more concerned with the human condition: Birth, Sickness, Old age, and Death. The Buddhist
path is about coming to a place of acceptance with these painful aspects of life, and not suffering through them.
Please be clear on this point... The Buddha is not thought of as a god in Buddhism and is not prayed to. He is
looked up to and respected as a great teacher, in the same way we respect Abraham Lincoln as a great president.
He was a human being who found his perfection in Nirvana. Because of his Nirvana, the Buddha was perfectly
moral, perfectly ethical, and ended his suffering forever.

Mohammed: He never claimed to be God but His prophet. Disillusioned with the hypocrisy of both Judaism
and Christianity in his day, he felt that God was calling him to lead mankind back to the true path to God. He
recognized Jesus’ resurrection, as you can see in this Surah.

Thereupon she pointed to him. They said, 'How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?' Jesus said, 'I
am a servant of ALLAH. HE has given me the Book, and has made me a Prophet; 'And HE has made me blessed
wheresoever I may be, and has enjoined upon me Prayer and almsgiving so long as I live; 'And HE has made
me dutiful towards my mother, and has not made me arrogant and graceless; 'And peace was on me the day I
was born, and peace will be on me the day I shall die, and the day I shall be raised up to life again.' That was
Jesus, son of Mary. This is a statement of the truth concerning which they entertain doubt.—Qur'an, Surah
19:30-35

Zoroaster. He proclaimed to be a prophet calling the people to abandon their polytheistic religion to the faith in
one God. Zoroastrianism is one the oldest religions in the world. It is definitely one of the first monotheist
religions. It was founded by Zoroaster and it believes in one God, Ahura Mazda. There are very few
Zoroastrians in the world today but it still holds an important place. A large part of their population is divided
between Iran and India. The Zoroastrians living in India are called Parsis.

We will find today spurious religious men claiming to be God, but since these are new religions with no
historical evidence and very small following it isn’t worth to elaborate on them in this class. Those few who
claim to be the personification of God or Jesus are just part of Christ’s own admonition in Matthew 24:5 and 6.

Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive
many.

2. The Idea of Resurrection in the Old Testament

The only resurrection stories one can find in ancient history are those of mythological gods, such as found in
Greek literature, or allusions to the birth and death of seasons, all of which are not historical in essence. The
Greeks believed that the body bound the spirit and only through death the spirit was freed from its shackles.
There was no notion of a resurrected body, in other words. Thus, the mockery of the Greek crowd recorded in
Acts 17:32 when Paul was preaching to them.

And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of
this matter.

The Hebrews didn’t concern much with the afterlife. C. S. Lewis posits that their exiled experience in Egypt
probably taught them not to import the over concern by the Egyptians with death and afterlife into their religion.
In fact, the Hebrew Sheol was very similar to Homer’s Hades, a place where the dead sleep and shouldn’t be
disturbed, as in the case of Samuel and the witch of Endor. There are very few references to resurrection in the
Old Testament and even then they are vague in details. They are scattered among the books and they only hint
the concept of an afterlife.

Yet in my flesh I shall see God. --Job 19:26 4

For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. -----Psalm 16:10

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. --Ecc 12:7

Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for
thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. –Isa 26:19

The most direct reference to the resurrection of the body is found in Daniel 12:2, which says that,

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame
and everlasting contempt.

To the Jew the resurrection had corporate meaning. Following the commandments meant that God would
maintain the Israelite nation free and prosperous. Psalm 103:15-17 for example, gives us a clue to their concept
of death and a corporate resurrection through their progeny.

As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness
unto children's children.

Shortly before Jesus’ time, the Jewish rabbis became very interested in the afterlife, to the point that
theologically they were divided into believing in the resurrection, as the Pharisees did, and not believing at all,
as evidenced in the Sadducees statements recorded in the Gospels.

The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,
Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up
seed unto his brother.
Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no
issue, left his wife unto his brother:
Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.
And last of all the woman died also.
Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
– Mat 22:23-28

In the mind of the first century Jew the Messiah was a political figure who would free Israel as a nation and he
wasn’t expected to resurrect. This very fact makes the plausibility of Jesus’ resurrection even more real, because
the disciples couldn’t have created a story that wasn’t even within the Jewish mind.

The eminent biblical scholar N. T. Wright, Bishop of Durham in the Church of England, gives us a clear
background of the change of mind in Judaism during intertestamental time.

Post-biblical Judaism offers a range of beliefs about life after death. Resurrection is by no means the only
option; and, when it is specified, it is not a general word for life after death, but a term for one particular belief.
In fact, resurrection is not simply a form of ‘life after death’; resurrection hasn’t happened yet. People do not
pass directly from death to resurrection, but go through an interim period, after which the death of the body
will be reversed in resurrection. Resurrection does not, then, mean ‘survival’; it is not a way of describing the
kind of life one might have immediately following physical death. It is not a redescription of death and/or the
state which results from death. In both paganism and Judaism it refers to the reversal, the undoing, the
conquest of death and its effects. That is its whole point. That is what Homer, Plato, Aeschylus and the others
denied; and it is what some Jews, and all early Christians, affirmed. 5
Resurrection, in other words, means being given back one’s body, or perhaps God creating a new similar body,
some time after death. It is, in fact, life after ‘life after death’; because where you find a belief in resurrection
you also find, unsurprisingly, a belief in some kind of intermediate state in between death and
resurrection. Various ways of describing this were developed: the souls of the righteous, said Wisdom (3.1),
were in God’s hand. Others spoke of a quasi-angelic intermediate existence, or of spirits that lived on prior to
the resurrection. The patriarchs were ‘alive to God’. The Persian term ‘Paradise’ was employed, not
necessarily for the final destination of resurrection, but, sometimes at least (e.g. 1 Enoch 37-70), for the
peaceful garden where people rested before their new bodily life began. – Jesus’ Resurrection and Christian
Origins.

3. Rehearsing the Great Event

We find, in the Old Testament, few references to people being resurrected. Scholars usually define these as
resuscitation events instead of resurrection, because the beneficiaries didn’t return to life on a new, more
powerful and eternal body, as Jesus did.
The prophet Elijah prays and God raises a young boy from death (1 Kings 17:17-24) Similarly, Elisha raises the
son of the Shunamite woman (2 Kings 4:32-37); this was the very same child whose birth he previously foretold
(2 Kings 4:8-16) A dead man's body that was thrown into the dead Elisha's tomb is resurrected when the body
touches Elisha's bones (2 Kings 13:21)

We find three specific cases of resuscitation in the Gospels. There are references to other miracle workers
during Jesus’ time, but similar to Moses’ serpent which proved to be more powerful than that of the Egyptian
magicians, Jesus’ cases of raising one from the dead proved that God was indeed in Him, for no one had ever
been able to perform such a feat.

The first case was the raising of the son of a widow, in the city of Nain.

And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him,
and much people.
Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his
mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her.
And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.
And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee,
Arise.
And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. – Luke 7:11-15

The Gospel narratives of resuscitation are developed in a crescendo, culminating, of course, with the raising
from death of the Messiah Himself. The second case, when Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from death, is even
more dramatic than the first one.

And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was
nigh unto the sea.
And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at
his feet,
And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy
hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.
And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him.
While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, Thy daughter is
dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?

6
As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only
believe.
And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.
And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed
greatly.
And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but
sleepeth.
And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the
damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.
And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say
unto thee, arise.
And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were
astonished with a great astonishment.
And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her
to eat. –Mark 5:21-24, 35-43.

Jesus’ last feat was the one that actually prompted the Jewish leaders to procure his death –Lazarus’
resuscitation. With so much evidence of power from above and at the same time so great a light exposing their
perfidy, the only solution they found was to crush the bulb – but not the Light.

Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
(It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother
Lazarus was sick.)
Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God
might be glorified thereby.
Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.
Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again.
His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?
Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he
seeth the light of this world.
But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake
him out of sleep.
Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.
Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellowdisciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.
Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.
Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off:
And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.
Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house.
Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.
Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.
Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall
he live:
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
7
She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the
world.
And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come,
and calleth for thee.
As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him.
Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him.
The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up
hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there.
Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if
thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the
spirit, and was troubled,
And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.
Jesus wept.
Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!
And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man
should not have died?
Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time
he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said,
Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may
believe that thou hast sent me.
And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a
napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.
But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done.
Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many
miracles.
If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place
and nation.
Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.
--John 11:1-48, 53.

4. Resuscitations under the Apostles

The Lord’s resurrection led to a number of people, as reported in Matthew 27, to be raised from the dead as
well.

Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and
the rocks rent;
And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. –
Matthew 27:50-53

However, we don’t find too many incidents of resuscitations during the Early Church time. But the few cases
we have show that Jesus’ words were fulfilled as he spoke in John 14:12.
8
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than
these he will do; because I go to the Father.

The first named case of resuscitation after the Lord’s was that of Tabitha.

Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this
woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.

And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died: whom when they had washed, they laid her in an
upper chamber.

And forasmuch as Lydda was nigh to Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent unto
him two men, desiring him that he would not delay to come to them.

Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the
widows stood by him weeping, and shewing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with
them.
But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise.
And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive.
And it was known throughout all Joppa; and many believed in the Lord. –Acts 9:36-42

The only other case reported in the book of Acts is that of Eutychus, who was resuscitated by Paul.

And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul
was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.
And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.
–Acts 20: 9.10

5. The Proof of the Resurrection

The reliability of the resurrection event has been ratified by many scholars worldwide. Historians have put
together the many occurrences recorded in the gospels regarding the resurrection and have agreed that there are
too many evidences to be ignored or treated as a fabrication. Even the accusation that Jesus’ resurrection is a
myth has been dismissed on the basis that in the space of 2 to 3 years it is historically impossible to develop a
myth.

American philosopher and leading Christian apologist William Lane Craig obtained his theology doctorate with
a thesis on the resurrection of Christ. His work is highly acknowledged in the scholastic community. Here are
some excerpts of his introductory speech prior to his debate with Bart Ehrman at College of the Holy Cross,
Massachusetts.

After his crucifixion Jesus was buried by Joseph of Arimathea in a tomb. Historians have established this fact
on the basis of evidence such as the following:
Jesus’ burial is multiply attested in early, independent sources. We have four biographies of Jesus, by Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, which have been collected into the New Testament, along with various letters of the
apostle Paul.

Now the burial account is part of Mark’s source material for the story of Jesus’ suffering and death. This is a
very early source which is probably based on eyewitness testimony and which the commentator Rudolf Pesch
9
dates to within seven years of the crucifixion. Moreover, Paul also cites an extremely early source for Jesus’
burial which most scholars date to within five years of Jesus’ crucifixion. Independent testimony to Jesus’
burial by Joseph is also found in the sources behind Matthew and Luke and the Gospel of John, not to mention
the extra-biblical Gospel of Peter. Thus, we have the remarkable number of at least five independent sources
for Jesus’ burial, some of which are extraordinarily early.
As a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin that condemned Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea is unlikely to be a Christian
invention. There was an understandable hostility in the early church toward the Jewish leaders. In Christian
eyes, they had engineered a judicial murder of Jesus. Thus, according to the late New Testament scholar
Raymond Brown, Jesus’ burial by Joseph is “very probable,” since it is “almost inexplicable” why Christians
would make up a story about a Jewish Sanhedrist who does what is right by Jesus.

For these and other reasons, most New Testament critics concur that Jesus was buried by Joseph of Arimathea
in a tomb. According to the late John A. T. Robinson of Cambridge University, the burial of Jesus in the tomb is
“one of the earliest and best-attested facts about Jesus.”
On the Sunday after the crucifixion, Jesus’ tomb was found empty by a group of his women followers. Among
the reasons which have led most scholars to this conclusion are the following:
The empty tomb is also multiply attested by independent, early sources. Mark’s source didn’t end with the
burial, but with the story of the empty tomb, which is tied to the burial story verbally and grammatically.
Moreover, Matthew and John have independent sources about the empty tomb; it’s also mentioned in the
sermons in the Acts of the Apostles
(2.29; 13.36); and it’s implied by Paul in his first letter to the Corinthian church (I Cor. 15.4). Thus, we have
again multiple, early, independent attestation of the fact of the empty tomb.

The tomb was discovered empty by women. In patriarchal Jewish society the testimony of women was not highly
regarded. In fact, the Jewish historian Josephus says that women weren’t even permitted to serve as witnesses
in a Jewish court of law. Now in light of this fact, how remarkable it is that it is women who are the discoverers
of Jesus’ empty tomb. Any later legendary account would certainly have made male disciples like Peter and
John discover the empty tomb. The fact that it is women, rather than men, who are the discoverers of the empty
tomb is best explained by the fact that they were the chief witnesses to the fact of the empty tomb, and the
Gospel writers faithfully record what, for them, was an awkward and embarrassing fact. I could go on, but I
think enough has been said to indicate why, in the words of Jacob Kremer, an Austrian specialist on the
resurrection, “By far most exegetes hold firmly to the reliability of the biblical statements concerning the empty
tomb.”

On different occasions and under various circumstances different individuals and groups of people
experienced appearances of Jesus alive from the dead. Paul tells us that Jesus appeared to his chief disciple
Peter, then to the inner circle of disciples known as the Twelve; then he appeared to a group of 500 disciples at
once, then to his younger brother James, who up to that time was apparently not a believer, then to all the
apostles. Finally, Paul adds, “he appeared also to me,” at the time when Paul was still a persecutor of the
early Jesus movement (I Cor. 15.5-8). Given the early date of Paul’s information as well as his personal
acquaintance with the people involved, these appearances cannot be dismissed as mere legends.

Think of the situation the disciples faced following Jesus’ crucifixion:

Their leader was dead. And Jewish Messianic expectations had no idea of a Messiah who, instead of
triumphing over Israel’s enemies, would be shamefully executed by them as a criminal.
Jewish beliefs about the afterlife precluded anyone’s rising from the dead to glory and immortality before the
general resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. Nevertheless, the original disciples suddenly came to
believe so strongly that God had raised Jesus from the dead that they were willing to die for the truth of that
belief. But then the obvious question arises: What in the world caused them to believe such an un-Jewish and
outlandish thing? Luke Johnson, a New Testament scholar at Emory University, muses, “Some sort of powerful,
transformative experience is required to generate the sort of movement earliest Christianity was.” 10
 6. We Shall Be Like Him

Considering the characteristics of the resurrected body of Jesus, some scholars believe that we will have the
same qualities Jesus’ body had. Verses such as these ones promise us a new body endowed with new,
supernatural power.

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Rom 6:4

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. 1Jn 3:2

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. Php 3:21

We assume that many of these characteristics described in the Gospel we’ll also be experienced by those who
believe in Him, in their new resurrected body.

Christ was able to speak and to be heard by human ears. He spoke to Mary Magdalene in the Garden, and she
recognized His voice. Jesus spoke in an audible voice to the ears of His disciples, not to their hearts or minds.
(Mat. 28; Mk. 16:14-19; Lk. 24:13-31,36-51; Jn. 20:19-23, 26-29; 21:4-22)

He had a real, literal resurrection body. Christ's resurrection body could be touched, held, and handled. (Jn.
20:27; 1 Jn. 1:1) His resurrection body was not some ghostly, insubstantial, holographic image. Jesus proven
that to His disciples in Lk. 24:36-40.

Christ's resurrected body could be seen with human eyes.

(1 Cor. 15:5-8; I Jn. 1:1; Lk. 24:39,40; etc.)

People could recognize that it was really Christ in His resurrection body - it looked like Him! Mary Magdalene
recognized Jesus in the Garden, as soon as she was close enough to see Him in the dim light of early dawn. The
two disciples at Emmaus recognized Jesus, as soon as their supernaturally-imposed blindness was removed.
(Lk. 24:31) The disciples in the Upper Room -- and Thomas, a week later -- instantly recognized Jesus for Who
He was. (Jn. 20:28; 21:27.) Paul told of 500 brethren who saw and definitely recognized Jesus Christ after His
resurrection.

Christ's resurrected body bore the marks of His earthly service in our behalf; the prints of the nails in His hands
and feet, and the spear wound in His side are still there today.

His resurrected body had real flesh and bones, but He was transformed, nonetheless.

In His resurrected body, Jesus Christ could still eat real food, even though earthly food will not be necessary for
the resurrection body.
(Rev. 19:9; Lk. 22:16).

The resurrected Jesus was the same Jesus that the disciples had known throughout His earthly ministry. In Lk.
24:39, He said to them, "...Behold...that it is I myself."

11
In His resurrection body, Christ had available to Him different modes of transportation than we enjoy today. He
could enter a locked room without passing through the doors or windows. He could disappear from Emmaus
and reappear moments later, 7 or 8 miles away in Jerusalem. He was also carried into Heaven on the clouds.

Whether these same qualities are characteristics of a resurrected body outside this earth is disputable. Our
human body is specifically made for this earth. Our lungs, eyes, internal organs, practically everything is made
for this atmosphere and environment. Outside this realm, without gravity and elements necessary for our
material makeup such body would be unnecessary. Just as in other anthropomorphic passages in the Bible, since
Jesus was dealing with humans on earth, He may have had to retain some of His earthly characteristics in order
for us to relate and communicate with Him. In some ways, the appearance of angels in the Bible as well as more
recently reported by many who have had encounters with them, do resemble humans in their appearance, are
able to appear and disappear at will and can even eat and drink, as we find in the story of Abraham in Genesis.

Now the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the
day.
When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them,
he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth,
and said, “My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass your servant by.
“Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree;
and I will bring a piece of bread, that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have
visited your servant.” And they said, “So do, as you have said.”
So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it
and make bread cakes.”
Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and choice calf and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to
prepare it.
He took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and placed it before them; and he was standing by
them under the tree as they ate. Genesis 18:1-8

NASA’s answer to how long a human can live unprotected in space was,

If you don't try to hold your breath, exposure to space for half a minute or so is unlikely to produce permanent
injury. Holding your breath is likely to damage your lungs, something scuba divers have to watch out for when
ascending, and you'll have eardrum trouble if your Eustachian tubes are badly plugged up, but theory predicts
-- and animal experiments confirm -- that otherwise, exposure to vacuum causes no immediate injury. You do
not explode. Your blood does not boil. You do not freeze. You do not instantly lose consciousness.
Various minor problems (sunburn, possibly "the bends", certainly some [mild, reversible, painless] swelling of
skin and underlying tissue) start after ten seconds or so. At some point you lose consciousness from lack of
oxygen. Injuries accumulate. After perhaps one or two minutes, you're dying. The limits are not really known.
You do not explode and your blood does not boil because of the containing effect of your skin and circulatory
system. You do not instantly freeze because, although the space environment is typically very cold, heat does
not transfer away from a body quickly. Loss of consciousness occurs only after the body has depleted the supply
of oxygen in the blood. If your skin is exposed to direct sunlight without any protection from its
intense ultraviolet radiation, you can get a very bad sunburn.
At NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center (now renamed Johnson Space Center) we had a test subject accidentally
exposed to a near vacuum (less than 1 psi) in an incident involving a leaking space suit in a vacuum chamber
back in '65. He remained conscious for about 14 seconds, which is about the time it takes for O2 deprived blood
to go from the lungs to the brain. The suit probably did not reach a hard vacuum, and we began repressurizing
the chamber within 15 seconds. The subject regained consciousness at around 15,000 feet equivalent altitude.
The subject later reported that he could feel and hear the air leaking out, and his last conscious memory was of
the water on his tongue beginning to boil. (From the now extinct page http://medlib/jsc.nasa.gov/intro/vacuum.html)

12
All of nature is fine-tuned for this earth. The smallest variation means the impossibility of vegetable or animal
life. As William Lane Craig brought out in Lee Strobel’s A Case for Faith:

As an example, he cited Hawking's writings. "He has calculated," Craig said, "that if the rate of the universe's
expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million
million, the universe would have collapsed into a fireball.”
In short order, Craig proceeded to go down a list of several other mind-boggling statistics to support his
conclusion. Among them:
British physicist P C. W Davies has concluded the odds against the initial conditions being suitable for the
formation of stars-a necessity for planets and thus life-is a one followed by at least a thousand billion billion
zeroes.
Davies also estimated that if the strength of gravity or of the weak force were changed by only one part in a ten
followed by a hundred zeroes, life could never have developed.
There are about fifty constants and quantities-for example, the amount of usable energy in the universe, the
difference in mass between protons and neutrons, the ratios of the fundamental forces of nature, and the
proportion of matter to antimatter that must be balanced to a mathematically infinitesimal degree for any life to
be possible?
"All of this," said Craig, "amply supports the conclusion that there's an intelligence behind creation. In fact, the
alternate explanations just don't add up.

Seeing that the earth was tailor-made for its inhabitants, it’s improbable, therefore, that our new bodies, as well
as anything in our earth, would need to have the same elements when in the spirit world. It could be that the
material body we now have will look the same in the spiritual realm, so as to allow us to recognize each other,
but without the physical, biological features necessary for survival on earth.

7. Our Mansions in Heaven

We assume that, even though in the spirit world we wouldn’t be subject to time and space, that we’ll have a
physical place to live. The Lord has promised us in I Cor 2:9 that,

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things
which God hath prepared for them that love him.

We know then, that the Heaven we dream of can become reality. Jesus also said that whatsoever we ask the
Father in His name, that He would give it to us. With so many wonderful promises in the Word, we know that
Heaven can and will be the fulfillment of our dreams and desires. The idea of Heaven often brings to our minds
the promise that we will have our mansions in the afterworld. If in Heaven we can have all our dreams and
desires fulfilled, it is probable then that we can have our mansions there also. However, this is not exactly what
the Lord says in John 14.

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions:
if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. -John 14:1-3

The Greek word ‘mone’ translated in the KJV as ‘mansion’ in John 14:2 is everywhere translated as “abode”,
as in “abide in Me and I in you.” If we were to use the Gk ‘mone’ as mansion in the rest of the New Testament,
we would find verses senselessly translated thus:

But the Father that mansions in me, he doeth the works (John 14:10).

We will come unto him, and make our mansion with him (John 14:23).
13
Mansion in me, and I in you (John 15:4).

For this reason, the NASB, trying to be more accurate in its translation, put John 14:1-3 this way:

Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a
place for you.
If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may
be also.

Jesus’ statement, in reality has a much more endearing meaning than a large manor (as envisaged by the KJV
translators.) In reality, He was illustrating his point in a manner that His disciples, who were Jews, could truly
relate to. This appears to parallel the promise of the bridegroom in the pattern of the ancient Jewish wedding,
where, after the ketubah, the engagement, but before the huppah, the formal ceremony, the groom departed to
prepare a new home for his bride, usually an addition to his father's house. It’s the warm feeling of being able
to live near and under the Father’s protection and care that Jesus is pointing out. For the non-materialistic mind
being able to live with God, in His house, means a lot more than having a big property with a mansion in it.

14