Your taking away our hope. Many today believe if you teach fulfilled eschatology your taking away their hope. But what exactly does the Bible say about the hope of the people when and while the Bible was being written? For that story we must start at the very beginning. The Old Testament tells us how sin and death came into the world through the disobedience of the first man, Adam. God promised to send a Savior that would be from the seed of the woman (Genesis 3). In this passage we see that this promised Savior would come to save, and would suffer and die, not for his own sin but for the sin of others. Adam did not die physically that day, but he did die spiritually. He died spiritually the moment he disobeyed. Spiritual death separated mankind from God. (Isaiah 59:1-2, Ephesians 2:1-5). As much of this upsets people, its the truth! Adam and Eve never die physically that they ate of the fruit. However we know that they did die that is exactly what God told would happen! (Gen.2:17) Satan on the other hand that surely they would not die! (Gen.3:4) so if they did not die in that they that they ate of the fruit then Satan wouldve been correct, and God would have been a liar! I dont think theres a Christian reading this who would agree to God being a liar! The sentence of death had been passed upon Adam and Eve and eating from the other tree (the tree of life) would bring him in a permanent condition of death so after Adam and Eve sinned they were banished from the Garden. (Genesis 3:24) This was to prevent them from going back in and eating from the tree of life that would affect them to be permanently in this state of death and separation from God. The prevention of Adam and Eve from going back into the Garden was an act of mercy. Think of it in this way, for them to continue to live forever in this fallen state of death and separation from God was not the best situation for them to be in. God created man for fellowship. Prior to Jesus messianic work, no one went to Heaven (John 3:13). If, prior to Jesus messianic work, no one went to Heaven-- where did people go when they died? They went to a holding place of the dead and waited for the atoning work of Christ and the resurrection from the dead. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for where they were prior to the resurrection is Sheol. In the New Testament the Greek word is Hades. What this place amounted to was a waiting area for disembodied spirits. The Old Testament uses the word Sheol to refer to a place in the depths of the earth. Old testament saint such as David looked foreword to God fulfilling His promise of “deliverance from death. Psalms 86:13, NKJV For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. Notice David speaks, also, in past tense: hast delivered, not future tense, shall deliver. In other words, he is no longer spiritually dead. There are many passages that directly teach that there is consciousness, emotion and communication in Hades/Sheol. We might also add that Sheol is not the grave as many contend. There is a separate word in both the Hebrew and the Greek that is different for the word grave! μνημεῖον, which is the Greek word for grave. It is always translated as Hades which meant the underworld. Whereas kever is the Hebrew transliteration. (That is a study for another time.) Hosea speaks of the time God would ransom them from the power of the grave. Hosea 13:14, I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. Even the language of Daniel denote a resurrection. Daniel 12:1-3 NKJV “At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. (And at that time your people) shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book. (And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt). Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness Like the stars forever and ever. (Emphasis added) The term your people shall be delivered here refers to Daniel’s people the Jews. During the 1st century A.D. Paul writes of the hope of Israel that was promised to the Jewish patriarchs. One of the notable characteristics of the Book of Acts is the large amount of space given to Paul’s arrest and subsequent trials. In his defense before Agrippa in chapter 26 Paul makes a more extended reference to why he is on trial. Paul states “And now I am on trial because of the hope...It is because of this hope that the Jews are accusing me” (Acts 266-7) Here Paul specifies that the hope he is speaking of is “the hope of the promise made by God to the Jewish patriarchs the promise their twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. This is undoubtedly refers to Israel’s messianic expectations. Paul draws in the connection of the resurrection of the dead with the hope of Israel. “Why is it considered incredible by you that God raise the dead?” (26:8) In summary, Paul is presented by Luke as repeatedly insisting in Acts that he is on trial because of “the hope of Israel” and “the resurrection of the dead.” But the question still remains to be answered as to why Paul believes that the two are so closely linked. There can be no question judging from the contents of Acts that Paul is aware of the messianic hope of Israel. The answer to this question can be found by examining what connection is drawn in Acts between the hope of Israel the resurrection and the death and resurrection of Jesus. First of all Paul states that Jesus came to confirmed the promises made to the Jewish patriarchs. Romans 15:8 NKJV Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers. Jesus is God keeping his promises. Paul’s repeated claims in his defense speeches that his beliefs and teaching are in agreement with the law and the prophets have already stated, Paul specifically asserts that the resurrection of Jesus was part of Old Testament prophecy. Paul in his own description of his preaching in Acts 26:22-23 says: “And so, having God’s help to this very day, I stand and testify to both great and small, stating nothing but what the prophets and Moses said was going to talk place that the Messiah was to suffer and that, as the first to raise from the dead, he would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles. The hope of Israel is closely bound with the resurrection of Jesus. The Corinthian church had a false ideas about the resurrection. They believed Christ rose from the dead. They believed their deceased Christian relatives and friends would raise from the dead. They absolutely believed that they themselves would raise from the dead. They however, DID NOT believe that Israel would rise from the dead. They believed that the dead (Israel), to whom the promises were first made, were now exempt from those very promises. Their belief was that in the rejection of Israel’s own messiah, they had forfeited their right to resurrection! They believed that God now sought to fulfill His promises through the Gentiles alone. Paul had to correct their false ideas. “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.” (1 Corinthians 15:13) Paul refutes the Corinthian notion. This also by the way gives answer to the problem text of 1 Cor.15:29 which everyone seems to scratch their heads over thinking it may be a text dealing with proxy baptism! It is not! (A study for another time.) Paul is saying in effect: If you do not believe in the resurrection of the dead (Israel) then Jesus is not risen. Jesus was a Jew born of a woman, born under the law of Israel (to redeem those who were under the law). (Galations.4:4) In 1 Cor.15:20 we read that Jesus was raised From The DEAD or became the fistfruits of Those who having fallen asleep… again speaking of– Jews in their hope of resurrection life! Clearly, Jesus was not the first to raise of “dead people” Jew or Gentile, But of Salvific resurrection in reference to the hope of Israel – Jesus is first fruit of the promises made to Israel – the dead! Paul asked the question – “Who will deliver me from this “Body of Death” (Rom.7:24) That old covenantal body of “Death” which Paul also called “The ministry of death” & the “ministry of condemnation” (2 Cor.2:7 & 9) I see in these scriptures an emergence of covenantal community in waiting in hope lying in death - death written all over it –hence Israel is labeled as the dead! Salvation is of the Jews! (John 4:23) So the promise of the resurrection of the DEAD is originally tied up in the resurrection of Israel! In 1 Cor.15:3-4 What scripture is Paul referring to? The answer is Hosea 6:1-2. So in Hosea 6 we read of Ephraim (a name for Israel) as being those torn, but raised by Christ! Likewise in the “Song of Salvation” Isa.26 The Dead is Israel! Verse 20 is a call to God’s people Israel who will live together with Christ’s dead body! (Vs19) Is not Israel in view here? Isaiah 26:19 (NKJV) “Your dead shall live; Together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; For your dew is like the dew of herbs, And the earth shall cast out the dead.” In the LXX the “Your dead shall live” is actually: ἀναστήσονται οἱ νεκροί shall raise up the dead (Masc. pl.) LXX According to the Bible, when was the resurrection to take place? Daniel says that this resurrection will come after a time of great trouble for the Jewish nation. Daniel 12:1-2 “At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; (And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation), Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, (Everyone who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Emphasis added) This verse sounds just like Matthew 24:21, where Jesus is speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem. Now compare Daniel 12:3 with Matthew 13:40-43. Both Daniel 12 and Matthew 13 are speaking about the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. The resurrection is an event that happened in AD 70. If the time of the resurrection is seen as AD 70, then we know that the nature of the resurrection was spiritual, rather than physical. To the Jews, time was divided into two great periods, the Mosaic Age and the Messianic Age to come. The Messiah was viewed as one who would bring in a new world of eternal life. Luke 18:30 who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.” The resurrection of the dead took place at the end of the Old Mosaic Age which ended in AD 70. The resurrection of the dead that took place was not a biological resurrection of dead decayed bodies, literally coming out of a grave but a release of disembodied spirits from Sheol of all who had been waiting through the centuries to be reunited with God in the heavenly kingdom. Hades had been emptied as a holding tank (so to speak ) for ever! Was this in fact accomplished -Yes! Absolutely, without a doubt! We are told that Israel’s patriarch Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, ...By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.... These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:8-16) They all died in faith awaiting the promise Redeemer to come. God made fantastic promises to Abraham and his seed 4000 years ago. Since the resurrection is past, what happens to believers when they die? Their physical body goes back to dust from which it came (Ecclesiastes 3:20), and their spirit is united with the Lord. It is given a spiritual body and is in union with God forever! The resurrection was a one time event in which the Old Testament saints were brought out of Hades and finally overcame death which is separation to be with the Lord forever. As believers we have eternal life and never die spiritually speaking. John 5:24 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me (has everlasting life), and shall not come into judgment, (but has passed from death into life). (Emphasis added) “has everlasting life” in present tense not future tense. “ but has passed from death into life” ” in past tense not future tense. This is, and was not the last time Jesus gave special emphasis to this. John 6:47 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. John 11:26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Where there is no death, there is no need of a resurrection. We have eternal life and can never die spiritually. Therefore, we dont need a resurrection. As believers we live in the presence of God, and in physical death, we simply drop the flesh and our spirit returns to God who gave it. We have everything that Israel hoped for. We don’t have to live in hope as they did, but in the full assurance that God kept his promises to Israel.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 13:26:11 +0000
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