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The Resurrection and God

Research by Kerry A. Shirts

(A quick Note: Christians claim that God does not have a body. So I thought I would see what the Bible says about the resurrection. This particular Christian claimed Mormon Doctrine was not Biblical in relation to God and the resurrection. I claim the Christian theology is worse.)

I just want to be crystal clear as to what the Bible is saying concerning the resurrection of the dead. We will be resurrected with our physical bodies. Your theology says God the Father of us all does not have a body. What? So we will have something that God does not? Namely a physical body. This is absurd theology, yet it is based on your interpretation of God, which in my opinion is obviously erroneous.

Matthew 22:31f

31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,

32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Matthew 27:52

52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

***Or in other words, clearly they received their bodies again, the ones which were in the graves which were opened. Why were they opened if they were not receiving their bodies again? Yet your theology says God does not have what we have! Your theology is absurd.***

Matthew 27:53

53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

John 5:28f

28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,

29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

***Even the evil will be resurrected! So with your theology evil men have something that God the Father does not? Absolutely preposterous, yet the only conclusion based on your theology and the Bible.***

John 11:23f

23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

Acts 17:31f

31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by [that] man whom he hath ordained; [whereof] he hath given assurance unto all [men], in that he hath raised him from the dead.

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

Acts 24:15

15 And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

***This is interesting! The unjust shall also be resurrected, yet God the Father doesn't have a body, though the unjust do? Your theology is absurd.***

Romans 6:5

5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also [in the likeness] of [his] resurrection:

1 Corinthians 15:21

21 For since by man [came] death, by man [came] also the resurrection of the dead.

1 Peter 1:3

3 Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Revelation 20:5

5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This [is] the first resurrection.

Revelation 20:6

6 Blessed and holy [is] he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

***From the Bible it is abundantly obvious that we will all be resurrected, whether righteous or wicked, whether just or unjust, so we all have something that God does not, following your own theological slant, which is absurd. Again, B.H. Roberts has discussed in detail and length the scriptures in the Bible concerning God.***

B. H. Roberts, The Mormon Doctrine of Deity, p.268

The Latter-day Saints believe that there is a true and living God, that this true and living God consists of three separate, distinct persons, which have bodies, parts and passions, which belief is in direct opposition to this man-made doctrine. We believe that God, the Eternal Father, who reigns in yonder heavens, is a distinct personage from Jesus Christ, as much so as an earthly father is distinct in his existence from his son. That is something I can comprehend, which I conceive to be the doctrine of revelation. We read about Jesus having been seen after he arose from the dead. Stephen the Martyr, just before he was stoned to death, testified to the Jewish people that were standing before him at the time, saying, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God." Here, then, the Father and Jesus, two distinct personages, were seen, and both had bodies.

This is clear, crisp, true Bible Doctrine.

B. H. Roberts, The Mormon Doctrine of Deity, p.25

What think ye of Christ? Is he God? Yes. Is he man? Yes. Will that resurrected, immortal, glorified man ever be distilled into some bodiless, formless essence, to be diffused as the perfume of a rose is diffused throughout the circumambient air? Will he become an impersonal, incorporeal, immaterial God, without body, without parts, without passions? Will it be? Can it be? What think ye of Christ? Is he God? Yes. Is he an exalted man? Yes; in the name of all the Gods he is. Then why do sectarian ministers arraign the faith of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because they believe and affirm that God is an exalted man, and that he has a body, tangible, immortal, indestructible, and will so remain embodied throughout the countless ages of eternity? And since the Son is in the form and likeness of the Father, being, as Paul tells, "in the express image of his [the Father's] person"—so, too, the Father God is a man of immortal tabernacle, glorified and exalted: for as the Son is, so also is the Father, a personage of tabernacle, of flesh and of bone as tangible as man's, as tangible as Christ's most glorious, resurrected body.

B. H. Roberts, The Mormon Doctrine of Deity, p.73

Jesus is a spirit and body united into one glorious personage. His mind was and is now united to and dwelling in a body.

Now if, philosophically one argues that "pure minds [i.e. minds not united to bodies] are more perfect than minds united to bodies." And that, "Angels, both good and bad, are spirits (i.e. minds) devoid of bodies." would it not follow that angels are superior to Jesus since his spirit is united to a body, while they are minds not united to bodies?

Yet this is clearly absurd!

Even to bad spirits, which are bodiless, and hence, following this view, superior to minds or spirits united to bodiesare better than Jesus. Yet who isn't aware that Jesus is superior to the angels, though it is perfectly clear that he is a spirit united to a body?

"When he had by himself purged our sins, [Jesus] sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels he saith, who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever" (Heb. 1: 3–8). In this passage the superiority of Jesus over the angels is manifested in four ways: first, by the direct affirmation of God, that he was made "better" than the angels; second, that by inheritance he obtained a more exalted name; third, that the angels are commanded to worship him; fourth, God, the Father, addressing Jesus, said, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." In this passage the Father directly addresses Jesus by the title "God." And as God is exalted above all angels, Jesus must be superior to angels, for he is "God," if we may believe the words of the Father—whom to disbelieve would be blasphemy.

B. H. Roberts, The Mormon Doctrine of Deity, p.75f

In the creed usually named after St. Athanasius, it is said: "Such as the Father is, such is the Son." I take it that this, in the view of those who accept the Athanasian creed, has reference to the "substance of the Father," as well as to other things pertaining to him; for, according to that creed, the "substance" of the Father and Son is one and undivided. "We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity," says the creed; "neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance." It must be, therefore, that all the "substance" of God there is, is in Jesus Christ, as well as the attributes of God. The terms of the creed forbid us believing that part of the "substance" of God was enclosed in the flesh and bone body of Jesus, and the remainder existed outside of that body; for that would be dividing the "substance" of God, a thing the Athanasian creed forbids: therefore, all the "substance" of God inhabits the body of Jesus Christ, and he is wholly God. In this view of the subject, there is no God except the Deity enclosed in the flesh and body of Jesus Christ. But what about God being a spirit, and about the superiority of pure minds (i.e. spirits not united to bodies) over minds united to bodies?Does this not force us to the necessity of accepting as God, the Supreme, the Almighty, a personage that is a spirit and body united in one glorious personage, and in form like man?

On the other hand, if it be contended that besides the Son of God, Jesus, a personage of flesh and bone and spirit, there exists God, a spirit, then there is likely to arise again the conception of the "substance" being divided, and the existence of two individual Gods instead of one. The one a spirit unembodied, and the other a spirit enclosed in a body of flesh and bone—the glorified, exalted Man, Christ. This danger is also increased by the part of the creed now being considered, viz., "Such as the Father is, such is the Son;" for it must follow, if this be true that such as the Son is, such is the Father also. And this, must hold with reference to God, wholly; to his substance, essence, personality, form, as well as to all attributes possessed, or else it is not true at all. And if true, since we know that Jesus is an immortal being of flesh and bone and spirit united into one glorious personage, then God the Father must be the same, a personage of flesh and bone and spirit united.

B. H. Roberts, The Mormon Doctrine of Deity, p.96

First:—While the scriptures declare that God is a spirit, it does not follow that he is necessarily an unembodied spirit; on the contrary, it is clear that he is an embodied spirit; for Jesus Christ is God, and he, we know, is a spirit and body united; and he is said to be the express image of his Father's person; therefore, the Father of Jesus Christ, or God the Father, must be just what Jesus is—a spirit embodied in a tabernacle of flesh and bone.

It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did.

B. H. Roberts, The Mormon Doctrine of Deity, p.227

The scriptures inform us that Jesus said; "As the Father hath power in himself, even so hath the Son power"—to do what? Why, what the Father did. The answer is obvious—in a manner to lay down his body and take it up again. Jesus, what are you going to do? To lay down my life, as my Father did, and take it up again. Do you believe it? If you do not believe it, you do not believe the Bible.

B. H. Roberts, The Mormon Doctrine of Deity, p.256f

What is Jesus Christ? He is the son of God, and is every way like his father, being "the brightness of his father's glory, and the express image of his person." He is material intelligence, with body, parts and passions; possessing immortal flesh and immortal bones. He can and does eat, drink, converse, reason, love, move, go, come, and in short, perform all things even as the Father—possessing the same power and attributes. And he, too, can travel space, and go from world to world, and from system to system, precisely like the Father; but cannot occupy two places at once.

What are men? They are offspring of God, the Father, and brothers of Jesus Christ. They were once intelligent spirits in the presence of God, and were with him before the earth was formed. They are now in disguise as it were, in order to pass through the several changes, and the experience necessary to constitute them perfect beings.

They are capable of receiving intelligence and exaltation to such a degree, as to be raised from the dead with a body like that of Jesus Christ's, and to possess immortal flesh and bones, in which they will eat, drink, converse, reason, love, walk, sing, play on musical instruments, ... endowed with the same powers, attributes, and capacities that their heavenly Father and Jesus Christ possess.

That is the Bible/Mormon doctrine, and it is so far superior to what you are postulating as true theology as to be like the difference between night and day. I'll stick with the true theology and grand vision of reality that the Bible displays for us.