First Christianity – Resurrection – What is the meaning of Resurrection from the Dead?

Question

Can help me to elaborate this: 1 Corinthians 15:12-19.

Reply

Some people at that time thought that there is no resurrection of the dead. They think we go to heaven in our souls after we die and that’s it.

Truth is, we go to paradise or blessed places with our souls after we die as believers (as per rich man and Lazarus Luke 16:19 – 31).

Then after Christ Returns, we become part of the First Resurrection (Revelation 20:4 – 6).

Resurrection means the soul now gets a body to live on earth and enter into the heavens.

First Christianity taught this.

Example of proof from pages of the ‘Lost Orthodoxy’ Book:

1) Page 389

“The resurrection is a resurrection of the flesh which died. For the spirit dies not; the soul is in the body, and without a soul it cannot live. The body, when the soul forsakes it, is not. For the body is the house of the soul; and the soul the house of the spirit. These three, in all those who cherish a sincere hope and unquestioning faith in God, will be saved.” – Justin Martyr (Chapter 10 – The body saved, and will therefore rise, On the Resurrection)

2) Page 459

Even among the righteous, there is a difference in the level of inheritance (hundredfold vs sixty fold vs thirty fold – as per Mark 4:8, implied even in Matthew 5:19).

We know that Mark 4:8 ONLY refers to the RIGHTEOUS due to the phrase ‘Good Soil’ in this Verse itself.

A righteous one is one who ‘believes in faith’ (Romans 1:17) and that’s why for ‘his faith’ the ‘thief on the cross received the sixty fold reward of Paradise’ (Luke 23:43).

How do I know that the thief on the cross received a sixty fold reward of Paradise?

Please consider the explanation below:

Mark 4:11 – 12 reveals literally that in regards to the Topic of the ‘Kingdom of God’ such as the ‘thirty-sixty-hundredfold’ inheritance (Mark 4:8 – 9 – Context of Consecutive Verses), as only the disciples knew ‘secret things’ (NOT revealed to others, implying that these are NOT Written in Mark 4 itself).

Hence, it is valid that we look for earliest ‘reliable’ Christian Writings (if it exists) to see if any early church leaders ‘knew it’.

Is there such a Writing which may reveal this Secret in regards to the Differences in the Kingdom of God?

Yes, please consider:

‘A fragment from the early 2nd century of one of the lost volumes of Papias, a Christian bishop, expounds that “heaven” was separated into three distinct layers. He referred to the first as just “heaven”, the second as “paradise”, and the third as “the city”.

Papias taught that “there is this distinction between the habitation of those who produce a hundredfold, and that of those who produce sixty-fold, and that of those who produce thirty-fold’ (Papias, Fagments 5:1)

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven_in_Christianity

and this too:

3) Page 460

“… And as the presbyters say, Then those who are deemed worthy of an abode in heaven shall go there, others shall enjoy the delights of paradise, and others shall possess the splendour of the city; for everywhere the Saviour shall be seen according as they who see Him shall be worthy.

[They say, moreover], that there is this distinction between the habitation of those who produce an hundred-fold, and that of those who produce sixty-fold, and that of those who produce thirty-fold: for the first will be taken up into the heavens, the second will dwell in paradise, the last will inhabit the city; and that was on this account the Lord declared, “In My Father’s house are many mansions.”

For all things belong to God, who supplies all with a suitable dwelling-place; even as His Word says, that a share is allotted to all by the Father, according as each person is or shall be worthy. And this is the couch on which the guests shall recline, having been invited to the wedding.

The presbyters, the disciples of the apostles, affirm that this is the gradation and arrangement of those who are saved, and that they advance through steps of this nature; also that they ascend through the Spirit to the Son, and through the Son to the Father,” (Iraneous, ‘Against Heresies’, Book 5, Chapter 36: 1 – 2)

4) Page 56 – 57

Yes, even for the righteous there is a distinction of inheritance.

Before that, please consider a famous fallacy arising from NOT understanding the definition of ‘heaven’ in the following quote (often used to prove ‘soul sleep’):

“For if you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit this [truth], and venture to blaspheme the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; who say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven; do not imagine that they are Christians.” – Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho, 80:9)

What did Justin mean when he says “… who say …their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven; do not imagine that they are Christians?

Doesn’t that plainly contradict Luke 16:19 – 31?

Not really. What Justin Martyr means as heaven is far more complex than ‘what we assume’ to be.

Firstly, Luke 16:19 – 31 mentions of “Paradise” into which the “souls of the righteous go” and NOT heaven.

Yes, “heaven” and “Paradise” are different as the Writings of Iraneous & even Papias reveal below (and Justin must be speaking from this ‘same knowledge too’):

Yes, this definition of ‘heaven(s)’ may be more complex than usually assumed, to quote: ‘A fragment from the early 2nd century of one of the lost volumes of Papias, a Christian bishop, expounds that “heaven” was separated into three distinct layers.

He referred to the first as just “heaven”, the second as “paradise”, and the third as “the city”.

Papias taught that “there is this distinction between the habitation of those who produce a hundredfold, and that of those who produce sixty-fold, and that of those who produce thirty-fold’ (Papias, Fagments 5:1)

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven_in_Christianity

This explanation is further proven True as Lord Jesus Christ went to “Paradise” on the “same” Day He Died with His SOUL (Disproving the Soul Sleep Theory that His Soul Slept in the Grave for Three Days, Luke 23:43) but after He Resurrected Gloriously, i.e. Three Days later, He Ascended to the Father in a RESURRECTED BODY into the “Heavens” eventually (John 20:17, Mark 16:19, Acts 1:2 – 3, Acts 1:9 – 11, Ephesians 4:9 – 10).

This means that when we die, as Christians, with ‘our soul we will enter Paradise’ immediately (as per Luke 16:19 – 31) and await the ‘redemption of the body’ (Romans 8:23) to enter ‘heaven’ later when He Returns during the First Resurrection (Revelation 20:4 – 6).

Yes, a soul with spirit can live in the afterlife abodes or regions such as ‘Abraham’s Bosom’ or Paradise (Luke 16:19 – 31, Revelation 6:10) or be gathered in the New Jerusalem City for the Wedding (Galatians 4:26, Revelation 21:2, Revelation 19:7 – 9) but to ‘live on earth again or to enter higher into the heavens’, we need to partake of the Resurrection First

(Revelation 20:4 – 6, Hebrews 11:39 – 40, Hebrews 12:21 – 24).

5) Lost Orthodoxy Book (PDF format) Free Download in link below for further reading:

https://www.anonymouschristian.org/download/lost-orthodoxy-heart-of-the-gospel-by-anonymous-christian/

Thank you for reading, Peace to you