I was born in December of 1949. Several key events happened that year. After a civil war the People’s Republic of China was established as a Communist country under Mao Zedong and the defeated Republic of China government relocated in Taiwan. NATO began. The Soviets detonated its first atomic bomb (escalating the nuclear arms race). 45 r.p.m. records and Lego plastic bricks were introduced to consumers. Germany split into East and West Germany. A postage stamp cost 3 cents and a gallon of gas cost 26 cents. Harry S. Truman began his 2nd term. The minimum wage jumped from 40 cents to 70 cents. The first credit card, Diner’s Club, was issued. Joe DiMaggio and the New York Yankees won the World Series.

Have you ever imagined how your life could be different if you were born in another country? What if I had been born in China in the middle of a civil war. Or in some famine stricken, poor country in Africa? My entire family of 18 just spent a day in Dollywood. I rode my first upside down roller coaster loop in the Wild Eagle ride (it loops 4 times) and the Barnstormer scared me to death (it swings back and forth and you end up looking straight down at 80 feet high with your body being lifted up off your seat). I’m officially through with theme parks and roller coasters. What’s on your “bucket list”? That wasn’t on my bucket list but I’m glad its over.

It cost almost $150 for a 2 day pass to Dollywood. The daily family income in the poorest countries in Africa is about $2 per day (about $700 per year) so my family spent at Dollywood over 2 years of family income of those poorest countries. We spent 4 nights in a great cabin (which cost about 7 years of the poorest family incomes in Africa). I say all that not to make me or my family feel guilty. There is nothing wrong with enjoying material blessings. We can use our financial wealth in America to help those poor families all over the world through various non profit agencies and should do so as part of our tithing. It just blows my mind how much we take for granted our wealth that most of us enjoy in America although many live in poverty even in the U.S and we need to help them also. It also blows my mind the see churches spend 80% of the money they collect on buildings and staff instead of helping the poor worldwide, drilling wells, and printing Bibles to save the lost.

Many if not most of us “baby boomers” were brought up in Christian homes and taught Christianity. Atheists in the U.S. would call that “brainwashing” children with lies, but I call it teaching our children about God as Deuteronomy 6 commands. Timothy’s mother and grandmother taught him the Old Testament Scriptures from childhood which led him to become a believer in Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 3:15-17). It’s all just about your worldview: atheist vs Christian. I choose Christian. The one main miracle that proves Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus. Paul told the idol worshippers in Athens in Acts 17:³⁰ So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent, ³¹ because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.” The resurrection of Jesus is our “proof” that Christianity is the worship of the one true God and of Jesus His Son whom He sent to save us from our sins. John 17:³ And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” I wish that all atheists would take a closer look at the resurrection of Jesus. I can’t prove that we landed on the moon, but I believe that we did based on credible eyewitness testiony. I believe that Jesus was raised based on the credible eyewitness testimony of those who saw him after he was raised. Even his enemies admitted that the tomb was empty after 3 days or else why would they make up the story that the disciples stole Jesus’ body while the guards were sleeping. But why didn’t they arrest the disciples and find out what the disciples did with the body if they really believed that? Not to mention that the apostles were hiding in a house in fear after Jesus was crucified. What would have given them the courage to risk their lives to steal the body of Jesus? How could they slip past sleeping guards (even if that was true), roll a 2,000 pound stone away and carry the body of Jesus out without waking the guards? Also, those apostles testified to the resurrected Jesus all over the world 30-40 years after he was raised: all of them met a martyr’s death and none of them recanted their testimony. Muslims might die for their faith, believing a lie, but no one will die knowing that what they claim to believe in is a lie.

Jesus made many appearances to credible eyewitnesses in the 40 days after his resurrection and before his ascension. Paul said (1 Corinthians 15:6) that He even appeared to 500 people at one time, most of whom Paul says were still alive when he wrote 1 Corinthians (about 22 years after the resurrection). That’s a pretty bold statement, challenging any doubters to go talk to the witnesses if they doubt the veracity of the resurrection. But the most convincing post resurrection appearance might be to Saul of Tarsus. Saul was torturing, imprisoning, and having Christians killed until Jesus made one final post resurrection appearance to him about 3 years after Jesus ascended to heaven. That immediately convinced Saul that Jesus was the resurrected Son of God and Messiah. He was baptized to “wash away his sins” and became a Christian. He spent the next 30 or so years suffering extreme hardship giving his testimony to the resurrected Jesus and was beheaded by Nero in 66 AD. People have motives to make drastic changes in their beliefs. What motive could Saul have had to give up his power in Judaism to become a suffering Christian? He did not gain power or money by changing: he lost everything by changing.

Doubters propose many theories to explain the empty tomb. Some say the eyewitnesses of the resurrection “swooned” or faked death (the 1965 book The Passover Plot), but the Romans were professional executioners declared him dead (not breaking his legs to hasten his death) and even pierced his heart with a spear to make sure that he was dead. Some say the eyewitnesses were hallucinating when they claimed to see Jesus, but that doesn’t explain the holes in Jesus’ hands and side that Thomas put his hands in. One final proof of the resurrection is the fact that just 50 days after the resurrection the apostles preached the resurrection in the same city (Jerusalem) in which it occurred, and yet no one refuted their claim. No one ever claimed to see a dead body after the resurrection or gave any proof whatsoever that the body had been stolen and disposed of. Imagine if I started saying that someone in our local cemetery here in Huntsville had been raised from the death 50 days ago. It would be easy for people to check that out and expose it as a life.

If you are reading this and have doubts about the resurrection of Jesus, I hope this helps build your faith in the resurrection. God gives us freewill to make our own choices, so I respect those who choose to reject the resurrection. I don’t know of anything else to offer as proof that Jesus is the Son of God than his resurrection. He fulfilled many old testament prophecies but the #1 proof is the resurrection. If you do believe in the resurrection, then follow Peter’s advice. 1 Peter 3:¹⁵ but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, but with gentleness and respect.”

(AI) “A worldview is the overall perspective, set of beliefs, and values through which a person or group understands and interprets the world and their place in it. It is the lens that shapes an individual’s thoughts, actions, decisions, and expectations, influencing their perception of reality, morality, and meaning in life.” 

There are two worldviews. One is an atheistic worldview in which there is no God, man is simply an evolved mammal, there are no absolute right or wrongs, the Bible is a book of myths, Jesus (even if he really did live) was just a good rabbi but not the Son of God and certainly not the risen from the dead Savior of our sins, LGBQT is accepted, and abortion is accepted.

The other is the Christian worldview where there is a God, Yahweh, the only true God; the Bible is the inspired word of God (the originals were inspired and we have reliable copies and translations); God created Adam and Eve full grown, as he did everything else, and the story of the creation in Genesis 1 is actual history, not myth; the theory of macro evolution is false science (macro evolution is that everything came from a non living matter chemicals, which is spontaneous generation and has been proven to be impossible, and that everything evolved over millions of years whereas micro evolution is the change within each species that we all agree happens); that sin is defined by what God tells us through inspired writers in the Bible and thus homosexuality is a sin; that marriage is only for a man and a woman; that God made us to be either male or female, period; that Jesus is the Son of God, crucified for our sins and raised from the dead; that life begins at conception when the egg is fertilized and has all the DNA that the zygote will ever have and that abortion at any point after conception is taking a human life (that is not about the rights or choices of a mother but about taking away the rights of an unborn human).

We have been given freedom of choice to choose which worldview we will adopt. An atheist can refute and deny all the beliefs mentioned above in the Christian worldview. That is his choice. If he/she is correct, then this life is all there is. The atheist will decide his or her own morals to live by. He/she might choose to get all the gusto you can, eat, drink and be merry, or even choose to be evil and engage in criminal activities. It that freedom of choice that God gave man (which is a proof that there is a God b/c evolved chemicals can’t choose; they are simply brain neurons responding to stimuli). The atheist has no hope for life after death, and he/she might be perfectly fine with that. The atheist mght even pity, or even hate, those poor misguided Christian worldview people think they are going to live forever in eternity with Jesus. That is the choice you have the freedom to make.

But the Christian worldview has the hope of eternal life. The proof of this hope is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Paul made a statement in 1 Corinthians 15:¹² Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised; ¹⁴ and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, your faith also is in vain. ¹⁵ Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised; ¹⁷ and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are of all people most to be pitied.” Christianity and the hope of eternal life rise or fall based on whether Jesus was really raised from the dead. As Paul said, if we are wrong on that, then we truly are to be pitied by the atheists for spending our whole lives believing in some myth of a resurrected Jesus.

Of course, I would contend that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is overwhelming. Some say that Jesus faked death with some drug and then simply revived and walked out of the tomb, but the Romans, who were experts in crucifixion, confirmed that he was dead by not bothering to break his legs to hasten his death and then by sticking a spear in his heart area with blood and water pouring out just to make sure he was dead. How could he survive the scourging and crucifixion and then just walk out in good shape without any medical help? Even the enemies admitted that the tomb was empty. If the disciples stole the body, which is what the enemies claimed, then why were they not arrested and the body found? The disciples were afraid and in hiding after Jesus’ death, so what could have given them the courage to risk their lives to go steal the body. How could they sneak past Roman soldiers, even if the soldiers were sleeping (which is highly unlikely since they would be killed if someone took the body while they were guarding it). What could have made the apostles go out preaching the resurrection and dying martyrs’ deaths without any of them ever recanting their testimony that they had seen Jesus raised? There were many reliable witnesses of the raised Jesus (listed in 1 Corinthians 15), witnesses of good character and sufficient number (over 500 saw him at one time and that many people don’t have the same hallucination). The resurrection was preached just 50 days after, in the same city in which it occurred (not some far away country where testimony could not be confirmed or denied), thus giving ample opportunity for people to investigate and refute the testimony of the apostles, and yet thousands in that city accepted the resurrection as facts and became followers of Jesus. Then there is the testimony of Paul, who was killing Jewish Christians until the saw the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus and was converted. He spent the rest of his life preaching the resurrection, using his own conversion as proof that Jesus was raised. What could have possibly changed Paul other than seeing the raised Jesus? He lost everything and gainted nothing materially by becoming a Christian. Even James, Jesus’ brother who did not believe in Jesus while Jesus was alive, came to believe in Jesus after Jesus was raised. To me, all that is ample evidence that Jesus was raised from the dead. So I believe that we did land on the moon and that Jesus really was raised from the dead. I might be wrong, but that is what I choose to believe. Each person must accept or reject this evidence, but that is his freedom to choose.

I would encourage everyone to go past the debate about where and how the universe and life came to be, the debate about evolution, the debate about intelligent design, etc. I encourage you take one last look the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. If he was raised, then that proves that Yahweh is the only true God, that Jesus is the promised Messiah and Son of God, that Jesus’ death on the cross satisfies God’s wrath against our sins, that the Bible is the word of God (many Old Testment predictions about Jesus’ life and death made hundreds of years before he was born were all fulfilled in the New Testament), and that we will be raised to eternal life with Jesus and fellow believers when we die. The only proof that anything in history actually occurred is “reliable eyewitness testimony”. Some still don’t believe that we landed on the moon, but that goes against the reliable testimony of hundreds of people. The resurrection of Jesus, even if you don’t believe the 4 gospel writers were inspired, is based on reliable eyewitness testimony. You might refute the evidence. That is your choice.

There is not much else to say. An atheist doesn’t believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. That is his choice. If he is right, all of us, atheist or Christian, will simply die and cease to exist. If he is wrong, and if Jesus was raised from the dead, then the atheist will miss out on eternal life. This is not a personal debate to see who is right. There is no need for he atheist or the Christian to be condescending toward one another or attack each other with words. We can debate the evidence and then each make his/her choice and live with our choices. This is about examining the evidence for the resurrection.

Where does prayer come in to all this? Of course, the atheist is not praying to any God. The athiest might point out that Hindus, for example, are praying to gods that neither atheists nor Christians even believe exist. Many scoff at Christians b/c they arrogantly believe that their God, Yahweh, is the only true god out of all the thousands of other gods. But belief in false gods of many cultures doesn’t mean there is not one true God. So what proof do we have that the God of the Bible, Yahweh, is the only true God? Several proofs. The fulfilled Bible predictions of events in history (like the destruction of many nations predicted ahead of time by the prophets in the Old Testament); the fulfilled predictions about Jesus the Messiah and his birth, life, miracles, death, and resurrection; the fulfilled predictions of Jesus and the apostles about the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. All these things prove that Yahweh is the one true God and that the Bible is His inspired word through inspired writers. There is no such proof for the existence of the Hindu gods, for example, or the gods of the Egyptans, Babylonians, or other cultures. But the Christians pray to Yahweh through Jesus, believing that God can work providentially in the life of unbelievers to perhaps bring them to believe in God and Jesus. That’s all we can do. If there is a God, then He is the God of love that you read about in the Bible. He loves all His creation, even if they deny that He even exists. We pray that He will somehow give every unbeliever the opportunity to change.

I close with what Jesus said in John 17:³ And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

It seems like the main thing that the Saddcees were known for is that they denied the resurrection. “The Sadducees, a priestly faction in Judaism during the time of Jesus, were known for their limited acceptance of scripture and their rejection of the prophets, including their teachings. They adhered primarily to the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) and rejected the prophetic writings and other historical texts, including the writings of the prophets. This rejection extended to doctrines derived from the prophets, such as resurrection and the afterlife, which they denied.” (AI) Daniel 12:2 predicted a resurrection of the dead. If the Sadducees did not believe in the prophets, you can see why they rejected a resurrection of the dead. More on Daniel 12:2 later.

In contrast, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead. “The Pharisees believed that the Prophets, along with the Writings and the Five Books of Moses (Torah), were divinely inspired and authoritative. They held the scriptures as sacred texts containing God’s word.” Paul used the resurrection of the dead to get the Pharisees and Sadducees arguing among themselves, turning their attention away from their common hatred of Paul. Acts 23:⁶ But Paul, perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, began crying out in the Council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!” ⁷ When he said this, a dissension occurred between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. ⁸ For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. ⁹ And a great uproar occurred; and some of the scribes of the Pharisaic party stood up and started arguing heatedly, saying, “We find nothing wrong with this man; suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”  NASB

Later in a trial before the governor Felix, Paul said: Acts 24:¹⁴ `And I confess this to thee, that, according to the way that they call a sect, so serve I the God of the fathers, believing all things that in the law and the prophets have been written, ¹⁵ having hope toward God, which they themselves also wait for, [that] there is about to be a rising again of the dead, both of righteous and unrighteous.” Young’s Literal Translation. Notice the words “about to be”. I will discuss that later. A future resurrection of the dead must have been taught by the prophets for Paul to say this. But where did any of the prophets predict a resurrection of the dead? There is a prediction of a resurrection in Ezekiel 37 in the valley of dry bones. The dry dead bones are the nation of Israel after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC and. the captivity in Babylon. But God predicts that in the future He will put HIs Spirit in the bones and they will come out of their graves and live, thus a resurrection. Ezekiel 37:¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am going to open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. ¹⁴ And I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life.” Anytime the prophets predicted a pouring out of the Spirit it always refers to the Acts 2 pouring out of the miraculous indwelling of the Spirit on the remnant believing Jews during the last days of the Jewish Age (i.e. 30 AD to 70 AD). So this is a Messianic prediction of a a spiritual resurrection from the spiritual dead state of the Jews, but would only be fulfilled in the raising from spiritual death of Jews who believed in Jesus as the Messiah.

We have another prediction of a resurrection of the dead in Daniel 12:1 “Now at that time (i.e. the “end time” Daniel 11:27, 35, 40) Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. ² And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” Daniel says that this resurrection would occur at the “end time” (12:4, 9, 12) at the “end of the age” (12:13, i.e. the end of the Jewish Age in 70 AD). He said this would occur at the “abomination of desolation” (12:11; also predicted by Daniel in Daniel 9:27). Jesus said that the abomination of desolation as predicted by Daniel had to occur within the generation of those whom he was talking to. Matthew 24:¹⁵ “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand— ¹⁶ then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. ³⁴ Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” The word for “generations” is genea and in the NT it always means a period of about 40 years or the people living in a 40 years period, just as we use the word when we speak of the “baby boomers’ generation, or x generation”. Thus Jesus is saying that Daniel’s abomination of desolation had to happen within the next 40 years of when he made that statement, and that could only be the destruction of the temple and the city by the Romans in 70 AD. Tie all this together, and Daniel was predicting a resurrection of the dead that would happen at the end of the Jewish age and at the abomination of desolation of the temple in 70 AD. It is noteworthy that Paul said in Acts 24:15 that there “is about to be” a resurrection of the dead” just as the prophets predicted. The Greek word for “about to be” is mello which in the NT always means something “about to happen”. I quoted from YLT b/c it is about the only one that translates the word mello correctly. Most translation translate it as “certainly will be”, but that is incorrect. So, unless Paul is mistaken, the resurrection of the dead was “about to happen” at the time he spoke. That would have to be the Daniel 12:2 prediction of the resurrection of the dead.

Let that sink in! Paul said the resurrection was “about to happen” as he spoke. This could only be the Daniel 12:2 resurrection at the end of the Jewish Age in 70 AD. There was only one future resurrection and that was it in 70 AD. So why has Christian tradition taught for 2,000 years that the resurrection of the dead has not happened yet? Probably b/c Christians expected a resurrection of physical bodies from the graves, which indeed did not happen in 70 AD. There was a spiritual resurrection of the OT dead who were in hades, but not a bodily resurrection visible to the naked eye. They had been held in hades waiting their resurrection and final eternal sentence and fate. No one would have actually seen them rising from their graves in 70 AD. Another factor is that most Bible scholars believe that the 2nd coming hasn’t happened yet. They believe that the resurrection will happen at the 2nd coming, so the two doctrines become tied together.

Full preterism teaches that the 2nd coming was in 70 AD so that fits with the resurrection of the dead in 70 AD, both happening in 70 AD. Concerning the timing of the 2nd coming, Jesus only made in the synoptics 4 predictions of a 2nd coming or coming back: Matthew 10:23; 16:27-28; 24:30-34; 26:64. All 4 times he says that his 2nd coming would be within the lifetime of those he was speaking to. Matthew 16:27 even uses the word mello which always in the NT means “about to happen”: ²⁷ “For, the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of his Father, with his messengers, and then he will reward each, according to his work.” He then adds: ²⁸ Verily I say to you, there are certain of those standing here who shall not taste of death till they may see the Son of Man coming in his reign.’ He is saying that some of those he is speaking to will be alive at his 2nd coming. This prediction is not a prediction of the transfiguration as some say it is. The passage is a judgment passage, and there was no judgment at the transfiguration. Then in Matthew 24, the context is the abomination of desolation (24:15) of the temple in 70 AD. The “tribulation” (24:21,29) is the tribulation predicted by Daniel to fall on the Jews as the Romans sieged Jerusalem, killing a million Jews. Daniel 12:1 And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time.” Then “immediately after that tribulation surrounding 70 AD, Jesus predicts his 2nd coming. Matthew 24:²⁹ “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ³⁰ And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.” Then he adds in Matthew 24:³⁴ Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” Again, the word generation always in the NT means a period of about 40 years or the people living in a 40 year period. So a clear prediction that his 2nd coming would be in the next 40 years after he said this. It is described with some figurative language, such as the stars falling. That is typical of figurative language used of the fall of Babylon (Isaiah 13) and other nations in the OT. It is not predicting that the stars would literally fall. These predictions by Jesus of an imminent 2nd coming within the lifetime of those he was speaking to could only be fulfilled by his coming in judgement on the Jews in 70 AD (using the Romans). There are no other predictions of a “coming back” of Jesus that were not to be fulfilled in the lifetime of those he was speaking to. Check it out. Find the verses that teaches another coming of Jesus (thus a 3rd coming) that was not imminent. There are none. That also fits the teaching of the apostles who taught an imminent 2nd coming of Jesus. Revelation is about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and is a prediction of the 2nd coming: Revelation 1:⁷ Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him.” But then it says that he is coming soon or quickly: Revelation 22:⁶ And he said to me, “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show His bond-servants the things which must soon take place. ⁷ “And behold, I am coming quickly. ¹⁰ And he *said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. ¹¹ Let the one who does wrong still do wrong, and the one who is filthy still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous still practice righteousness, and the one who is holy still keep himself holy.” ¹² “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to reward each one as his work deserves. ²⁰ He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” Some want to say that “quickly” just means rapidly, but the context shows that means a coming that is “soon”. Some say, “Yes Jesus and the apostles predicted his 2nd coming to be imminent but then Jesus delayed his 2nd coming (now a 2,000 year delay!)” But Hebrews refutes that: Hebrews 10:37 For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay.” James taught an imminent 2nd coming: James 5:⁸ You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.” Peter said in 1 Peter 4:⁷ The end of all things is near“. He is predicting the end of the Jewish system in 70 AD and not the end of the world. He follows that up with 2 Peter 3 a prediction of the removal of the old heavens and earth (the old covenantJewish system) and replacing them with the new heavens and earth (the new covenant system) that occured at 70 AD. If 2 Peter 3 was not fulfilled in 70 AD, then his prediction in 1 Peter 4:7 is false and the end of all things was not near. In 2 Thessalonians 2 Paul says that the 2nd coming would happen during the lifetime of the Thessalonian believers. Thus full preterism fulfills both the 2nd coming and the resurrection occurring in 70 AD.

Back to the discussion of the resurrection of the dead in 70 AD, Paul made it very clear that the resurrected bodies would be spiritual, not physical, in 1 Corinthians 15:⁴² So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; ⁴³ it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; ⁴⁴ it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” He then. says that resurrection would occur while some of those he was writing to were still alive. ⁵¹ Behold, I am telling you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” That is consistent with what he predicted in Acts 24:15, and can only refer to a resurrection of the dead in 70 AD just as Daniel 12:2 predicted. It is noteworthy that Paul adds that, whether dead of alive, all the believers will receive immortality at that resurrection in 70 AD. The last enemy, spiritual death, was officially defeated when the temple was destroyed in 70 AD and the law “disappeared” (Hebrews 8:13). There have been no more animal sacrifices or priesthood or temple since 70 AD.

Spiritual death has been defeated for believers. After 70 AD, believers get an immortal spiritual body when they are saved and that immortal body will live on eternally even after they die physically. John 11:²³ Jesus *said to her, “Your brother will rise from the dead.” ²⁴ Martha *said to Him, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.” ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” Martha’s comment about a resurrection on the last day (of the age at the end time) reflects most Jewish expectations of a resurrection, but Jesus is teaching that the resurrection of the dead will give a believer a spiritual body that will continue to live even after physical death.

In Matthew 22:23-33 the Sadducees were trying to trap Jesus on his teaching of a resurrection of the dead (the which they denied). They posed the Levirate marriage law of a brother marrying his deceased brother’s wife if the deceased brother had no children. Matthew 22:²³ On that day some Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to ^[p]Jesus and questioned Him, ²⁴ saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother as next of kin shall marry his wife, and raise up children for his brother.’ ²⁵ Now there were seven brothers among us; and the first married and died, and having no children, he left his wife to his brother. ²⁶ It was the same also with the second brother, and the third, down to the seventh. ²⁷ Last of all, the woman died. ²⁸ In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her in marriage.” Jesus’ answer is interesting. ²⁹ But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, since you do not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God. ³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. ³¹ But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” ³³ When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching”. This silenced the Sadducees (22:34) but I doubt they understood what Jesus said. But do we understand what he said? Most Bible scholars would say that the “resurrection of the dead” Jesus spoke of hasn’t happened yet, but that contradicts Daniel 12:2, Acts 24:15, and 1 Corinthians 15:51. The resurrection of the dead that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 22 was the same as in those verses and occurred in 70 AD. It would be a spiritual event, and thus no “marrying or giving in marriage”. Receiving immortality in 70 AD was not something physical like marriage. That is similar language as that used by Paul in Galatians 3:²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Of course there are male and female Christians, but he is speaking of a spiritual reality where believers have spiritual immortal bodies that have nothing to do with one’s gender of male or female. It is not about our marital state either, which is what Jesus was talking about. So the. resurrection Jesus is telling the Sadducees about is no doubt the Daniel 12:2 resurrection of the dead in 70 AD and not some future resurrection.

So my conclusion is that the Daniel 12:2, Acts 24:15, and 1 Corinthians 15:51 resurrection of the dead occurred in 70 AD when the OT dead in hades were raised to receive their eternal sentencing and when the believers living in 70 AD received immortality. From 70 AD on, all believers at their conversion fo Christ receive a resurrected spiritual body that will live eternally even after physical death. Paul spoke of this resurrected spiritual body in Ephesians 2, that we are raised from the dead spiritually to sit with Christ in the heavenly places. When we die, our spiritual immortal body goes directly to be with Jesus forever. There is no need for us to come back for some judgement day and some physical body to be raised from our graves. We already have all the immortal body that we need without that. Most preachers say that a deceased believer goest directly to be with Jesus, but then they still say that believer needs to come back some day, be judged, and his/her physical body be raised from the dirt. That is so inconsistent.

But isn’t it heresy to say that the resurrection of the dead has already happened in 70 AD? Did Paul not call that heresy? 2 Timothy 2: “17 Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, ¹⁸ men who have gone astray from the truth, claiming that the resurrection has already taken place; and they are jeopardizing the faith of some.” That was written by Paul in about 65 AD. The resurrection that would happen in 70 AD would not have happened yet when Paul wrote 2 Timothy. These two false teachers were saying in 65 AD that the resurrection had already happened, which it had not. Their teaching could really confuse believers about the fulfillment of prophecies as made by Paul and the other NT writers. So Paul calls it “going astray from the truth”. But we are living beyond 70 AD and the resurrection of the dead has indeed already happened some 2,000 years go. So it is not heresy to say today that the resurrection had already happened. The passages discussed in this article show that it has already happened. It could be considered straying from the truth to say that it has not already happened since the Bible says that it has.

I don’t believe that one’s view of the resurrection of the dead or 2nd coming is a heaven/hell issue. The only thing that matters is belief that Jesus is the Son of God, the only propitiation and atonement for our sins by his death on the cross, belief that he was raised from the dead, and following Christ through love, obedience to the moral commands of the New Testament. It is comforting to know that we already have our resurrected bodies and will go directly to be with Jesus when we die. It is edifying to know that all the predictions of Jesus, the prophets, and the apostles came true just as they were predicted. That gives us confidence in the Bible as the word of God, not men. 1 Thessalonians 2:¹³ For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of mere men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which also is at work in you who believe.”

It all began with Adam and Eve. Genesis 3:¹⁵ Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it. ¹⁶ The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; ¹⁷ but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.” Die physically or spiritually? They woould eventually die phyically since they were kicked out of the garden of Eden and could no longer eat of the tree of life, but they did not die physically the very. day they sinned. So it must be that they died spiritually the very day they sinned. Spiritual death is the result of sin. Sin causes us to be separated from a relationship with God. Isaiah 59:But your wrongdoings have caused a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. Paul confirms that Adam’s sin brought spiritual death to himself and to all men, but why? Romans 5:¹² Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned.” Romans 6:²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Jesus came to conquer spiritual death. Hebrews 2: ¹⁴ Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”  Isaiah 25:8 He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken. ⁹ And it will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let’s rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” So when was Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled? 1 Corinthians 15 tells us when. In that chapter Paul is discussing the resurrection and what kind of a body wll believers recieve in the resurrection. He says that the resurrected body will be a spiritual, imperishable body. He then says, 15:⁵¹ Behold, I am telling you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.” Paul is clearly saying that the resurrection of the dead would occur while some of those he is writiing to were still alive. He is saying that, dead or alive, the believers would receive immortality. 15:⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ But when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. ⁵⁵ Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law; ⁵⁷ but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” He quotes Isaiah 25:8,9 and says that in the resurrection “death would be swallowed up in victory”. That would be spiritual death caused by the sting of sin. He says that the power of sin was the Law of Moses. So when did the Law end? The Law ended in 70 AD. Hebrews 8:¹³ In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” The Hebrew author wrote that about 60 AD and he said that the first covenent was “ready to vanish away” at the time he wrote the letter. That has to be 70 AD whe the Romans destroyed the temple and the city of Jerusalem. The temple has never been rebult since then. There have been no Levitical priests and animal sacrifices since then. God replaced the old covenant with the new covenant in 70 AD. Thus he destroyed death by taking away the Law which was the power of sin which caused spiritual death. Spiritual death was the last enemy conquered by Jesus in 70 AD. 1 Corinthians 15:²⁵ For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. ²⁶ The last enemy that will be abolished is death.” That would be spiritual death. Daniel had predicted that a resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous would occur at the end of the age, i.e. the end of the Jewish Age in 70 AD. Daniel 12:² And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Paul predicted the imminence of that resurrrection in Acts 24:¹⁴ `And I confess this to thee, that, according to the way that they call a sect, so serve I the God of the fathers, believing all things that in the law and the prophets have been written, ¹⁵ having hope toward God, which they themselves also wait for, [that] there is about to be (mello in the Greek which always mean something about to happen when used in the New Testament but is usually mistranslated as “certainly will be”) a rising again of the dead, both of righteous and unrighteous.” (Young’s Literal Translation). Notice that Paul says that resurrection was predicted in the law and the prophets, so he must be referring to Daniel 12:2! That resurrection was fulfilled in 70 AD. The dead under the old covenant had been in hades awaiting their resurrection and final sentencing at 70 AD. In 70 AD the righteous dead of the old covenant and the believers in Jesus would be given immortality whether dead or alive. That is why Paul told the Thessalonians not to worry about their dead believing loved ones who died before that resurrection. They would still get their immortality. Immortality is only promised to believers in Jesus in the New Testament and never to unbelievers.

Jesus accomplished his mission of destroying spiritual death in the lives of believers. 2 Timothy 1:¹⁰ and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” John 11: ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life (spiritual). Whoever believes in me, though he die (physically), yet shall he live (spiritually), ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die (spiritually).” I just had an epiphany! In one sense, he did conquer physical death. Not that he stopped believers from dying or that he abolished physical death all together. Instead, he conquered spiritual death for believers so that physical death was not the end for them. They would keep on living spiritually, eternally, after death. That makes Hebrews 2:15 even more meaningful: ¹⁵ and free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” Believers don’t have to fear physical death any longer. Thank you Lord for that thought b/c many of us still have that fear of death that has a constant hold on us making us death’s slaves!