The Lord Jesus revealed that the Father's will was to raise us to life (Jn. 6:40). What an awesome promise!
When spiritual entities (angels, Jesus, or God) come to a final prophet, it's important to test their information with the voice in the written word. This is what we want to do here with the resurrection. According to Shinchonji, those believers who have been martyred will come back as spirits in Rev. 20 (i.e. the first resurrection) and indwell the bodies of believers on earth. Here are some quotes from the SCJ website.
¨Because their own bodies have long since decayed, the souls of the martyrs in heaven will enter and unite with our bodies. The martyrs and we, who are physically and spiritually alive, will marry, unite as one, and live with Christ for eternity, beginning with the promised millennium. This is the truth of the resurrection and of being born again.¨ (1)
¨According to the scriptures, when the seventh trumpet sounds, God will bring with him 'those who have fallen asleep.' In other words, those who have died in the Lord will come with him as spiritual bodies¨ (1 Cor 15:51-54; 1 Thes 4:13-16). (2)
¨The 'dead,' whose flesh have died in the Lord, will be raised as spirits. Those who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will live with Jesus for a long time just as people lived a long time before Adam sinned. Having faith in this idea is the true meaning of carrying out a life of faith. If there is a natural body, there is a spiritual body as well¨ (1 Cor 15:44). (2)
In the written revelation, we notice that God's voice is saying something different. What are the clear (and unhidden) points that God revealed about the resurrection before Shinchonji appeared? Does Shinchonji's revelation rightly divide the verses quoted above? Why do Christians believe that all believers will be resurrected with a new, superhuman body?
First, when we look at the meaning of the resurrection in the written word, it does not refer to a spirit resurrection or a spirit inhabiting another person's glorified body. Jesus associated it with his own human body. He prophesied that something would happen to his human body, not his spirit (Jn. 2:19-21). When God raised him from the dead, he was not a spirit. God did something to his body (Lk. 24:39).
¨Jesus answered and said to them, ´Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.´ But he was speaking of the temple of His body¨ (Jn. 2:19,21, NKJV).
¨Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.¨ (Lk. 24:39, NKJV).
Some spirit revelations to final groups argue that Jesus became a resurrected spirit or his human body was destroyed or disintegrated. But, the written word says that the Messiah's body was raised never to decay (Ac. 2:31, Ac. 13:34) and that resurrection bodies are indestructible/imperishable (I Cor. 15:42-44).
Second, according to the written word, Jesus' resurrection is the blueprint of future, human resurrections (I Cor. 15:20, Phil. 3:21). The Lord Jesus was the first resurrected human (I Cor. 15:20) and was not resurrected as a spirit (Lk. 24:39) or resurrected in the body of another living person (i.e. reincarnated).
In Christian thought, the Creator's plan is to resurrect humans in the same way that the Lord Jesus was resurrected (Rom. 8:11). Our mortal and sin-affected bodies groan now and long to be redeemed and glorified, which is our hope. This promise is for all believers, not just those who are alive in the end.
¨But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you¨ (Rom. 8:11).¨And not only they, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body¨ (Rom. 8:23).
At the end of I Cor. 15, the voice in God's Word reveals that all of us (those who have died and those who are alive when the Lord returns) will be transformed/changed in the twinkling of an eye. The changing refers to a new, complete human nature that is glorified, like Jesus' human nature (I Cor. 15:20). The early Christians did not believe that they would come back to incarnate someone else's nature. Rom. 8:11 and Rom. 8:23 refer to God's transforming one's own mortal body.
In the quotes above, Shinchonji, like other end-time movements, misinterprets I Cor. 15:44 and teaches that a ¨spiritual body¨ means an immaterial, spirit resurrection. The word ¨body¨ in Greek, however, refers to a physical body. A spiritual body is a new human body of a higher form, unlike the natural body. This is the point of the argument in I Cor. 15:20-51. The Apostle Paul reveals a new kind of human body that becomes incorruptible, indestructible, powerful, glorified, and spiritual (not a natural, sinful body).
When the Lord Jesus resurrects the dead through his power, he promises to transform the old body (of sin and mortality) into a new body, like his own. This is what God's Word makes known in Phil. 3:21. God will transform bodies of humiliation. ¨He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself" (Phil. 3:21).
When we put all these points together from God's written word, we see that the Creator's plan is to make new humans via resurrection life, not re-incarnate human spirits into other human bodies. For more information, see the article on the Gnostics, Spirit-Jesus, and a Spiritual Body.
(1) ¨The first resurrection and the millennium,¨ Shinchonji Website Articles. Accessed May 20th, 2010. http://han.shinchonji.org/ru/content/first-resurrection-and-millennium
(2) ¨New heaven and eternal life¨ Accessed July 15th, 2010. http://scjblog.egloos.com/348873
(2) ¨New heaven and eternal life¨ Accessed July 15th, 2010. http://scjblog.egloos.com/348873
