The Afterlife

The end of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians is a suitable place to explore Paul's description of the afterlife.  Paul insists that he saw Jesus after his crucifixion and resurrection and claims some 500 others did also.  Paul insists the belief in the resurrection is central to his faith in the Jewish Messiah, Jesus.

Paul then goes on to claim that there will be a final Resurrection of the dead and a "celestial body", a true physical body, but in many ways different from the current earthly one.  How this occurs is unknown and probably unknowable.  Christians have added layers to this interpretation since then.

Central to the theology of the afterlife, within Christianity, is a belief that there will be an afterlife and that one's part in the afterlife is linked to one's response to Jesus is this one.  After this, the viewpoints begin to diverge.  Do those who reject Jesus go on to a place of conscious torment, often called Hell?  Is Hell/Hades a place of annihilation, of a continuance of death and the end of existence?  Is there some type of "cleansing" place of Purgatory? (See here, here and here, as part of a book review on the Jesus Creed blog by Scot McKnight, of the book Four Views on Hell.)

Does one, after death, immediately move into a conscious state, with the soul separated but conscious and aware? Or does life require a body and so after death one "sleeps", unaware, until recreated in the final Resurrection?  The Jesus Creed blog has a brief discussion on that also.

Of course, there is a wide-ranging article on the afterlife at Wikipedia.

I have my own opinions on this ... but the only one I will share here is this: like Paul, I believe (and hope) there will be a Resurrection.  After that, it is OK to not be sure about any of the many views on how the afterlife will occur. One can have doubts.  One should ask questions about the form it takes and whether our existence, as Scot McKnight asks, is "separation of soul and body (dualism)" or "physicality."

We will all find out soon enough....

Next week we will begin studying my favorite gospel, The Gospel of Mark.

I Corinthians 15: 29-58, The Final Trumpet

Chapter 15 of this letter began with Paul's testimony on the resurrected Jesus and then moved on to a discussion of death and resurrection in general.  Here we have an extraordinary teaching on the upcoming resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15: 29-32
Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour?

I die every day--I mean that, brothers--just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

One can make too much of this strange phrase about "baptism for the dead".  This may have been a strange practice in pagan Corinth (not necessarily endorsed here but part of the Corinthian culture.) But I wonder if this is simply poor phrasing; that one might rephrase this as "baptism in preparation for death."

The Old Testament quote in verse 32 is from Isaiah 22:13.

1 Corinthians 15: 33-34
Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."  Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God--I say this to your shame.

Back to first priorities -- "Get back on course and tell you pagan friends about the Messiah!" says Paul. This theme occurs throughout this letter.

1 Corinthians 15: 35-44, The eternal body
But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" 

How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.

All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Our current body is apparently "just a seed" to a future one!  Our resurrected body is no more like our current one than a seed is like the later plant!  (Having recently turned 60, I can be grateful for that!  I hope -- quoting a friend -- to explore the universe after the Resurrection, maybe a little bit like the character Q from StarTrek...)

1 Corinthians 15: 45-49, The second Adam
 So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 

The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

Paul repeats a concept occurring in Romans 5:12-21, that Jesus brings life and a new creation, replacing the death and spiritual separation created by the first Adam.

The Old Testament quote in verse 45 is from Genesis 2:7.

1 Corinthians 15: 50-58, The final trumpet
I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." [49]

 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" [50]

 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

The Old Testament quote in verse 54 is from Isaiah 25:8; the quote in verse 55 is from Hosea 13:14.

I look forward to the defeat of death!

I Corinthians 15: 1-28, Resurrection & Death

Paul begins to wrap up his letter by describing his own experience and witness of the Jewish Messiah.

1 Corinthians 15: 1-2, The centrality of the gospel
Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

The "gospel" message of Christ's death and resurrection is central to everything in this letter. (Added later: see this post by Scot McKnight on "the gospel" and I Corinthians 15.)

1 Corinthians 15: 3-8, Five hundred witnesses
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.

After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

This is an extraordinary passage.  Although some "have fallen asleep", most of the witnesses of Christ's resurrection are still alive and Paul himself personally saw the resurrected Messiah.  The implication here is that if one were doubtful, they would have witnesses to interview!

1 Corinthians 15: 9-11
For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

Paul originally helped kill followers of this Messiah! But he now has a very different mission.

1 Corinthians 15: 12-19, Everything hangs on the validity of the resurrection
But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

Apparently some in Corinth did not believe in a resurrection of anyone.  That contradicts the central message of the gospel, that Jesus himself rose from the dead.

1 Corinthians 15: 20-28, The second Adam overturns the first
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

The Old Testament quote in verse 27 is from Psalm 8:6.  As Adam brought sin and death of humankind, Jesus reverses the process.

Note the emphasis throughout this chapter on a physical, bodily resurrection.  There is no place in Paul's theology for ghostly angelic souls hanging around in the clouds (playing harps!) and looking down on humanity.  The resurrection will be physical in some sense, as part of a new universe (see Revelation 21.)

In the second half of this long chapter, Paul continues his discussion of death including a brief mention of the final event in human history, the "last trumpet."