THE 
 
 RESURRECTION BODY 
 
 to the Scriptures' ’ 
 
BT 871 .W5 
 
 White, Wilbert W. 1863-1944. 
 The resurrection body 
 "according to the 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/resurrectionbodyOOwhit 
 
THE RESURRECTION BODY 
 
 WILBERT W. WHITE 
 
By WILBERT W. WHITE 
 
 Thirty Studies in Old 
 Testament Characters 
 
 Thirty Studies in Minor 
 Prophets 
 
 Thirty Studies in Gospel 
 hy John 
 
THE 
 
 RESURRECTION BODY 
 
 “According to the Scriptures ” 
 
 BY 
 
 WILBERT W. WHITE 
 
 PRESIDENT, THE BIBLICAL SEMINARY IN 
 NEW YORK 
 
 NEW 
 
 YORK 
 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1923, 
 
 BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
 THE RESURRECTION BODY. II 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
We have actually touched the borderland 
 where matter and energy seem to merge into 
 one another—the shadowy realm between the 
 known and the unknown . I venture to think 
 the greatest scientific problems of the future 
 will find their solution in this borderland, and 
 even beyond. Here, it seems to me, lie ultimate 
 realities — subtle, far reaching, wonderful. 
 
 —Sir William Crookes. 
 
 To understand the new physics rightly re¬ 
 quires almost a new set of brain cells. ... We 
 are dealing with what is to us well-nigh the 
 infinitely great, associated with the infinitely 
 little, and we are forced, in carrying forward 
 our train of thought, to drive a-team ideas 
 never before yoked together. 
 
 —Charles Kassel in Immortality 
 and the New Physics, “North 
 American Review,” October, 1922. 
 
/ 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 Rufus Choate is reported to have said of 
 John Quincy Adams that he always had an un¬ 
 erring instinct for the jugular vein. By this, of 
 course, he meant that Mr. Adams went directly 
 to the vital part of any matter. In attack, pre¬ 
 sumably, he would leap for the vulnerable spot. 
 It was an unerring instinct for the jugular vein 
 which led Lord Lyttleton and Gilbert West 
 years ago to agree that if they could explain 
 satisfactorily on naturalistic grounds the res¬ 
 urrection of Jesus and the conversion of Paul, 
 they would be able to prove the whole system 
 of Christian belief to be without substantial 
 foundation. This they attempted to do. The 
 result was that the one wrote a valiant defence 
 of the fact of the resurrection, while the other 
 published an equally strong argument for the 
 reality of the conversion of Paul. 
 
 The pivotal relation of the resurrection to 
 the Christian system has been generally ac¬ 
 knowledged. It is the cardinal fact of Chris- 
 
 • • 
 
 Vll 
 
Vlll 
 
 Foreword 
 
 tianity. Everything hinges on it. Strauss, 
 one of the great leaders of modern unbelief, 
 declares the resurrection to be the “centre of 
 the centre, the real heart of Christianity as it 
 has been until now/’ The Elder Delitzsch in 
 his commentary on Genesis says that, while 
 it is true that the present upheaval in the field 
 of criticism is well calculated to perplex the 
 conscience and entangle weak faith in all man¬ 
 ner of anxiety, if, however, in this labyrinth 
 there remain for us this one assurance, chris- 
 tus vere resurrexit (Christ was truly raised 
 from the dead), we shall possess the Ariadne- 
 thread to guide us out of it. 
 
 Dr. David Cairns says: “In belief in the 
 resurrection is the spring of that new life of 
 faith of which to-day the Church stands so 
 much in need.” 
 
 This comment by Dr. Cairns, discovered 
 after the manuscript of this little volume was 
 about completed, summarizes the conviction of 
 the author, who is not without earnest ex¬ 
 pectation that multitudes, in the near future, 
 through prayerful perusal of the source books 
 of Christianity, will come to believe in their 
 hearts that God raised Jesus Christ from the 
 
Foreword 
 
 IX 
 
 dead, and in consequence will exhibit lives 
 that shall reveal Him in resurrection power. 
 
 In this study, effort has been made to be true 
 to facts rather than to present a harmonized 
 theory and full explanation. We stand with 
 Swete of Cambridge, who discerningly says 
 that the narration of exceptional events is 
 likely to present parts which do not fit. That 
 they do not fit may be evidence that the non¬ 
 fitting factors were really seen. And if, on 
 a deeper examination of such events, it is 
 found that the peculiarities exhibit one under¬ 
 lying law, the natural inference is that the nar¬ 
 ratives are true. 
 
 We desire to be understood as fully and 
 heartily in sympathy with all scientific inves¬ 
 tigation and advance of knowledge. Of some 
 
 of the new knowledge we are not by any means 
 
 » 
 
 sure. We are compelled sometimes to substi¬ 
 tute for the words, “Every scholar knows,” 
 these more conservative ones, “Some scholars * 
 think.” Our conception of Biblical truth leads 
 us to rejoice in every new real discovery and 
 in every assured result of experiment. We do 
 not believe that religion and science are ene¬ 
 mies. There must be something wrong either 
 
x Foreword 
 
 with my science or your religion if they are not 
 true friends. 
 
 As for evolution—there are many kinds of 
 evolution. The word calls for definition. Let 
 those who dispute be sure they understand each 
 other’s terms. We have not the slightest fear 
 that the teaching of the Bible, respecting Jesus 
 Christ in general and concerning His resurrec¬ 
 tion in particular, is inconsistent with the true 
 findings of science. So we are not afraid of 
 science. In these days of undreamed of mar¬ 
 vels, with the knowledge of man yet conspicu¬ 
 ous for its limits, who will venture denial of 
 the mystery of the resurrection as presented 
 in Holy Scripture? 
 
 The message of the following pages is ad¬ 
 dressed particularly to those who are in per¬ 
 plexity about their faith, and to those who 
 sorrow because of the vanished hand. May 
 Easter be a season in which with reverent fear 
 and great joy we shall turn from the tomb to 
 Him who is the resurrection and the life. “Re¬ 
 member Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.” 
 
 W. W. W. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I WITH WHAT BODY DO THEY COME? . . 1 5 
 
 II HOW ARE THE DEAD RAISED? ... 25 
 
 III WHY IS THE RESURRECTION JUDGED IN¬ 
 
 CREDIBLE? .31 
 
 IV WHY IS THE RESURRECTION JUDGED CRED¬ 
 
 IBLE ?. 45 
 
 V THE RESURRECTION AND THE POWER OF 
 
 GOD 
 
 83 
 
Chapter I 
 
 : With What Body Do 
 They Come? 
 
The attitude of science toward the notion of 
 a supersensual universe, or series of universes, 
 interacting with the material fabric we know — 
 a concept fundamental to any logical theory of 
 immortality—has ceased to be the hostile or in¬ 
 different one it was. On the contrary, it might 
 almost seem that the theory of a universe of 
 finer and infinitely more potent substance is 
 almost ready to be announced by our scientific 
 thinkers as an inevitable conclusion from recent 
 discoveries . 
 
 —Charles Kassel in Immortality 
 and the New Physics, ‘‘North 
 American Review,” October, 1922. 
 
Chapter I: With What Body 
 Do They Come? 
 
 “The body of the resurrection is nothing 
 other than God’s volitional repetition of the 
 body of the grave —with splendid additions 
 Thus affirms Professor Olin Curtis, in The 
 Christian Faith, where may be found a very 
 remarkable discussion of the mystery of the 
 resurrection body. 
 
 We should ever keep in mind that the dis¬ 
 tinctive teaching of Christianity about the fu¬ 
 ture is not that the soul is immortal. Pagan¬ 
 ism teaches that. It is, that there is the resur- ' 
 rection of the body. We are to be human be¬ 
 ings in the world to come. A disembodied 
 spirit is not a complete human being. A hu¬ 
 man being consists of an embodied spirit. The 
 body of the future will be the resurrection 
 body. “The new man in Christ is made com¬ 
 plete only by the resurrection body.” 
 
 Let us be clear in our thinking about the 
 
 word resurrection. Reanimation is not resur- 
 
 15 
 
16 The Resurrection Body 
 
 rection. Reanimation, which is the same as 
 resuscitation, means bringing back to life. 
 Resurrection is more than this. It involves 
 newness of life. It means reunion of spirit 
 and body. It means more than reunion of 
 spirit with the old body. It means reunion of 
 spirit with a new and different body, yet a 
 body which is the particular person's own body 
 under the law of identity; a body which can be 
 traced back to its conditioning clue, namely, the 
 body which was that one person's during life. 
 
 * So, while it is true that the body of the res¬ 
 urrection is a different body, it is also equally 
 true that it is the same body. This is one of 
 the several paradoxes of the Christian faith. 
 
 The Scriptures furnish a perfect illustration 
 of what we are saying. Lazarus was reani¬ 
 mated. * Jesus was resurrected. The stone was 
 required to be rolled away to permit Lazarus 
 to come out of the tomb. Jesus did not re¬ 
 quire the stone to be rolled away in order that 
 He might come forth. The angel rolled away 
 the stone from the door of the tomb to let the 
 outsiders in, not to let Jesus out. In that tomb 
 were evidences of the resurrection which it was 
 desirable the disciples should see. The wind- 
 
With What Body Do They Come? 17 
 
 mg sheets spoke as eloquently and convincingly 
 of entrance into new life, as the empty shell of 
 the chrysalis speaks of the flight of the but¬ 
 terfly. Lazarus brought with him out of the 
 tomb the wrappings of the grave that were 
 about him. Jesus came forth from the tomb 
 without the winding sheets of death. He did 
 not need to be loosed and let go. He was the 
 Prince of Life. It was impossible that He 
 should be holden of death. What of the cere¬ 
 ments provided by Joseph of Arimathaea, and 
 the one hundred pounds of spices brought by 
 Nicodemus? Concerning them, more later in 
 exposition of John 20: 1-10, but a brief word 
 is called for here. The usual interpretation, to 
 the effect that our Lord Himself with delibera¬ 
 tion unwrapped the grave cloths from His body 
 and placed them in carefully arranged order 
 on the stone shelf where His body had been 
 resting, and then folded “the napkin that was 
 upon his head,” laying it in a place by itself, 
 is unscriptural. The resurrection body became 
 such within the winding sheets. At the word 
 of God, who raised Him from the dead (Acts 
 2:24; Ephesians 1:20), He sprang in His 
 new, powerful, spiritual body out of the wrap- 
 
18 The Resurrection Body 
 
 pings, thus evidencing Him to be the Son of 
 God with power (Romans 1:4). He left them 
 intact, except for the head-roll which, when 
 released, naturally fell back to a place by itself; 
 and then on through the walls of the sealed 
 tomb He proceeded into the free atmosphere of 
 that first Easter morning. 
 
 The question which we all ask, With what 
 body will our departed come ? we believe should 
 be answered in terms which provide reply to 
 this other question, namely, With what body 
 did Jesus come from the grave ? He is the first 
 fruits. We shall be like Him when it is mani¬ 
 fest what we shall be. Following as faithfully 
 as possible this clue, we are clear already that 
 the resurrection body is not the body reani¬ 
 mated. It is not a mere return to life in the 
 same corruptible, weak, fleshly, natural body 
 of the grave. His Easter body was not the 
 natural body of the grave. Ours will not be. 
 Paul makes this very clear in his great chapter 
 on the resurrection—I Corinthians, fifteenth. 
 He tells us that we sow not the body that shall 
 be, when we sow wheat or oats or barley. But 
 we sow bare grain, and in the strange, mys¬ 
 terious new life which succeeds death, God 
 
With What Body Do They Come? 19 
 
 gives it a body as it pleases Him, to each seed 
 its own body. 
 
 In the chapter to which reference has just 
 been made the great Apostle recognizes the 
 fact that a true and complete human being is 
 an embodied spirit, not a disembodied spirit. 
 He answers the question, With what body do 
 they come ? The answer is: God gives it a * 
 body, a suitable body. It will be a body per- * 
 fectly adapted to the new order of nature in 
 which it is to live. It will be an incorruptible 
 body. It will be a body conformed to the body 
 of His glory (Philippians 3:21). It will be 
 a powerful body. It will be a spiritual body, 
 whatever that means, but it will be a body. 
 A spiritual body means a body adapted to 
 the spiritual existence into which entrance is 
 gained by the resurrection. Perhaps light is 
 thrown on the meaning of the word “spiritual” 
 by expressions found later in the chapter: 
 “Now I say, brethren, that flesh and blood 
 cannot enter the Kingdom of God. ... We 
 shall all be changed. . . . The dead shall be 
 raised incorruptible. . . . This mortal must 
 put on immortality.” The word “spiritual” is 
 a modifier of body, so that there is a body in- 
 
20 The Resurrection Body 
 
 volved. Disembodiment is furthest from the 
 Apostle’s mind. Westcott challengingly inter¬ 
 prets thus: “When the laws of our existence 
 are hereafter modified, then we, because we 
 are unchanged, shall find some other expres¬ 
 sion, truly the same in relation to that new 
 order, because it is not the same as that to 
 which it corresponds in this.” 
 
 It should also be observed that this masterly 
 discussion of the resurrection by St. Paul rec¬ 
 ognizes the stability of nature under the God 
 of this mysterious universe in which we live, 
 in that each order of life remains in its cate¬ 
 gory. “To each seed a body of its own. . . . 
 There is one flesh of men, and another flesh 
 of beasts. . . . There are celestial bodies and 
 bodies terrestial.” It is made clear that in the 
 life to come human beings will continue to be 
 such. They will not pass into creatures of 
 different orders either below or above them. 
 The use of this portion of Scripture with those 
 who profess to believe in transmigration of 
 souls has been found interesting. 
 
 The thoughtful reader will perhaps be stimu¬ 
 lated to re-examine the Bible, especially the 
 New Testament, for its emphasis of the value 
 
With What Body Do They Come? 21 
 
 of the body and the duty of paying it all due 
 respect as well as of giving it all due care. It 
 was under the influence of this teaching that 
 a great theologian and Christian pastor, as he 
 followed the bier of an only son, spake kindly 
 to the bearers, saying, “Tread softly, young 
 men, you carry a temple of the Holy Ghost.” 
 
 It was doubtless the same consideration for 
 the body that prompted Archbishop Whately, 
 when some one quoted the King James Version 
 of Philippians 3: 21 in his hearing, using the 
 expression, “who shall change our vile body,” 
 to seize the book and render it as the Greek 
 demands: “We wait for a Saviour, the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, who shall fashion anew the body 
 of our humiliation, that it may be conformed 
 to the body of his glory, according to the 
 working whereby he is able even to subdue all 
 things unto himself.” 
 
 Christianity honors the body. It recognizes 
 it as a place where the great God desires 
 to dwell. It has been supremely honored by 
 the incarnation of the Son of God. Being 
 found in fashion as a man, He humbled Him¬ 
 self and became obedient unto death, even the 
 death of the cross. Wherefore God also 
 
22 The Resurrection Body 
 
 highly exalted Him. To His servants it is 
 given to be like Him and with Him in glory. 
 
 • “St. Paul’s expression of Christian hope,” says 
 Chancellor Bernard, “is not deliverance from 
 the body, but redemption of the body. The re¬ 
 demption of the body is the last stage in the 
 great process of adoption (™o0eo-tas) by which 
 we are made 'sons of God.’ ” Who should not 
 bow in humble and thankful adoration for the 
 high calling to which mankind has thus been 
 summoned ? 
 
Chapter II: How Are the Dead 
 
 Raised? 
 
Who knows how it is that the mind, as we are 
 familiar with it, moves at its will the fingers 
 of the hand? This—our familiarity with the 
 phenomenon aside—is a veritable miracle. We 
 are as ignorant of its final cause as we are of 
 the primary cause of electricity, or as we are 
 ignorant of gravitation in its first cause, or of 
 heat, or light, or even of the thing that makes 
 a seed grow. These things are, despite our in¬ 
 ability to understand them, and it is no strain 
 upon the reason to suppose that the like may be 
 true with bodies of ether, or of some higher, 
 more transcendent substance which surpasses 
 the ether in its properties and uses it as we use 
 the electric and magnetic forces that lie in 
 nature. 
 
 —Charles Kassel in Immortality and the 
 New Physics, “North American Review,” 
 October, 1922. 
 
Chapter II: How Are the 
 Dead Raised? 
 
 There is no better brief comprehensive reply 
 to this question than that given by St. Paul 
 (I Corinthians, fifteenth chapter) : “God giv- 
 eth a body as it pleaseth him.” In further 
 answer to the questions: How are the dead 
 raised? and, With what body do they come? 
 I adopt and employ the statement of Dr. Olin 
 Curtis as the best of those I know. It is as 
 follows: 
 
 Negatively speaking, God, in the resurrec¬ 
 tion of the dead, does not produce the new body 
 by the development of an indestructible germ 
 which is within the body of this life. Nor does 
 He produce it by a natural force which in some 
 way belongs to the body of this life. Neither 
 is the body to be an ethereal body which be¬ 
 fore or at the time of death was within the 
 physical body as the kernel is within the husk 
 of a nut. It is not the literal body of the grave 
 
 reconstructed, whether by using all, or many, 
 
 25 
 
26 The Resurrection Body 
 
 or a few or even one, of the old material atoms. 
 All this chasing through the universe to get 
 the identical particles of matter, or enough of 
 them to constitute a “proper identity/' is not 
 only an absurdity in philosophy, but a serious 
 misinterpretation of St. Paul. Further, it is 
 not the result of any natural law, any habitual 
 divine volition, such as brings the buds and 
 blossoms of spring. 
 
 Speaking positively, the body of the resur¬ 
 rection is a purely spiritual body (not bound 
 by the laws of this world) ; made by the direct 
 and new intention of God; but so made as to 
 be conditioned by the body of the grave. 
 Every glorified body is in occasional connec¬ 
 tion with a single physical body just as really 
 as my body to-day is in occasional connection 
 with the body of my childhood. The child's 
 body conditions the man’s body—is the start, 
 the initial indicative, the determining funda¬ 
 ment, in God’s own process of identity. The 
 body I have now is what it is because the body 
 of my childhood was what it was. I have lost 
 every old particle of matter, times and times, 
 but I have remained in my own category of 
 identity. Not for an instant has my body 
 
How Are the Dead Raised? 27 
 
 leaped into another man's category. Precisely 
 so, a man’s body of glory is his own body un¬ 
 der the law of identity, and can be traced back 
 to its conditioning clue, namely, the body which 
 that one man had at the time of death. Every 
 abiding element, the entire intrinsic plan and 
 meaning of the material body, is by the resur¬ 
 rection brought again into fact and made glori¬ 
 ous. Indeed, were it feasible to enter into a 
 thorough philosophical discussion to show what 
 matter actually is, such a discussion would, I 
 believe, make it evident that the body of the 
 resurrection is nothing other than God’s voli¬ 
 tional repetition of the body of the grave— * 
 with splendid additions . 
 
Chapter III: Why Is the Resurrection 
 Judged Incredible? 
 
If we suppose Intelligence, with an organism 
 answering in its characteristics merely to the 
 properties of the ether, we have a being con¬ 
 forming very nearly, if not quite, to the notion 
 the mystics had of the indwellers of the super- 
 sensual world. With bodies more dense than 
 steel , though unamenable to earthly sight or 
 touch, these creatures would see the fleshly 
 forms as a shadowy garment, and matter at 
 large but as a film thinner than air which of¬ 
 fered no bar to their passage. Andexempt 
 from the laws of gravitation which hold prison 
 bound the frame of clay, they might levitate at 
 will, and zvith the swiftness of light transport 
 themselves from planet to planet. From the 
 sun's flame they could take no harm and even 
 the chill of absolute zero would leave their 
 bodies unscathed. 
 
 —Charles Kassel in Immortality and the 
 New Physics, “North American Review,” 
 October, 1922. 
 
Chapter III: Why Is the Res¬ 
 urrection Judged Incredible? 
 
 This question of St. Paul addressed to King 
 Agrippa (Acts 26: 8) may well be employed to 
 include a brief, partial statement both of ex¬ 
 planations of rejection of the Easter message 
 and of reasons for acceptance of it as true. 
 
 Why do some disbelieve the Easter message 
 of the empty tomb and the appearances of Jesus 
 as Lord of death and the grave ? 
 
 One reason is because, as in the days of our 
 Lord, there are those who have adopted a world 
 view which does not permit the belief. The 
 sect of the Sadducees denied the resurrection. 
 They went further. “The Sadducees say that 
 there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor 
 spirit; but the Pharisees confess both” (Acts 
 23: 8. “On that day there came to him Sad¬ 
 ducees, they that say there is no resurrection” 
 (Matthew 22: 23). 
 
 Paul addressed the representative of an¬ 
 other type of present-day unbeliever in the res- 
 
 31 
 
32 The Resurrection Body 
 
 urrection when to King Agrippa he said 
 (Acts 26), “Why is it judged incredible with 
 you, if God should raise the dead?” This class 
 is living luxuriously and is careless of the fu¬ 
 ture. Attention to affairs of the spirit is not 
 popular in its circle. Its members smile super¬ 
 ciliously at efforts of serious-minded believers 
 to bring them face to face with reality. Paul 
 in his great chapter on the resurrection 
 (I Corinthians, fifteenth) intimates that with 
 some at Corinth evil companionships were the 
 explanation of doubt about the resurrection. 
 He reviews the evidence for the resurrection 
 of our Lord, and then proceeds to indicate in¬ 
 consistency on the part of certain members of 
 the Corinthian Church (“some among you”) in 
 believing that our Lord rose, while at the same 
 time doubting the possibility of resurrection of 
 their own beloved dead. It would seem that 
 these people were faced by indisputable evi¬ 
 dence of the resurrection of Jesus, and at the 
 same time were living such untrue lives as to 
 be unsettled about the resurrection of their own 
 dead! He earnestly warns them not to be de¬ 
 ceived. “Evil communications,” says he, “cor¬ 
 rupt good manners.” 
 
Resurrection Judged Incredible? 33 
 
 The influence of great names coupled with 
 faulty exegesis of Scripture is a powerful in¬ 
 fluence with the average person in the direction 
 of practical denial of the resurrection, and con¬ 
 sequent abandon to the free and easy life re¬ 
 ferred to by Paul when he says: “If we are 
 found false witnesses ... let us eat and 
 drink, for to-morrow we die.” Professor Har- 
 nack in What Is Christianity? declares that the 
 New Testament itself distinguishes between 
 the Easter message of the empty grave and the 
 appearance of Jesus on the one side, and the 
 Easter faith on the other. By the Easter faith 
 he means that Jesus is alive, but the tomb was 
 not opened, nor did Jesus appear “according 
 to the Scriptures.” He asserts that, although 
 the greatest value is attached in the Scripture 
 to that message, we are to hold the Easter 
 faith even in its absence. In support, he tells 
 us that the story of Thomas is given for the 
 exclusive purpose of impressing us that we 
 must hold the Easter faith even without the 
 Easter message. “Blessed are they that have 
 not seen and vet have believed.” He further 
 says that the disciples on the road to Emmaus 
 were blamed for not believing, even though the 
 
34 The Resurrection Body 
 
 Easter message had not yet reached them. 
 
 Is Professor Harnack a safe exegete of 
 Scripture in these instances? Let us see. Is 
 it not true (see John, twentieth chapter) that 
 Thomas had already been given the Easter 
 message by his fellow-disciples? They had told 
 him that they had seen the Lord. He had al¬ 
 ready rejected the Easter message at the mouth 
 of trustworthy friends and consequently was 
 without the Easter faith. The Lord’s address 
 to Thomas was substantially as follows, when 
 we take into account the context: Thomas, you 
 declined to accept the Easter message (the mes¬ 
 sage of the empty tomb and of My appearances 
 hitherto) as true on the word of your fellow- 
 disciples. Blessed are those who do not reject 
 this message of theirs, as you have done. 
 While in this special instance I have met your 
 demand for sight and touch, the method for the 
 time to come will be that of belief of the mes¬ 
 sage on testimony. I shall not make it a rule 
 to appear in bodily form as I have done to you. 
 The message of My rising from the dead will 
 be carried by you and your fellow disciples who 
 have seen Me. By that message the Easter 
 faith will be created. On that message the 
 
Resurrection Judged Incredible? 35 
 
 Easter faith will rest. Your own testimony 
 on this particular occasion will be recorded and 
 read by multitudes in all parts of the world. 
 It will be a great aid to their faith. It will even 
 be the means of creating the Easter faith in 
 many. It is for this reason that I have ap¬ 
 peared to you. These things will be written 
 that people everywhere in days to come may be¬ 
 lieve that I am the Christ, the Son of God, and 
 that believing they may have life in My 
 name. 
 
 Turning to Luke, the twenty-fourth chapter, 
 the thoughtful reader will there also take issue 
 with Professor Harnack’s exegesis. He says 
 that “the two were blamed for not believing in 
 the resurrection even though the Easter mes¬ 
 sage had not yet reached them/’ The fact is 
 that Jesus did not blame them for this at all. 
 He expressed surprise at their failure to grasp 
 the Easter message in view of its presence in 
 the Prophets. Plis words are: “O foolish men, 
 and slow of heart to believe [the Easter mes¬ 
 sage] after all that the prophets have spoken! 
 And beginning from Moses and from all the 
 prophets he interpreted to them in all the 
 scriptures the things concerning himself.” 
 
36 The Resurrection Body 
 
 Moreover they had already received the mes¬ 
 sage. They spoke to Him of certain persons 
 who had reported that the tomb was empty 
 and that Jesus was alive. 
 
 Surely Professor Harnack’s exegesis of the 
 parts of the Gospels by Luke and John given 
 above, does not conform to the canon of in¬ 
 terpretation laid down by Bengel when he says: 
 “An expositor should be like the maker of a 
 well, who puts no water into the source him¬ 
 self, but makes it his object to let the water 
 flow without diversion, stoppage or defile¬ 
 ment.’’ We fain would ask Professor Har- 
 nack, in all earnestness, what he means by the 
 Easter faith. He describes it in the words, 
 “Jesus is alive.” In what sense is Jesus alive? 
 Is it in the same sense in which Abraham is 
 alive, or Paul, or Luther? If Jesus is not alive 
 according to the Easter message, of what spe¬ 
 cial value to me is the faith that He is alive. 
 
 Note in passing, the manner in which this 
 twenty-fourth chapter of St. Luke puts Jesus 
 into the Old Testament, including specifically 
 His death, His resurrection on the third day, 
 and the preaching of repentance and remission 
 of sins in His name unto all the nations. The 
 
Resurrection Judged Incredible? 37 
 
 Old Testament is not brought into evidence in 
 present-day apologetics as it deserves to be 
 used. If we are not greatly mistaken, it will 
 be coming back to its own soon. 
 
 How comes it to pass tJhat honored leaders 
 have gone to such lengths in their thinking as 
 seriously to consider, and publicly to advocate, 
 such a severance as that of the Easter faith * 
 from the Easter message? The explanation is 
 believed to be found in the words of Henry 
 Robert Reynolds in the Introduction to his 
 book on John the Baptist, where he says: “If 
 in deference to the Zeitgeist, our religious 
 leaders should recklessly surrender every posi¬ 
 tion which is speciously assailed, in forgetful¬ 
 ness that the assault has been successfully re¬ 
 pelled by those who have not lost heart, the 
 cause of Christ will be for a period dis¬ 
 honoured, and a time of deep discouragement 
 will prevail.” 
 
 The spirit of the times has already stam¬ 
 peded not a few into compromise with what 
 they believe to be the demands of science. This 
 has resulted in a surrender of positions sup¬ 
 ported by valid evidence and sound reasoning. 
 However there are many who have not lost 
 
38 The Resurrection Body 
 
 faith nor have they lost heart. These trust 
 that in the days to come (may we not hope 
 soon) the critical spirit will be replaced by the 
 judicial temper, and that the scientific method 
 will be employed wholly and not partially as 
 is so often the case at present. Indeed already 
 there are even among those who have caught 
 and slain the nightingale, certain discerning 
 spirits who have begun to lament the silence of 
 the forest. We cannot have the Easter faith 
 once the Easter message is gone. There is 
 even now widespread evidence of the absence 
 of the faith where the message has been re¬ 
 jected. The average man is usually consistent 
 in his thinking. 
 
 Why do so many doubt or wholly reject the 
 Easter message? This question is partly an¬ 
 swered, I repeat, because the scientific method 
 is not faithfully, persistently, and patiently 
 employed in the matter. We need here not 
 only to carry on. We need to carry through . 
 Defining the scientific method in somewhat 
 different terms from those already suggested 
 (see Inductive Method in dictionary), we may 
 say that it consists of exact observation, cor¬ 
 rect interpretation, rational explanation, and 
 
Resurrection Judged Incredible? 39 
 
 reasonable construction. We ought to add 
 also, obedient application. Neptune is the 
 outermost known planet of the solar system. It 
 requires 164 years to make its journey around 
 the sun! Its distance is 2,760,000,000 miles 
 from the sun! It was discovered September 
 23, 1846, by Galle of Berlin. The discovery 
 was made as the result of calculations by Le- 
 verrier. Adams, an English astronomer, had 
 previously made calculations which indicated 
 the same result. Neptune was located before 
 discovered. Neptune was located by the Induc¬ 
 tive Method, which is another way of saying, 
 by the Scientific Method. An effect was ob¬ 
 served and an adequate cause for it was sought. 
 The opinion is confidently ventured that if in 
 the study of the resurrection men would ob¬ 
 serve, interpret, explain, construct, and obey 
 as faithfully as was done in locating and dis¬ 
 covering the planet Neptune, they would find 
 that the Easter faith, according to the Scrip¬ 
 tures, is inseparable from the Easter message. 
 
 A question is in place here. Why, since the 
 resurrection is such a transcendently important 
 fact, if a fact, is it not so indisputably evi¬ 
 denced as to preclude all possibility of doubt 
 
40 The Resurrection Body 
 
 on the part of anybody? We are sobered in 
 our thinking by the consideration that were 
 such the case, the moral as well as the intel¬ 
 lectual significance of Christianity would be 
 impaired. The programme of Christianity 
 calls for belief on evidence rather than on ex¬ 
 planation. This is the method of science. To 
 chosen witnesses, and not to all the people, the 
 Saviour appeared after His passion. He ap¬ 
 pointed a campaign of testimony for the days 
 ahead. This is clear from His words to 
 Thomas: “Blessed are they who have not seen 
 and yet have believed.” The next verses (John 
 20: 30, 31) indicate the method by which be¬ 
 lief is to be secured: “These things are written 
 that ye may believe.” 
 
 Christianity certainly involves the develop¬ 
 ment of the whole of man. Its method is es¬ 
 sentially scientific. Schiller of Oxford is right 
 when he declares the identity of method in 
 science and religion to be far more funda¬ 
 mental than the differences. Both call for ac¬ 
 tion on probability, even on possibility. Both 
 require experimentation. Both lead to certain 
 knowledge through obedience to law. It is 
 quite generally believed that a large element in 
 
Resurrection Judged Incredible? 41 
 
 true education consists of ability to weigh evi¬ 
 dence. The scientific method calls for exact 
 observation, correct description, and just valua¬ 
 tion. This method would be uncalled for if the 
 resurrection of Christ were so attested that 
 nobody could possibly doubt the fact. There is 
 profound wisdom in what is involved in the 
 words of the prophet (Isaiah 45: 15) : “Verily 
 thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of 
 Israel, the Saviour.” There is supreme chal¬ 
 lenge to the intellectual and moral possibilities 
 of mankind in Christianity’s method of ap¬ 
 proach to the race. Latham in Pastor Pas- 
 torum says: “If our Lord’s resurrection had 
 been so attested that no sane person could 
 doubt of the fact; if he had appeared in public 
 and appalled Pilate on his judgment seat or 
 Herod on his throne, then, strange as it may 
 appear, by the very fact of historic certainty 
 being well established, the moral significance of 
 the resurrection would be impaired. For, the 
 acceptance of it would be independent of that 
 which I have so often said is essential to re¬ 
 ligious belief, the concurrence of the free 
 human will.” 
 

 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chapter IV: Why Is the Resurrection 
 Judged Credible? 
 
Although at first sight, the idea that we are 
 immersed in a medium almost infinitely denser 
 than lead might seem inconceivable, it is not so 
 if we remember that in all probability matter is 
 composed mainly of holes. We may in fact re¬ 
 gard matter as possessing a bird-cage kind of 
 structure, in which the volume of ether dis¬ 
 turbed by the wires when the structure is moved 
 is infinitesimal in comparison with the volume 
 enclosed by them. If we do this there is no dif¬ 
 ficulty from the great density of the ether; all 
 that we have to do is to increase the distance 
 between the wires in proportion as we increase 
 the density of the ether. 
 
 Prof. J. J. Thompson. 
 
Chapter IV: Why is the Res¬ 
 urrection Judged Credible? 
 
 We return to ask a second time the question 
 put to King Agrippa by Paul: “Why is it 
 judged incredible with you, if God should 
 raise the dead?’' The absence of good reason 
 for unbelief is here clearly intimated. The 
 grounds for acceptance of the resurrection of 
 Jesus as a fact and appropriate action in the 
 light of the fact are suggested by Paul to be 
 most substantial. 
 
 Almost without realizing it we are face to 
 face with one of the most outstanding and com¬ 
 pelling reasons for belief in the Easter mes¬ 
 sage. It is this, that Paul the Apostle be- * 
 lieved it. On it he rested his Easter faith. 
 Can there be any doubt about his conception of 
 of the relation of the Easter message and the 
 Easter faith to each other? Verify, if you 
 will, by restudy of the four great letters of his 
 
 concerning which the boldest criticism has not 
 
 45 
 
46 The Resurrection Body 
 
 even suggested doubt; viz.: The letters to the 
 Corinthians, and the Epistles to the Galatians 
 and the Romans. Remember as you do this 
 that these letters all were written less than 
 thirty years after the death of Jesus to com¬ 
 panies of Christians living in the three distinct 
 and distinctive regions bordering on the north 
 of the Great Sea, Asia Minor, Greece, and 
 Italy. Remember also that they were written 
 by a man who formerly had most bitterly op¬ 
 posed both the message and the faith of 
 Easter. 
 
 It will be helpful to clarity of thought and 
 consequent fairness of judgment to be keeping 
 in mind Professor Harnack’s position as we 
 proceed. This position represents the most up- 
 to-date, the only and final, stand which can be 
 taken by those who reject the Pauline teaching 
 concerning the resurrection. Professor Har¬ 
 nack’s belief, we repeat, is that the Easter mes¬ 
 sage, which consists of the empty grave and the 
 appearances of Jesus in His resurrection body, 
 must be distinguished from the Easter faith. 
 The message, he affirms, we can no longer hold. 
 Without it, however, he maintains that we 
 must hold the faith, which is that Jesus is 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible 4 ? 47 
 
 alive. In the words of another, Professor 
 Harnack’s position is adopted thus: “I don’t be¬ 
 lieve in the bodily resurrection of Jesus.— 
 Jesus alive? Yes. But I just can’t believe in 
 the bodily resurrection.” 
 
 It is thus clearly seen that the Modernist 
 boldly rejects the documentary evidence. We 
 frankly accept it, not blindly, but with fairly 
 complete knowledge of the situation. Instead 
 of accepting the statement of the Modernist to 
 the effect that “every scholar knows” his (the 
 Modernist’s) position to be true, we are able 
 to go only so far as to affirm that “some 
 scholars think” the Modernist position true. It 
 should not be forgotten for a moment that the 
 rejection of the evidence is made on critical and 
 not on judicial grounds. The documents al¬ 
 ready referred to (the letters to the Corin¬ 
 thians, the Romans and the Galatians), as well 
 as the remainder of the New Testament are re¬ 
 ceived in courts of civilization as reliable and 
 trustworthy testimony. The judges of the 
 earth have not considered themselves justified 
 in proceeding as far as the critics of the 
 Church. 
 
 We fain would pause to ask in all candor 
 
48 The Resurrection Body 
 
 which “on the face of it” is the more reason¬ 
 able, the Biblical position, or that of Professor 
 Harnack. The Biblical records proceed upon 
 the basis that the Easter message and the 
 Easter faith belong together. The every-day, 
 common, and usually safe judgment of man¬ 
 kind, we believe, will continue to think that 
 the Easter faith cannot exist without the 
 Easter message, any more than a house can 
 stand without a support of some kind under 
 it, or that a tree can bear fruit without roots. 
 How can a tree be a tree at all, without its 
 underground counterpart ? 
 
 The organizing centre of our answer to the 
 question, Why accept the Easter message? is 
 . the fact that the first generation of Christians 
 believed it. This fact of belief on the part of 
 the Apostolic group and the first century Chris¬ 
 tians we are confident can be adequately ac¬ 
 counted for only on the basis of the resurrection 
 as a fact. 
 
 Leading up to this answer in somewhat fuller 
 form, let us closely examine selected represen¬ 
 tative portions of the Biblical record that we 
 may grasp clearly its own way of conveying the 
 Easter message. 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible*? 49 
 
 THE EMPTY TOMB IN THE GOSPEL BY JOHN 
 
 The empty tomb is in evidence in each of the 
 four Gospels. The account, most challenging, 
 and offering opportunity for direct, intensive, 
 first-hand, psychological testing by any reader, 
 is found in the first ten verses of the twentieth 
 chapter of St. John. That this record can be 
 a fabrication is to me unthinkable. Please fol¬ 
 low in the study of it and judge for yourself. 
 
 The account reads as follows (see John 
 20: 1-10) : 
 
 “Now on the first day of the week cometh 
 Mary Magdalene early, while it was yet dark, 
 unto the tomb, and seeth the stone taken away 
 from the tomb. She runneth therefore, and 
 cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other dis¬ 
 ciple whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, 
 They have taken away the Lord out of the 
 tomb, and we know not where they have laid 
 him. Peter therefore went forth, and the other 
 disciple, and they went toward the tomb. And 
 they ran both together: and the other disciple 
 outran Peter, and came first to the tomb; and 
 stooping and looking in, he seeth the linen 
 cloths lying; yet entered he not in. Simon 
 Peter therefore also cometh, following him, 
 and entered into the tomb; and he beheld the 
 
50 The Resurrection Body 
 
 linen cloths lying, and the napkin that was upon 
 his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but 
 rolled up in a place by itself. Then entered in 
 therefore the other disciple also, who came first 
 to the tomb, and he saw, and believed. For as 
 yet they knew not the scripture, that he must 
 rise again from the dead. So the disciples went 
 away again unto their own home.” 
 
 Observe carefully as we proceed and use 
 your historical imagination freely in order to 
 picture the scene accurately in all its details. 
 
 1. The tomb is the centre of attention in the 
 account. Note, “unto the tomb,” “from the 
 tomb,” “out of the tomb,” “toward the tomb,” 
 “to the tomb,” “into the tomb,” “to the 
 tomb.” 
 
 In this new tomb the body of Jesus had been 
 placed. A great stone had been rolled against 
 the door. Upon the stone had been put the seal 
 of the Roman Empire. Watchers had been on 
 guard to keep the tomb from being disturbed. 
 
 2. This tomb is approached by three differ¬ 
 ent people, Mary Magdalene, Peter, and “the 
 other disciple whom Jesus loved.” Mary came 
 to it (presumably walking). From it she went 
 running . The other two came running. For 
 awhile after they started they ran together. 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible? 51 
 
 One of them, the younger, running faster than 
 the other, reached the tomb first. 
 
 3. The reason why Mary ran from the tomb 
 to which she came walking, was because she 
 saw something which led her to jump to an 
 exciting conclusion. What she saw was that * 
 the tomb was open. The stone which had been 
 rolled against the door of the tomb had been 
 taken away. “She saw the stone taken away.” 
 The inference was that somebody had taken 
 away the body of Jesus. In this she was mis¬ 
 taken, but as fast as her feet could carry her, 
 she went to the disciples and told them what 
 she believed, namely, that the body of Jesus 
 had been removed from the tomb. Imagine 
 the excitement with which she informed these 
 men, and the promptness with which they must 
 have started toward the tomb. The account 
 gives me the impression that they became more 
 eager as they proceeded, and if possible ran 
 faster and faster. One was younger than the 
 other and consequently could run faster. He 
 reached the tomb first, but was not the first to 
 enter. There is psychology here which fits per- * 
 fectly the collection of records concerning the 
 events and persons involved. 
 
52 The Resurrection Body 
 
 4. “The other disciple” is the second one in 
 the account who is said to have seen something. 
 Mary was the first. She saw from without the 
 tomb the stone rolled away, and inferred what 
 was not true from what she saw. “The other 
 disciple” saw from without the tomb also, but 
 from near the tomb—he was near enough to 
 look inside. He saw the linen cloths lying. 
 These were the cerements or grave wrappings 
 which had been about the body of Jesus. In 
 verses at the end of the nineteenth chapter of 
 this Gospel by John we are told that the body 
 of Jesus was bound in linen cloths wrapped 
 with about a hundred pounds of spices brought 
 by Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus, the 
 two men who buried Jesus. Note that the 
 record so far mentions these linen cloths only. 
 These cloths “the other disciple” in a stooping 
 position saw as he looked into the tomb from 
 without. Nothing is said about the effect 
 which this sight had upon him. We are not 
 told how long he stooped looking in. So far, 
 as respects the tomb, we note (1) that it is 
 open, (2) that the linen cloths are there with 
 the spices a hundred pound weight. These 
 would occupy space enough to suggest the size 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible? 53 
 
 of a man. The cloths with spices distributed 
 in between the layers would constitute bulk 
 enough to attract and hold the gaze of a 
 looker-in. In what form were they? Let us 
 observe as we proceed. 
 
 5. Peter, the disciple of onset, entered the 
 tomb, passing by the one (the disciple of in¬ 
 sight) who stood stooping and looking in from 
 without. What did he see? A different word 
 for see is introduced here. Note it carefully. 
 Our Revised translation is “beholdeth.” It has 
 the meaning sometimes of to gaze upon inquir¬ 
 ingly—to look with eyes wide with intent and 
 great desire to understand. Wonder and 
 amazement may easily be read into it here. 
 What did Peter gaze upon? The linen cloths 
 and the napkin that was upon His head not ly¬ 
 ing with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place 
 by itself . 
 
 The prominence of this napkin is striking- - 
 One-tenth of the whole story is given to it at 
 first mention. It must have some special sig¬ 
 nificance. What can it be? Wait until we 
 know what next occurred. “The other dis¬ 
 ciple” went into the tomb “and saw and be¬ 
 lieved.” What did he see? Evidently what 
 
54 The Resurrection Body 
 
 Peter was gazing upon— the linen cloths and the 
 napkin that was upon His head not lying with 
 the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. 
 What did he believe? What do you think he 
 believed? If you are not clear about how to 
 answer, pause a minute to note that we have 
 now a third Greek word used for see. It is 
 perceive. Mary saw (v. i) the stone and made 
 a wrong inference. “The other disciple’' from 
 the outside saw (v. 5) the linen cloths. The 
 same word (/?A«ra) is used there as in v. 1. 
 Peter beheld (Oeupa ) the linen cloths and 
 the napkin that was upon His head not lying 
 with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place 
 by itself. “The other disciple,” looking upon 
 the same objects upon which Peter was gazing 
 wonderingly and with eager desire to under¬ 
 stand the meaning of, perceived, saw through, 
 understood («$«). A third Greek word for 
 see is here employed. 
 
 What now do you think he believed ? Was it 
 not that Jesus was alive? Is not this clearly 
 the intent of the author of this story? Surely, 
 “according to the scriptures” the body of Jesus 
 came out of those grave wrappings in a super¬ 
 natural manner. 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible? 55 
 
 The first seer (Mary) made a wrong infer¬ 
 ence from what she saw. The last seer, the 
 disciple of insight, made a correct inference 
 from what he saw, as was proved by subse¬ 
 quent experiences. 
 
 This conclusion is confirmed by the quietness 
 of mind which the closing verse of this match¬ 
 less paragraph indicates in contrast to the nerv¬ 
 ous excitement with which it begins. 
 
 Pause a moment to review the scene with 
 special reference to the location in the tomb of 
 the grave cloths and particularly the position 
 and form of the napkin that was about the head. 
 The body had been placed either on the left side 
 or on the right side of the entrance and length¬ 
 wise. The head had therefore four possible *■ 
 positions, two near the door, one on one side, 
 the other opposite; and two at the far end of 
 the tomb, one on each side. What would be 
 the result of stooping and looking in from the 
 outside? Would it not be likely that only the 
 cloths (the bulky part) which had enveloped 
 the body would be observed? If the head had 
 been toward the door, no matter on which side, 
 the rolled-up head wrapping would not likely 
 be seen from without. It would be hidden by 
 
56 The Resurrection Body 
 
 the side wall. If the head had been further¬ 
 most from the door, no matter on which side, 
 the same effect would result. From without, 
 one would be likely to observe only the linen 
 cloths. This would be likely because of both 
 the position and size of the napkin that was 
 about the head. From within, one would see 
 both the linen cloths and the napkin that was 
 . about the head. One is profoundly impressed 
 by the detailed accuracy of this account. 
 
 Some reader may wish to know that the 
 original word, describing the shape of the 
 “napkin that was about his head,” indi¬ 
 cates that it was “rolled up.” The word is 
 eVrervAiy^eW, meaning wrapped or twirled. One 
 who has seen an East Indian man’s head- 
 gear will have an idea of the shape in mind. 
 Only, instead of the wrapping being about the 
 crown of the head, it would be about the entire 
 head. It would have much the shape of a 
 hollow ball with an opening at one side having 
 the diameter of the neck. Many have the 
 mistaken idea that this “napkin” was folded up 
 by Jesus Himself after He rose from the dead 
 and laid on the shelf where His body had been, 
 very much as a table napkin is folded and laid 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible? 57 
 
 beside one’s plate. This is sometimes cited as 
 evidence of composure on the part of the risen 
 Saviour, and a proof of leisurely departure 
 from the tomb! Such thought is certainly far 
 from the meaning conveyed to the women and 
 the disciples as they looked upon the place 
 where the Lord lay. 
 
 THE EMPTY TOMB IN THE GOSPEL BY 
 
 MATTHEW 
 
 “His own new tomb, which he had hewn out 
 in a rock,” are the words used (Matthew 
 27: 60) to describe the resting place of the 
 body of Jesus, which Joseph of Arimathaea 
 had provided. Having wrapped the body “in a 
 clean linen cloth,” he laid it in place. He then 
 rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb 
 and departed. There is enough difference here 
 to indicate independence of the account in the 
 Gospel by John, but no difference which is so 
 great as to constitute departure from accuracy 
 in either. 
 
 Two of several women who observed this 
 burial were Mary Magdalene and “the other 
 Mary.” Other accounts (see Mark and Luke) 
 
58 The Resurrection Body 
 
 make it obvious there were several women with 
 them (see also Matthew 27: 55). These were 
 those who had ministered to Jesus when in 
 Galilee, and had followed Him to Jerusalem. It 
 is altogether natural for us to suppose that to¬ 
 gether they planned to visit the tomb as early 
 as possible after the Sabbath. What would 
 have been more likely? Let us follow them 
 carefully. 
 
 By the authority of Pilate, on request of the 
 chief priests and Pharisees, the tomb had been 
 sealed and a guard had been furnished to pre¬ 
 vent robbery. These enemies remembered the 
 statement that Jesus had made about rising 
 from the dead after three days. Strange that 
 the disciples had forgotten? Yes and no. 
 There is the profoundest psychology here. 
 Real life presents the most unexpected con¬ 
 traries. Work it out sometime for yourself. 
 How can we believe this story to be a fabrica¬ 
 tion? Who would weave out of imagination 
 such a combination of ideas ? 
 
 The account is as follows (Matthew 28:1-8) : 
 
 “Now late on the Sabbath day, as it began 
 to dawn toward the first day of the week, came 
 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible? 59 
 
 the sepulchre. And behold, there was a great 
 earthquake; for an angel of the Lord de¬ 
 scended from Heaven, and came and rolled 
 away the stone, and sat upon it. His appear¬ 
 ance was as lightning, and his raiment white as 
 snow; and for fear of him the watchers did 
 quake, and became as dead men. And the angel 
 answered and said unto the women, Fear not 
 ye; for I know that ye seek Jesus, who hath 
 been crucified. He is not here; for he is risen, 
 even as he said. Come, see the place where the 
 Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his dis¬ 
 ciples, He is risen from the dead; and lo, he 
 goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see 
 him; lo, I have told you. And they departed 
 quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, 
 and ran to bring his disciples word.” 
 
 Keep in mind the presence of the guards as 
 we proceed. It is daybreak on Easter morning. 
 The' group of women who had watched the 
 burial approach the tomb. It is sealed. As 
 they draw near, there is an earthquake. All 
 are greatly frightened. Their fear is increased 
 by the sudden opening of the tomb. An angel 
 rolls the stone off to the side and sits upon it. 
 His appearance is like lightning and his raiment 
 as white as snow. 
 
 The guards fall to the ground as dead men. 
 
60 The Resurrection Body 
 
 In great excitement Mary Magdalene, her at¬ 
 tention being concentrated upon the open door 
 of the tomb, suddenly turns and runs to bring 
 the disciples word. She reported to Peter and 
 John in the words: “They have taken away the 
 Lord out of the tomb, and we know not where 
 they have laid him” (John 20: 2). 
 
 The other women of the group hear the angel 
 say: Do not be afraid. I know that you seek 
 Jesus. He is not here. He is risen. Come, see 
 the place where the Lord lay. 
 
 What is here involved of interest on the ques¬ 
 tion of the resurrection body? Two things 
 especially. First, that the resurrection body 
 left the tomb before the stone was rolled away! 
 It was not necessary that the door be opened 
 before the Lord of Life could come forth from 
 the grave. It was impossible to imprison His 
 body of glory. Bindings of head, hand and 
 foot, walls, the seals, guards, a great stone at 
 the door—these were nothing to Him who had 
 been raised in power. The stone was rolled 
 away not to let the Saviour out, but rather to 
 let the women and the disciples in! Why 
 enter? For evidence therein of the fact of 
 resurrection. The angel bade them enter, call- 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible? 61 
 
 ing especial attention to the place where the 
 Lord lay. What was on that stone shelf to 
 observe? The grave wrappings were there, in 
 such form, as we have learned, as to indicate 
 the, departure of the body therefrom without 
 disturbing them. They lay there mutely but 
 conclusively testifying to the fact that the body 
 had not been violently removed, but rather of 
 its own ^volition had leaped through and out of 
 the cerements and through the walls into the 
 fresh air of the new Easter morning. This is 
 the only appropriate manner of action for the 
 Prince of Life in the initial instant of entrance 
 into victory over death. 
 
 This interpretation is consistent with an im¬ 
 portant consideration respecting the guards in 
 relation to the approaching testing time about 
 the preaching of the resurrection. There is 
 thus no period of time, not even the shortest, 
 after the tomb is opened, when witnesses repre¬ 
 senting both enemies and friends are not pres¬ 
 ent to verify the facts. The guards on the one 
 hand and the women on the other, both witness 
 the opening of the grave. No room is left for 
 controversy about what happened or concern¬ 
 ing the contents of the tomb. The body was 
 
62 The Resurrection Body 
 
 there when the tomb was sealed. It was not 
 there when the seal was broken. The linen 
 cloths were there and spoke their own message, 
 confirming the word of the angel. 
 
 Certainly there was continuous provision 
 during those stirring, exciting hours against 
 misrepresentation of the truth. It is gratifying 
 to discover that it was this company of devoted 
 ministering women from Galilee who were the 
 first to hear the angel say: “He is risen,” and 
 to receive the invitation to verify his statement 
 by inspection of the tomb. Favored Galilee 
 of the Gentiles! To thee in darkness came the 
 light of life. Honored handmaids of the Lord 
 of Glory! We hail you among the blessed, and 
 follow the story of that first Easter with eager 
 interest. 
 
 THE EMPTY TOMB IN THE GOSPELS BY MARK 
 
 AND LUKE 
 
 Eager desire is present to indicate points of 
 harmony in these two accounts which go a long 
 way toward assurance that the records are not 
 only reliable, but also accurate when each is re¬ 
 garded from its own angle of vision, and its 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible? 63 
 
 particular objective in narration. But limited 
 space requires the greatest brevity. One point 
 only therefore is noted. Both of these accounts 
 refer to the inside of the tomb and particularly 
 to the place where the body had been laid. In 
 Mark the angel specifically directs attention to 
 “the place where they laid him.” In the Luke 
 account, we read: “They entered in and found 
 not the body. . . . But Peter arose, and ran 
 unto the tomb, and stooping and looking in, he 
 seeth the linen cloths by themselves.” The 
 women were “perplexed” and Peter “won¬ 
 dered” at what was seen. Thus all four evan¬ 
 gelists recognize the significance of the evi¬ 
 dence of resurrection presented within the * 
 tomb. 
 
 Suggestion: Study carefully this company of 
 women from Galilee, who are present on the 
 evening of the crucifixion and on the morning 
 of the resurrection. It is confidently believed 
 that as they approached the tomb they saw it 
 opened; as they entered the tomb they wit¬ 
 nessed evidence which the grave cloths af¬ 
 forded, that the body had not been violently 
 removed. On the contrary, they were face to 
 face with proof that the body had supernatu- 
 
64 The Resurrection Body 
 
 . rally left the winding sheets intact. Even the 
 head roll remained in its original shape. It had 
 only fallen back in a place by itself when re¬ 
 leased by the body of Jesus at the instant of its 
 change from a dead body to the resurrection 
 body. Then on their way from the tomb, Jesus 
 himself met them and said, All hail! Again 
 we are constrained to exclaim: Blessed among 
 women, O early rising company from Galilee! 
 Your eyes have seen in succession what no 
 other human eyes have beheld—the new tomb, 
 the closed tomb, the sealed tomb, the tomb 
 opened, the open tomb, within the open tomb. 
 Your testimony concerning it brings comfort 
 to many even in this time remote from your 
 day. 
 
 THE APPEARANCES 
 
 A Condensed Survey 
 
 No particulars are recorded concerning the 
 appearance of our Lord to James and Peter 
 individually. Paul names them both (in 
 I Corinthians, fifteenth) as having been 
 favored as individuals. Paul’s own experi¬ 
 ence is related in the book of the Acts. The 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible? 65 
 
 first chapter of Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians 
 is suggestive here. We wonder what he, Peter 
 and James talked about during those two 
 weeks spent together at Jerusalem. We may 
 be reasonably sure that they visited the tomb 
 together and that Paul eagerly questioned them 
 both concerning their personal experience with 
 the risen Lord. 
 
 EASTER MORNING 
 
 Our Lord appeared to Mary in the garden. 
 Read the account in John, twentieth chapter. 
 It is not necessary to believe, as some assert, 
 that Jesus was dressed in the garb of a 
 gardener. This may have been the case, for 
 in His new mode of existence He was capable 
 not only of appearing and disappearing, but 
 also of appearing in different forms. Mary 
 was weeping. Her tears may have partially 
 blinded her eyes. Moreover, she was not ex¬ 
 pecting to see the Lord and she was painfully 
 preoccupied. We often have seen intimate 
 friends whom in fact we have not seen. Our 
 eyes have been holden by thought. Mary’s ac¬ 
 tion on recognition of her Lord was met by a 
 
66 The Resurrection Body 
 
 word of Jesus which is usually given a strained 
 and unnatural interpretation. Why not make 
 the statement, “Take not hold on me, for I have 
 not yet ascended unto the Father,” fit into what 
 follows, and understand it to mean merely this: 
 Do not try to detain Me here, Mary, in the fear 
 that you will never see Me again. I am not 
 immediately ascending to My Father. You 
 will see Me again. Do not remain here longer 
 now, but go unto My brethren, and say to 
 them, I ascend unto My Father and your 
 Father, and My God and your God. This is 
 in perfect harmony with other directions given 
 to the disciples to meet the Lord in Galilee. 
 
 TOWARDS EASTER EVENING 
 
 The story of the two on the way to Emmaus 
 may be allowed here to furnish only two of 
 many most interesting observations. These 
 men, slow of heart to believe the Easter mes¬ 
 sage, although on their own testimony they had 
 heard that He was alive, became men of the 
 burning heart as Jesus Himself opened to them 
 the Scriptures concerning Himself. The body 
 of the resurrection, according to this account, 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible? 67 
 
 was capable of appearing in such fashion as to 
 escape identification for the time being; to make 
 itself recognizable at will, and at will to vanish 
 out of sight! 
 
 THE EVENING OF EASTER 
 
 The appearance to the ten (John 20: 19-23) 
 is significant for our present purpose in one 
 respect especially. The record indicates that 
 the doors were securely fastened. The original 
 language is significantly strong here. The dis¬ 
 ciples feared the Jews, and with special care 
 had made fast the door. This fact adds in¬ 
 terest to the statement that Jesus “came and 
 stood in the midst and said: Peace be unto 
 you.” He proved to them that the body of the 
 resurrection was the same body in a real sense 
 by showing them His hands and His side. He 
 proved to them that it was different in a real 
 sense by coming into the room in a supernatural 
 manner. 
 
 A WEEK LATER • 
 
 The doors were bolted a second time. 
 Thomas was present with the ten. Again Jesus 
 
68 The Resurrection Body 
 
 comes into the room in His resurrection body. 
 It is consequently different from His body 
 before His death. Yet it is identifiable as the 
 same, for the wounds are there both in His 
 hands and feet and also in His side. 
 
 The wounds of our Lord in His new body, 
 which remain forever to tell the story of re¬ 
 demption procured by the sacrifice of life, sug¬ 
 gest the appropriateness here of the following 
 striking, challenging statement of the social sig¬ 
 nificance of the body. 
 
 “The Christian doctrine of the resurrection 
 gives the most important emphasis to the social 
 significance of the body. We need to look more 
 closely at the structural meaning of the saint’s 
 glorified body. It is, on the one hand, a spir¬ 
 itual repetition of the body of his temporal 
 probation. Thus comes the accentuation of the 
 distinct person himself. Never is he to lose 
 connection with his own past. Not only by 
 memory, but by his very objective life itself, 
 he is to be reminded that he is the same man 
 \ who lived that life on earth. Most seriously I 
 urge you to work out the wholesomeness of this 
 thought, that the line of identity is everlastingly 
 sacred, that no man, in all the solemn eternities, 
 can begin all over again. 
 
 “Not only so, but this repetition of the 
 earthly body is a perpetual objective insistence 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible? 69 
 
 upon the fact that every redeemed man once 
 belonged to that old Adamic race which was 
 broken up by death and because of sin. Thus, 
 the entire social life of the new race will ever 
 suggest the sad history of the old race. No* 
 saint can ever make a gesture, or look into the 
 face of another saint, without projecting large 
 hints of the story of a costly redemption. In¬ 
 deed, the whole objective life of the saints in 
 glory is so planned that it has memorial force, 
 like a great Sacrament.” (Curtis* The Chris¬ 
 tian Faith.') 
 
 “driving a stake” 
 
 Our thesis is that the Easter faith and the ' 
 Easter message are inseparable. They stand 
 together or they fall together. We believe 
 there is good reason for accepting the Easter 
 message as true, and in consequence exercising 
 the Easter faith. 
 
 Let the nature of the message be clearly ap¬ 
 prehended. We have had it defined by Pro¬ 
 fessor Harnack who rejects it. It is the empty 
 tomb together with the appearances of Jesus 
 in the body of the resurrection according to the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 A certain very successful Bible class teacher 
 
70 The Resurrection Body 
 
 became well known and popular because of his 
 method of “driving a stake” in each lesson. By 
 this is meant that he seized upon a great fact 
 or truth each time and held to it, driving it 
 home in the minds of the members of the class, 
 and relating up to it every other part of the 
 lesson. 
 
 Let us follow his example and “drive a stake” 
 in our study of the resurrection. The fact to 
 begin with, to stay with, to go from, to return 
 to, to be always in sight of, and in the light 
 of which to decide, is the fact that the first 
 Christian community was convinced that Jesus 
 Christ was alive from the dead in His resur¬ 
 rection body. The fact of belief in the resur¬ 
 rection by the first generation of Christians 
 (and by resurrection according to the Scrip¬ 
 tures is always meant the reunited spirit and 
 body, the body being both the same and differ¬ 
 ent, not a resuscitated body but a resurrected 
 body)—the fact of belief in the resurrection of 
 Jesus by the early Christians is almost the most 
 obtrusive feature of the New Testament. Cer¬ 
 tainly it is regarded as the most important fact 
 there recorded. It is the cardinal doctrine there 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible 4 ? 71 
 
 found. The four Gospels reach their climax in 
 the announcement of it and the citation of the 
 evidence of it. The book of the Acts teems with 
 testimony to the same effect. The Epistles are 
 full of resurrection assurances, and the Apoca¬ 
 lypse everywhere records the conviction that 
 He who was dead is alive forevermore. 
 
 The problem of the rejectors of the message 
 is to account adequately for this fact of belief 
 on the part of the first generation of Chris¬ 
 tians—those living, say, from 30 to 70 a.d, 
 Charles Reade remarks that “to accept an in¬ 
 adequate explanation of an undeniable fact is * 
 credulity in one of its worst forms.” We 
 agree with this principle. 
 
 This fact of the belief in the resurrection of 
 Jesus by the first Christian community is the 
 more remarkable because of certain accom¬ 
 panying facts. It is the chief fact of a heap of 
 facts. Consider that the resurrection, as this 
 first group believed it, was not anticipated. ' 
 Jesus died on the cross, and His disciples had 
 given up hope. Nor was the resurrection be¬ 
 lieved when first reported. The story appeared 
 to them as an idle tale. “Some doubted” even 
 
72 The Resurrection Body 
 
 after they saw Him. The records give us the 
 impression that the people of those times were 
 quite cautious about accepting as true reports 
 of great happenings, especially of this particu¬ 
 lar event in question. There were bitter op- 
 
 ' ponents. Those who believed suffered for their 
 belief. Some of them went to death on account 
 of it. All were enthusiastic about it and sought 
 successfully to persuade others to believe it. 
 
 • The company rapidly increased in size. Many 
 believed. Among them were unlikely ones. 
 Priests, the most difficult to persuade, are 
 mentioned as having become members of the 
 
 I 
 
 Church in large numbers. Then there is Paul. 
 He was not expecting the resurrection. He re¬ 
 jected it. He became convinced of it. He was 
 revolutionized by it. He preached it. He suf¬ 
 fered for it and died a martyr to it. His life 
 demonstrated the power of it. He insisted that 
 he and his fellow Apostles were first-class liars 
 or the resurrection was true. Paul was a first 
 generation Christian. He must have had a 
 sufficient basis for his belief. Will the theory 
 of fancy, or the theory of fraud, or the phan¬ 
 tom theory, explain it ? 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible? 73 
 
 KEEP DRIVING THE STAKE 
 
 This pivotal fact of belief that Jesus rose 
 from the dead, on the part of the first genera¬ 
 tion of Christians is undisputed. 
 
 Strauss says: “Only this much need we ac¬ 
 knowledge, that the Apostles firmly believed 
 that Jesus had risen.” He also says: “With¬ 
 out the faith of the Apostles in the resurrection 
 of Jesus, the Church would never have been 
 born.” 
 
 Schenkel, a most scholarly rationalist, says: 
 “It is an indisputable fact that on the early 
 morning of the first day of the week following 
 the crucifixion, the grave of Jesus was found 
 empty. It is a second fact that the disciples * 
 and other members of the Apostolic Commun¬ 
 ion were convinced that Jesus was seen after 
 the crucifixion—we will admit this; it is all we 
 have to admit.” 
 
 Dr. Schmiedel agrees with Strauss and 
 Schenkel. He starts with the one fact of which • 
 he is sure, that the followers of Jesus believed 
 that they had seen Him. He even believes that 
 some of the disciples believed they saw and felt 
 
74 The Resurrection Body 
 
 in reality the wounds which Jesus received on 
 the cross. 
 
 The testing sentence of Charles Reade is cer¬ 
 tainly in place here. “To accept an inadequate 
 explanation of an undeniable fact is credulity 
 in one of its worst forms.” We repeat: 
 
 What is the undeniable fact? It is that the 
 first Christian community—the believers from 
 30 a.d. to 70 a.d. were convinced that Jesus 
 
 WAS ALIVE FROM THE DEAD. 
 
 Dr. Fairbairn truly says: “We reach the con¬ 
 clusion that on the terms fixed and defined by 
 Modern Criticism, there is, on the supposition 
 that Christ did not rise, no sufficient explana¬ 
 tion of the origin of our belief. It is impossible 
 to account for it and save the honesty and 
 rationality of the men.” 
 
 Dr. James Orr agrees also by saying: “The 
 fulcrum is still wanting by which this funda¬ 
 mental conviction of the earliest Christian com¬ 
 munity can be lifted from its place.” 
 
 Professor T. R. Glover, of St. John’s Col¬ 
 lege, Cambridge, in an article in the Construc¬ 
 tive Quarterly, on Immortality and the Person 
 of Christ, uses the figure of a tunnel to describe 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible? 75 
 
 a certain gap in our knowledge of the Church’s 
 history. He calls our attention to the fact that 
 the group of men we meet in the Epistles and 
 the Acts are the same we meet in the Gospels, 
 but they are greatly changed. The train passed • 
 through a tunnel. We saw it before it entered 
 and after it left. The same people were in it 
 before and after; but something happened in 
 the tunnel. We must, if we are to remain 
 honest, admit that something very exceptional 
 and very signal happened, for it has changed 
 the history of the world. 
 
 BASES OF REJECTION 
 
 We maintain that those who deny the fact of 
 the resurrection of Jesus Christ as reported in 
 the Scriptures, as well as those who in the pres¬ 
 ent time do so, are without justifiable grounds * 
 for such denial. 
 
 One of the best short discussions of the 
 grounds for accepting the resurrection as a fact 
 is found in the eighteenth chapter of Dr. A. M. 
 Fairbairn’s Studies in the Life of Christ. He 
 mentions four explanations which have been 
 
76 The Resurrection Body 
 
 offered of belief in the resurrection of Jesus 
 on the part of the first Christian community. 
 To aid the memory they may be called: 
 
 The Theory of Fancy, 
 
 The Theory of Fraud, 
 
 The Theory of Phantom, 
 
 The Theory of Fact. 
 
 The Theory of Fancy, more commonly 
 known as the Swoon Theory, is that actual 
 death did not occur; that Jesus by some un¬ 
 explained means appeared to His disciples 
 after He was supposed to have died, and that 
 from this arose the report that He was risen 
 from the dead. This theory was made prom¬ 
 inent by the adherence of Schleiermacher. 
 Paulus also was an exponent of it. ^trauss, 
 the noted rationalist, to the satisfaction of 
 most people, demolished the theory by his well- 
 known passage from which I quote the follow¬ 
 ing: 
 
 “A half-dead man, crawling about, sickly, in 
 need of a physician and a nurse, could never 
 have made upon the disciples the impression of 
 his being the Lord of life, nor changed their 
 mourning into exultation.” 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible? 77 
 
 It is very interesting to observe how the 
 Gospel narratives emphasize the fact of the 
 real death of Jesus. It would almost seem 
 that the attempt to account for the belief by 
 the Swoon theory was anticipated by the 
 guiding Spirit of God when the records were 
 made. ^ 
 
 The Theory of Fraud, which is to the effect 
 that the disciples stole away the body by night 
 and gave out the report of the resurrection, has 
 been abandoned as absurd. It is mentioned in 
 the twenty-eighth chapter of the Gospel by Mat¬ 
 thew. Variations on this, affording illustra¬ 
 tions of the strange extremes to which credulity 
 will go for the purpose of explaining away facts 
 which do not fit theory, are seen in Oscar 
 Holtzman’s suggestion that Joseph on reflection 
 removed the body to another tomb, and Kirsopp 
 Lake’s idea that the women went to the wrong 
 tomb and a young man who happened to be near 
 said to them: “Over there, not here!” In this 
 connection, we recall that sentence of Carlyle: 
 “O man, great is thy infidel faith!” We recall 
 also the words of Sir Robertson Nicoll: “It is 
 easier to believe in the supernatural than in the 
 impossible.” 
 
 X 
 
78 The Resurrection Body 
 
 There remain the two theories—the Phan¬ 
 tom Theory and that of Fact. The Phantom 
 Theory in one or another of its forms is the 
 favorite and last resort of rejectors of the 
 fact. 
 
 The theory of Keim, who invented the ex¬ 
 pression “Telegram from heaven” is a varia¬ 
 tion of the Phantom Theory. It is to the effect 
 that when the disciples believed that they had 
 seen Jesus, they did not really see Him, but only 
 a visionary image. “The visionary image,” 
 says one in reviewing Keim’s theory, “was pro¬ 
 duced in their souls immediately by God, in 
 order that they might be assured that Jesus was 
 risen.” Holders of this theory of course be¬ 
 lieve that the body of Jesus remained in the 
 tomb. 
 
 Dr. Schmiedel in his article on the Resurrec¬ 
 tion and Ascension in the Encyclopedia Biblia 
 says: “Any attempted explanation presupposes 
 an insight into the subjective experiences that 
 can perhaps never be completely attained; it 
 demands, therefore, the greatest caution. It 
 cannot, however, be left unattempted. . . . For 
 all that has been said in the foregoing para¬ 
 graphs, the most that can be claimed is that it 
 
Resurrection Judged Credible? 79 
 
 proves the possibility—the probability if you 
 will—of an explanation from subjective vis¬ 
 ions.” 
 
 The difficulties manifestly attending such an 
 explanation are great. The explanation pre¬ 
 sents greater difficulties than it removes. They 
 have led the rejectors of the fact of the resur¬ 
 rection to attempt generally no explanation at 
 all, but to take refuge in the general assump¬ 
 tion of the impossibility of the supernatural. 
 

Chapter V: The Resurrection and the 
 
 Power of God 
 
[On our present view, the energy of the con¬ 
 stitution of the ether is incredibly and porten¬ 
 tously great, every cubic millimeter of space 
 possessing what, if it were matter, would be a 
 mass of a thousand tons and an energy equiva¬ 
 lent to the output of a million horsepower sta¬ 
 tion for forty million years. 
 
 —Sir Oliver Lodge. 
 
 The fifth part of an American five-cent piece, 
 if we could entirely disassociate it in one second, 
 would give an energy equal to six milliards, 
 eight hundred million horsepower, the energy 
 of a moving body being equal to half the prod¬ 
 uct of its mass by the square of its velocity. 
 
 —Gustav Le Bon. 
 
Chapter V: The Resurrection 
 and the Power of God 
 
 The resurrection of Jesus is the New Testa-* 
 ment unit of power. Back of the New Testa¬ 
 ment are the Hebrew Scriptures (our Old 
 Testament), with their tremendous emphasis 
 on the power of God. He is the Almighty 
 Creator. He never grows weary. For Him 
 nothing is impossible. In the very initial stage 
 of the history of the chosen people, the father 
 of the race was asked, “Is anything too hard 
 for Jehovah ?” Interesting enough, the oc¬ 
 casion was one when life from the dead was 
 in question. 
 
 The mighty hand of God was revealed in the 
 overthrow of Pharaoh, and the deliverance of 
 Israel from the land of Egypt. In song the 
 Redeemer from bondage was praised thus: 
 
 “Who is like unto thee, O Jehovah, among the 
 gods? 
 
 Who is like unto thee, glorious in holiness, 
 
 Fearful in praises, doing wonders?” 
 
 83 
 
84 The Resurrection Body 
 
 In the realm of experience, it may be said 
 that the Exodus was the Old Testament unit of 
 God’s power, or perhaps better, the measure of 
 v God’s power. It is frequently referred to as an 
 indication of what He could do. 
 
 Perhaps the book of Job magnifies God’s 
 power as much as any other part of the Old 
 Testament. Here, as in other portions, obser¬ 
 vation of the forces of nature led to recogni¬ 
 tion of the omnipotence of the Creator and Pre¬ 
 server of the universe. A typical expression 
 of this is found in Job, twenty-sixth chapter, 
 where after a graphic description of the power 
 of God as displayed in nature, the writer 
 says: 
 
 “Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways: 
 
 And how small a whisper do we hear of him! 
 
 But the thunder of his mighty power who can 
 understand?” 
 
 The Psalms are full of instruction about the 
 person and nature of God. DeWitt, in the 
 Introduction to A New Translation of the 
 Psalms, asserts that they are fuller of instruc¬ 
 tion about God than even the New Testament, 
 and that the New Testament assumes this pre- 
 
Resurrection and Power of God 85 
 
 vious revelation as not needing to be repeated. 
 Here is one selection, 
 
 “God hath spoken once, 
 
 Twice have I heard this, 
 
 That power belongeth unto God.” 
 
 (Psalm 62: 11.) 
 
 The prophets are unsurpassed in the consid¬ 
 eration which they give to the power of God. 
 For example, the great fortieth chapter of 
 Isaiah, having comfort as its objective, dwells 
 on the wisdom, tenderness and power of God. 
 It says, in part: “Jehovah will come as a 
 mighty one. Who hath meted out heaven with 
 the span? . . . and weighed the mountains in 
 scales? Behold the nations are as a drop of 
 a bucket . . . behold he taketh up the isles as 
 a very little thing.” Referring to the stars of 
 heaven, he says, “Lift up your eyes on high, 
 and see who created these, that bringeth out 
 their host by number; he calleth them all by 
 name; by the greatness of his might, and for 
 that he is strong in power, not one is lacking.” 
 
 Referring to the resurrection, our Lord said 
 to the Sadducees, “Ye do err, not knowing the 
 scriptures, nor the power of God.” Certainly 
 
86 The Resurrection Body 
 
 they did not know their Scriptures about God’s 
 power or they would not have questioned His 
 ability to raise the dead. They evidently also 
 had little personal experience of God’s power, 
 else they would have been more receptive of His 
 Son and His message. Who but Sadducees will 
 raise a question about the God of the Bible 
 being equal to the problem of Easter ? 
 
 The Apostle Paul uses four different words 
 in one verse to indicate the activity and accom¬ 
 plishment of God Almighty, and all of them 
 with respect to Easter. The verse is the nine¬ 
 teenth of the first chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Ephesians. Three expressions are found in the 
 prayer of which this verse is a part. They are: 
 “His calling,” “his inheritance,” “his power.” 
 This great Christian and leader of men wishes 
 for his friends and all Christian believers that 
 they may have the eyes of their heart opened 
 to know “what is the exceeding greatness of 
 his power [dynamite] to us-ward who believe, 
 according to that working * [energy] of the 
 strength of his might which he wrought [exer¬ 
 cised] in Christ when he raised him from the 
 dead and set him at his own right hand.” No 
 
 * Thayer says that this word is in the New Testament used 
 only of superhuman power. 
 
Resurrection and Power of God 87 
 
 portion of the Bible of equal length has such 
 a heaping together of words for power. Let 
 us never forget it. God is able. He giveth it 
 a body. 
 
 The reader is earnestly advised to pursue 
 the study of the verses in Ephesians following 
 the one quoted above. Ignore the division of 
 chapters, and note how the power of God mani¬ 
 fested in the resurrection of Christ is followed 
 by an exhibition of that same power in the 
 case of believers who are referred to in the sec¬ 
 ond chapter. The parallel is striking. Christ 
 was raised and exalted to the right hand of 
 God in the heavenly places (Ephesians i: 20). 
 Believers are made alive together with Christ 
 and raised up with Him and made to sit with 
 Him in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2: 5, 6). 
 Resurrection and ascension are both here for 
 both Christ and believers. They rise from the 
 dead and go with Him into the heavenlies. The 
 entire programme of redemption, as here, is 
 continually in Paul’s mind. He looks forward 
 to the ages to come (2:7) and lives in the 
 presence of the revelation of the exceeding 
 riches to come, of God’s grace in His kindness 
 toward us in Christ Jesus. 
 
88 The Resurrection Body 
 
 The words of Dr. David Cairns, quoted in 
 the foreword, may fittingly be used again as 
 we bring this brief study to a close. “In belief 
 in the resurrection is the spring of that new 
 life of faith of which to-day the Church stands 
 in so much need.” Shall we not seek this spring 
 whose refreshment not only we ourselves per¬ 
 sonally so sorely need, but also the multitudes 
 who spend their earnings for that which satis¬ 
 fies not? 
 
 “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to 
 the waters, and he that hath no money; come 
 ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk 
 without money and without price.” Our 
 Saviour's Spirit beforehand moved the prophet 
 to call thus like an auctioneer. Were ever such 
 valuable holdings thus offered ? In the fulness 
 of time in a house of mourning He Himself 
 said: “I am the resurrection and the life: he 
 that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall 
 he live.” 
 
 Christmas, Good Friday, Easter. The In¬ 
 carnation, The Atonement, The Resurrection. 
 The last of these is greatest in the sense that 
 once the message of Easter obtains, the others 
 follow. And more, for Easter is not the last 
 
Resurrection and Power of God 89 
 
 of this series. Resurrection is followed by 
 Ascension, Intercession, Procession (the gift 
 of the Holy Spirit), Revelation, Manifestation, 
 Restoration of all things. 
 
 Nor is Christmas the first in this indissoluble 
 order. Jesus Christ had a past. God promised 
 the Good News afore through His prophets in 
 the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who 
 was born of the seed of David, according to 
 the flesh, who was demonstrated to be the Son 
 of God in power according to the spirit of 
 holiness by the resurrection from the dead 
 (Romans, first chapter). 
 
 We must go even further back, for this Son, 
 who was promised by prophets, is He in whom 
 were created all things in the heavens and upon 
 the earth. He was in the beginning with God, 
 and being the whole beaming image of God's 
 glory, and the very expression of God's sub¬ 
 stance, He was God. He is the Alpha and the 
 Omega with all the letters between. He is the 
 first and the last, only begotten Son of God, and 
 Ultimate Man. 
 
 The Resurrection Chapter of the Bible is 
 First Corinthians, fifteenth. From the begin¬ 
 ning, middle and end of it the words below are 
 
90 The Resurrection Body 
 
 selected as fittingly concluding this Easter mes¬ 
 sage. 
 
 “For I delivered unto you first of all that 
 which also I received: that Christ died for our 
 sins according to the scriptures; and that he 
 was buried; and that he hath been raised on 
 the third day according to the scriptures. . . , 
 But now hath Christ been raised from the 
 dead. . . . For he must reign till he hath put 
 all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy 
 that shall be abolished is death. . . . Where¬ 
 fore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, 
 unmovable, always abounding in the work of 
 the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your 
 labour is not in vain in the Lord.” 
 
 THE END 
 


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