The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his075/jw10.lzh/JW10.TXT

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CUL:Jehovah's Witnesses and the Resurrection of Christ  by Walter Martin

   Jehovah's Witnesses and their official organization, the Watchtower
Bible and Tract Society, have historically denied the bodily
resurrection of Jesus Christ and have maintained that His was a
"spirit" or "spiritual" resurrection to quote the Watchtower.

   "The King, Christ Jesus, was put to death in the flesh and was
resurrected an invisible spirit creature."1

   Further developing their teaching, the Witnesses proclaim: "In His
resurrection He was no more human. He was raised as a spirit creature."2

   In addition to this, the Watchtower has even suggested that Christ's
body was "dissolved into gases" or "preserved somewhere as the grand
memorial of God's love."3

   IN order to understand the true teaching of the resurrection, it is
necessary to review briefly the Biblical position, which is at
considerable odds with the Watchtower.

   The resurrection of Jesus Christ is quite literally the historical
bedrock upon which the Christian faith rests. The Apostle Paul indeed
tells us that "if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching in vain,
and your faith is also vain" (1 Corinthians 15:14). He also declares,
"If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins"
(verse 17).

   From these two statements in the Word of God, we can see the
resurrection of our Lord determines the validity of our faith and even
our salvation, for without His resurrection our faith is "vain" and we
are "yet in our sins."

   In this connection, it must also be remembered that every verse in
the Bible which deals with the resurrection of the dead, and the Lord
particularly, refers exclusively to the human body; i.e., a bodily
resuscitation; never a spirit or spiritual resurrection. In fact the
word "resurrection" is never applied to the soul or spirit of man. This
fact is born out in the original Hebrew and Greek. Beyond this, our
Lord specifically prophesied that His resurrection would be bodily;
that is, in a glorified form of the body He then possessed. When
speaking to the unbelieving Jews, as recorded in the second chapter of
John's Gospel, Christ stated "Destroy this temple, and inn three days I
will raise it up" (verse 19).

   The Jews, however, thought he was referring to the temple in
Jerusalem but the Apostle John clearly declares our Lord's meaning:
"But he spake of the temple of his body" (verse 21).

   The Greek word soma is translated "body" throughout the New
Testament, so it is an inescapable fact that Christ was referring to
his own physical form - hence a bodily resurrection.

   Two classic New Testament references which corroborate our Lord's
prophecy of His bodily resurrection are in the 20th chapter of John and
24th chapter of Luke. In John 20 when our Lord appeared to the doubting
Thomas, the same body in which He died upon the cross is evidenced by
His own words:

   "Reach hither thy finger, and behold by hands, and reach hither thy
hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing"
(verse 27).

   In Luke 24, we again see how the words of Christ refute the spirit
resurrection idea of Jehovah's Witnesses.

   "And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them,
and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and
affrightend, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto
them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your heart?
Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see,
for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he
had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they
yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here
any meat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and of an
honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them" (verses 36-43).

   Not only, then, did our Lord have "flesh and bones," but he showed
them the same hands and feet which bore the wounds of Calvary (verses
39, 40). The fact that He also ate broiled fish and a honeycomb (verse
42 and 43) proves that He was not a "spirit creature" as Jehovah's
Witnesses contend. Moreover our Lord's words, "It is I myself...a
spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have" (verse 39) was
uttered according to verse 37 and 38 because the disciples thought He
was a spirit. Jesus, however absolutely disproved that by offering His
body as tangible evidence (verse 39, 40).

   Sometimes Jehovah's Witnesses attempt to explain away these
appearances of Christ by asserting that He had a "spiritual body" (1
Corinthians 15:44) or that He merely assumed different bodies to
encourage His disciples, which the Witnesses say accounts for the fact
that those who knew Him the best in life did not recognize Him after
His resurrection (John 20:11-16; Luke 24:15-30).

   The Witnesses also argue that 1 Peter 3:18, which refers to Christ's
resurrection and states that He was "made alive in spirit" (literal
Greek), establishes their theory, but they are in error.

   While it is true that Paul speaks of "a spiritual body" he
nevertheless calls it a "body" (Greek "soma") and we have already seen
how Christ possessed "flesh and bones" (Luke 24:39). A spiritual body
then is not "a spirit" as the Witnesses make our, but a glorified,
immortal, physical form possessing certain spiritual characteristics or
attributes (i.e., the ability to pass through locked doors or vanish at
will. John 20:19, 26; Luke 24:31)

   Again, Jehovah's Witnesses' idea that because Mary Magdalene and the
disciples could not recognize Christ on three occasions "proves" that
He had assumed "different bodies" other than the one in which He died
upon the cross, is disposed of by Luke 24:16. Luke there tells us that
when the disciples encountered Jesus their eyes were kept from
recognizing Him as a direct act of Christ's will. When He finished His
conversation, He allowed their sense of vision to perceive who He
really was; thus "their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he
vanished out of their sight" (verse 31).

   Finally, 1 Peter 3:18, far from "proving" that Jesus was raised a
spirit as the Witnesses insist, only proves that He was raised in or by
the Spirit of God as the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8:11. The main
objections, then, that Jehovah's Witnesses raise against the bodily
resurrection of our Lord are all thoroughly answered by the Scriptures
themselves and represent no real threat to historic Christian doctrine
of the resurrection.

   The Bible, therefore, does have mush to say about the resurrection
of Christ as we have seen, and nowhere supports the spirit-resurrection
theory of Jehovah's Witnesses. In fact, all of it contradicts their
teaching.

   To the sincere, zealous, yet misled members of Jehovah's Witnesses,
the Christian church must repeat the statement of our Lord Himself:
"Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold
my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a
spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have" (Luke 24:38, 39).

   The true teaching concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ does
indeed determine a person's eternal destiny (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17).
For "If you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe
in your heart that God has raised him from among the dead, you will be
saved" (Romans 10:9, Literal Greek).

   1. Let God Be True, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, p. 122,
Edition 1946.

   2. The Kingdom is at Hand, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, p.
258.

   3. Studies in the Scripture, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, p.
129, Vol 2.