Immortality or Resurrection by William West (philippa perry book txt) 📕

before he says the resurrection occurred. Does he really believe Old Covenant saints were alive and being sown with a natural body in about A. D. 57 when Paul was writing this? "Presently 'is being raised'" is used on page 91 and throughout the 110 pages. He puts "is being raised" in quotation marks. Paul said, "Shall be raised incorruptible" [1 Corinthians 15:52]. "Presently 'is being raised'" is in no translation but his and then it puts the resurrection as taking place 13 years to soon for the Realized Eschatology view that the resurrection took place in A. D. 70.
On page 99 he quarts Christ saying 6 times of those who believe Him, "I will raise him up at the last day" [John 6:39; 640; 6:44; 6:54; 11:24; 12:48]. Which one does he believe? That the Old Testament faithful was being raised in A. D. 57 when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians or "at the last day" which he says was in A. D. 70? Christ is saying this to ALL THAT BELIEVED HIM, not just to the Jews that believe Him. Dawson says the Old Covenant had a last day but the New Covenant will not have a last day. Christ was not speaking of the last day of the Old or the New Covenant. He was speaking of the last day of the earth, "The day of the Lord" spoken of in 2 Peter 3:10 (see "The Day Of The Lord" below). Both John and Revelation (and other New Testament books) were written after A. D. 70.
1 Corinthians 15:45-49: On page 87 he changes the "natural" and "spiritual" to the Old Testament faithful being changed "from natural to spiritual as the result of the gospel" and this is in about A. D. 57 when Paul said this, before A. D. 70, which he says is when the second coming of Christ was, and before when he says the resurrection of the Old Testament faithful ones did take place. How he could think that "the first man Adam became a living soul" is speaking of the Old Testament faithful is beyond my understanding. There is nothing in this passage or any place in the Bible about Adam being the Old Testament Israel. "Then the Lord God formed man (Adam) of the dust from the ground, and breathed into his (Adam) nostrils the breath of life; and man (Adam) became a living soul" [Genesis 2:7]. Adam was the first man, not the nation of Israel; THERE WAS NO NATION OF ISRAEL WHEN ADAM “BECAME A LIVING SOUL,” NOT FOR HUNDARDS OF YEARS AFTER, NO NATION OF ISRAEL BEFORE ABRAHAM, THE FATHER OF THAT NATION. Adam was the natural man made "of the earth," he was not Israel. Both Adam and Christ (when He was on earth) were "a man," Israel was a nation. Christ is (present tense) "the second man is of heaven" [1 Corinthians 15:47]. By pointing out that this is present tense, he is saying that "the second man is of heaven" cannot be Christ, that the "second man" of heaven is the Old Testament faithful ones. If this is not what he is saying, then I cannot understand what he is saying; is he not saying that Christ is not of heaven, present tense in A. D. 57; is he not saying the Old Testament faithful ones was "the second man of heaven" 13 years before their resurrection in A. D. 70? This seems to me to be nothing more than a desperate attempt to make the resurrection be passed even if he has to use something that was, present tense, 13 years to soon for it to be speaking of something that was to be in A. D. 70, which would have been future tense at the time Paul said this, not “present tense.”
On page 92 and others pages, it seems to me that he basis his whole argument on all that believes the resurrection is yet to come must also believe the resurrection is to be "a physical resurrection out of the dust." He is taking what some men teach and making it into the teaching of the Bible for his argument depends on it. THERE IS NOTHING IN 1 CORINTHIANS 15 ABOUT "A PHYSICAL RESURRECTION OUT OF THE DUST." HE IS ATTEMPTING TO PROVE THIS IS SPEAKING OF THE RESURRECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS JUST BECAUSE IT IS NOT SPEAKING OF THE RESURRECTION OF BODIES OUT OF THE DUST. TRY AS HARD AS I CAN, I CANNOT SEE HOW HE SEES THE RESURRECTION OF OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS JUST BECAUSE IT IS NOT SPEAKING OF EARTHLY BODIES WHEN THERE IS NOTHING IN THE CHAPTER THAT SAYS ANYTHING ABOUT OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS OR ISRAEL. It could not be said any clearer that it is "sown in corruption (a physical body of dust) it is raised in incorruption (NOT a physical body of dust)" [1 Corinthians 15:42]. HE MAKES A PHYSICAL RESURRECTION A MUST FOR HIS ARGUMENT, BUT THERE IS NOTHING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT THAT TEACHES A PHYSICAL BODY OF DUST IS TO BE RAISED AT THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. He repeatedly accused others of believing in "a physical resurrection out of the dirt, although we can't read that interpretation back into Isaiah," but then on the same page (page 92) he quotes Isaiah, "Your dead shall arise. Your dead will live; their corpses will rise, you who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, for your dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits" [Isaiah 26:19]. Then says the resurrection of those lying in the dust sounds identical to Daniel 12:2, which says, "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake." When he said no serious student of the prophets believes a physical resurrection of a physical body is depicted in Isaiah 25 he was right. Just as Ezekiel's valley of bones coming to life is a vision of a physical resurrection in Ezekiel 37 is figuratively language of the nation of Israel being restored to life as a nation, Isaiah 26:19 of a physical resurrection of the dead who had turned to dust is figuratively language of Israel the dead nation that is being restored to life from the dust and would live again as a nation. Neither one is teaching the resurrection to eternal life that is taught in the New Testament, neither one is teaching the resurrection of individuals to eternal life. Nevertheless, he attempts to somehow use a resurrection of Isaiah as a nation that took place long before Christ (a restoration that was long “past tense”) to prove Paul was not speaking of the resurrection of the dead at the coming of Christ, but Paul was only speaking of the resurrection of the Old Testament faithful in A. D. 70 (which would have been “future tense” at the time Paul said this).
“Death is swallowed up in victory” [1 Corinthians 15:54]
Throughout 1 Corinthians 15, Paul speaks of death and resurrection from the dead. What is the death and resurrection he is speaking of? The A. D. 70 doctrine says this is speaking of the death and restorations of Old Testament Israel and the Law of Moses, not our death and resurrection. How did Paul use death and resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15?
• Christ died and was buried and raised on the third day and appeared to many [1 Corinthians 15:3-6].
• Death had taken some of the above five hundred that Christ appeared to [1 Corinthians 15:6].
• Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, but if there is no resurrection Christ has not been raised, therefore, Christ is dead and their faith in Christ is useless [1 Corinthians 15:12-16].
• The Corinthians that had died (fallen asleep in Christ) had perished [1 Corinthians 15:18-19].
• Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of them that are dead (are asleep). Just as Christ was dead and resurrected, those who are asleep in Christ will be resurrected [1 Corinthians 15:20; 15:23].
• All Adam’s descendant’s die (all mankind), the resurrection of all (all shall be made alive) will come by Christ [1 Corinthians 15:21-22].
• Christ was raised the first fruits, raised form the dead, them all that belong to Christ at His coming will also be raised from the dead [1 Corinthians 15:23].
• Then comes the end when Christ shall deliver up the kingdom, the church, to God and the last enemy, death, will be abolished [1 Corinthians 15:24-26].
• If the dead (those who are asleep in Christ) are not to be raised then living godly is of no use, do anything you want to for death will soon bring you to an end [1 Corinthians 15:29-34].
• How are the dead raised, with what kind of body? [1 Corinthians 15:35-49].
o The earthly body of corruption is put in the ground; an incorruption body is raised.
o The earthly body is put in the ground in dishonor; it will be raised in glory.
o The earthly body is put in the ground in weakness; a body is raised in power.
o The earthly body is put in the ground a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. The earthly body (natural body) is first, then the spiritual body at the resurrection of the dead. As we have borne the image of the earthly (Adam) we shall bear the image of the heavenly (Christ).
• Not all Christians will die but all, those who are living when Christ returns and those who are asleep will both be changed in the same moment, in the twinkling of an eye to an incorruptible, immortality body [1 Corinthians 15:50-54].
o FROM THE ABOVE IT IS CLEAR THAT PAUL SAID NOTHING ABOUT OLD TESTAMET ISRAEL IN 1 CORINTHANS 15.
After the second coming of Christ and the resurrection and judgment and only then will there be no more death, it will be swallowed up in victory [1 Corinthians 15:54-58].
"But thanks be to God, who gives US the victory through OUR Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be YOU steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as YOU know that YOUR labor is not vain in the Lord" [1 Corinthians 15:57-58, American Standard Version]. Throughout chapter 15 Paul is speaking to the Corinthians about THEIR resurrection, not the resurrection of Israel. "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord" [1 Thessalonians 4:13-17]. THE CHRISTIANS WHO WERE ALIVE IN A. D. 70 WERE NOT AT THAT TIME CHANGED FROM PHYSICAL TO SPIRITUAL BODIES, THEY WERE NOT CAUGHT UP “TO MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR.” I do not believe Dawson believes they were. I believe he was not trying to prove anyone alive was changed to a spiritual body in A. D. 70, but was trying to prove the dead Old Testament saints were resurrected and changed in A. D.