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Resurrection of the Dead is a belief found in a number of eschatologies, most commonly in Christian, Islamic, Jewish and Zoroastrian eschatology. In general, the phrase refers to a specific event in the future; multiple prophesies in the histories of these religions assert that the dead will be brought back to life at some point in the future, though a minority claim this has already happened in the past[1] or is occurring now without most knowing it.[2] Most eschatologies believe in a universal resurrection of all of the dead, while a minority, such as the Christadelphians,[3] believe that only a select will be resurrected.
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Ancient Egyptian religion included a belief in the resurrection of the dead.[5]
Frashokereti is the Zoroastrian doctrine of a final renovation of the universe, when evil will be destroyed, and everything else will be then in perfect unity with God (Ahura Mazda). The term probably means "making wonderful, excellent".[6]
The doctrinal premises are (1) good will eventually prevail over evil; (2) creation was initially perfectly good, but was subsequently corrupted by evil; (3) the world will ultimately be restored to the perfection it had at the time of creation; (4) the "salvation for the individual depended on the sum of [that person's] thoughts, words and deeds, and there could be no intervention, whether compassionate or capricious, by any divine being to alter this." Thus, each human bears the responsibility for the fate of his own soul, and simultaneously shares in the responsibility for the fate of the world.[7]
The Sadducees did not believe in an afterlife, but the Pharisees believed in a literal resurrection of the body.[8]
Resurrections of dead people are found in the Tanakh, such as Elijah and the widow's son at Zarephath: "Behold your son lives." (1 Kings 17:23); Elisha and the Shunammite woman: "Take up your son." (2 Kings 4:36) and contact with Elisha's bones reviving a dead man: "as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet." (2 Kings 13:21) Ezekiel's Vision in the Valley of Dry Bones reads, "Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live". (Ezekiel 37:5)
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia article on Resurrection,[9] the topic may be discussed in Job 14:13-15, 19:25-26, Isa 26:19, Dan 12:1-4 and is argued in more detail in the extra-canonical books of Enoch, Jubilees, Apocalypse of Baruch, 2 Esdras and the Maccabees. That same article in the section on Jewish Creed or Not?[10] states: "The belief in resurrection is expressed on all occasions in the Jewish liturgy; e.g., in the morning prayer Elohai Neshamah, in the Shemoneh 'Esreh, and in the funeral services. Maimonides made it the last of his thirteen articles of belief: "I firmly believe that there will take place a revival of the dead at a time which will please the Creator, blessed be His name.""
Orthodox Judaism holds belief in resurrection to be one of the cardinal principles of Rabbinical Judaism. Jewish halakhic authority Maimonides set down thirteen main principles of the Jewish faith which have ever since been printed in all Rabbinic Siddur (prayer books). Resurrection is the thirteenth principle:
There is, however, a minority point of view, held by certain Jewish mystics and others, which asserts that those Jewish beliefs are in contradiction with the resurrection as taught by Isaiah (Isaiah 8:16 and 26:19) and Daniel (12:1 and 13) in which the resurrection was understood as being a doctrine of physical 'Rebirth'.
According to the New Testament, Jesus argued with the Sadducees over the doctrine of the resurrection. These passages are Mark 12:18-27, Matthew 22:23-33, Luke 20:27–40. See also Mark 12. The Gospel of John also contains teachings about the resurrection of the dead (5:25-29, 6:39-59).
The "Sign of Jonah" (Matthew 12:38-42, 16:1-4, Luke 11:29-32, cf. Mark 8:11-13) may be about the resurrection of the dead. From the Scholars Version translation of Matthew 12:38-42: "...At judgment time, the citizens of Ninevah will come back to life along with this generation ... At judgment time, the queen of the south will be brought back to life along with this generation ..."
The "resurrection of the righteous" is mentioned at Luke 14:14. The "resurrection at the last day" is mentioned at John 11:24-25.
In Acts of the Apostles, the Apostles and Paul of Tarsus argued in support of the doctrine: 4:2, 17:32, 23:6-8, 24:15, 24:21. In 1 Corinthians 15:13 Paul argues: "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised." 2 Timothy 2:18 warns of some "who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some." Additional verses are Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 6:14; 15:12-13; 2 Corinthians 4:14; 2 Corinthians 5:1-2; Philippians 3:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:12-16; 2 Timothy 2:11; Hebrews 6:2.
Most Christian denominations profess the Nicene Creed, and most English versions of the Nicene Creed in current use include the phrase:
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Both "Resurrection of the Dead" and "World to Come" are phrases found in Christian Bibles.
Most Christian denominations teach the concept of eternal life after death, provided through the atonement of Christ as demonstrated by the Resurrection of Jesus. Contrary to the idea of the separation of soul and body, the fundamental tenet of Christian doctrine is the resurrection of the flesh at the End Times.
The centrality of this idea for Christian doctrine is early stated in 1 Corinthians 15 by Paul the Apostle:
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
The Christian writers Irenaeus and Justin Martyr, in the 2nd Century, wrote against the idea that only the soul survived. Martyr [11] insists that a man is both soul and body and Christ has promised to raise both, just as his own body was raised. He wrote: "Seeing as ... the Saviour in the whole Gospel shows that there is salvation for the flesh, why do we any longer endure those unbelieving and dangerous arguments, and fail to see that we are retrograding when we listen to such an argument as this: that the soul is immortal, but the body mortal, and incapable of being revived? For this we used to hear from Pythagoras and Plato, even before we learned the truth. If then the Saviour said this, and proclaimed salvation to the soul alone, what new thing, beyond what we heard from Pythagoras and Plato and all their band, did He bring us? But now He has come proclaiming the glad tidings of a new and strange hope to men."
Jesus appears to have been in general agreement with the position held by some Pharisees, as illustrated by his response to a question regarding marriage at the resurrection (Matthew 22:23-32, Mark 12:18-27 and Luke 20:27-40). While the Christian doctrine of resurrection is based on Jewish belief, how the emphasis on this involving the actual flesh increased parallel with Christianity succeeding among the Greek populace may connect to traditional Greek beliefs that true immortality always had to involve both body and soul. Although the Greeks held that a few individuals had been resurrected to physical immortality, there was no ancient Greek belief in a general resurrection of the dead. Indeed they held that once body had been destroyed, there was no possibility of returning to life. A number of early Church Fathers, like Pseudo-Justin, Tatian, Irenaeus, and Athenagoras of Athens, argues about the Christian resurrection beliefs in ways that answer this traditional Greek scepticism to post-mortal physical continuity.[12]
Most Christian churches continue to uphold the belief that there will be a general and universal resurrection of the dead at "the end of time", as described by Paul when he said, "...he hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world..." (Acts 17:31 KJV) and "...there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." (Acts 24:15 KJV).
Many of the early Church Fathers cited the Old Testament examples as either foreshadowing Jesus's resurrection, or foreshadowing or prophesying a future resurrection of all the dead.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia: ""No doctrine of the Christian Faith", says St. Augustine, "is so vehemently and so obstinately opposed as the doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh"... This opposition had begun long before the days of St. Augustine:"[13]
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church the body after resurrection is changed into a spiritual, imperishable body:
999 How? Christ is raised with his own body: "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself";553 but he did not return to an earthly life. So, in him, "all of them will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear," but Christ "will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body," into a "spiritual body":554 [14]
According to the Summa Theologica, spiritual beings that have been restored to glorified bodies will have the following basic qualities:
Although Martin Luther personally believed and taught resurrection of the dead in combination with soul sleep, this is not a mainstream teaching of Lutheranism and most Lutherans traditionally believe in resurrection of the body in combination with the immortal soul.[16] According to the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), on the last day,[17] all the dead will be resurrected.[18] Their souls will then be reunited with the same bodies they had before dying.[19] The bodies will then be changed, those of the wicked to a state of everlasting shame and torment,[20] those of the righteous to an everlasting state of celestial glory.[21]
However, there are many theologians, such as Thomas Oden, popular Christian writers, such as Randy Alcorn and Christian scholars, such as the Anglican Bishop of Durham, N.T. Wright [22] who have defended the primacy of the resurrection in Christian faith.
Interviewed by Time in 2008 senior Anglican bishop and theologian N. T. Wright spoke of “the idea of bodily resurrection that people deny when they talk about their ‘souls going to Heaven,'" adding: “I've often heard people say, ‘I'm going to heaven soon, and I won't need this stupid body there, thank goodness.’ That's a very damaging distortion, all the more so for being unintentional.” Instead, Wright explains: “In the Bible we are told that you die, and enter an intermediate state." This is "conscious," but "compared to being bodily alive, it will be like being asleep." This will be followed by the resurrrection into new bodies, he says. "Our culture is very interested in life after death, but the New Testament is much more interested in what I've called the life after life after death."
Early 20th century American preacher Billy Sunday epitomizes the focus on "going to heaven" in his sermon “Heaven: A Wonderful Place; Where There is No More Death; Blessed Hope of the Christian.” In the message Sunday characteristically explained the feelings of his audience by saying “Everybody wants to go to Heaven. We are all curious. We want to know, where Heaven is, how it looks, who are there, what they wear, and how to get there!” Sunday speaks of many aspects of the afterlife such as the nice weather and eternal health, although there is no mention of the resurrection of the dead. He ends with an illustration about a man who dies and goes to heaven exclaiming “Home, home at last!” as if he had arrived at the end of his eschatological journey.[23]
The emphasis on the immortality of the soul in heaven instead of the resurrection of the dead continues largely in the 21st century through popular charismatic and evangelical preaching. Jesus is often spoken of as “the way to heaven” and personal eschatology is generally seen in terms of whether or not a person gets into heaven when they die, rather than how they will fare at the resurrection of the dead.
Several churches, such as the Anabaptists and Socinians of the Reformation, then Seventh-day Adventist Church, Christadelphians, Jehovah's Witnesses, and theologians of different traditions reject the idea of the immortality of a non-physical soul as a vestige of Neoplatonism, and other pagan traditions. In this school of thought, the dead remain dead (and do not immediately progress to a Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory) until a physical resurrection of some or all of the dead occurs at the end of time. Some groups, Christadelphians in particular, consider that it is not a universal resurrection, and that at this time of resurrection that the Last Judgment will take place.[24]
According to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all those who have lived on the earth will be resurrected, regardless of their righteousness. Those who are righteous will be resurrected at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This is referred to as the First Resurrection (Rev. 20:4 KJV). Those who are not righteous will wait until the end of the Millennium, after which they too will be resurrected (Rev. 20:5 KJV).
Before the resurrection, the spirits of the dead are believed to exist in a place known as the spirit world, which is similar to yet fundamentally distinct from the traditional concept of Heaven and Hell. It is believed that the spirit retains its wants, beliefs, and desires in the afterlife. (1 Pet. 3:19 KJV)
The resurrection is believed to unite the spirit with the body again, and the LDS Church teaches that the body will be made whole and become incorruptible, a state which includes immortality.[25]
According to LDS doctrine, Jesus Christ was the first to be resurrected into incorruptibility, though some who had died were shortly resurrected afterward (Matt. 27:52-53 KJV). There is also a belief in LDS doctrine that a few exceptional individuals were removed from the earth "without tasting of death." This is referred to as translation, and these individuals are believed to have retained their bodies in a purified form, though they too will eventually be required to die and receive resurrection. Enoch (Gen. 5:24 KJV), Moses (Deut. 34:5-6 KJV), and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11 KJV) are frequently cited as examples of this.
Early church fathers defended the resurrection of the dead against the pagan belief that the immortal soul went to the underworld immediately after death.[26] Currently, however, it is a popular Christian belief that the souls of the righteous do go straight to heaven.[27][28]
At the close of the medieval period, the modern era brought a shift in Christian thinking from an emphasis on the resurrection of the body back to the immortality of the soul.[29] This shift was a result of a change in the zeitgeist, as a reaction to the Renaissance and later to the Enlightenment. Dartigues has observed that especially “from the 17th to the 19th century, the language of popular piety no longer evoked the resurrection of the soul but everlasting life. Although theological textbooks still mentioned resurrection, they dealt with it as a speculative question more than as an existential problem.”[29]
This shift was supported not by any scripture, but largely by the popular religion of the Enlightenment, deism. Deism allowed for a supreme being, such as the philosophical first cause, but denied any significant personal or relational interaction with this figure. Deism, which was largely led by rationality and reason, could allow a belief in the immortality of the soul, but not necessarily in the resurrection of the dead. American deist Ethan Allen demonstrates this thinking in his work, Reason the Only Oracle of Man (1784) where he argues in the preface that nearly every philosophical problem is beyond humanity’s understanding, including the miracles of Christianity, although he does allow for the immortality of an immaterial soul.[30]
Formerly, it was widely believed that to rise on judgement day the body had to be whole and preferably buried with the feet to the east so that the person would rise facing God.[31][32][33] A Parliamentary Act from the reign of King Henry VIII stipulated that only the corpses of executed murderers could be used for dissection.[34] Restricting the supply to the cadavers of murderers was seen as an extra punishment for the crime. If one believes dismemberment stopped the possibility of resurrection of an intact body on judgement day, then a posthumous execution is an effective way of punishing a criminal.[35][36][37][38] Attitudes towards this issue changed very slowly in the United Kingdom and were not manifested in law until the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832. For much of the British population it was not until the 20th century that the link between the body and resurrection was finally broken as cremation was only made legal in 1902.[39]
In Islam, Yawm al-Qiyāmah (Arabic: يوم القيامة "the Day of Resurrection") or Yawm ad-Din (Arabic: يوم الدين "the Day of Judgment") is believed to be God's final assessment of humanity. The sequence of events (according to the most commonly-held belief) is the annihilation of all creatures, resurrection of the body, and the judgment of all sentient creatures.
The exact time when these events will occur is unknown, however there are said to be major[40] and minor signs[41] which are to occur near the time of Qiyamah (End time). Many Qur'anic verses, especially the earlier ones, are dominated by the idea of the nearing of the day of resurrection.[42][43]
