Main news for 12 October 2022

King James Version (en)

1 Corinthians, Chapter 15, verses 51-52

⁵¹ and of the charging of them that shall be found alive at the last day

⁵¹Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

⁵²In 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.

NOTES

As he concludes the discussion of transformation and resurrection, Paul...

As he concludes the discussion of transformation and resurrection, Paul draws a clear line between those who have chosen the Kingdom and those who have not (vv. 51-52). By "we" the apostle here undoubtedly means Christians, and by Christians he means the Church, which for him is nothing other than a community of people living in the Kingdom. It is no surprise that in this case Paul speaks not of death but of change or transformation: for those who have already chosen the Kingdom now, the last day will be something expected and more or less predictable, as it is for anyone who, after a long journey, has finally reached the intended and long-desired goal. Of course, the goal may turn out not to be exactly as those walking from far away imagined it, but in any case they will not be mistaken or disappointed in what matters most.

It is different for those who, for one reason or another, did not choose the Kingdom during their earthly journey. In itself this is not fatal, since a choice can be made even at the very last moment, and if it is sincere and the reasons for the earlier delay are weighty enough, the one who makes the choice will receive the Kingdom, like the workers of the eleventh hour in the Savior's parable. But for them the last day will be precisely the day of Judgment in the full sense of the word, because for them it will not be the completion of a path begun in advance, but the unexpected beginning of an entirely new life, and therefore one previously unknown to them. It is no accident that Paul speaks of them specifically in terms of resurrection, not of change or transformation: those who have become partakers of the Kingdom thereby already become, to a certain degree, partakers of the process that is completed at the end of time in the universal resurrection and transformation of human nature.

In a certain sense one could say that those who live in the Kingdom, even in the measure of fullness possible in our world, which has not yet been fully transformed, are already rising even now, though their resurrection will be completed at the end of time with the Savior's return. As for everyone else, for them everything will begin and end then, on the last day, though of course until the Last Judgment their destiny in eternity remains undefined. Only after each person's destiny has been determined and the process of universal transformation has been completed will the victory over death be complete (vv. 54-55). And that victory, in turn, will open the way to the fullness of that life and that breath of God with which the Kingdom is permeated.

Paul is sure that the final victory over death is impossible without the complete transformation of the human being, without a qualitative change of human nature itself. This change must make it possible for the person to live in that transfigured world which will become reality after the Savior's return at the end of time. The transfigured person will no longer remain under the power of sin; his nature, damaged by the fall, will be completely healed.

More than that: renewed human nature will change even in comparison with what the human being had before the fall, becoming like the human nature of the risen Christ. But this is impossible if a person does not become a living Torah. The point, of course, is not to memorize the text of the Pentateuch. Nor is it even only that the Torah should become for a person an absolute inner imperative, spiritual and moral; that is still only the inner Torah, whose existence every believing Jew in Gospel times knew.

The living Torah is a state of a person in which his every thought, every word, and every action are determined only by the inner Torah and by nothing else. For this to become possible, the person must be completely free from the power over himself of the sin that entered our life after the fall. It is no accident that the first and second generations of Christians saw the only example of the living Torah in the person of Jesus Christ Himself: apart from Him, no one was free from sin.

But for the first Christians, imitation of Christ was connected with the necessity of becoming oneself, with Christ's help and in Christ, the same living Torah; and this is possible only at the end of the path, at the end of time, with the complete transformation of human nature. Until then, the striving to become a living Torah will inevitably call forth in fallen human nature the resistance of the sin that rules it after the fall, and the more clearly the inner Torah manifests itself in a person, the more strongly the damaged condition of that human nature is revealed.

Thus the Torah gives strength to sin: as long as a person rolls along by inertia, not trying to live according to the inner Torah, the power of sin in him is scarcely revealed. But as soon as he tries to change the spiritual vector of his life, it manifests itself more strongly the more he strives to follow the inner Torah. The Torah reveals in a person the energy of sin, and the Savior helps overcome the sin thus revealed, transfiguring the person's nature together with him so that at the end of time the person is completely freed from the power of sin. Such is the dynamic of Christian life described by the apostle.

Paul's words "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" ring mysteriously. About what changing speaks the apostle? And how is it connected to death? Taking into consideration the mention of "the last trump", announcing, as it is not difficult to guess, the dreaded Judgment, one can think that it is about this transformation, which awaits each of us in the end of time. Usually the sentence "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" is understood in this sense that the apostle supposed the fast return of the Savior in the glory, before which, as thought Paul, could completely live some of his contemporaries. But is it only what wants to say the apostle? And how death is connected to the last Judgment? The simplest answer: on the day of the Judgment, at the sound of the "last trump", the deaths resuscitate, appearing before God with those, who will live in those days. Everything is so; but when thus began the resurrection? Paul himself calls the Savior " the first of the deaths ", meaning that in particular He is the first to be resuscitated, beginning with Himself this process, which will end in the end of time.

And how do people participate in this process? One of the four evangelists, Matthew, mentions that the day of the death on the cross of the Savior, in Judea opened graves, from where came out people resuscitated from death, who saw several of those who lived at that time in the country. Who then resuscitated first? And in what sense Paul calls Jesus "the first of the deaths", that is the first of the resuscitated? Maybe, the problem here is not at all in the chronology? Indeed, the resurrection of the Savior was nothing else, than the visible triumph of the Kingdom over the power of evil and death, over this Sheol, which formerly sooner or later possessed everyone, and possessed irrevocably. Now the spiritual vector of our world has changed: the Sheol stepped back, stepping the Kingdom. And the first testimony of this was the resuscitated on the day of the death on the cross of the Savior.

His own resurrection confirmed: the promised Messiah came, the Kingdom is here, death is overcome, and the definitive triumph of the Kingdom is only a question of time. And what about people? They participate as we see, in the process of becoming of the Kingdom in our world being transformed, but not yet transformed till the end. On such background, the words " we shall not all sleep" can completely relate not only to those, who will be alive in the last days of the existence of the old world, but also to those who joined in some way to the life of the Kingdom throughout its history in our world being transformed.

As we see, everyone, having a relation with the Kingdom, already does not belong any more to death, he does not die, but he cannot also obtain the fullness of the life of the Kingdom until the full moment of its, this Kingdom, triumph. But there are in our world being still transformed just partially only people, not taking at all part in the kingdom. It is quite possible that their fate will be the same, as was the fate of all the people who lived before the coming into the world of the Savior: the sheol which retreated, but not yet totally disappeared, and later, in the last day, resuscitated so that, having appeared before God, they can also say their "yes" or their "no" to Him and the One, Who brought the Kingdom to the world.

FAQ

What should be understood by the form of resurrection, described both in the Gospel (Christ's words that on the Day of Judgment He will resurrect those who live according to His word) and in the Apocalypse (the description of the judgment of the dead)? What will be the form, including the physical one, of the life of a resurrected person? When the risen Christ appeared before the disciples, in order to dispel their fear, He asked them for food and ate with them. Furthermore, knowing of Thomas's unbelief, He Himself asked him to touch the wounds from the crucifixion. Does it follow from this that the resurrected will also have a material form? Is this so, and what then will the spiritual component be?

Yes, you are right, the resurrected will also have a material component, and the body, judging by the wounds on the Body of the Risen Christ, will be the very same. In this lies the radical difference between the Christian faith and spiritualism, which considers that after the death of the flesh only the soul will live, as well as the belief in the reincarnation of souls. The ancient Apostles' Creed states that we believe in "the resurrection of the body", and our current Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed states that we "look for the resurrection of the dead" also in the flesh. This is fundamentally important, because Christianity considers a human being to be a creature consisting of an immaterial soul and a material body. The flesh alone, just like the soul alone, is remarkable, but it is not a human being. God desires specifically human beings, and it is precisely them that He came to save.

At the same time, the flesh of the Risen Christ differed from our flesh; in particular, it was not subject to the laws of this world. The Apostle Paul, speaking of the end of the world, says: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" ( 15:51-53). On this basis, Christians believe that in the resurrection of the dead our flesh will become as it was intended by God prior to the Fall, and they call it transfigured. This resurrection of us in our own, yet transfigured flesh, in its union with our own soul, accomplished by God, will become the beginning of the general transfiguration of creation.

The spiritual component, therefore, will not disappear either, and the resurrected person will be a human being, not a soul with little wings from ancient pagan myths. What will this spiritual component be? This will apparently be determined by our life here. If you were dead to sin and alive to God, and already here became a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, then your transfigured life has already begun here, and at the general resurrection it will unfold in all its fullness. But if you were dead to God and alive to sin…

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