Can a soul live again?


The credibility of the resurrection hope is based on the historical truth of Christ's resurrection. The Apostle Paul argues this truth forcefully: "Now if the rising of Christ from the dead is the very heart of our message, how can some of you deny that there is any resurrection? For if there is no such thing as the resurrection of the dead, then Christ was never raised. And if Christ was not raised then neither our preaching nor your faith has any meaning at all." "But the glorious fact is that Christ did rise from the dead: he has become the very first to rise of all who sleep the sleep of death. As death entered the world through a man, so has rising from the dead come to us through a man! As members of a sinful race all men die; as members of the Christ of God all men shall be raised to life" (1 Corinthians 15:12-14; 20-23, Phillips).

Here we have the Christian's Magna Charta of victory over death. Because Christ arose, we too shall arise. Because He lives, we too shall live. (See John 14:19.) If the Apostle Paul believed in the immortality of the soul, surely he would not have belabored the point of the resurrection hope as strongly as he did. If the soul goes to the presence of God at the moment of death, indeed what need is there for resurrection? Let Paul speak again: "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 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. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:51-55).

Can we imagine that great resurrection morning when multitudes of God's people from Adam to the last man in history will hear the words of the Life-giver and come forth victorious over death? One great chorus of joy, praise, and thanksgiving will rise to the throne of God: "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57).

To that resurrection morning we must look forward with the longing of the poet John Donne:

"Death, be not proud,
though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful,
for thou art not so:
. . . . . . . . .
One short sleep past,
we wake eternally;
And death shall be no more;
death thou shalt die."

Glorious indeed! But until then, what? What is the state of the dead until the resurrection morning?


Email: Creation Ministries