Season 2 Podcast 12 The Resurrection and the Three Degrees of Glory

Season 2 Podcast 12 The Resurrection and The Three Degrees of GloryChristianity to some is more associated with hell than with heaven, perhaps because the images of hell are so startling. Of course, John Milton in Paradise Lost and Dante in the Inferno fixed hell in our minds forever.  An early American evangelist, Jonathon Edwards, in one sermon fixed hell in America’s minds with his unforgettable images in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”  We know a lot about hell from literature, but what do we know about heaven from the Holy Bible?Heaven plays a prominent role. Three writers, Paul, Peter, and John present a very inviting picture of heaven with the promise that the gates are open to everyone who keeps the commandments and endure to the end. In Genesis 2 we read Moses’s description of the creation of Adam in verse 7.“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” The “breath of life” refers to the immortal spirit which preexists the creation of earth and the creation of the physical body.  The purpose of earth was to give man a mortal body. The spirit and the body combined formed “a living soul.”  In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve had physical bodies; however, they were immortal. Death did not enter into the world until after the fall. We don’t know how long they lived in the Garden before the fall, but after the fall mortality brought death to every living thing.  With death, time began, for in our world time and death are inseparable.Death, of course, is why it was necessary for Christ to bring about the resurrection.  Death means the separation of the body and the spirit.  The resurrection is the reuniting of the body and the spirit, only the resurrection is everlasting.   Following the resurrection, there will be no more death. Please read First Corinthians 15 verses 51-55.51 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.54 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.55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?In other words, Christ raises us from the dead.  When we are born, our immortal spirits are given a mortal body subject to mortal laws. When we die, the mortal body is separated from the immortal spirit.  The body decays into the earth, turning to dust, and the immortal spirit goes to the spirit world to live among other spirits who once lived on the earth.  Mortal laws deal with reducible matter; immortal laws deal with irreducible matter. As resurrected beings, we leave the mortal world and natural law behind and enter into an immortal world of spirits governed by a different set of laws. Please read First Corinthians 15: 19-22“19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”Now this is where the resurrection becomes extremely interesting. The final judgment does not come until after the resurrection. The righteous are judged first and only the righteous come forth in the first resurrection.