“Resurrection Out From Among the Dead”

On the Goedbericht website it is often emphasized that special attention is given to the unique ministry of the apostle Paul and the truths which God entrusted through him to “the saints.” One of those truths concerns “the snatching away” (better known as “the rapture”) of which Paul speaks in 1 Thessalonians 4. Also in other passages of Scripture (among others 1 Corinthians 15) Paul refers to this event, which will take place prior to the public appearance of Christ (together with His own) to Israel and the nations. When this event will take place, and the circumstances under which, is not the subject now. The point is only that in a “moment of time” the deceased believers will be roused, while the believers still living will be changed (transformed), in order then together to meet the Lord in the air. This is a mighty expectation which we as believers in Christ Jesus have, and Paul has made known the details of this vivification in various letters.

This vivification is called a “resurrection OUT from among the dead,” for it is a resurrection out from among the rest of the dead. In other words: it is a resurrection leaving behind the rest of the dead (who thus simply remain in the graves).

Paul also later, from prison, makes mention of this event. In Philippians 3:11 he calls it “the out-resurrection out from among the dead.” Some, on the basis of this unique formulation, conclude that this must refer to a different resurrection than the one Paul had previously announced in his letters. They speculate that Paul here would be referring to an individual resurrection that would take place directly at, or shortly after, the death of the believer. For a number of reasons this cannot be the thought.

1. The exceptional formulation “out-resurrection out from among the dead” is linguistically comparable with “be utterly destroyed out of the people” (= be utterly destroyed, namely out of the people; Acts 3:23) and with “the exodus out of Egypt” (= exodus, namely out of Egypt; Hebrews 3:16). The out-resurrection out from among the dead = out-resurrection, namely out from among the dead. The special feature of the expression is that it places extra emphasis on the fact that it concerns a resurrection OUT from among the dead.
2. The resurrection out from among the dead of which Paul speaks in this chapter takes place expressly not at the death of a believer (or shortly thereafter) but on the occasion of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. For that is namely what Paul brings forward a few verses later.

“For our citizenship is in the heavens, whence also a Saviour we await — the Lord Jesus Christ — who shall transform the body of our humiliation to its becoming conformed to the body of His glory…” (YLT)
Philippians 3:20–21

In other words, when Christ comes out of the heavens, THEN our humiliated body will be changed and made conformed to His glorified body. This transformation of the body does not take place each time a believer dies, but is a collective, simultaneous event.

3. If the resurrection in Philippians 3:11 were to mean that the believer directly at or shortly after death would receive a new body, then there IS no question at all of a humiliated body being changed (3:21) or rising. If alongside a still humiliated body a new glorified body would arise, then that cannot be called a change, nor a resurrection.

Also in the Philippians letter the expectation is still entirely directed toward the moment when our Lord Jesus Christ will come out of the heavens, to deliver our humiliated body. No new expectation, then, but an expectation that Paul had already preached many years earlier. To the believers in Thessalonica Paul writes, that they had turned away from the idols to…

“…to wait for His Son from the heavens, whom He did raise out of the dead — Jesus, who is rescuing us from the anger that is coming.” (YLT)
1 Thessalonians 1:9–10

Here we find an almost identical formulation as in Philippians 3. The resurrection of those “who are Christ’s” is an entirely future event (1 Corinthians 15:23). Until that time there is only One who has immortality (1 Timothy 6:16). Entirely in accord with this Paul expressly warns in his last letter (!) against a teaching that the resurrection had already taken place (2 Timothy 2:18). For this teaching is an attack upon the expectation that Paul (on the basis of revelation) was allowed to make known in his letters.

Delen: