ANIMISM--the doctrine of the continuous existence, after death, of the
disembodied human spirit--has a place in the majority of religious
systems; but belief in the resurrection of the body is almost peculiar
to the Christian faith. In Old Testament times the hope of immortality
for body and soul seldom found expression. Job seems to have had at
least a glimpse of the doctrine, although his words in the original do
not express it so strongly as those of the English version: "I know that
my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the
earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh
shall I see God."[213] In the Psalms there are various intimations that
faithful servants of God looked for a future life in which the body as
well as the spirit should find place. Isaiah prophesied, "Thy dead men
shall live, my dead body shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in
dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out
the dead."[214] Daniel still more emphatically declares, "Many of them
that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting
life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."[215] The story in the
second book of Maccabees of the seven martyr-brothers, who would not
accept life from the tyrant on condition of denying their God, proves
that they were strengthened to endure by the sure hope of "a better
resurrection." One of them thus confessed his faith: "Thou like a fury
takest us out of this present life, but the King of the world shall
raise us up, who have died for His laws, unto everlasting life." Another
of the brothers, about to have his tongue plucked out and his hands cut
off, "holding forth his hands manfully, said courageously, These I had
from heaven ... and from Him I hope to receive them again." Their
mother, who is thought to have been one of the saints that in the
Epistle to the Hebrews are said to have been tortured, not accepting
deliverance, encouraged her sons to be faithful unto death by telling
them that God who had given them life at the first would restore it. "I
am sure," she said, "that He will of His own mercy give you breath and
life again as ye now regard not your own selves for His laws'
sake."[216] The Pharisees in the days of our Lord held by the doctrine,
which the Sadducees, who rejected belief in angels and spirits, denied.
The belief expressed by Martha when she said of her brother Lazarus, "I
know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day,"[217]
was in all likelihood current in her time. It may have been to impress
the truth of resurrection-life for the body that Enoch, before the
flood, and Elijah, in later Old Testament times, were translated; but it
is in the New Testament, in words spoken by the Lord Jesus, that
resurrection is fully revealed. "Marvel not at this," said He to the
Jews; "for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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