462                  A. M. E. REVIEW.

  While Paul acknowledges the mystery of the manner of
this resurrection, for finite conception, he contends for the
truth of the doctrine on the unmistakable ground of theism.
The proper belief in God, as the Maker and Preserver of all
things, is sufficient guarantee for the possibility of the
resurrection of the identical body that fell asleep in death,
regardless to how it may have been devoured and trans-
mitted by different animals or scattered to the four winds
of the earth. We cannot put a limit to omnipotence. It is
absolutely all powerful (in all things right), or, on the other
hand, has acquired power, which is equivalent to finite
power, destroying the very idea of the power of God.
  Before Agrippa the Apostle asked this question, when
making his defense, "Why should it be thought a thing in-
credible with you, that God should raise the dead?" We
must either admit that God can and will raise the same
body, or we must deny every phase of theism and the truth
of the resurrection.   For, as has been intimated, if the
resurrection does not mean the arising of the same body, as
with our blessed Saviour for example, then it fails of intel-
ligent import.   In the 42d, 44th, and 45th verses of this
15th chapter of I Cor. let us carefully note the dual use
made of the demonstrative, It.  "It is sown in corruption;
it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonor; it is
raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in
power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual
body." We will observe here that this neuter pronoun bears
in full force its impersonal import and has direct reference
to the resurrection of the body.
  In some mysterious way, the physical properties and mat-
ter of the body sown in corruption, dishonor, weakness, and
in its  natural  state;  will,  through  conditions  greatly
changed, be raised in incorruption, in glory, in power, and
a spiritual body.  To explain this conception of the Apostle
otherwise, is to explain away the real Bible import of a lit-
eral resurrection, and, in so many words, really "denying it
indeed and in truth."




			

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 28, Num. 1

Paul's Conception of the Resurrection

M.

Volume:  28
Issue Number:  01
Page Number:  456
Date:  07/1911