‘Bones-are-still-in-the-graves’ objection.

Not so, insist the vast majority of Christian scholars. Go out to any graveyard, dig up a grave, and we can prove that this “last day” resurrection has not yet taken place. Why not?  It’s because the “bones are still in the graves.”

This objection is simply a misunderstanding of the nature of bodily resurrection. It’s assumed that since Jesus’ self-same earthly and physical body arose from the grave, so will our old dead, decayed, and perhaps decomposed bodies. But is this assumption biblically accurate? Here are three reasons why it is not accurate:

1. Jesus’ body was the only one promised not to see decay (Acts 2:25, 27, 31; 13:35 from Psa. 16:10; 49:9). This promise was made to no one else.
2. God does not need our old and perhaps scattered atoms and molecules from our previous physical body to give us a new “spiritual” body (1 Cor. 15: 38, 44).
3. In Paul’s seed analogy in 1 Corinthians 15:37, the outer shell of a seed stays in the ground and decomposes. It does not become part of the new plant. What could be any clearer than this? Scripture never speaks of us receiving a resurrected, old earthly and physical body. Big difference.

So what will our new “spiritual” body be like? All we are told is, it “will be like his [Jesus’] glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). One other thing is also for sure. None of these resurrection verses promised a Rapture-removal of a group of believers someday off the surface of planet Earth.

For more: listen to podcast on this website for the “Unraveling the End” MPC series, Lessons #12 and 13a.

Sources:

1 Shattering the ‘Left Behind’ Delusion by John Noe (out-of-print)

2 Unraveling the End by John Noe