Tag: Resurrection

The soul lives on — death is not an escape from God

O fool, thou dost not absolutely die; nor, when dead, dost thou escape the lofty One.  Although thou shouldst arrange that when dead thou perceivest nothing, thou shalt foolishly be overcome.  God the Creator of the world liveth, whose laws cry out that the dead are in existence.  But thou, whilst recklessly thou seekest to live without God, judgest that in death is extinction, and thinkest that it is absolute.  God has not ordered it as thou thinkest, that the dead are forgetful of what they have previously done.  Now has the governor made for us receptacles of death, and after our ashes we shall behold them.  Thou art stripped, O foolish one, who thinkest that by death thou art not, and hast made thy Ruler and Lord to be able to do nothing.  But death is not a mere vacuity, if thou reconsiderest in thine heart.  Thou mayest know that He is to be desired, for late thou shalt perceive Him.  Thou wast the ruler of the flesh; certainly flesh ruled not thee.  Freed from it, the former is buried; thou art here.  Rightly is mortal man separated from the flesh.  Therefore mortal eyes will not be able to be equalled (to divine things).  Thus our depth keeps us from the secret of God.  Give thou now, whilst in weakness thou art dying, the honour to God, and believe that Christ will bring thee back living from the dead.  Thou oughtest to give praises in the church to the omnipotent One.

Commodianus
Instructions of Commodianus
Chapter XXVII

Faith in Christ overcomes the “second death” after the resurrection

Now astounded, swear that thou wilt believe in Christ; for the Old Testament proclaims concerning Him.  For it is needful only to believe in Him who was dead, to be able to rise again to live for all time.  Therefore, if thou art one who disbelievest that these things shall be, at length he shall be overcome in his guilt in the second death.  I will declare things to come in few words in this little treatise.  In it can be known when hope must be preferred.  Still I exhort you as quickly as possible to believe in Christ.

Commodianus
Instructions of Commodianus
Chapter XXV

The body will be raised just as the trees return to bloom in spring

Every body, whether it is dried up into dust, or is dissolved into moisture, or is compressed into ashes, or is attenuated into smoke, is withdrawn from us, but it is reserved for God in the custody of the elements.  Nor, as you believe, do we fear any loss from sepulture, but we adopt the ancient and better custom of burying in the earth.  See, therefore, how for our consolation all nature suggests a future resurrection.  The sun sinks down and arises, the stars pass away and return, the flowers die and revive again, after their wintry decay the shrubs resume their leaves, seeds do not flourish again. unless they are rotted: thus the body in the sepulchre is like the trees which in winter hide their verdure with a deceptive dryness.  Why are you in haste for it to revive and return, while the winter is still raw?  We must wait also for the spring-time of the body.  And I am not ignorant that many, in the consciousness of what they deserve, rather desire than believe that they shall be nothing after death; for they would prefer to be altogether extinguished, rather than to be restored for the purpose of punishment.  And their error also is enhanced, both by the liberty granted them in this life, and by God’s very great patience, whose judgment, the more tardy it is, is so much the more just.

Minucius Felix
Octavius
Chapter XXXIV

Christians fast and remain virgins as a longing for the greater things experienced in heaven hereafter

We even, as we may be able, excuse our mouths from food, and withdraw our sexes from union. How many voluntary eunuchs are there! How many virgins espoused to Christ! How many, both of men and women, whom nature has made sterile, with a structure which cannot procreate! Now, if even here on earth both the functions and the pleasures of our members may be suspended, with an intermission which, like the dispensation itself, can only be a temporary one, and yet man’s safety is nevertheless unimpaired, how much more, when his salvation is secure, and especially in an eternal dispensation, shall we not cease to desire those things, for which, even here below, we are not unaccustomed to check our longings!

Tertullian
On the Resurrection of the Flesh
Chapter LXI

Our resurrected bodies can feel suffering, but can also overcome it

Thus our flesh shall remain even after the resurrection—so far indeed susceptible of suffering, as it is the flesh, and the same flesh too; but at the same time impassible, inasmuch as it has been liberated by the Lord for the very end and purpose of being no longer capable of enduring suffering.

Tertullian
On the Resurrection of the Flesh
Chapter LVII

If God only raises the soul then he really doesn’t raise the dead

If God raises not men entire, He raises not the dead. For what dead man is entire, although he dies entire? Who is without hurt, that is without life? What body is uninjured, when it is dead, when it is cold, when it is ghastly, when it is stiff, when it is a corpse? When is a man more infirm, than when he is entirely infirm? When more palsied, than when quite motionless? Thus, for a dead man to be raised again, amounts to nothing short of his being restored to his entire condition,—lest he, forsooth, be still dead in that part in which he has not risen again. God is quite able to re-make what He once made.

Tertullian
On the Resurrection of the Flesh
Chapter LVII

Both body and soul reap the reward or condemnation in the resurrection

For how absurd, and in truth how unjust, and in both respects how unworthy of God, for one substance to do the work, and another to reap the reward:  that this flesh of ours should be torn by martyrdom, and another wear the crown; or, on the other hand, that this flesh of ours should wallow in uncleanness, and another receive the condemnation!

Tertullian
On the Resurrection of the Flesh
Chapter LVI

Moses and Elijah’s appearing to Christ prove a resurrection of the of body

In that same scene Moses also and Elias gave proof that the same condition of bodily existence may continue even in glory—the one in the likeness of a flesh which he had not yet recovered, the other in the reality of one which he had not yet put off.

…So likewise changes, conversions and reformations will necessarily take place to bring about the resurrection, but the substance of the flesh will still be preserved safe.

Tertullian
On the Resurrection of the Flesh
Chapter LV