Page:Anastasis A Treatise on the Judgment of the Dead.pdf/4



and are the subject-matter of these pages.

Etymologically, resurrection is a rising again, from the Latin word resurgo. In the Greek original of the New Testament it is represented by the noun, as in Acts xxiv. 15, where Paul, in his address to Felix, declares that he entertains the hope that there shall be a "resurrection of dead ones, both of just ones and also of unjust ones." This word anastasis signifies a rising up, a standing up from, to stand up, or again, to cause to rise, &c. The word resurrection occurs about forty times in the English testament, but not once in the Old Testament, though the subject is amply set forth in "the Law and the Prophets," only in other terms.

Thus, in Luke xx., the Great Teacher, in his argument against the Sadducees "who deny that there is any resurrection," declares that taught it in the Law; and cites from his book of Exodus iii. 6, in proof that he did so. The words of are these: "Now that the dead ones are reared up, Moses also showed at the bush, when he called  the Elohim of Abraham, and the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob. For  is not (afffirmable) of dead ones, but of living ones, for they all live to Him." This is unquestionable proof that Moses taught the resurrection of some from among dead ones, although the word does not occur in his writings. The phrase Yahweh Elohœ Avraham implies this: for is the name of the Eternal Spirit, and Elohim are powerful ones. He who shall be the powerful ones of Abraham is the plain English of Moses' words. The Eternal Spirit, or Power, manifested in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, necessitates their egersis and anastasis—their rebuilding and standing up: for there can he no such manifestation in unorganized dust of the ground; which was the then, and is the now, condition of these fathers. At present, they are merely historical characters, without any existence, corporeal or incorporeal, in the universe of the Deity; yet "they all live to