Page:Angelic Life in the Spiritual World, as revealed by the Sacred Scriptures.djvu/10

8 Hosea, also, it is said, "After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight" (Hosea vi. 2).

If we now enquire what is raised, the Scriptures reply that the man rises. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, "To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise" (Luke xxiii. 43). "Thou" was the man himself—not his corporeal covering. The Apostle Paul, in the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians, disposes of the arguments which might be advanced by those who held the theory of a resurrection of the body. He says, "But some will say. How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it I die: and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain . . . but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him. ... So also is the resurrection of the dead" (vers. 35, 36, 37, 38, 42)

The Apostle also teaches (2 Cor. xii. 2) that the spiritual body so closely resembles the natural body, that the former cannot he distinguished from the latter. Here are his words: "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth:) how that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.." It is thus evident that no deeply marked distinctions exist between the natural body and the spiritual body, nor is any abrupt revelation made that existence in the Spiritual World has commenced. Hence we conclude that when we consciously enter the Spiritual World, we shall have bodies outwardly resembling those which form our earthly tabernacles; the latter with all their imperfections being left behind. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption" (1 Cor. xv. 50).