CHRISTIAN ERA.
Pan/ (Car. ov, trans. by Dr. James Moffatt): "Someone will ask, do the dead rise? What kind of body have they when they come?' Foolish man! What you sow never comes to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be; it is a mere grain of wheat, for example, or some other seed. God gives it a body as he pleases, gives each kind of seed a body of its own . . . There are heavenly bodies and also earthly bodies, but the splendor of the heavenly is one thing and the splendor of the earthly is an other. There is a splendor of the sun and a splendor of the moon and a splendor of the for one star differs from another star in splendor. So with the resurrection of the dead: what is sown is mortal, what rises is immortal; sown inglorious, it rises in glory; sown in weakness, it rises in power; sown an animate body, it rises a spiritual body. As there is an animate body, so there is a spiritual body. . . . I tell you this, my brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the Realm of God, nor can the perishing inherit the im perishable. Here is a secret truth for you: not all of us are to die, but all of us are to be changed — changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet-call. The trumpet will sound, the dead will rise imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishing body must be invested with the imperishable, and this mortal body invested with immortality; and when this mortal body has been invested with immortality, then the saying of Scripture will be realized. Death is swallowed up in victory.'
1 Thessalonians, iv: °We would like you, brothers, to understand about those who are asleep in death. You must not grieve for them, like the rest of men who have no hope. Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then it follows that by means of Jesus God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For we tell you, as the Lord has told us, that we the Vying, who survive till the Lord comes, are by no means to take precedence of those who have fallen asleep. The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a loud summons when the archangel calls and the trumpet of God sounds; the dead in Christ will rise first; then we the living, who survive, will be caught up along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever.' Revelations xx and xxi (trans. by Dr. Moffatt): °Then I saw a great white throne, and One who was seated thereon; from his presence earth and sky fled, no more to be found. And I saw the dead, high and low, standing before the throne, and books were opened—also another book, the book of Life, was opened— and the dead were judged by what was written in these books, by what they had done . . . I heard a loud voice out of the throne, crying, (Lo, God's dwelling place is with men, with men will he dwell; they will be his people and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more —no more wailing or crying or pain.> *