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Opstanding van de doden

Note 1:

De terugkeer van de doden naar hun eigen lichamen hier op aarde, is een rode draad die door de gehele Schrift loopt. Het is de hoop van de Joden uit het Oude Testament, en een van de fundamenten van het orthodoxe Christelijk geloof. Daarom schreven de Eerste Christenen hier uitvoerig over, mede door een (toen en nu nog steeds bestaande) Gnostische zienswijze hierover.
Lees o.a.  ook het interessante artikel: Resurrection of the dead (Engelstalig. Opent nieuw venster de website RivalNations.org)

Note 2:
Methodius (ca. 290 AD) schreef hier uitvoerig over, vandaar een aparte pagina onder de knop rechtsboven.

          Note 3:
          Er is nogal wat verwarring onder hedendaagse christenen ontstaan over het ‘soort’ van
          lichaam mensen ontvangen bij de opstanding, o.a. door Paulus’ uitspraak in 1Kor. 15:44,
          waar hij schrijft:
          “Een natuurlijk lichaam wordt gezaaid, een geestelijk lichaam wordt opgewekt.
            Er is een natuurlijk lichaam en er is een geestelijk lichaam.”
              

 Hieronder een PDF bestand (wordt gedownload) van een 6 delige studie over 1 Kor. 15 wat bijbelverklarende uitleg geeft over wat Paulus hiermee bedoelde.
                STA VAST IN DE OPSTANDINGSHOOP! (Nederlandse PDF)
                STAND FIRM IN THE RESURRECTION HOPE (English PDF)

Enkele Bijbelteksten over de opstanding (van de vele die hierover gaan):

"Wees hierover niet verwonderd, er komt een moment waarop alle doden zijn stem zullen horen en uit hun graf zullen komen: wie het goede gedaan heeft staat op om te leven, wie het slechte gedaan heeft staat op om veroordeeld te worden." Joh. 5:28,29

"Ik heb hoop op God – zij zelf verwachten het ook – dat er een opstanding van de doden zal zijn van zowel rechtvaardigen als onrechtvaardigen." Hand. 24:15

"Ik zal u een geheim onthullen: wij zullen niet allemaal eerst sterven - toch zullen wij allemaal veranderd worden, in een ondeelbaar ogenblik, in een oogwenk, wanneer de bazuin het einde inluidt. Wanneer de bazuin weerklinkt, zullen de doden worden opgewekt met een onvergankelijk lichaam en zullen ook wij veranderen. Want het vergankelijke lichaam moet worden bekleed met het onvergankelijke, het sterfelijke lichaam met het onsterfelijke." 1 Kor.15:51-53

"Wanneer het signaal gegeven wordt, de aartsengel zijn stem verheft en de bazuin van God weerklinkt, zal de Heer zelf uit de hemel neerdalen. Dan zullen eerst de doden die Christus toebehoren opstaan," 1 Thess.4:16

"… Zij waren tot leven gekomen en heersten duizend jaar lang samen met de messias. De andere doden kwamen niet tot leven voordat de duizend jaar voorbij waren. Dit is de eerste opstanding." Opb. 20:4,5

"Ik zag de doden, jong en oud, voor de troon staan. Er werden boeken geopend. Toen werd er nog een geopend: het boek van het leven. De doden werden op grond van wat in de boeken stond geoordeeld naar hun daden.” Opb. 20:12

Citaten van de eerste christenen:

There will be a future resurrection. Clement of Rome (c. 96, W), 1.11.

If we please Him in this present world, we will also inherit the future world. For He promised to us that He will raise us again from the dead. Polycarp (c. 135, E), 1.34.

I give you thanks . . . that I can have a part . . . in the resurrection of eternal life, both of soul and body. Martyrdom of Polycarp (c. 135, E), 1.42.

Let none of you say that this very flesh will not be judged, nor rise again. . . . For just as you were called in the flesh, you will also come to be judged in the flesh. Second Clement (c. 150), 7.519.

We expect to receive again our own bodies. Justin Martyr (c. 160, E), 1.169.

Even if anyone is laboring under a defect of body, yet if he is an observer of the doctrines delivered by Christ, He will raise him up at His second advent perfectly sound. He will make him immortal, incorruptible, and free from grief. Justin Martyr (c. 160, E), 1.233.

Those who believed in our Christ will dwell a thousand years in Jerusalem. After that, the general (and in short, the eternal) resurrection and judgment of all men will likewise take place. Justin Martyr (c. 160, E), 1.240.

He will raise all men from the dead. Justin Martyr (c. 160, E), 1.257.

Those who maintain the wrong opinion say that there is no resurrection of the flesh. Justin Martyr (c. 160, E), 1.294.

We believe that there will be a resurrection of bodies after the consummation of all things. Tatian (c. 160, E), 2.67.

Having been born, I will exist again. Death will exist no longer, and it will be seen no longer. Similarly, there was a time that I did not exist; yet, afterwards I was born. So even though fire may destroy all traces of my flesh, the earth still receives the vaporized matter. And though [my body] may be dispersed through rivers and seas, or torn in pieces by wild beasts, I am laid up in the storehouses of a wealthy Lord. Tatian (c. 160, E), 2.67.

The whole nature of men in general is composed of an immortal soul and a body. . . . One living being is formed from the two. . . . This proves that a resurrection will follow of those dead and dissolved bodies. For without this, neither could the same parts be united according to nature with one another, nor could the nature of the same men be reconstituted. . . . But that which has received both understanding and reason is man, not the soul by itself. Man, therefore, who consists of the two parts, must continue forever. . . . The conclusion is unavoidable, that, along with the eternal duration of the soul, there will be a perpetual continuance of the body according to its proper nature. Athenagoras (c. 175, E), 2.157.

It is impossible for the same men to be reconstituted unless the same bodies are restored to the same souls. Athenagoras (c. 175, E), 2.162.

God will raise your flesh immortal with your soul; and then, having become immortal, you will see the Immortal, if you now believe on Him. Theophilus (c. 180, E), 2.91.

When the number is completed that He had predetermined in His own counsel, all those who have been enrolled for life will rise again. They will have their own bodies, their own souls, and their own spirits, in which they had pleased God. Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.411.

Surely it was much more difficult and incredible [to have originally created man out of nothing] . . . than to re-integrate again that which had been created and then afterwards decomposed into earth, . . . having thus passed into those [elements] from which man . . . was formed.

Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.529.

“Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” This is put forward by all the heretics in support of their folly [i.e., their denial of the resurrection of the body]. They do this to try to annoy us and to point out that the handiwork of God [i.e., the flesh] is not saved. . . . However, by “flesh and blood,” Paul refers to all of those (as many as there are) who do not have that [Spirit] which saves and forms us into life. These are the ones who do not have the Spirit of God in themselves. For that reason, men of this mold are spoken of by the Lord as “dead.” For He says, “Let the dead bury their dead.” Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.534, 535.

In the resurrection, the soul returns to the body. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.571.

Every man must come forth [in the resurrection] as the very same person who had once existed. This is so that he may receive at God’s hands a judgment, whether of good desert or the opposite. And, therefore, the body too will appear. For the soul is not capable of suffering without the solid substance (that is, the flesh). So it is not right that souls [by themselves] should bear the wrath of God. They did not sin without the body. Tertullian (c. 197, W), 3.53.

We maintain that after life has passed away, you still remain in existence and anticipate a Day of Judgment. [In the Judgment], according to your deserts, you are assigned to misery or to bliss. Either way, it will be forever. To be capable of this, your former substance must return to you—the matter and memory of the very same human being. For if you were not endowed again with that sensitive bodily organization, you could feel neither good nor evil. And there would be no grounds for judgment without the presentation of the very person to whom the sufferings of judgment were due. Tertullian (c. 197, W), 3.177.

We therefore believe that the body also is raised. For even if it decays, it is not in the least bit destroyed. That is because the earth that receives its  remains, will preserve them. They become like seed and are wrapped up in the richer part of the earth. Thereafter, they spring up and bloom. . . . However, the body is not raised the same thing as it is now. Rather, it becomes pure and no longer corruptible. And to every body, its own proper soul will be given again. . . . But the unrighteous will receive their bodies unchanged. They will not be freed from suffering and disease. They will be un-glorified, with all the ills in which they died. Hippolytus (c. 205, W), 5.222.

The apostolic teaching is . . . that there is to be a time of the resurrection from the dead, when this body—which now is sown in corruption—will rise in incorruption; and when that which “is sown in dishonor will rise in glory.” Origen (c. 225, E), 4.240.

It will appear to be a necessary consequence that if bodily nature is annihilated, it must also be restored and created again. Origen (c. 225, E), 4.272.

Believe in the one God, so that when you are dead, you may live and may rise in His kingdom, when there will be the resurrection of the just. Commodianus (c. 240, W), 4.209.

It is patently absurd to think that the body will not co-exist with the soul in the eternal state. Methodius (c. 290, E), 6.364.

It is the body that dies; the soul is immortal. So, then, if the soul is immortal, and the body is the corpse, then those who say that there is not a resurrection of the flesh deny any resurrection at all. Methodius (c. 290, E), 6.367.

The [faithful dead] will rise again and be clothed by God with bodies. They will remember their former life and all of its actions. Being placed in the possession of heavenly goods and enjoying the pleasure of innumerable resources, they will give thanks to God in His immediate presence. Lactantius (c. 304–313, W), 7.218.

The Almighty God Himself will . . . grant us a resurrection with all those who have slept from the beginning of the world. And we will then be such as we are now in this present form, but without any defect or corruption. For we will rise incorruptible.

Apostolic Constitutions (compiled c. 390, E), 7.439.

Methodius over de opstanding