Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible













If in this present life we have a *hope* resting on Christ, and nothing more, we are more to be pitied than all the rest of the world. But, in reality, Christ *has* risen from among the dead, being the first to do so of those who are asleep. For seeing that death came through man, through man comes also the resurrection of the dead. read more.
For just as through Adam all die, so also through Christ all will be made alive again. But this will happen to each in the right order--Christ having been the first to rise, and afterwards Christ's people rising at His return. Later on, comes the End, when He is to surrender the Kingship to God, the Father, when He shall have overthrown all other government and all other authority and power. For He must continue King until He shall have put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that is to be overthrown is Death; for He will have put all things in subjection under His feet. And when He shall have declared that "All things are in subjection," it will be with the manifest exception of Him who has reduced them all to subjection to Him. But when the whole universe has been made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also become subject to Him who has made the universe subject to Him, in order that GOD may be all in all. Otherwise what will become of those who got themselves baptized for the dead? If the dead do not rise at all, why are these baptized for them? Why also do we Apostles expose ourselves to danger every hour? I protest, brethren, as surely as I glory over you--which I may justly do in Christ Jesus our Lord--that I die day by day. If from merely human motives I have fought with wild beasts in Ephesus, what profit is it to me? If the dead do not rise, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we are to die. Do not deceive yourselves: "Evil companionships corrupt good morals." Wake from this drunken fit; live righteous lives, and cease to sin; for some have no knowledge of God: I speak thus in order to move you to shame. But some one will say, "How can the dead rise? And with what kind of body do they come back?" Foolish man! the seed you yourself sow has no life given to it unless it first dies; and as for what you sow, it is not the plant which is to be that you are sowing, but a bare grain, of wheat (it may be) and to each kind of seed a body of its own. All flesh is not the same: there is human flesh, and flesh of cattle, of birds, and of fishes. There are bodies which are celestial and there are bodies which are earthly, but the glory of the celestial ones is one thing, and that of the earthly ones is another. There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. It is the same with the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in a state of decay, it is raised free from decay; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; an animal body is sown, a spiritual body is raised. As surely as there is an animal body, so there is also a spiritual body. In the same way also it is written, "The first man Adam became a living animal"; the last Adam is a life-giving Spirit. Nevertheless, it is not what is spiritual that came first, but what is animal; what is spiritual came afterwards. The first man is a man of earth, earthy; the second man is from Heaven. What the earthy one is, that also are those who are earthy; and what the heavenly One is, that also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne a resemblance to the earthy one, let us see to it that we also bear a resemblance to the heavenly One. But this I tell you, brethren: our mortal bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor will what is perishable inherit what is imperishable. I tell you a truth hitherto kept secret: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sounding of the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incapable of decay, and *we* shall be changed. For so it must be: this perishable nature must clothe itself with what is imperishable, and this mortality must clothe itself with immortality. But when this perishable nature has put on what is imperishable, and this mortality has put on immortality, then will the words of Scripture be fulfilled, "Death has been swallowed up in victory."









But with respect to the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to meet Him, we entreat you, brethren, not readily to become unsettled in mind or troubled--either by any pretended spiritual revelation or by any message or letter claiming to have been sent by us--through fancying that the day of the Lord is now here. Let no one in any way deceive you, for that day cannot come without the coming of the apostasy first, and the appearing of the man of sin, the son of perdition, who sets himself against,