As Futile as That

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)

The Basket Case Chronicles #178

“Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain” (1 Cor. 15:12–14).

Given that the fundamental Christian proclamation is that Jesus came out of the tomb on the third day, how is it that some people in a Christian congregation were maintaining that there is no resurrection of the dead. They appear to be maintaining this about a future general resurrection, but Paul pushes the logic of their position out to the end. If there is no resurrection of the dead at the end of history, then there certainly was no resurrection of the dead in Jesus in the middle of history. And if Jesus was not raised in the middle of history, then our preaching is as vain as that of an Episcopalian bishop, and our faith is as futile as that of a congregation of mainline Presbyterians who got their liberal on.