The Apostle Paul said, “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52); “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
The idea of a bodily resurrection is a longstanding belief in Judaism, and there are multiple accounts in the Old and New Testaments. Elijah raised the son of Zarephath and the son of the Shunammite woman. Later, a man rose from the dead when his body touched Elisha’s bones. Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain, the daughter of Jairus, and Lazarus from the dead. And in the Book of Acts, we read that Paul raised Eutychus from the dead. Even in recent history, we have heard stories of people who died and came back to life.
The Natural and Spiritual Realms
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he talks about the physical resurrection of the body— “[For] Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8, NKJV). Paul’s evidence lay in the accounts of more than five-hundred credible witnesses.