If you think you and him are not lacking in discernment as it relates to 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, then how about addressing what I said in post #86 and show that? It seems that all you can ever do anymore is divert attention by bringing up other topics instead of addressing the topic at hand.
1 Corinthians 15:20 (KJV) But now is Christ risen from the dead,
and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
Who are the dead for whom the resurrection of Christ is NOW (since His resurrection) the firstfruits of? How do you define firstfruits?
1 Corinthians 15:17-19 (KJV) And
if Christ be not raised, your faith
is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then
they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
Paul shows us that the resurrection of Christ gives us assurance that the dead in Christ have not perished, because THEY are the firstfruits of Christ SPIRITUALLY! Why? Because if they have not become the firstfruits of the Spirit of Christ then they which have died in Christ before His coming to them through His Spirit have perished because they died before possessing ETERNAL LIFE through the Spirit of Christ in them. How can the dead in Christ be saved without possessing the Spirit that gives eternal life to all who believe?
Christ through His Spirit is the first to be spiritually alive after death and three days later through the same Spirit in Him His dead body was raised to life again. Then through His Spirit sent to make spiritually alive all who are ordained to eternal life through Him, those of faith from before Christ came became the firstfruits of the Spirit and ascended with Christ a spiritual body as living souls to heaven. Through His Spirit in us, not only they but we too are now firstfruits of Christ through His Spirit sent to be in us. This is how Christ spiritually comes to man of faith before we physically die. That's why Paul writes "
afterward they a that are Christ's at His coming."
Luke 23:46 (KJV) And when
Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
1 Corinthians 15:23 (KJV) But every man in his own order:
Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
Romans 8:23 (KJV) And
not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Revelation 14:4 (KJV) These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins.
These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
Once whosoever is ordained to eternal life has been spiritually delivered up unto the Father in the Kingdom of God in heaven when all rule and authority have been put down and all enemies destroyed, even the last enemy that is death. When God's kingdom is fully established in heaven over the universe. It shall then be seen that He is Lord of all. In the previous verses he had spoken of the promise that all things should be subjected to God; in this he speaks of its being actually done.
1 Corinthians 15:24-28 (KJV) Then
cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
1 Corinthians 15:35 (KJV) But some
man will say,
How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
1 Corinthians 15:46 (KJV) Howbeit
that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
Paul appeared to be speaking to a people who not only doubted the resurrection of Christ, but who equally had no understanding of eternal life through the Spirit sent from Christ in us. Paul goes into great detail showing us the body that is dead is NOT the body that shall be quickened to life after death. The body that is dead and buried is natural flesh, borne in the image of the earth destined to die. But the body raised is not the natural body, but is the body that God gives, heavenly/celestial body in the image of the heavenly. The natural body the image of natural man, the spiritual body the image of Christ in heaven. The body sown natural is raised a "spiritual body" that ascends to heaven through the Spirit of Christ in us, as living soul without human form when our natural body has died.
Because flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, therefore the natural body of dust must also be resurrected to life again, changed from mortal to immortal and corruptible to incorruptible when the last trumpet sounds.
1 Corinthians 15:48-50 (KJV) As
is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (KJV) Behold, I shew 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 trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
