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Jan. 5, 2006 “29Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? 30And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? 31I die every day—I mean that, brothers—just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."33Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character." 34Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.” (1 Cor. 15: 29-34 NIV Bible Online) The Apostle Paul is changing tact here. The Corinthian Church is becoming works oriented and they are compromising with sin in areas of their personal lives and in worship. This idea that there is no resurrection from the dead had placed the believers in a quandary. If Jesus did not rise, then naturally, he’s still dead. The formula for baptism includes baptizing a person in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The “name” is deliberately singular to denote that there are not three separate gods being spoken of. God introduced himself to his chose nation by the declaration: “Behold, the Lord God is One.” There is only One True God of Heaven. God is a living being. Paul’s question is sincere. If Jesus is still dead, why then baptize anyone in the name of the dead? It would make no sense to do that. Baptism was a symbol of death, burial and resurrection to life. If Jesus had not risen as he said he would then the act of baptism would be only that, an act without the particular truth of the symbol behind it. And Paul is asking, why do we take the chances we do on the mission field knowing how dangerous it is? Why would we risk death and injury carrying a message of hope to people with no hope if the dead were not truly alive in resurrection? Would I risk life and limb for a simple “human” reason? No. Paul did what he did and suffered what he suffered because he knew Jesus personally and would not surrender truth to the skeptical ideas of men. He knew that God was the senior intellect of the universe and no man could pretend to sit on that throne. The wisest wisdom of men was deep foolishness to God. No matter what method men might devise to reach the eternal Godhead, it would be built on the foolish notion that men had a better way over the way God devised and freely gave as a gift. If the dead are not raised and this is the only life we have, Paul says we are silly. We could just be gluttons or drunkards. We could just go our merry way and let the chips fall to each as the fates enjoin. Why bother to seek any kind of moral standing? “Tomorrow we die” so we should be living it up today. We know this to be the world view. The world will always accept today as the last day and people will live as if there is no future to fear or become a part of. There is nothing but a black hole in the ground for any of us. When we stop, that’s it. That is not the message from God. It is true that man gets one physical life to live. During that life every man gets that one opportunity to acknowledge God and gain adoption into the family of God. It is appointed to man once to physically die, but the scriptures then say to us there is a judgment past that point. Paul’s point stands. It is a shame to ignore God and to neglect belief in the resurrection. Christ is indeed alive. He accomplished his task in atoning for the sin of the world. The gift of salvation is free for all takers. Men should end their walk toward sin and death and begin a walk toward the light in belief. Men do not have to remain ignorant of the promises from God. “Tomorrow we die.” ------------ Email Skip: skiptoomaloo@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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