A Resurrected Body

Misunderstanding the Body

Confusion over the body is nothing new. In our culture today we see a misinformed generation that is promoting that we are capable of deciding how we are made depending on how we feel. What this leads to is a crisis in identity for the people of the country as well as the people of the body of Christ.

How do we speak with this generation who are confused about who they are? Where do we speak up and how do we speak up in this generation?

What we must first understand is the notion that this is nothing new. There is no new influence on the human population that has not existed before.

In antiquity during the time of the first written words, the Sumerians followed different beliefs about the identity of people as well.

Who is Ishtar?

In ancient Babylon, the people worshipped a goddess called Inanna or Ishtar. There is even a common meme spread around this time of year proclaiming that Christians do not even understand the word Easter. It is as if what we call this seasonal celebration has an influence on what we truly believe.

But you must ask yourself if what you truly believe is based on cultural misalignment with syncretism with pagan beliefs or truly representative of what Jesus Christ came to set straight.

Witness the ancient beliefs of following the seasons as depicted by man, where Ishtar was the goddess of sexuality, fertility, and a renewing season brought about after the death and decay from winter.

Reading through the Bible, we see no mention of bunnies delivering eggs to children. Where do we get these traditions and practices? Bringing in the new season of growth and a revitalization of life after winter has been something which humanity has found for celebration.

However, through out the time of the Israelites, turning to the worship of nature instead of the creator of nature has been an idol hard to tear down.

From Ishtar to Asherah

In the epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest epics which also contains a flood story, the following of Ishtar is recognized. Many cultures have observed the worship of the goddess as the rebirthing of life throughout the ages.

Some scholars mention that the worship of Asherah is the Semitic goddess similar to Ishtar. Depending on the lineage and the phonetic spelling of the name, Ishtar and Asherah sound similar. However, while the

We read throughout the Old Testament how the Canaanites worshipped differently than the Israelites were instructed. Often, it is told to the Israelites how they must not allow the mixing of the religions in with their own, but they are witnessed time and again of tearing down the Asherah poles standing next to the altars of Baal.

On Mount Carmel, the prophet Elijah calls out the prophets of Baal and Asherah 1 Kings 18:19. We are given the scriptures that there is a slaughtering of those who follow Baal but not of the prophets of the followers of Asherah. What became of them?

Asherah to Easter

Some people would have you believe the deity the Isralites failed to extinguish from the land is the same people worship today with the celebration of Easter. Just because the words sound similar, how do the celebrations follow one another?

What are you truly celebrating this season?

Are you celebrating the arrival of Spring after the dreary Winter?

Are you celebrating the arrival of the daylight overcoming the darkness?

Are you celebrating the arrival of all the new life in the form of flowers, fruit, blossoms, and other forms of life?

From Pesach to Easter

In Hebrew, the term for Passover is Pesach, which most other languages use for the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Only German and English use Ostre or Easter, which is thought to have derived from Eostre. Odd to not have a name similar to that used by so many other languages. Does this mean something to us?

How we end up clinging to tradition and celebrating in ways we do not understand is to not study and learn what we are celebrating, or gathering together in honor.

Be reminded of the true reason we gather together and are reminded of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Just as God proved to the prophets on Mount Carmel who was truly able to proclaim and speak for Himself, the resurrection is the proof we need to see that Jesus is the Son of God and the proof we desire to witness our future resurrection.

Culmination of Pesach (Passover)

1 Corinthians 15:35 LSB

But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?”

1 Corinthians 15:36 LSB

You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies;

1 Corinthians 15:37 LSB

and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else.

1 Corinthians 15:38 LSB

But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own.

1 Corinthians 15:39 LSB

All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish.

1 Corinthians 15:40 LSB

There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another.

1 Corinthians 15:41 LSB

There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

1 Corinthians 15:42 LSB

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a corruptible body, it is raised an incorruptible body;

1 Corinthians 15:43 LSB

it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;

1 Corinthians 15:44 LSB

it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 15:45 LSB

So also it is written, “The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

1 Corinthians 15:46 LSB

However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.

1 Corinthians 15:47 LSB

The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:48 LSB

As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly.

1 Corinthians 15:49 LSB

And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

1 Corinthians 15:50 LSB

Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the corruptible inherit the incorruptible.

1 Corinthians 15:51 LSB

Behold, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,

1 Corinthians 15:52 LSB

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 will be changed.

1 Corinthians 15:53 LSB

For this corruptible must put on the incorruptible, and this mortal must put on immortality.

1 Corinthians 15:54 LSB

But when this corruptible puts on the incorruptible, and this mortal puts on immortality, then will come about the word that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.

1 Corinthians 15:55 LSB

“O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?”

1 Corinthians 15:55 LSB

“O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?”

1 Corinthians 15:56 LSB

Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;

1 Corinthians 15:57 LSB

but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

1 Corinthians 15:58 LSB

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Jesus

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” - Juliet in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Whatever you may call this season remember that the Son of God redefined all festivals. We must die to the traditions, celebrations and followings we had before we knew Him.

We must go out and tear down our own Asherah poles and altars we have set up to celebrate nature instead of the one who created it, came into it, dwelt amongst us, and died for the restoration of all life.

No other god or goddess has the claim that Jesus Christ, the messiach, Son of God, has on the world.

There are others who borrow from His story and attempt to make it their own.

Just as the Israelites did not remove completely from their lives the things which distracted them, we continue to allow the spirit of the Baal and Asherah in our lives today.

We may understand that the new body we have to look forward to is not one that is physically changed here and now or made to look the way we not to now but one that only God knows is in store for us in the resurrected body.

Only God Knows

Paul is telling us to look forward to the glorified resurrection of our bodies in the future. Too many people today are confused, misunderstanding, and deluded into thinking the bodies they are given are not what they are intended to have. Instead of convincing the world they can alter their physical appearances to satisfy their misguided ideology, the church must point them to their creator. This is the only image which they must be restored to. At this, they will be given the only hope with which they can be saved. Anything less than that detracts from the everlasting life found in the resurrection of Christ.