If there is no resurrection, then what? Coming Resurrection of the Dead

We Christians believe in the bodily resurrection. That is, not just some kind of “afterlife,” but precisely that one day the soul will reunite with the body. But how will this happen? After all, people leave completely different - both frail old people and physically unformed babies... In what body will they be resurrected?

The rector of the Institute of Christian Psychology, Archpriest Andrei Lorgus, reflects.

What the Church says about the resurrection is a dogma, and not just a theological opinion, which is contained in the Creed: “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead.”

Moreover, this is a very important part of our faith, the meaning of which is that we will all definitely live after death. Moreover, our life is in a spiritual-physical image, and this spiritual-physical nature is given to us by God as a true image of man, and not as an image that must disintegrate. On the contrary, it must be created.

And the resurrection must return to man his true image, the one that was originally intended by the Lord.

Already in the Gospel some images of the bodily resurrection are given in the form of parables. And from there we can conclude that we will be resurrected in a whole, perfect form. It is very important that our external image will be physical, and physicality will be individual for everyone. That is, not just some body or an “average” body, abstract, but with recognizable features inherent in every person.

Hieromartyr Methodius of Patara, in his work on the resurrection, writes that we will not only preserve our image, but will also be able to recognize each other.

This means that we will retain the features of our physicality. Including the so-called gender ones: men will have beards, and women will have long hair. Gender differences will also persist. After all, the risen Christ is also the Man of God, as the Monk Anastasius, abbot of Sinai, called Him.

The resurrected bodies will be male and female. Another thing is that Christ in the Gospel clearly says: “For when they are raised from the dead, then they will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be like the angels in heaven” (Mark 12:25); “... but those who are counted worthy to reach that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage” (Luke 20:35)

This means that the resurrected humanity will no longer have that part personal life, which is very important for people today, that is, marital.

There is no doubt that physicality will retain the features of our life. But we don’t know how. But our physicality will also represent a certain portrait of our spiritual and personal life, decisions taken, our morality. It could be a facial expression, a body expression. But how this will happen is a mystery. It opens up with spiritual iconography. There are icons that express some of the spiritual essence of saints in their posthumous image. Reverends, for example, have deep wrinkles from tears. Someone's image is full of mercy and love.

It is important to emphasize that belief in the dogma of the resurrection from the dead has always been difficult. In all centuries there have been Christians who were ready to believe in the Sermon on the Mount, that is, in the moral essence of Christ’s mission, but were not ready to believe in the bodily resurrection.

There are characteristic pages about the difficulties of this faith in Dostoevsky’s novel “The Idiot,” where Hilarion, dying of tuberculosis, asked everyone who came: “Do you believe in Cana of Galilee?” That is, it was the moment of miracle that was difficult for him.

Miracles were difficult for faith, including the miracle of the resurrection.

Yes, people die at different ages. Some at ninety years old, and others a few weeks after conception. But we will all be resurrected in perfect form. What kind of perfect image this is - there is no exact teaching.

One day, almost by chance, I had a conversation with Bishop Vasily (Rodzianko) in the Kremlin. After the service, he found time to respond to my question, which concerned the baptism of severely disabled people. I then served in a psychoneurological boarding school, and I also faced the question: what will happen to these children in the future? I baptized them, anointed them, knowing full well that many of them would not live to adulthood and would never be able to walk on their own or even hold a cup.

Vladyka told me that we should under no circumstances doubt that the Lord will restore the physicality of everyone who was partially deprived of it during their lifetime, in a complete, perfect image.

That is, both babies, even those not yet born, will be in perfect form, and the disabled. The physicality will be complete, perfect in the sense of the completeness of God's plan. At the same time, they will retain the features of their individuality. We don’t know how it will be.

Resurrection is not a natural process, not a re-creation of the same genotype, but a miracle, a new creation. But the creation of what was. In this regard, we recall the story of Newton, who at a meeting of the Royal Society was asked to answer the question about bodily resurrection: “Who can collect the bodies of the dead scattered in the dust in order to form new bodies for immortal souls?” Newton asked the student to bring a handful of iron filings, ordinary soil dust and mixed them: “Who will pick out these iron filings from this mixture?” Then he took a large magnet and began to move it over the mixture. There was movement in it, and a rustling sound was heard. The iron dust particles rushed towards the magnet. Newton looked seriously at those present and said: “He who gave such power to soulless metal, really cannot do more? When the time of resurrection comes, God will gather our dust and resurrect our bodies.”

This is more than we can expect.

Recorded by Oksana Golovko

RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

with a statement of the circumstances preceding the general resurrection of the dead and subsequent to it, based on the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, Holy Tradition, interpretations of the holy fathers and reasoning of common sense, with a description of cases of the resurrection of dead bodies set out in Holy Scripture and those that took place at a later time

Permitted for publication by the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church

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Reproduction is possible only with the written permission of NEW MYSL PUBLISHING HOUSE LLC.

Preface

The mystery of the resurrection of the dead is great and incomprehensible to us. And it is precisely the inability of the resurrection to the human mind that makes believing in it so difficult for many. It is difficult to imagine that not just some part of the human race will be resurrected, but all people in general. It is much easier to believe that the prophet Elijah raised the dead or that during His lifetime our Lord raised the son of the widow of Nain, the daughter of the leader of the synagogue and the brother of two sisters - Lazarus; but the doctrine of the resurrection of all people, righteous and unrighteous, is difficult for the mind. Just think: countries with a population of millions are teeming with people and the soil of the earth is literally fertilized with human bodies for entire millennia, when people died, in addition to natural death, and from other causes - in numerous wars, from floods and fires, from famine and pestilence, at sea and on land. , from human hands and from animal teeth - and all these multitudes, without exception, will rise from their graves - not one of those born of a woman will rest in the sleep of death forever, then the question involuntarily arises: “is this possible?”

In addition, let us remember in which scary places there may be human bodies!.. Many died in mines at a depth of hundreds of meters; many were washed away by sea straits and carried into deep caves of the ancient ocean; many are buried under mountains that fell from volcanic upheavals and walled up in granite rocks... And where are there no remains of humans? They are everywhere!.. And in the ground that we walk on, and in the grass that we trample, and in the trees that we cut down, and in the sources of water that we drink, and in the grains of the field that we eat, and in the air we breathe. No one can point to a single place on the globe where the ashes of the sons of Adam were not present, or speak of a single wind that did not contain elusive particles of what was once called man, or show a single wave that could not would be called a solution of human remains. But be that as it may, however scattered the individual parts of dismantled machines may be in the great workshop of the universe, the almighty Mechanic will collect them and compose them again into primitive machines, of which some will receive not only a newly primitive appearance, but also a renewed gilded appearance. “He will renew our lowly body so that it will be conformed to His glorious Body.”

This means that in the resurrection of the dead one cannot see anything contrary to nature, nothing unnatural, although none of the forces now acting on our bodies is capable of producing such an effect in us, this is possible only for a force that has not yet manifested itself, for a force that is in the power of God .

Upcoming general resurrection of the dead must be distinguished from the temporary resurrections of the dead that Christ and his disciples performed (the resurrections of Jairus’s daughter, Lazarus, who lay in the tomb for four days, and others). It was a return to life, after which death is inevitable. But the general resurrection from the dead will be an eternal resurrection, in which the souls of people will forever be united with their incorruptible bodies. Then the righteous will rise transformed and enlightened.

The glorious doctrine of the resurrection of the dead removes our sorrow for the dead believers close to us. We know that that corporeal mortal composition, which we place in the coffin and cover with grave dust in the dark abode of death, at the sound of the Archangel's trumpet, on the bright morning of the resurrection will rise incorruptible, in a wonderful, unfading beauty, bestowed by the Creator for heavenly glory. What we sow in weakness will arise in strength; we sow in humiliation, we shall rise in glory; we sow “a spiritual body, a spiritual body will arise”... The materiality of our body will lose its coarseness and its desire for corruption, and our body itself will pass from the “spiritual to the spiritual,” that is, it will obey not the base desires of the animal soul, but the highest will of the free spirit . At the present stage of our earthly existence, we are surrounded by weakness: often what we desire, we cannot accomplish, and this confirms the saying of our Lord: “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”... In our resurrected state, such a discrepancy between body and spirit will disappear: the body will be as cheerful and free as the spirit, fulfilling every desire unconditionally in everything. Now our body, by its nature, falls under various limitations and inabilities from which the pure spirit is excluded... For example, it can move only under the same conditions under which all other animals move, with the only difference being that it cannot move as fast and easy as many of them. Then it will receive the ability, without any obstacles, by mere inspiration of the spirit, to be transported with incredible lightning speed through the vast superstellar spaces in the immeasurable universe of God. The planets will serve him only as steps on a ladder to ascend to the Throne of the Eternal Father. This will be a “spiritual body” - an in all respects submissive instrument of the spirit, similar to the glorious Body of the risen Lord.

In the heart of every religious person lives the confidence to see again his blood relatives, old friends, dear acquaintances and generally good neighbors - those who, by the inscrutable will of Providence, have passed on to the afterlife. This happy confidence is pleasant and dear to man as a social being. The affirmation of this confidence and its revitalization is facilitated by the revealed teaching of the resurrection of the dead.

Recovering in memory the teaching of Jesus Christ and the apostles about the resurrection of the dead, bringing it through the prism of consciousness can and should be a sufficient justification for this publication.

Chapter 1
The Incomprehensible Mystery of the Resurrection

"Body of the future"

There is one thought in the human soul that lies deeper than all other thoughts - this is the thought of one’s own death and the death of loved ones. “Death,” said one French historian, “was the first mystery that presented itself to man; she set him on the path to other mysteries.” But, if in relation to any other secret we allow a skeptical question: why do you need to know it? Live without further ado, and take from life what you can and want to take; then in the face of this first secret such advice is inappropriate.

“Live,” teaches the philosophy of earthly well-being.

“But that’s exactly what I want,” the soul answers. “I want life, but what I get is death.”

- Okay, okay, I won’t think about my death, but during my lifetime a person close to me dies: his death deprives me of the best joy of life, don’t I really need to dwell on that too?

- Yes, try not to think about that either.

But for this, the soul needs to cease to be what it is - a human soul. This means saying to the soul: die, die before the death of the body, in order to give this body the opportunity to live a serene, “natural” life until its appointed hour strikes. Here the madness of the council reaches its climax, and the soul escapes from the clutches of this death, the second, and the first death and the first secret again becomes a motionless ghost before it. It is impossible to break out of this circle, and man realized this long ago. How did he live all these long millennia, what did he live with, and what was it that hid this ghost from him that prevented him from living?

There is a wonderful story among many wild tribes of Africa and the islands of the Great Ocean. The month sends a messenger to a man (according to some versions - a hare, according to others - a chameleon) and tells him to tell the man: just as I (the month) die and am reborn again, so you (the man) will die and be reborn again. But this news did not reach its destination - the chameleon crawled too slowly, and the hare distorted it, conveying: as the month dies, so will the man and will not rise again. At the same time, the month itself, which sent the first good news, did not want to confirm it anymore. So the man was left with bad news in his hands and with a vague hope in his heart for a new, better embassy.

It seems difficult to better convey in a figurative form the feelings with which she lived and still lives today human soul. Death and birth pass before her like links in an endless chain. “You have returned,” the savages say at the sight of a son born after the death of his father, but the thought early suggests that this descendant is not a resurrected parent, but another, independent personality, claiming personal immortality. The immortality of the race, no matter how high it stands in cult terms, is still unable to quench the thirst for individual immortality, and does not bring the news that a person will not die. Only one month fully masters this secret of personal immortality. His ashen soul does not float for long without his light-like body - a little time passes and he puts on it again, again and again he is resurrected to life, he is resurrected not in a son, not in a descendant, but in his own renewed flesh. Here is the news of personal resurrection, continuously flowing from the heavenly heights, but across the face of the earth it creeps with a cold, deceptive radiance, like a lazy chameleon, on earthly objects it plays with unfaithful runaway bunnies, and not life, but death looks out from everywhere as hollows of black, deep shadows. The messengers conveyed the covenant of the month poorly.

But in vain they shout to man from all sides: you will die. With a gaze full of hope, he looks straight into the face of the sender, catches its rays before they crashed to the ground, and feels that they bring him a different message, it does not reach his heart in a clear form, it is drowned out by the hostile noise heard around, but he knows that if this noise ceases, the voice of truth will tell him the truth, he even knows what this voice will tell him.

Death, meanwhile, clearly triumphed: centuries and millennia passed, people were born and died, but each new grave not only did not pour new drops of despair into the soul, threatening to overwhelm the measure of its patience and faith, on the contrary, the further, the more magnificent the funeral arrangements were. rituals, the more care was taken to ensure the body's peace after death. Funeral feasts were replaced by funeral feasts, days of remembrance were included in the annual circle of holidays, tombs were expanded and decorated, art preserved for posterity the features of the dear dead; already at the very end of the ancient period and in the most skeptical and noisy centers of education, the famous “collegia funeratica”, grave-digging societies, arose, providing a dignified burial for everyone, even the poorest. Even when people died in droves, as, for example, in war. And then it was sacrilege to leave the bodies unburied, and we remember the story of the victors at the Argenus Islands, who were almost executed by their compatriots for leaving the bodies of their fallen brothers in the sea in the heat of battle. The earthly well-being secured by victory was less necessary for the remaining relatives than the afterlife peace of the dead, inseparable from the peace of their bodies. These bodies smoldered and disintegrated into dust before the eyes of the living - people went to the aid of death and decay, they began to burn the bodies or gave them to birds to eat, but the ashes and bones collected in urns were kept as carefully as embalmed corpses . If the body disappeared in a foreign land and it was impossible to get it, the relatives on their native side buried the ghost, erected tombs without ashes and knew that this also brought eternal peace to the deceased. Eternal memory was needed, it ensured reality beyond the grave, but for this, at least a grain of the tangible was needed, at least one name, written or reverently passed down from generation to generation. This was the seed from which the entire posthumous life of the soul grew, this grain of dust clothed this soul with flesh. But how thin this flesh must have been! In fact, after death the soul was only a shadow, and only food brought to the grave temporarily revived and fleshed it out. Odysseus found his mother’s soul in the underworld, but the pale shadow sits mute and in oblivion. The voice of the soothsayer teaches Odysseus how to awaken her:

« Easy remedy To this I will open in a few words:
One of the lifeless shadows that gets close to blood
If you give it, he will begin to talk to you intelligently; but silently
The one who you will not allow to bleed will move away from you...
The mother approached the blood, got drunk and recognized her son.”

The mystery of heaven has now reached the earth: just as I (the month) die and am reborn again, so you (man) will die and be reborn again, resurrected in the same person and in the same flesh, only transformed, fragrant, royal, similar to the light-like body of the month.

When heaven saw that many hearts were ready to accept the news of the value and immortality of the body, and only pride in front of this body prevented others from accepting it, it left the proud to wander at the crossroads and sent a new faithful messenger to those who were ready to reverently approach the flesh and to the dust, with a pure heart, stand on the morning watch of their resurrection... The month and the sun prepared these hearts to receive the joyful news, and now a little star taught them.

“When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And entering the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother and, falling, they worshiped Him and opened their treasures. They brought Him gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh,” gifts with which the royal bodies were decorated, blossomed and fragrant both during life and after death.

But this baby was also a great chosen one, he was selected from fourteen thousand newborn lives: such a selection had never been seen even by the Roman lake. Egypt sheltered him from death in the shadow of its tombs and preserved his living young body as carefully as it preserved its thousand-year-old dead. This body was a vessel of grace-filled gifts: it worked miracles with its clay, breath, clothes, its voice awakened the dead, a dazzling light emanated from it. His face breathed with love for all the sorrowing and humiliated, but when the love of the humiliated washed His feet precious world, He put this waste of the world above other works of love. This was the beginning of his burial. But first, this body suffered for a long time, was ulcerated, devoid of appearance and grandeur. In those days, the full, resurrected month stood above the earth, spring sun It became brighter, but it also dimmed in anticipation of the glory of the coming resurrection. His death was wordless, but his coffin was with the rich - a clean shroud and a hundred liters of myrrh and aloes - this was only the threshold of his burial: after the Sabbath rest had passed, new incense was ready to be poured out on him... It could remain incorruptible and fragrant for a long time, – it became like this forever. In vain, on that memorable morning, human love looked for him “among the dead” - only the shrouds and the sir remained there. It itself stood before the disciples alive, as before, they touched its bones and flesh, which “the spirit does not have,” and put their fingers into the wounds, which proud pagan beauty fears; it took food, its tongue taught the secrets of the Kingdom of God, but all this - both bones and flesh - passed through locked doors, disappeared and reappeared, and finally ascended to heaven, to appear again in the same way at the end of days... It was also a new, glorious body, and, free over space and time, it did not leave the earth even after ascending to heaven. Earthly bread and wine - food and life of the human body - by the power of His victorious Name, became His true flesh and blood and feeding the bodies of those who believed in His resurrection, made them partakers of His eternal glory... This was the body of the Church, whose head was the Firstborn from the dead, and members - sons of the resurrection.

The struggle between springs and winters is over: eternal spring blooms in the hearts of those who believe in the first resurrection and those who look forward to the coming resurrection. The stamp of this faith and this hope has imprinted the entire life of the Church over all the long centuries of its earthly existence.

This news of eternal spring reaches us and reaches us in a new, wondrous way. In Rome, in that same Rome where people once so strictly selected bodies worthy of life, other bodies are now being discovered, chosen for a new, better life. From the depths of the catacombs, from underground graves, where I have not looked for many centuries human eye, the ever-festive Church of the Apostolic days emerges into the daylight of our everyday life. Protestantism looks at it in amazement: a religion of pure spirit and direct communion with God, which considers itself a direct heir to the apostolic covenants; it sees before it not a Protestant parish, united by the community of faith in the Crucified One and alien to any traces of religious “materialism”, but before it is the Church of icons, relics, saints, church Mother of God Intercessor, as St. calls Her. Irenaeus, royal Oranta of the catacombs. The Church of the essential body and blood, the Divine members (“coelestia membra”), the Church of prayers for the departed, the living Church of the living... But through the gaze of a daughter, the conciliar universal Church looks at her. After all, she is flesh of flesh and bone of bones of this catacomb apostolic Church; she only rose above the earth, from the earth, when the days of persecution ended. Like a pointed grass from sown seeds, drilling the earth, its domes and bell towers rose like the golden wheat of God; a warm wind stirring the fields, a festive message spreads across it, but its roots are motionlessly growing stronger in the ground...

Its altars stand above the relics, the faces of the saints look out from everywhere, the temple is full of incense, rejoices in hymns... The Church washes its children with the water of baptism, anoints their bodies with myrrh and oil, calls them to the marriage union with the grace-filled sacrament, brings them to the holy chalice, nourishes them with the true body and true blood of the Lord, - continues on earth the same work that she once performed in the dungeons, over the tombs of the martyrs, which she learned from the first, fragrant tomb, where only for a short time the Chief of her life and her Head was forgotten in the sleep of death.

Just as I died and rose again, so you, man, will die and be reborn again - a person who once believed in the month now lives by this new testament of the Sun and truth.

(from the book “The Future Body” by F. Andreev. Sergiev Posad, 1914)

The ancient world's idea of ​​the resurrection of bodies

History presents us with a person everywhere and always in worries, in worry about his future. Humanity has always thought about the cradle of a child and the coffin of an old man and has always directed its gaze beyond the limits of this cramped space.

Everywhere the question about the future has been and is being raised, everywhere the answer to it has been heard and is being heard; only this answer varies depending on the degree of development of thought and education.

Of all the objects that a person knows, there is nothing more hidden to his mind than the future life; of all the questions about future life none confuses the human mind as much as the question of the resurrection of the body.

How did a person solve and solve this difficult question?

This is what the ancient pagan world presents to us this time.

In the poetic representations of Greek folk fantasy we see a gloomy view of the human body. Ulysses, the hero of Homer's poems, wants to talk with the dead.

With his sword he digs a ditch and fills it with sacrificial blood. Obeying the power of a mysterious spell, pale shadows come one with another and, having tasted the black blood, begin to speak. Between them, Ulysses recognizes his mother.

“Caught up (says the hero) with my heart, I wanted to hug
I am the departed mother's soul;
Three times I stretched out my hands to her, striving with love,
Three times she slipped between my hands
A shadow or a sleepy dream, tearing out a groan from me.”
And then the shadow answers Ulysses’ question:
“My dear son, the most ill-fated among people...
Such is the fate of all the dead who lose their lives.
Strong veins no longer bind either muscles or bones;
Suddenly the funeral fire destroys with piercing force
Everything, only the hot life will leave the cold bones:
Then, having flown away like a dream, their soul disappears.”

In the poems of Homer, in the thoughts of the ancient Greeks, there is a future for man; but this future consists in the fact that the body is destroyed by fire, and the soul, becoming a shadow, wanders in eternal darkness. However, such a gloomy view of the future is gradually brightened up by the Greek imagination, but even among the most best philosophers Greeks we find the darkest view of the human body.

So, for example, Socrates, defining what death is, in accordance with the general belief, considers it only the detachment of the soul from the body, which he views as a transitory shell of the soul.

Showing distinctive features a true philosopher, he says that “a sage worthy of his name, trying to understand the truth, throughout his life more and more renounces the body, because the body with its feelings closes the truth from him and, demanding concern for itself, distracts him from understanding. Isn’t this the detachment of the soul from the body called death?.. The job of a philosopher is to detach the soul from the body; therefore he understands what death is.”

If we transport our thoughts to the vast expanses of India, Tibet, China, and listen to the voices of the Brahmins, learned Buddhists and learned Chinese, from here we will receive even sadder impressions. “Life is a long fabric of sorrows and disasters, they taught there; salvation consists in not living; deep, uninterrupted sleep is better than any happiness here. The best desire is to stop the functions of the human body as soon as possible, to annihilate, to fall asleep, to lose the feeling of one’s misfortunes, deprived of self-knowledge.”

The question of the resurrection of the body is almost the only question that humanity has neither thought nor wondered about. It is clear what impression the sermon on the resurrection of the body must have made on people who had never heard of it before. In Athens, where the speeches of Demosthenes and Aeschylus were heard, the Apostle Paul walks among the temples and statues that aroused astonishment. Throughout the squares and porticos he preaches about the Crucified One, Who revealed the One True God, Who far surpasses the ideals of Plato. The inquisitive Athenians listen to the apostle's sermon... But as soon as the apostle began to preach about the resurrection of the dead, he only said: “there will be a resurrection of the dead, the righteous and the unjust,” when the philosophers who listened to him immediately laughed at him, considering his teaching pointless, and some wanted to listen to his teaching about resurrection at another time, that is, they made a polite hint to stop preaching about such, as it seemed to them, an absurd teaching.

But what seemed absurd to the pagan sages in this case, has been the subject of faith of the Church of Christ from its very beginning to the present time.

What is the teaching of the Church on the resurrection of the body?

Three main questions come to the fore here: is the resurrection of the human body possible and, if possible, then what is its purpose?.. If there is both a purpose and the possibility of resurrection, then what state will our bodies be in after the resurrection?

Let us answer these questions with the words of Scripture.

That the resurrection of bodies is possible is obvious if we take into account the omnipotence of God.

When the Sadducees rejected the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ directly told them: you are deceived because you do not know the power, that is, the omnipotence of God (Matthew 22:29). He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day (John 6:54). In addition, Jesus Christ himself demonstrated the possibility of the resurrection of bodies, when he actually raised the dead during the days of his ministry on earth, raised many saints in Jerusalem at the moments of his death, and finally resurrected himself.

Developing the teaching of the Savior, the apostles also believed in the omnipotence of God as the basis for the possibility of the resurrection of the dead: “God raised the Lord, and will raise us also by His power,” taught the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 6:14).

When in the first times of Christianity this possibility seemed strange and incomprehensible to some, the fathers and teachers of the Church drew everyone’s attention to the very experiences of God’s omnipotence in nature. Here is what Tertullian says on this matter: “Everything in nature is renewed; everything in it begins at the same time when it ended - both for this and for this it ends in order to begin. Nothing perishes except for life. Everything in the world that is transformed in this way testifies to the resurrection of the dead. God revealed this earlier in creation than in letters; He preached first with his power rather than with his voice.”

He sent nature as a teacher to man when he only intended to send prophets. Indeed, we see that in nature everything is arranged by God in such a way that the death of one creature at the same time serves as the beginning of life for another, and for the most part- the best, the most perfect. How much more perfect, for example, is a tree with many leaves in comparison with the grain from the decay of which it receives the beginning of its existence!

What is the purpose of the resurrection of the human body? Is there any need for this resurrection?

After the glorious victory over death, the triumph of the Conqueror of death will be completed with just reward - “to each according to his works” (Rom. 2:6). For God's justice it is not possible to err in one's definitions. But how will the just Judge pronounce his final sentence, when one soul without a body is not yet fat man? According to the teaching of Holy Scripture, the body is essential for a person to fully exist: it is an instrument of the spirit. If God's justice must reward everyone for everything that was done by him during earthly life, then it must reward not only the human soul, but also the body, as an accomplice in the actions of the soul. There is no need to prove here that the body really participates in mental actions - and, moreover, participates not as some kind of dead instrument in the hands of the artist, but as something closely connected with the soul. This truth, clear to everyone, leads us to the conclusion that neither a body without a soul, nor a soul without a body constitutes a fully developed human nature. Bearing in mind, therefore, on the one hand, the justice of God, on the other, our actions and the reason for them, we cannot help but believe the words of the apostle: “for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive [according to what] he while living in the body, he did good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10). Our domestic speaker St. Demetrius of Rostov speaks quite characteristically about the resurrection of the body. It represents a dispute between the soul and the body about whether the soul or the body is to blame for the crimes committed on earth. “He says,” he says, “the soul to the body: cursed are you, accursed body, for you have deceived me with your sinful lust, and you have led me into cruel iniquities. The body speaks to the soul: Cursed are you, my accursed soul, for you have ruled me evilly, and with your mind given to you by God, like a rein and a bridle, you have not restrained me from evil deeds: but in everything you have deigned to me: and even when I desired a sin, you deigned and cooperated: and they completely angered our Creator God. The soul also speaks: woe to you, my accursed body, for you have embittered your neighbor, robbed, kidnapped strangers, stole and killed. The body in response says: Woe to you, my accursed soul, for in all this you have helped me; You have been my mentor and friend in everything, and what you do is nothing without you. Thus, the two who bicker with each other, and one reproaching and slandering the other, will be brought out to accept condemnation according to their deeds.”

Thus, the soul and body together must suffer the punishment they deserve. In fact, we have many things that neither the soul without the body, nor the body without the soul can do.

Whether we teach others to do good or evil, whether we help our neighbors or offend them, we do this with the help of our bodily organs. And if the soul and body act together, then together they should be rewarded and punished.

This is how Athenagoras, a Christian philosopher of the 2nd century, talks about this: “It cannot be,” he says, “that the soul alone should receive retribution for what it did with the body; for it in itself would not be involved in those sins that arise from sensual pleasures. Likewise, one body should not accept retribution for all deeds, because it is equally subject to the power of the laws of nature, as well as to the power of reason; but for every deed the whole person, consisting of soul and body, must receive reward. If the bodies are not resurrected, then divine justice will not be given to either the body or the soul. Justice will not be given to the body because it will not receive the slightest part in the rewards of the soul for those labors in which it took a great part in enduring; and the soul will not be given justice, since it alone will bear punishment for many sins that it would not have committed if it had not been in union with the body.”

Many similar judgments can be found among other defenders of Christianity, and all of them, in accordance with the teachings of the Orthodox Church, assert that on the Day of the Last Judgment our body must be resurrected in order, together with our soul, to accept deeds worthy of reward or punishment.

What state will the resurrected bodies be in? What qualities will they have and are they the same as those people have on earth?

That the resurrected bodies will be essentially the same as those that were united with known souls during the present life, this naturally follows from the concept of resurrection, which, of course, does not mean the formation or creation of something new, but the restoration and revival of the same the one who died. Jesus Christ, who set the example of resurrection, was resurrected in his own body(John 20, 25–27); Holy Scripture says that “all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God” (John 5:28) and, having heard, will come to life; therefore, those bodies that are buried will be resurrected. However, being essentially the same, the bodies will be very different in their properties from the real ones. So they will not have the rudeness that they have on earth. The resurrected bodies will be thin, light-like, in the likeness of the resurrected body of Jesus, since the Apostle Paul says that we “will then be clothed in the image of the heavenly man” (1 Cor. 15:49), i.e., Jesus Christ.

The apostle defines the particular properties of resurrected bodies as follows: “the spiritual body is sown (that is, dies), the spiritual body is raised, it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption, it is sown not in honor, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is fitting for this corruptible to put on incorruption, and for this dead one to put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:42-44, 53); that is, our resurrected bodies will be adapted to the then state of our spirit - and will be incorruptible, indestructible and immortal.

Let us turn to the objections that have existed and exist against the dogma of the resurrection of bodies.

More than once in this book we have listed the tasks that were part of the mission of Jesus: to show the character of the Creator, to reconcile people with God, to help them get rid of sin... And His most important goal was to give Own life instead of many people, to give them, after the resurrection, eternal life without a second death:

“The Son of Man... came... to... give your soul (life - author's note) Yours for the ransom of many» (Mark 10:45).

The theme of the upcoming resurrection of people from the dead is leitmotif the entire New Testament. Most popular Christian denominations agree with this. For example, in the “Word of the Shepherd” program on Channel 1 of Russian television on April 19, 2008, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', then still the metropolitan of Kaliningrad, called the news of the resurrection “ center the entire mission of Christ the Savior." All four Gospels and the epistles of the apostles are simply permeated with the message of the upcoming resurrection of people. The New Testament speaks about resurrection about 150 (!) times, and the phrase immortal life used about 50 (!) times. There are so many texts about the resurrection and subsequent eternal life that it is not possible, and there is no point in quoting them all within the framework of this book. Next, as we reflect on death, hell, heaven, and the resurrection itself, we will quote some of these verses.

It is very important to understand that the news of the resurrection was not new to the Jews, since the Old Testament Scripture more than once spoke about the awakening of people after death:

“At that time all of your people who are found written in the book will be saved. AND Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awaken, some to eternal life, others to everlasting reproach and disgrace.. Go to yours end and you will rest and rise for receiving your lot at the end of days» (Dan. 12:1,2,13).

“A man will lie down and not stand; until the end of the sky he will not awaken and will not arise from his sleep"(Job 14:12).

« The dead will come to life Yours, will rise up dead bodies ! Arise and rejoice, cast down in the dust: for Thy dew is the dew of plants, and the earth will spew out the dead» (Isa. 26:19).

“And I know that my Redeemer lives, and on the last day He will raise this decaying skin of mine from the dust, and I will see God in my flesh. I will see Him myself; My eyes, not the eyes of another, will see Him."(Job 19:25-27)

Many Jews, contemporaries of Jesus, knew the above texts of Scripture well. Therefore, even before the gospel of Jesus and the apostles, they were waiting for the upcoming resurrection. This clearly follows from the dialogue between Jesus and Martha and some other texts of the New Testament:

“Jesus says to her: Your brother will rise again. Martha said to Him: I know, What will rise on Sunday, on the last day» (John 11:23,24, see also Acts 23:6-8).

This verse clearly illustrates what we have already discussed in previous chapters: resurrection- this is not a person’s transition to heaven after death, but his awakening from the grave to last day history of the Earth. Jesus stated this directly:

“This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life; and I I will resurrect his on the last day» (John 6:40).

« Dead They will hear the voice of the Son of God and, having heard, will come to life. Everyone located in coffins, they will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who did good will come forth in Sunday life, and those who did evil - in Sunday condemnation"(John 5:25,28,29).

Once again we draw your attention, dear reader, that the Bible speaks of a person’s second immortal life only in relation to those people who are to be resurrected for eternal life, and other people, after resurrection, by decision of a fair Court, will be destroyed, that is, put to a second death:

“He who overcomes will not suffer harm from the second death» (Rev. 2:11).

"And I saw dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged according to what was written in the books, according to their deeds. And whoever was not written in the book of life was abandoned into the lake of fire. This second death» (Rev. 20:12,15,14).

We also focus your attention on the fact that in eternal life a person will not be in the form of an ephemeral substance, but in a body. That is, at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, a process similar to the initial act of creation will take place and people will be given new incorruptible bodies:

“Suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise again incorruptible, and we will change. For This corruptible must put on incorruptibility and this mortal may put on immortality."(1 Cor. 15:52,53).

“Our citizenship is in heaven, from where we look for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who our body will transform so it will be according to His glorious body, by the power by which He acts and subdues all things to Himself"(Phil. 3:20,21).

I think everything is clear with the reward: worthy people will receive eternal life in the new imperishable body What will the death of the rest be like? Jesus repeatedly warned about the inevitable punishment of sinners in Gehenna fiery.

According to Orthodox teaching, particles of the bodies of the deceased eternally retain a connection with the soul and one day, by the command of God, they will be brought together again. All people who have ever lived on Earth will be resurrected. Hieromonk Nikanor (Lepeshev), a teacher at the Khabarovsk Theological Seminary, told Pravda.Ru about how to imagine this and how to combine it with scientific data.

— Father Nikanor, now the Moscow Patriarchate is trying to introduce universal catechesis before baptism. People preparing for the sacrament should study at least the basics of Orthodox dogma and the Creed. As many priests have told me, the dogma of the resurrection of the dead is something that to modern man the hardest thing to believe.

- And this is not surprising. Let us remember that already in the Old Testament Church, among the highest clergy, there appeared heretical Sadducees who denied the resurrection of the dead. And when the Gospel of Christ began to spread among the pagans, it was very difficult for many people brought up on Greek philosophy to believe that the Savior had risen from the dead, and that we would all rise after Him at the end of time. In the Hellenistic consciousness, matter and flesh were perceived as a prison of the spirit, from which one must escape, making every possible effort. Therefore, the idea of ​​bodily resurrection was often perceived as pure madness. Remember the reaction of Athenian philosophers to the sermon of the Apostle Paul in the Areopagus? And among the Christians themselves, already in the 1st century, Gnostic heretics appeared, denying the literal understanding of the dogma of the resurrection of the dead, trying to interpret it figuratively, symbolically, so to speak, in a “spiritual” sense.

In a word, there is nothing new in the fact that it is so difficult for a person of the 20th-21st centuries to believe that we will all be resurrected bodily by God. Nowadays, additional psychological motives for such disbelief have only appeared, for example, the absolutization of science. In addition, the consciousness of modern people is very polluted by mass culture, and when you start talking to them about the resurrection of the dead, they often first of all have inadequate associations with horror films about zombies and other living dead. Many do not immediately understand that we are not talking about the simple revival of corpses in the conditions of the fallen world we are accustomed to, but about the appearance of a New Heaven and a new earth, where there will be no more death. That is, about the victory of existence over non-existence, about universal transformation, about the deification of all creation. Accordingly, the state of our bodies will be different: they will be resurrected spiritualized and immortal. But this state will have diametrically opposite consequences for those who have achieved salvation and for unrepentant sinners...

“I remember how Father Daniil Sysoev at the liturgy in his church, having already come out with the Chalice in his hands to give communion to the people, read the Creed again and after each member said: “You can receive communion only if you believe in it.” He placed particular emphasis on the resurrection of the dead in the body and repeated that those who do not believe in this should not receive communion.

— On this I agree with Father Daniil. The dogma of the general resurrection of the dead is closely connected with the very foundation of our faith - with the dogma of the bodily resurrection of Christ. In the Holy Scriptures, in the First Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians and in the Revelation of John the Theologian, the Savior is called “the Firstborn of those who died.” That is, His resurrection is the beginning of our resurrection; one without the other makes no sense. The Lord completed the entire economy of our salvation not for His own sake, but for our sake. And He rose not for Himself, but for us, in order to co-resurrect all people with Him. It is not for nothing that the Apostle Paul insisted so much that “if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ was not resurrected; and if Christ is not risen, then our sermon vain, and your faith is also vain." That is, without the dogma of the general resurrection there is no Christianity.

— How is belief in the resurrection of the dead in the body compatible with modern science?

—Faith and science are basically two different areas, practically non-intersecting. This different ways knowledge aimed at different sides being. Therefore, if science is not ideologized, it cannot conflict with religion. It is known that among world-famous scientists there are many believers. Any apparent contradiction between one or another dogma of faith and one or another conclusion of science will be immediately removed if we remember that science studies only the material world, and in its current fallen state, and faith goes far beyond these limits. Science comprehends what is in time, faith understands what is in Eternity. Therefore, in my opinion, there is no point in looking for ways to artificially combine the dogma of the resurrection with the data of science. Both the world before the Fall and the Life of the Future Age are simply beyond the scope of the scientific method of knowledge.

- How to believe in the resurrection of the dead?

- Just like any other truth of the Orthodox faith. On the one hand, faith is a special gift of God, which, according to the Apostle Paul, is “kept in a vessel of a good conscience.” On the other hand, it is, in his own words, “from hearing,” and from himself one can add “and from reading.” That is, we must ask the Lord to grant faith, and at the same time try to keep our conscience pure, and also make Scripture and the works of the Holy Fathers our daily reading. Through this, when the time comes, “confidence in the invisible as in the visible” will be born, in the words of St. Philaret of Moscow. And the path to experimental knowledge of the truths of Divine Revelation will open.

— What connection remains between the body and soul of the deceased?

- According to the teachings of St. Gregory of Nyssa, after the physical death of a person, the cognitive power of his soul continues to reside with the elements that make up his decaying body, like a guardian of his property. So the connection between the soul and the body is not interrupted even if the latter is completely destroyed. The cognitive activity of the human spirit does not stop after death, but extends to the physical, and it continues to recognize particles of its flesh. And the immaterial nature of the soul, not limited by space, allows it to simultaneously be with all the scattered particles of its body.

Thus, it is precisely by virtue of the preservation of the connection between the soul of the deceased and his body that the relics of saints have miraculous power. And veneration of the relics of a saint becomes a living communication with the saint himself.

— At what age will the dead be resurrected?

— According to Saint Basil the Great, all those resurrected will be of the same age—thirty years old, “to the measure of the full age of Christ.” His thought is clarified by Saint Gregory of Nyssa. He says that the concept of physiological age itself is abolished in resurrection, and the “thirty-year-old”, that is, perfect, age of resurrected bodies must be understood as the absence of disease, infantile immaturity, senile decrepitude and other age-related imperfections.

— How will those bodies that were burned, eaten by beasts, etc. be restored?

— As already mentioned, according to St. Gregory of Nyssa, every particle of the body is forever imprinted by the soul with which it was united, and will bear this imprint wherever it finds itself. Even if a person’s ashes are scattered throughout the planet, his connection with the immortal soul remains. How will it come together again? By a special creative command of God. The Monk John of Damascus writes that since God created Adam from the dust of the earth, and since He forms the most complex from a small drop of the father’s seed in the womb human body, Then, of course, it will not be difficult for Him to restore what was once already created by Him, but was destroyed.

NOT EVERYONE WHO SAYS “CHRIST IS RISEN!” AT EASTER AND “TRULY IS RISEN!”, THEY GUESS THAT THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS ​​CHRIST IS DIRECTLY CONNECTED WITH THE GREAT HOPE – THE COMING RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.

"Your dead will live,

Bible. Isaiah 26:19

Not everyone who declares at Easter “Christ is risen!” and “Truly is Risen!”, they guess that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is directly related to the great hope - the intentions of the Almighty to one day bring about the resurrection of absolutely all people who have ever died with faith and hope in the Savior. Both Christ himself and His apostles spoke about this more than once.

The Christian's hope for future eternal life is based on faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and is closely interconnected with the grandiose event that awaits our world - the resurrection of the dead. Jesus Himself says of Himself that He is “the resurrection and the life” (Bible. John 11:25). These are not empty words. He demonstrates His power over death by publicly raising Lazarus from the dead. But it was not this stunning miracle that became the key to eternal victory over death. Only the resurrection of Jesus ensured that death would be swallowed up in victory. In this sense, the resurrection of Christ is a guarantee of the massive resurrection of believers promised by the Word of God at the moment of the approaching Second Coming of the Savior: “...The Lord himself, with a proclamation, with the voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” (Bible. 1 Thessalonians 4:16).

The meaning of faith

Any hope of a sincere Christian is based not so much on God's timely help in this sinful life as on the future resurrection, when he will receive the crown of eternal life. So the Apostle Paul wrote to his fellow believers about the Christian’s greatest hope for his resurrection: “And if in this life only we hope in Christ, then we are the most miserable of all men.” Consequently, if there is no “resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen... And if Christ is not risen, then your faith is vain... Therefore, those who died in Christ perished. But Christ has risen from the dead, the firstborn of those who have fallen asleep,” Paul urges (Bible. 1 Corinthians 15:13–20).

Awakening from death's sleep

People do not have natural immortality. Only God is immortal: “King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality.” (Bible. 1 Timothy 6:15–16).

As for death, the Bible calls it a temporary state of non-existence: “For in death there is no remembrance of You (God - author's note)“Who will praise You in the grave?” (Bible. Psalm 6:6. See also Psalm 113:25; 145:3, 4; Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10). Jesus Himself, as well as His followers, figuratively called it a dream, an unconscious sleep. And the one who sleeps has a chance to be awakened. So it was with the deceased, and then with the resurrected (awakened) Lazarus. This is what Jesus told His disciples about his death: “Our friend Lazarus fell asleep; but I am going to WAKE HIM... Jesus spoke about his death, but they thought that He was talking about an ordinary sleep. Then Jesus said to them directly: Lazarus is dead." (Bible. John 11:11–14). It is worth noting that in this case there is no doubt that Lazarus died and did not fall asleep lethargic sleep, since his body had already begun to rapidly decompose after four days in the tomb (See John 11:39).

Death is not a transition to another existence, as some believe. Death is an enemy that denies all life, which people cannot defeat on their own. However, God promises that just as Christ was resurrected, so sincere Christians who have died or will die will be resurrected: “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall live, each in his own order: Christ the firstborn, then those who are Christ’s at His coming.” (Bible. 1 Corinthians 15:22–23).

Perfect bodies

As already mentioned, according to the Bible, the resurrection of the dead will occur at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This will be a visible event for all residents globe. At this moment, those who have died in Christ are resurrected, and those believers who are alive will be transformed into incorruptible, perfect bodies. The immortality lost in Eden will be returned to all of them, so that they will never be separated from each other and from their Creator and Savior.

In this new state of immortality, believers will not be deprived of the opportunity to have physical bodies. They will enjoy the bodily existence that God originally intended - even before sin entered the world, when He created the perfect Adam and Eve. The Apostle Paul confirms that after the resurrection the new glorified or spiritual body saved people will not be an intangible, but quite recognizable body, preserving continuity and similarity with the body that a person had in his earthly life. This is what he wrote: “How will the dead be raised? and in what body will they come?.. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; but the glory of those in heaven is one, and that of the earth is another. So it is with the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption... the spiritual body is sown, the spiritual body is raised. There is a spiritual body, there is a spiritual body..." (Bible. 1 Corinthians 15:35–46). Paul calls the body of the resurrected “spiritual” not because it will not be physical, but because it will no longer be subject to death. It differs from the present only in its perfection: there will be no traces of sin left on it.

In another of his letters, the Apostle Paul states that the spiritual bodies of resurrected believers at the Second Coming will be similar to the glorified body of the risen Savior: “We also await a Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, so that it will be conformed to His GLORIOUS BODY, by power , by which He acts and subdues all things to Himself" (Bible Philippians 3:20–21). What Jesus' body was like after the resurrection can be understood from the narrative of the Evangelist Luke. The risen Christ, who appeared to the disciples, said: “Why are you troubled, and why do such thoughts enter your hearts? Look at My hands and at My feet; it is I Myself; touch Me and look at Me; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. And having said this, he showed them his hands and feet. When they still did not believe for joy and were amazed, He said to them: Do you have any food here? They gave Him some of the baked fish and honeycomb. And he took it and ate before them." (Bible. Luke 24:38–43). Apparently, the resurrected Jesus tried to assure His disciples that He was not a spirit. Because the spirit does not have a body with bones. But the Savior had. To completely dispel all doubts, the Lord offered to touch Him and even asked to give Him something to eat. This once again proves that believers will be resurrected in incorruptible, glorified, non-aging spiritual bodies that can be touched. These bodies will have both arms and legs. You can also enjoy your food in them. These bodies will be beautiful, perfect and endowed with colossal abilities and potential, unlike today's corruptible bodies.

Second resurrection

However, the future resurrection of dead people who truly believe in God is not the only resurrection that the Bible speaks of. It also clearly speaks of something else - a second resurrection. This is the resurrection of the wicked, which Jesus called the resurrection of judgment: “All who are in the graves will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who have done good will come forth into the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil into the resurrection of condemnation.” (Bible. John 5:28–29). Also, the Apostle Paul, once addressing the ruler Felix, said “that there will be a resurrection of the dead, the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Bible. Acts 24:15).

According to the biblical book of Revelation (20:5, 7–10) , the second resurrection or resurrection of the wicked will not occur at the Second Coming of Christ, but after a thousand years. At the end of the thousand-year reign, the wicked will be resurrected to hear the verdict and receive due retribution for their iniquities from the merciful, but at the same time fair Supreme Judge. Then sin will be completely destroyed from the face of the earth along with the wicked who did not repent of their evil deeds.

New life

The good news of the first resurrection of the dead at the Second Coming of Christ is something incomparably more than just interesting information about future. It is a living hope made real by the presence of Jesus. It will transform the present life of sincere believers, giving it more meaning and hope. Thanks to confidence in their destiny, Christians are already living a new life. practical life for the benefit of others. Jesus taught: “But when you make a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be rewarded at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Bible. Luke 14:13, 14).

Those who live in the hope of participating in the glorious resurrection become different people. They can rejoice even in suffering because the motive of their lives is hope: “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of glory. God's. And not only this, but we also glory in sorrows, knowing that from sorrow comes patience, from patience experience, from experience hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Bible. Romans 5:1–5).

Without fear of death

Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Christian believes in the coming resurrection of the dead. This living faith makes present death something of little importance. It frees the believer from the fear of death because it also guarantees him future hope. This is why Jesus could say that even if a believer dies, he has the assurance that he will be brought back to life.

Even when death separates loved ones among Christians, their grief is not filled with hopelessness. They know that one day they will see each other again in the joyful resurrection of the dead. To those who did not know this, the Apostle Paul wrote: “I do not want you, brothers, to be ignorant about the dead, so that you do not mourn like others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then God will bring those who died in Jesus with Him... because the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” (Bible. 1 Thessalonians 4:13–16). Paul does not console his brothers in the faith that their dead Christian loved ones are alive or somewhere in a conscious state, but characterizes their present state as a dream from which they will be awakened when the Lord descends from heaven.

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”

It is not easy for a secular person who is accustomed to questioning everything to gain confidence in the hope of his own resurrection. But this does not mean that he lacks the ability to believe, because he has no obvious evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said that people who have not seen the risen Christ with their own eyes are not in a less advantageous position than those who have seen Him. The Apostle Thomas expressed his faith in the risen Savior only when he saw Him alive, and Jesus said to this: “You believed because you saw Me, blessed are those who have not seen and believed.” (Bible. John 20:29).

Why can those who have not seen believe? Because true faith comes not from vision, but from the action of the Holy Spirit on the heart and conscience of a person.

As a result, it is worth noting once again that a Christian’s belief that Christ has risen makes sense only when he receives hope from God for his personal participation in the coming glorious resurrection.

Does this matter to you personally?