Definition · Webster 1828 · Scriptures · Corruption · Roots · Usage · Related
📖 Biblical Definition
The general resurrection is the raising of all the dead, both the righteous and the wicked, in their own bodies, at the last day, by the power of Christ. It is “general” because it is universal—all who have ever died shall be raised—and because it occurs at one great consummating event, the return of Christ. The same bodies that were laid in the grave shall be raised, though gloriously changed: the bodies of the just shall be raised in incorruption, power, and glory, fashioned like unto Christ’s glorious body, while the bodies of the unjust shall be raised to shame and everlasting contempt, fitted to endure the judgment. Christ Himself declared that the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and come forth—they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. Paul makes the resurrection of believers depend wholly upon Christ’s own: He is the firstfruits, and because He is risen they shall rise; if the dead rise not, then is our preaching vain and our faith vain. The resurrection of the body, confessed in the ancient creeds, distinguishes Christian hope from the pagan dream of a disembodied immortality: the redemption Christ purchased is not the escape of the soul from the body but the raising and glorifying of the whole person. It is the believer’s great and final hope, the swallowing up of death in victory.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Webster 1828 defines RESURRECTION as a rising again, particularly the revival of the dead at the general judgment.
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RESURRECTION, n. — A rising again; chiefly, the revival of the dead of the human race, or their return from the grave, particularly at the general judgment. By the resurrection of Christ we have an assurance of a future resurrection of men.
Applied generally, it denotes the raising of all the dead, just and unjust, at the last day.
📖 Key Scripture
John 5:28-29 — "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."
1 Corinthians 15:20-22 — "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept... For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
Daniel 12:2 — "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."
1 Corinthians 15:42-44 — "It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory... It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
No major postmodern redefinition, but the bodily resurrection is widely diluted—swapped for a Greek dream of the soul’s immortality or a vague “spiritual” survival that empties the creed’s “resurrection of the body.”
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The chief corruption of the resurrection is its quiet replacement by a pagan substitute. Many who recite “I believe in the resurrection of the body” in fact hope only for the survival of an immortal soul—a disembodied spirit floating off to heaven, the body abandoned forever in the grave as a discarded shell. This is the Greek dream, not the Christian hope. Scripture promises not the escape of the soul from the body but the raising and glorifying of the body itself: the same person, soul and body reunited, made incorruptible and conformed to the glorious body of the risen Christ. To trade the resurrection for mere immortality is to keep the word and lose the thing.
A subtler dilution treats the resurrection as a vague spiritual metaphor—a symbol of renewal, a poetic way of speaking about hope—rather than the literal raising of the dead that Paul staked the whole faith upon. But the apostle was blunt: if the dead rise not, our preaching is vain, our faith is vain, and we are of all men most miserable. The bodily resurrection is no optional ornament; it is the hinge of the gospel, grounded in the historical rising of Christ as the firstfruits. The faithful church confesses a real, future, bodily resurrection of all the dead—the just to life and the unjust to judgment—and fixes her hope on the day when death itself is swallowed up in victory.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
The doctrine rests on anastasis (a standing-up again) and on Christ as aparchē (firstfruits), the guarantee that His people will rise as He rose.
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['Greek', 'G386', 'anastasis', 'resurrection, a rising again']
['Greek', 'G536', 'aparchē', 'firstfruits (Christ the firstfruits of them that slept)']
['Greek', 'G862', 'aphtharsia', 'incorruption (raised in incorruption)']
['Hebrew', 'H6974', 'qūts', 'to awake (they that sleep in the dust shall awake)']
Usage
"The general resurrection raises all the dead, just and unjust, in their own bodies at the last day."
"Christian hope is not the soul’s escape from the body but the bodily resurrection—the whole man raised and glorified."
"Paul grounds the general resurrection in Christ the firstfruits: because He is risen, His people shall rise."