The Bodily Resurrection

December 12, 2023 Dawne Comment

When we share the Bible with a Jehovah’s Witness, we should emphasize what is most important for them to know. We must let them know that the bodily resurrection is of “FIRST IMPORTANCE.”

We are posting a number of e-letters Make Sure Ministries has received from David Henke, founder of Watchman Fellowship, Inc., an apologetics ministry, on a variety of subjects. They will post on Tuesdays into the foreseeable future. As always, we appreciate your comments. Please consider clicking on the link following this blog to learn more about Watchman Fellowship and what they have to offer. E-letters have been slightly edited for clarity.

My recommendation is that we should focus our witness to them on a topic that is essential to the Gospel. It also helps that this doctrine is very clear in the New Testament. There are no interpretive or textual problems. There are also a lot fewer verses to cover than other key doctrines like the Trinity [which, in Make Sure Ministries’ opinion, is not a subject that should be approached in early conversations, but rather just the deity of Christ]. Share 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 with them:

“For I delivered to you as of FIRST IMPORTANCE what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that He was buried, and that He was raised from the dead, according to the Scriptures.”
1 Corinthians 15:3-4

This is the heart and soul of the Good News. And if He died and stayed dead it would not be important. The fact that Jesus was raised makes this of FIRST IMPORTANCE.

As we talk to Jehovah’s Witnesses about the resurrection of Jesus, they will bring up different objections to the physical body of Jesus being raised. Remember, they believe that He was raised a spirit creature/Michael the Archangel.

Appeared as a Gardener and Didn’t Recognize Him

One of the first things they will say is that Jesus, when he appeared to them, appeared as a gardener:

And they said to her, ‘Woman why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.’ When she had said this, she turned around, and beheld Jesus standing there, and she did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means, Teacher).
John 20:13-16

Jesus went on to say to her,

“Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren, and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”
v. 17

Mary came to the tomb early Sunday morning. She was going to finish preparing the body. She was surprised the body was gone. She was not expecting the resurrection. She thought someone took the body. She “supposed” Jesus to be the Gardener. She was in tears. Under the circumstances it sounds like an honest response. Jesus did not appear in a different form; He was Himself after the resurrection. She did not recognize Him. Jehovah’s Witnesses say He appeared as a gardener.

We can read the context and it was Mary who assumed it. She thought He was the gardener at first. It seems there was something in the way Jesus said, “Mary” that she realized who He was, and responded, “Rabboni.” She clung to Him. How can you cling to a spirit?

Remember, Jesus dispelled the initial thought of His disciples that He was a spirit. He let His disciples touch Him and He ate in front of them to confirm He in fact was alive and in the flesh.

Until you answer every text they take you to, they will cling to the spiritual resurrection idea. Embedded in the text of every verse you will find the context that answers their false claim. Their reasoning goes like this: the Witnesses will say He was not recognized. Since they didn’t recognize Him, He must have had a different body. One text they will take you to is Luke 24, the Road to Emmaus.

He Kept Them from Recognizing Him

In Luke 24 the story is on the Road to Emmaus (v. 13). The disciples were talking about all the events of that day. The Tomb was empty and others say they saw Him. As they walked Jesus came up to them. They did not recognize Him. Why?

But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.
Luke 24:16

He was keeping them from recognizing them for whatever reason He had, although succeeding verses Scripture tells us,

And their eyes were opened and they recognized Him: and He vanished from their sight.
Luke 24:31

Jesus was acting in a way that kept them from knowing who He was. As God he could do that. As God He could “vanish” with no problem whenever he wanted. Jehovah’s Witnesses would use this Road to Emmaus disappearance and the idea that in John 20:19-20 He just “appears” in their midst:

When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.”’And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
John 20:19-20

The physical flesh with its wounds convinced them. If Jesus had just manifested a body for this purpose it would constitute a lie.

As God, He controls everything. Remember, even before the resurrection He walked on water. He overcame the “laws of nature.” If He could do that before the resurrection, how much more can we see it after the resurrection. And in this context He showed them His hands and side. He wanted them to know it was Jesus, the one who was crucified and died.

Raised in the Spirit

Jehovah’s Witnesses will use 1 Peter 3:18 in explaining the resurrection:

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.
1 Peter 3:18

Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that “being made alive in the spirit” supports being raised a spirit being or angel. What does this actually tell us? It tells us that He was raised by the Holy Spirit. If we accept that Jesus was raised a spirit then the implications for the Christians at Rome are staggering:

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, He does not belong to Him.
Romans 8:9

The Roman Christians are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. Are we to assume they are all spirit beings? No, they are humans who have the Spirit of God in them. They are true Christians. When Peter tells us Christ was made alive in the spirit He is saying that the Spirit of God raised Him from the dead. Romans confirms this:

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.
Romans 8:11

God’s Spirit gives Eternal life to us. He gave life to Jesus’ physical body in the resurrection.

Flesh and Blood Cannot Inherit the Kingdom of God

Now I say this brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
1 Corinthians 15:50

Jehovah’s Witnesses say that Jesus cannot be flesh and blood or he could not inherit the Kingdom. They say this is a reason he is spirit or angel. The term “flesh and blood” is used a number of times in the scriptures. Matthew 16:18; Galatians 1:16; I Corinthians 15:50; Ephesians 6:12. The meaning of flesh and blood means natural man. Look at each one of these passages and in the place of “flesh and blood” put fallen man or natural man. Flesh and blood is an expression for fallen sinful man and therefore it tells us that sinners don’t go to heaven.

In Conclusion

In sharing our faith with a Jehovah’s Witness we must get them to see the centrality of the resurrection. It is not a side issue. In Acts we see this as the message: Acts 1:3ff; 2:23-33; 3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 10:39-40; 13;29-30; 17:1-3, 18, 31; 26:23. All these verses stress Jesus and the Resurrection. Read those passages in context and notice the key thought Jesus has risen.

Jehovah’s Witnesses do not know this and are going around lost and teaching others about their error. We must labor for them in prayer and in witness. Stick with the central theme, or those “things of FIRST IMPORTANCE,” the gospel, new life in Christ via the resurrection.

One day we pray they can declare with us, He is risen! He is Risen indeed! Amen and Amen

January 7, 2022 E-Letter