Clifford Goldstein is an author and leading figure in the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. He’s a former editor of Liberty Magazine and the Adventist Adult Sabbath School quarterly.
In 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul makes a powerful case for the resurrection of the dead. Paul is, in fact, unambiguous: if Christ had not been resurrected, then we won’t be resurrected. And, if we aren’t going to be resurrection, then—what?
“For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.” (1 Corinthians 15:16-18).
In short, if we aren’t resurrected, our faith is meaningless.
Now, think about the implications here. Our great hope rests upon the restoring back to life millions of people, some who have been dead for millennia. What’s left of many of them but atoms scattered around the globe? And, yet, we are to believe that, one day, God is going to bring these people not only back to life but, this time—to eternal life?
So, in a real sense, our faith requires us to believe in something so “unscientific,” something that, from a human perspective, is so preposterous and so outrageous.
Well, we have to believe it, otherwise we have nothing.
The point is this: if we have to trust God on this, the resurrection of the dead, then, certainly, our immediate struggles—health, family, finances, love life, work, whatever—are not too big for Him. Sure, these things can sometimes be hard, can and do sometimes hurt, but if we trust God on the resurrection of the dead, what can’t we trust Him on until then?
