An interesting spin-off from recent spirit birth dialogue is the nature of the resurrection.  This dialogue, along with my father’s recent death, has caused me to think about this important topic more than usual.

It seems to me that a belief in any level of resurrection, must be taken with a simple and child-like faith.  Science seems to be no help.  It seems to me that science must either be silent on the topic, or to flat-out deny even the possibility of a resurrection.

What we believe about the resurrection must be based on our own intuition, personal revelation, or from the scriptures.  Our intuition does not seem to be very valuable (what would it be based on anyway?).  Personal revelation is not something that carries much weight, and we should not really be talking about it very much anyway.  So if we do believe in a resurrection, it seems that the scriptures are the best source we can go to for what to believe about the resurrection.  So what do they say?

They say that the resurrection is universal.  Thus it is an unconditional gift of grace through the atonement of Christ.

They say that the resurrection is complete.  They say that not even a hair of our heads will be lost.  There were apparently no leftover parts when Jesus was resurrected.  And about the only exception in this is our blood – which does not appear to be part of the resurrection.

The scriptures also indicate that there will be some significant differences in what a resurrected body can do – like stand in the air, ascend into heaven, etc.

All of this seems to indicate a universal, literal, and complete resurrection, which will be accompanied by some abilities we do not currently possess.

What we believe about the resurrection has implications on what we believe about eternal gender, evolution, the nature of God, the nature of salvation/exaltation, etc.