People who do not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ and teach otherwise are "scoffing" and "profane men."
To refuse to accept the "authentic proofs" of the resurrection is "not diffidence, but depraved and therefore infatuated obstinacy."
Disbelief in the bodily resurrection is a "brutish stupor," a viewpoint that calls for the "extinction of man."
Thus declared John Calvin, the architect of the Presbyterian wing that descended from the 16th-century Reformation. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is one of the descendants.
The PCUSA has had a number of scuffles over whether belief in a literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus is an essential tenet of the faith. One minister has been charged with heresy because he allegedly denied that Jesus rose bodily from the grave. Whether that minister will face trial depends on 1) whether he said what he is accused of saying and 2) whether a presbytery investigating committee concludes that a Presbyterian minister is obligated to believe and preach that Christ rose bodily from the grave.
Liberals in the denomination – including the Witherspoon Society and the Covenant Network – have embraced "progressive theology," which flatly denies that Jesus rose bodily from the grave.
And at least one PCUSA seminary professor has published his arguments against the bodily resurrection.
Meanwhile, the testimony of Scripture and the confessions of the PCUSA agree with the orthodox teaching on the resurrection – that Jesus rose bodily from the grave.
Calvin was one of the principal Reformed expositors of what the Bible says about the resurrection. In the third book of
The Institutes of the Christian Religion, the 25th Chapter, titled
"Of the Last Resurrection," Calvin systematically laid out what the Bible teaches about the bodily resurrection – which he called an "inestimable miracle." He also defended the bodily resurrection in other chapters of
The Institutes and in his preaching and teaching in Geneva.
Calvin taught that, according to the Scriptures, Jesus rose bodily from the grave, that his risen body was the glorified state of his slain body, and that believing in a bodily resurrection is essential. Furthermore, he taught that Christians would experience the same resurrection of their bodies, brought to a glorified state by the risen Christ.
He was passionately critical of those who disagreed with Scripture and denied the literal bodily resurrection of Christ and believers.
Some excerpts from Calvin's teachings about the resurrection in
The Institutes:
Book 3, Chapter 16
[B]ut it is to be observed, in passing, that when he is said to have "risen from the dead," these terms express the reality both of his death and resurrection, as if it had been said, that he died the same death as other men naturally die, and received immortality in the same mortal flesh which he had assumed.
[I]n bodily presence, he conversed with his disciples forty days, and leading them out where they saw, but followed not, he ascended into heaven, and is not here: for there he sits at the right hand of the Father: and yet he is here, for the presence of his Godhead was not withdrawn.
Book 3, Chapter 25
Wherefore, he alone has made solid progress in the Gospel who has acquired the habit of meditating continually on a blessed resurrection.
Therefore I said, that none participate in the benefits of Christ save those who raise their minds to the resurrection.
The very importance of the subject ought to increase our ardor. Paul justly contends, that if Christ rise not the whole gospel is delusive and vain (1 Cor. 15:13-17); for our condition would be more miserable than that of other mortals, because we are exposed to much hatred and insult, and incur danger every hour; nay, are like sheep destined for slaughter; and hence the authority of the gospel would fail, not in one part merely, but in its very essence, including both our adoption and the accomplishment of our salvation.
It is difficult to believe that after our bodies have been consumed with rottenness, they still rise again at their appointed time. And hence, while many of the philosophers maintained the immortality of the soul, few of them assented to the resurrection of the body. Although in this they were inexcusable, we are thereby reminded that the subject is too difficult for human apprehension to reach it.
For in the miseries by which we are beset, we always bear "about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh," (2 Cor. 4:10). It is not lawful, it is not even possible, to separate him from us, without dividing him. Hence Paul's argument, "If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen," (1 Cor. 15:13)
Although a portion of this confidence appertain to us according to the measure bestowed on us, yet the full effect appeared only in Christ, who, free from all corruption, resumed a spotless body.
For he elsewhere says that God did not raise up his Son from death to give an isolated specimen of his mighty power, but that the Spirit exerts the same efficacy in regard to them that believe; and accordingly he says, that the Spirit when he dwells in us is life, because the end for which he was given is to quicken our mortal body (Rom. 8:10, 11; Col. 3:4).
But lest any question should be raised as to the resurrection of Christ on which ours is founded, we see how often and in what various ways he has borne testimony to it. Scoffing men will deride the narrative which is given by the Evangelist as a childish fable.
Profane men will scarcely admit that the witnesses [to the resurrection] whom he selects are well qualified.
The disciples saw him frequently; they even touched his hands and his feet, and their unbelief is of no little avail in confirming our faith.
To refuse assent to these numerous and authentic proofs is not diffidence, but depraved and therefore infatuated obstinacy.
We have said that in proving the resurrection our thoughts must be directed to the immense power of God. This Paul briefly teaches, when he says that the Lord Jesus Christ "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working of that mighty power whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself," (Phil. 3:21). Wherefore, nothing can be more incongruous than to look here at what can be done naturally when the subject presented to us is an inestimable miracle, which by its magnitude absorbs our senses. Paul, however, by producing a proof from nature, confutes the senselessness of those who deny the resurrection.
Although the minds of men ought to be perpetually occupied with this pursuit yet as if they actually resolved to banish all remembrance of the resurrection, they have called death the end of all things, the extinction of man.
In all ages a brutish stupor has prevailed, and, accordingly, it has made its way into the very Church; for the Sadducees had the hardihood openly to profess that there was no resurrection, nay, that the soul was mortal (Mark 12:18; Luke 20:27).
Moreover, in regard to all things which lie beyond our sight, and far transcend the reach of our intellect, belief must either be founded on the sure oracles of God, or altogether renounced.
It is intolerable blasphemy to hold the majesty of God in so little estimation, as not to regard the contempt of it as of greater consequence than the destruction of a single soul. But let us have done with these triflers, that we may not seem (contrary to what we first observed) to think their dreams deserving of refutation.
Besides these, other two dreams have been invented by men who indulge a wicked curiosity. Some, under the idea that the whole man perishes, have thought that the soul will rise again with the body; while others, admitting that spirits are immortal, hold that they will be clothed with new bodies, and thus deny the resurrection of the flesh.
Equally monstrous is the error of those who imagine that the soul, instead of resuming the body with which it is now clothed, will obtain a new and different body. Nothing can be more futile than the reason given by the Manichees-viz. that it were incongruous for impure flesh to rise again: as if there were no impurity in the soul. …
For which reason he elsewhere says, "I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," (1 Thess. 5:23). He says "body" as well as "spirit and soul," and no wonder; for it were most absurd that bodies which God has dedicated to himself as temples should fall into corruption without hope of resurrection.
Nor, indeed, on any subject does Scripture furnish clearer explanation than on the resurrection of our flesh. "This corruptible (says Paul) must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality," (1 Cor. 15:53). If God formed new bodies, where would be this change of quality?
For if death, which originated in the fall of man, is adventitious, the renewal produced by Christ must be in the same body which began to be mortal. And, certainly, since the Athenians mocked Paul for asserting the resurrection (Acts 17:32), we may infer what his preaching was: their derision is of no small force to confirm our faith.
Moreover, if we are to receive new bodies, where will be the conformity of the Head and the members? Christ rose again. Was it by forming for himself a new body? Nay, he had foretold, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," (John 2:19). The mortal body which he had formerly carried he again received; for it would not have availed us much if a new body had been substituted, and that which had been offered in expiatory sacrifice been destroyed. We must, therefore, attend to that connection which the Apostle celebrates, that we rise because Christ rose (1 Cor. 15:12); nothing being less probable than that the flesh in which we bear about the dying of Christ, shall have no share in the resurrection of Christ. This was even manifested by a striking example, when, at the resurrection of Christ, many bodies of the saints came forth from their graves. For it cannot be denied that this was a prelude, or rather earnest, of the final resurrection for which we hope, such as already existed in Enoch and Elijah, whom Tertullian calls
candidates for resurrection, because, exempted from corruption, both in body and soul, they were received into the custody of God. the judgment which is to follow, that every one shall "receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad," (2 Cor. 5:10).
For if death, which originated in the fall of man, is adventitious, the renewal produced by Christ must be in the same body which began to be mortal.
The saying of our Savior also is worthy of observation, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell," (Mt. 10:28).
The mortal body which he had formerly carried he again received; for it would not have availed us much if a new body had been substituted, and that which had been offered in expiatory sacrifice been destroyed.
I am ashamed to waste so many words on so clear a matter; but my readers will kindly submit to the annoyance, in order that perverse and presumptuous minds may not be able to avail themselves of any flaw to deceive the simple. The volatile spirits with whom I now dispute adduce the fiction of their own brain, that in the resurrection there will be a creation of new bodies. Their only reason for thinking so is, that it seems to them incredible that a dead body, long wasted by corruption, should return to its former state. Therefore, mere unbelief is the parent of their opinion. The Spirit of God, on the contrary, uniformly exhorts us in Scripture to hope for the resurrection of our flesh.
For what would it avail to apply feet, hands, eyes, and tongues, to the service of God, did not these afterwards participate in the benefit and reward? This Paul expressly confirms when he says, "The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. And God has both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power," (1 Cor. 6:13, 14). The words which follow are still clearer, "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?" "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?" (1 Cor. 6:15, 19).
It remains to make a passing remark on the mode of resurrection. I speak thus because Paul, by styling it a mystery, exhorts us to soberness, in order that he may curb a licentious indulgence in free and subtle speculation. First, we must hold, as has already been observed, that the body in which we shall rise will be the same as at present in respect of substance, but that the quality will be different; just as the body of Christ which was raised up was the same as that which had been offered in sacrifice, and yet excelled in other qualities, as if it had been altogether different.