The Kingdom of Promise and Prophecy

by Robertson L. Whiteside

RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD

The following question came to me recently:

Brother Whiteside: Do you not think that the expression, “resurrection from the dead,” has reference to the death state, rather than the meaning that some will come “out from among” the other dead ones? Say something to us in the Gospel Advocate along this line. John S. Clark.

In the growth of language it is common for words to take on additional meanings. This, of course, is common knowledge and needs no proof.

In the phrase, “from the dead” (ek nekron), the word “dead” is plural in the Greek, but by a sort of figure of speech, or extension of the meaning of the word, it applies to the state of death; at least, some passages of Scripture set forth that idea. In Rom. 6:13 we have the phrase, “alive from the dead,” and in I John 3:14 we have the phrase, “passed out of death into life.” In both passages the meaning is the same; yet in Romans the Greek word from which we have “dead” is plural, and in John we have another word in the singular. The Romans had been dead in sins, but were made alive from that death. The Cambridge Greek Testament has this note: “Ek nekron, as men that are alive after being dead.” Bloomfield: “Ex nekron zontas, as those who, after having been (spiritually) dead, are now alive.” Thayer: “Zeen ek nekron, tropically, out of moral death to enter upon a new life, dedicated and acceptable to God (Rom. 6:13.)” In defining “ek,” Thayer has this: “5. Of the condition or state out of which one comes or is brought: ... zontes ek nekron, alive from being dead—i. e., who had been dead and were alive again (Rom. 6:13.)” It is plain, therefore, that the word “dead” in Rom. 6:13 refers to the death state. It is true that it refers here to spiritual death, but its use in describing the state of the sinner is a figurative use of the same expression that is applied to the state of those who are dead physically.

We have the same phrase in Rom. 11:15—“life from the dead” (ek nekron). On this passage Thayer has this: “Zoa ek nekron, life breaking forth from the abode of the dead.” Bloomfield gives the following as the sense of the whole verse: “If their sin, which occasioned this casting away, has been the means of reconciling the world, by bringing about the death of Christ, what shall the receiving of them again into the divine favor be (whenever it shall take place), but so happy a change, both to themselves and to the Gentiles, as may, in a manner, be said to raise the whole world from death to life? Zoe ek nekron, by a figure common to all languages, denotes (as Turretin and Stuart explain) something great and surprising, like what a general resurrection from the dead would be.” So, according to Bloomfield, “life from the dead” is life from death.

But it is contended by all the future-kingdom folks that the phrase, “resurrection from the dead” (ek nekron), applies to the righteous and never to the wicked. Their cause depends upon their repudiating the idea that the word “dead” refers to the death state. They tell us that the righteous are raised before the wicked, and are, therefore, raised “out from among” dead ones. But their contention is not conclusive, even if “ek nekron” should be rendered “out of the dead ones.” In the first place, to make “ek” mean out from among is stretching that little word too much. Again, before the resurrection, the dead ones are made up of both the righteous and the wicked. Their contention will not allow that the righteous come “out from among” the righteous dead. They do not, then, come “out from among” the dead, but “out from among” only a part of the dead. But “out from among” is not even good English.

Again, granting, for argument’s sake, that “from the dead” means “out of dead ones,” their contention then does not hold good. We view the field of the dead; they are all there—the righteous, the sinners, the infants, and all irresponsible people. They all arise at once; have they not come out of the dead? They were dead ones, now they are live ones; out of the dead ones came the living ones. The apostles preached a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. (Acts 24:15). In Acts 4:2 “ek nekron” is used in connection with the resurrection of all the dead. The Sadducees were sorely troubled because the apostles “proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.”

I have never seen any provision, or place, for the resurrection of infants and irresponsibles in the future-kingdom theory, nor have I seen any place for such in their future-kingdom. They cannot be rulers, for they have not been tested and proved worthy of such place; the most of them cannot be citizens, for they are not Jews. Will they be raised before the millennial kingdom begins? If so, what will be their status in that kingdom, or will they be any part of it?