His resurrection and ours

As Seventh-day Adventists who worship on Saturday, we are sometimes seen by our Sunday-keeping Christian brothers and sisters as somewhat less than enthusiastic about Easter. Indeed, our seeming lack of interest in this important religious holiday has often given them reason to suspect that we don't place very much emphasis on Jesus' resurrection, or worse still, that we don't even believe in it!

Yet, while we often allow Easter to pass with barely a nod, we believe implicitly that our Lord literally rose to life from the tomb that Sunday morning so long ago. In fact, paradoxically enough, we probably place a greater importance on the implications of His resurrection than do many Christians. The reason is not hard to find.

For those who believe that at death the soul of the faithful Christian goes to be with its Lord, the resurrection of the body seems, necessarily, to be a rather anticlimactic event. For us who believe that the faithful Christian remains unconscious in death until called forth to eternal life by the Lord at His second coming, the resurrection takes on a much more central significance. As the apostle Paul put it: "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. . . . But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. . . . As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ" (1 Cor. 15:13-23).^*

Thus the Second Coming has always occupied a principal place in Adventist thought. We have always looked to that blessed hope as the grand culmination of all our longings and expectations. The apostle says in a different place: "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:16, 17).

Two articles in this issue of MINISTRY deal with the return of Jesus—this central theme of Adventism: "Jesus Is Coming Soon!" by Gordon M. Hyde (p. 10); and "The Church and the Great Tribulation: Protection or Escape?" by Hans K. LaRondelle (p. 13). In these is reaffirmed our confidence in the fact that the Saviour will soon appear to fulfill all the promises He has made to us through Paul and the other Bible writers. But it is His resurrection that guarantees these promises and seals them to us. Our hope of life when Jesus comes is based on our certainty in His own victorious resurrection. As the Father called forth His Son from the grave, to take His place with Him eternally in glory, even so do we expect the Saviour to call us forth from the grave to unfailing life if we should die before He returns. Without the surety of this great fact, Paul solemnly vows, our preaching and our faith are in vain.

Let us, then, give no one reason to doubt our belief in the Lord's resurrection or to question the significance we attach to it. Let us preach it—joyfully, earnestly, with power. And when better to do so than at Easter?—B.R.H.