[UntoHim]

Sorry Sons to Glory! I wrote this post a number of days ago and thought I had posted it. Come to find out this morning it never appeared on the live forum. Anyway, here is a short retort to your well thought out proposition here: - - -

Originally Posted by Sons to Glory!

How is the church produced and what facilitates that happening? "The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit."

This is a very nice sentiment, StG!, but I'm afraid it's not a very biblical sentiment. The last Adam becoming a life-giving spirit (most reputable translations use a small s) will ultimately facilitate our bodies being transformed and glorified at the resurrection of all believers who have died up to the Lord Jesus' second coming. The subject of 1 Corinthians 15 is not the church, unless you think the church age really starts at the Lord's second coming! The main subject of this wonderful chapter is an answer to the question in verse 35: But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” This question was actually answered in the Gospels, but it seems that the Corinthians had not yet been taught and fully imbibe the true and complete Gospel. (Most biblical historians posit that Paul's letters predate the widespread distribution of the written synoptic Gospels)

Verse 20 and 23 also gives a big clue to what this chapter is all about: "In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him." Notice the specific order here: Firstly "Christ the firstfruits". There is little doubt that this is referring to the death, and especially the resurrection, of the Lord Jesus. (cf: "he is the firstborn from among the dead" - Col 1:18) Our Lord's resurrection was not only a fact of history (praise God for this fact!) it was an inauguration of sorts - one in which the Lord Jesus "took office" immediately upon his resurrection, and at the same time Jesus' resurrection was/is the catylist for every believers' bodily resurrection - at which time we will receive a spiritual body"to be like his glorious body". (Phil 3:21) Then will come the full and complete import and meaning of "when Christ appears, we shall be like him". (1 John 3:2)

Witness Lee's faulty interpretation of 1 Corinthians 15:45 is mainly the result of his decidedly misinformed understanding of the main subject of the whole chapter of 1 Corinthians 15. Like a ship that is just a few degrees off when it starts a long journey, by the time it has traveled thousands of miles, it is hundreds of miles off course. From the start, Lee abandoned Paul's "the gospel I preached to you" in verse 1, so by the time he reached verse 45 he was so far off course that his interpretation would have been totally unrecognizable to the apostle who penned verse 1. Things became even more convoluted for Lee's followers when they were taught that Lee's interpretations were "recovered truth", and that all traditional and historic teachings were "poor, poor" and "the dead doctrines" of man. May God have mercy.
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