Resurrection Of The Body Save page

I believe in…the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
— The Apostle's Creed

I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. (Job 19:25-27)

But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory'. (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

God will download our software onto his hardware until the time he gives us new hardware to run the software again for ourselves.
— NT Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

The resurrection of the body is a foundational Christian doctrine. It implies several distinct but interlocking concepts:

• That we will live again after death
• That this life will be in a physical, embodied form
• That this life will be in a physical, material world
• That there will be continuity between the present and the future
• And thus, that this cosmos will be renovated, and not destroyed

During the Middle Ages, there were many debates on the precise physical mechanisms of resurrection. See Scientific Resurrection. This led to humorous (to us) discussions about how precisely cannibal babies would be resurrected, given that their materials were properly part of other persons and other bodies, that also needed to be resurrected. Similar discussions were held around how to resurrect bodies that had been burned, or buried at sea. A consensus seems to have developed, wherein God could recreate the material needed, provided it instantiated the same person and form.

While resurrection is generally considered the main "pathway" to the eschatological future, Paul is also clear that some will not die, but will instead be transfigured directly into the resurrected state, without losing their existing bodies.

51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-54)

This strengthens the conviction that this cosmos will be renovated, and not destroyed.