--- title: Times and Seasons description: Issues of 1841 to 1842. authors: - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints editors: - Ebenezer Robinson - Don Carlos Smith - Smith, Joseph, Jr. - Taylor, John collections: - periodicals tags: - newspaper - times-and-seasons - nauvoo - nineteenth-century periodical: Times and Seasons volume: 3 number: 13 published: 1842-05-01 publisher: E. Robinson and D. C. Smith; later John Taylor publisher_place: Commerce and Nauvoo, Illinois language: en type: article reference: "“Philosophy of the Resurrection,” *Times and Seasons* 3, no. 13 (May 1, 1842): 779–771." printed_title: PHILOSOPHY OF THE RESURRECTION. source: url: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-05-01_3_13 transcription: Text from the Centerplace.org transcription (https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v3n13.htm), with its page breaks; this Internet Archive scan is the reference copy (its OCR was used only as a witness for OCR repair) identifier: per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-05-01_3_13 start_page: 779 end_page: 771 curator_note: A Mormon newspaper published by the church in Nauvoo; included for historical study. Inclusion does not imply endorsement. rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1842 (Nauvoo, Illinois); published before 1931, so public domain in the United States source: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-05-01_3_13 publication_year: 1842 --- # Philosophy of the Resurrection "But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? * * That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: and that which sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat or some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh; but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another." 1st Cor. 15 chap. 35 & 40. The resurrection of the body has been objected to by many as a principle which comes in contact with the known laws of nature, and therefore both unreasonable and impossible. For instance, it is ascertained beyond a doubt that the human system is constantly changing, by throwing off particles of matter, and receiving new ones. By the several natural evacuations from the body, parts of the old system are dispensed with, and by the nourishment received into the stomach, and by means of the blood vessels diffused through the system, new particles are constantly added. Thus the whole matter which constitutes the physical system of the human body at any given time is said to pass away in exchange for new matter to the same amount, once in about ten years. According to this calculation, man at the age of seventy years has been composed of matter sufficient to constitute seven human bodies, each about equal in dimensions to that which he possesses at any one given time. The second consideration is that the particles of matter thus thrown off become parts of the earth from which they originated, and at lenght [length] grow up and live again in vegetable substances, such as grass, grain, fruit, &c. These in turn become food for animals; thus these animals are in part composed of the same particles which constituted parts of the human system. These animals are in turn devoured by man, and thus help to form parts of other human systems: and so on in an endless variety of alternate changes and subdivisions. These facts are brought forward by some as so many proofs that it is impossible for the physical system of man ever to rise from the dead. They urge that in the resurrection one individual would necessarily claim some of the same particles of matter as another, because both had once possessed some of the same particles. All these objections appear very plausible at first sight, and have doubtless been a means of overthrowing the faith of many in regard to a resurrection of the body. While, on the other hand, these objections have been met by superstition, bigotry, and ignorance, not with a design to enlighten the understanding or to inform and convince the judgment, but with an endeavor to throw a veil of sacredness over the whole subject, as if it were a mystery to be believed without the possibility of understanding it. Perhaps a few sentences like the following have been sufficient to smother all further enquiry [inquiry]:-"Ignorance is the mother of devotion." "Don't let your mind think on such subjects, it is a temptation to infidelity." "It is wicked to enquire [inquire] into such things." "All things are possible with God," &c. Others have pretended to solve the difficulty, by supposing that the doctrine of the resurrection, although true, does not imply a material body, but rather a spiritual body, or formation unconnected with matter. But after all the seeming difficulties which infidelity on the one hand, and sectarian ignorance and superstition on the other have thrown over the subject, a few reflections will be sufficient to show that every truth in theology, and every truth in philosophy mutually strengthen, illustrate, and confirm each other: for instance, the fact that a human body in the course of seventy years is composed of matter sufficient for the formation of seven bodies of the same size, or nearly so, shows clearly that six parts out of seven will not be occupied by one individual, and will therefore afford sufficient materials for the formation of six other human structures in the resurrection. Thus there will not be the least occasion for two individuals to necessarily claim the same materials; or in other words, for one resurrected body to be composed of the materials which are necessary for the formation of another, seeing each individual would need but about one seventh of that which he had occupied in the course of his temporal life. Thus all are abundantly provided for as to materials out of which to compose a new human structure. The principal objection which still arises in regard to this view of the subject is, that the new body is not composed wholly of the same materials which constituted the old one. An argument might therefore be started that it could not be considered as the same individual, or as a resurrection of the same body, because partly constituted of other particles of matter, as well as dispensing with part of that which had constituted the old body. But if this objection proves any thing it proves too much, and comes in at last in favor of the resurrection; for the same objection might arise, and with the same degree of propriety, in regard to individuals in this life for instance, a man has not the same body at the age of fifty that he had at twenty-five; and shall we therefore argue that he is not the same person? The philosopher would prove before any intelligent jury that in the course of twenty-five years the entire system had twice passed away and given place to a new one: and yet the jury would recognise [recognize] an individual at the age of fifty to be the same person that he was at the age of twenty-the authorities would recognise [recognize] him to be the same-the same criminal-the same debtor-the same prisoner-the same heir at law. The mother would claim him as her child-the wife as her husband, &c. Indeed, he would feel conscious himself that he was the same person in reality, and no argument, however strong, would cause him to waver or doubt his own identity for a moment. Now, it is this conciousness [consciousness] that constitutes the same person in reality, both in his own estimation and that of all his acquaintances. The man new risen from the tomb with a material body composed of the old one, or rather of a germ of the old one, will no doubt, stand forth in all the conciousness [consciousness] of existence, and of his own identity that he posesses [possesses] in this life, and probably with far more acute and perfect conceptions and energies of mind, the intellect not being clogged and retarded by the corruptions and infirmities of mortality. He will feel and know himself to be the same individual, and all intelligent beings who have known him will identify him as the same that was born of a woman, and that returned to the dust. Even God himself, who is the standard of philosophical and all other truths, will recognise [recognize] him as the same individual, and will judge him for the deeds done in the old body. Here, then, at the high court of heaven, the philosopher's plea that he is not the same individual in his resurrected body that he was in his natural body, (on account of having parted with some of the materials of his original tabernacle, and taken other particles of matter in their stead), will vanish away, and fall to the ground as unheeded, as a similar plea would in this life, when presented to a virgin bride, to convince her that the object dearest to her heart is not the same person after ten years absence. 'Tis thinking, feeling, seeing, The laws of nature scan; It is the sense of being That constitutes the man. From the text we quoted at the head of this article, and from the foregoing remarks, it will be readily perceived that Paul and the Latter Day Saints, so far from being ignorant of the laws of nature, or coming in contact with the philosophy thereof, have rather reconciled or harmonized the revelations of God with the laws of nature, and have been enabled to point out a mutual agreement, or unison between them. As the seed falls into the earth and dies, and by this very operation sends forth a sprout or germ which, with other particles of matter, is sure to produce its own likeness; so the human system dies and is again quickened, and reproduced in its own likeness by the power of the resurrection: and as the seed of grain is necessary for the production of tis own kind, so the corruptible body is indispensibly [an indispensable] necessary as a germ from which the glorious immortal body is formed. And as each seed produces its own kind of grain, so the flesh of birds, beasts, fishes, and man, each differ in its kind, and each starting into new life will be in its own likeness, and move in its own sphere. The mysterous [mysterious] works of God in the formation, progress, changes, and final destiny of creation are all wonderful and miraculous in one sense. The formation of the natural body in embryo, or even of a plant or flower, is as much a miracle as the creation or re-organization of a world, or the resurrection of the body. Each effect has its cause, and each cause its effect; and the light, spirit, or truth which proceeds from Deity is the law of life and motion, the great governing principle of the whole machinary [machinery] of the universe, whether natural or spiritual, temporal or eternal. It is the cause of causes, the main spring of nature's time piece. By it we live, in it we move and have our being. Let man be placed upon a lofty eminence, surrounded with the original elements of uncreated worlds-ley [let] him contemplate the confused the chaotic mass of unorganized existence; let him hear the voice of truth and power as its first sentence rolls in majesty of wisdom from the lips of Deity; let him behold the first movement of chaos as it begins to come to order; let him contemplate its various workings till the heavens and earth, and man and beast, and plant and flower, startle into conscious being, in all the beauty of joyous existence; let him observe every minute particular of its progress through time, in all its various changes; let him contemplate the changing seasons as they roll in hours and days, and months and years; let his thoughts reach to the starry heavens and view them in all their motions and revolutions-the sun in its daily course, the planets in their annual revolutions, the blazing comet as it moves afar in the wilds of ether, and returns from its journey of a hundred or a thousand years; let him return to earth and view the vegetable kingdom as it blooms and ripens, and falls again to decay in the revolving seasons-the time worn oak of a thousand years as it braves the tempest, or the modest flower whose life is but a day; let him view the animal creation in all its variety as it appears and passes in turn from the stage of action; let him contemplate man, from his infant formation through all the changes of his various life till he returns to dust; let him view the laborious inhabitants through all their temporal career, till wearied nature sinks to rest, and worn by slowly rolling years, the earth itself shall die; lastly, let him contemplate all nature regenerated, renewed, and starting into being, while death itself shall conquered be, and immortality alone endure. The vision ended. Man! what hast thou seen? Answer: Nothing out of the ordinary course, all I beheld was nature moving in perfect accordance with the law of its existence: not one single deviation or shadow of turning from the immutable laws of truth. But hast thou seen no miracle? Yes; it was all miraculous it was all achieved by the law of light, which wast he [was the] immediate power of God; but it was all upon the most natural, easy, simple, and plain principles of nature in its varied order; and which to call the most miraculous I know not! Whether it was the creation of a world, the blosoming [blossoming] of a flower, the hatching of a butterfly, or the resurrection of the body, and the making of new heavens and a new earth. All these were so many displays of the power of God. All these were miraculous. All these were natural. All these were spiritual. All these were adapted to the simplest capacity, aided by the spirit of God. All these were too sublime for an arch angel to comprehend by his own capacity without the spirit of revelation. P.P. PRATT.