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"Now this I say brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,
neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not
all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last
trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we
shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put
on immortality . . . . . then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is
swallowed up in victory" (I Cor. 15: 50-54).
We observe first of all that the "mystery" here is associated with the testimony of
the prophet Isaiah, whose prophecy relates to Millennial times (Isa. 25: 6-9). Both in
I Thess. 4: and here in I Cor. 15:, the Apostle distinguishes between those who shall be
"alive and remaining" at the coming of the Lord, and those who have already "fallen
asleep". When the change takes place, with regard both to the "living" and the "dead",
the prophecy of Isa. 25: 6-9 will have been fulfilled.
When we examine I Cor. 15: 51 more closely we observe that there is no word in the
original that can really be translated "show". The original reads: Musterion humin lego,
"a mystery to you I speak". Moreover, it is necessary to consider whether these words
would not be more correctly rendered in the form of a question. To make this point
clearer, let us turn for a moment to Luke 16:
It may be that some readers are still perplexed to find our Lord apparently saying, in
connection with the parable of the unjust steward: "But I say unto you, Make unto
yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness" (Luke 16: 9).
Most of our readers, however, know that the words Kago humin lego should be
translated in the form of a question: "And do I say unto you . . . . .?" the question being
followed by the reasons why the Lord's people should not in any sense emulate the spirit
of the unjust steward.
Returning to I Cor. 15: and examining the Apostle's words again, we discover that
there is no "mystery" here at all. In verses 47-49 he contrasts the first Adam with the
Second Adam, and the image of the earthy with the image of the heavenly, and verse 50
opens with the words: Touto de phemi: "But this I say." The Apostle then proceeds to
declare that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God: neither doth corruption
inherit incorruption". Immediately following this, in verse 51, we have: Musterion
humin lego: "Do I speak a mystery when I tell you this?"--the implied answer being, of
course, "No". To sum up, we may conclude that, when the Apostle taught the glorious
doctrine of the resurrection, he did not go beyond the testimony of Moses and the
Prophets.
There is now only one other "mystery" to be considered: "The mystery of iniquity" in
II Thess. 2: 7. It hardly seems necessary to quote from the Book of Daniel to prove that
the rise of the Man of Sin, the Son of perdition, is entirely within the scope of O.T.
prophecy. The mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, is enshrined in the O.T.
title Emmanuel ("God with us"), and the mystery of iniquity is but the Satanic travesty of