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RespectAid to Bible Understanding
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“honor.” Various original-language words convey the thought of according honor, respect or wholesome fear to others.
TOWARD JEHOVAH AND HIS REPRESENTATIVES
By reason of his being Creator, Jehovah God is worthy of the greatest honor from all his intelligent creatures. (Rev. 4:11) Such honor calls for individuals to render faithful obedience to him, obedience based on love for him and an appreciation for what he has done in their behalf. (Mal. 1:6; 1 John 5:3) It also includes the use of one’s valuable things on behalf of true worship.—Prov. 3:9.
One who appropriates to himself that which belongs to the Creator shows disrespect for sacred things. This was done by Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of High Priest Eli. They seized the best of every offering made to Jehovah. And Eli, by failing to take firm measures against his sons for this, honored them more than Jehovah.—1 Sam. 2:12-17, 27-29.
Whereas the honor given by men to Jehovah God is manifest by faithful obedience to him and furthering the interests of his worship, God honors humans by blessing and rewarding them. (1 Sam. 2:30) Thus King David, who served Jehovah faithfully and desired to build a temple for housing the sacred ark of the covenant, was honored or rewarded with a covenant for a kingdom.—2 Sam. 7:1-16; 1 Chron. 17:1-14.
As Jehovah’s spokesmen the prophets, especially God’s Son Christ Jesus, were deserving of respect. But instead of being accorded such by the Israelites, they were abused verbally and physically, even to the point of being put to death. Israel’s disrespect for Jehovah’s representatives reached its climax in their killing his Son. For this reason Jehovah used the Roman armies to execute his vengeance upon unfaithful Jerusalem in 70 C.E.—Matt. 21:33-44; Mark 12:1-9; Luke 20:9-16; compare John 5:23.
In the Christian congregation
Those entrusted with special responsibilities as teachers in the Christian congregation deserved the support and cooperation of fellow believers. (Heb. 13:7, 17) They were “worthy of double honor,” including voluntary material assistance for their hard work in behalf of the congregation.—1 Tim. 5:17, 18: see OLDER MAN.
However, all Christians were entitled to honor from fellow believers. The apostle Paul counseled: “In showing honor to one another take the lead.” (Rom. 12:10) As the individual Christian knows his own weaknesses and failings better than fellow believers, it is only right that he put others ahead of himself, honoring or highly valuing them on account of their faithful work. (Phil. 2:1-4) Needy and deserving widows were honored by receiving material assistance from the congregation.—1 Tim. 5:3, 9, 10.
Among family members
A wife is rightly to manifest wholesome fear or deep respect for her husband as head of the family. (Eph. 5:33) This harmonizes with the preeminence given to the man in God’s arrangement. Not the woman, but the man, was created first, and he is “God’s image and glory.” (1 Cor. 11:7-9; 1 Tim. 2:11-13) Sarah was a notable example of a woman who had deep respect for her husband. Her respect came from the heart, for Sarah referred to her husband as “lord,” not merely for others to hear, but even “inside herself.”—1 Pet. 3:1, 2, 5, 6; compare Genesis 18:12.
On the other hand, husbands are admonished: “Continue dwelling in like manner with [your wives] according to knowledge, assigning them honor as to a weaker vessel, the feminine one, since you are also heirs with them of the undeserved favor of life.” (1 Pet. 3:7) Thus spirit-anointed Christian husbands were to take into consideration that their wives had an equal standing as joint heirs of Christ (compare Romans 8:17; Galatians 3:28) and should be treated in an honorable way because of their having less strength than men.
In relation to their children, parents are God’s representatives, authorized to train, discipline and direct them. Parents are therefore entitled to honor or respect. (Ex. 20:12; Eph. 6:1-3; Heb. 12:9) This would not be limited to a child’s obedience and his manifesting a high regard for his parents. When necessary, it would include lovingly caring for parents in later life. (Compare Matthew 15:4-6.) In the Christian congregation, one who failed to provide for an aged and needy parent was considered as being worse than a person without faith. (1 Tim. 5:8) As the apostle Paul pointed out to Timothy, the congregation was not to take on the burden of caring for widows who had children or grandchildren that were able to render material assistance.—1 Tim. 5:4.
TOWARD RULERS AND OTHERS
Honor or respect is also due men in high governmental station. A Christian shows such respect, not to gain some favor, but because it is God’s will. Personally these men may be corrupt. (Compare Luke 18:2-6; Acts 24:24-27.) But respect is rendered to them out of regard for the position of responsibility that their office stands for. It is not a matter of rendering respect because of the persons of these men. (Rom. 13:1, 2, 7; 1 Pet. 2:13, 14) Similarly, slaves were to consider their owners worthy of full honor, doing their assigned work and not giving cause for bringing reproach upon God’s name.—1 Tim. 6:1.
When others demanded that a Christian give a reason for his hope, he was to do so “with a mild temper and deep respect.” Though questions might be propounded in an insulting manner, the Christian would present his reasons with calmness and gentleness not responding in an irritated, angry or resentful way. Though not cowed by fear of men, the Christian would manifest deep respect or a wholesome fear, as if in the presence of Jehovah God. (1 Pet. 3:14, 15) In this regard he could take as an example the angels, who, though greater in strength and power, do not present accusations in abusive terms.—2 Pet. 2:11.
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RestorationAid to Bible Understanding
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RESTORATION
The Greek word a·po·ka·taʹsta·sis occurs only once in the Scriptures, at Acts 3:21. Peter there speaks of the “times of restoration of all things of which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets of old time,” until which times heaven must hold within itself the “Christ appointed,” Jesus.
The Authorized Version here renders a·po·ka·taʹsta·sis as “restitution.” The Greek word itself comes from a·poʹ, meaning “back” or “again,” and ka·thiʹste·mi, meaning “to set in order.” (Compare the use of the verb form, uniformly translated “restore(d)” at Matthew 12:13; Mark 3:5; Luke 6:10.) The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited by G. Kittel, states that the basic meaning of the term is “restitution to an earlier state” or “restoration.” (Vol. I, p. 389) It was used by Jewish historian Josephus in referring to the return of the Jews from exile. In papyrus writings it is used of the repair of certain buildings, the restoration of estates to rightful owners, and a balancing of accounts.
The text itself does not specify what the things to be restored are, hence the “all things” must be ascertained by the study of God’s message spoken through his prophets.
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ResurrectionAid to Bible Understanding
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RESURRECTION
[Gr., a·naʹsta·sis, a raising up, or rising (from a·naʹ, up, and hiʹste·mi, to cause to stand)] .
The word is used frequently in the Christian Greek Scriptures referring to the resurrection of the dead. The Hebrew Scriptures at Hosea 13:14, quoted by the apostle Paul (1 Cor. 15:54, 55), speak of the abolition of death and the rendering powerless of Sheol (Heb., sheʼohlʹ; Gr., haiʹdes). Sheʼohlʹ is rendered in various versions as “grave” and “pit.” The dead are spoken of as going there. (Gen. 37:35; 1 Ki. 2:6; Eccl. 9:10) Its usage in the Scriptures, along with the usage of its Greek equivalent haiʹdes in the Christian Greek Scriptures, shows that it refers, not to an individual grave, but to the common grave of all mankind, gravedom. (Ezek. 32:21-32; Rev. 20:13; see HADES; SHEOL.) To render Sheol powerless would mean to loosen its hold on those in it, which would imply the emptying of gravedom. This, of course, would require a resurrection, a raising up out of the lifeless condition of death or out of the grave for those there.
THROUGH JESUS CHRIST
The foregoing shows that the teaching of resurrection appears in the Hebrew Scriptures. Nevertheless, it remained for Jesus Christ to “shed light upon life and incorruption through the good news.” (2 Tim. 1:10) Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Just how everlasting life would come, and more than that, incorruption for some, was brought to light through the good news about Jesus Christ. The apostle affirms that the resurrection is a sure hope, arguing: “Now if Christ is being preached that he has been raised up from the dead, how is it some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If, indeed, there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised up. But if Christ has not been raised up, our preaching is certainly in vain, and our faith is in vain. Moreover, we are also found false witnesses of God, because we have borne witness against God that he raised up the Christ, but whom he did not raise up if the dead are really not to be raised up. . . . Further, if Christ has not been raised up, your faith is useless; you are yet in your sins. . . . However, now Christ has been raised up from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep in death. For since death is through a man, resurrection of the dead is also through a man.”—1 Cor. 15:12-21.
Christ himself when on earth performed resurrections. (Luke 7:11-15; 8:49-56; John 11:38-44) Only through Jesus Christ can resurrection, with everlasting life thereafter, be possible.—John 5:26.
A SURE PURPOSE OF GOD
Jesus Christ pointed out to the Sadducees, a sect that did not believe in resurrection, that the writings of Moses in the Hebrew Scriptures, which they possessed and claimed to believe, prove there is a resurrection; that in saying that he was “the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (who were actually dead), Jehovah counted those men as alive because of the resurrection that He the “God, not of the dead, but of the living,” purposed to give them. God, because of his power, “makes the dead alive and calls the things that are not as though they were.” Paul includes this fact when speaking of Abraham’s faith.—Matt. 22:23, 31-33; Rom. 4:17.
God’s ability to resurrect
For the One with the ability and power to create man in His own image, with a perfect body and with the potential for full expression of the marvelous characteristics implanted in the human personality, it would pose no insurmountable problem to resurrect an individual. If scientific principles established by God can be used by scientists to preserve and later reconstruct a visible and audible scene by means of videotape, how easy it is for the great Universal Sovereign and Creator to resurrect a person by repatterning the same personality in a newly formed body. Concerning the revitalizing of Sarah to have a child in her old age, the angel said: “Is anything a too extraordinary for Jehovah?”—Gen. 18:14; Jer. 32:17, 27.
HOW THE NEED FOR RESURRECTION AROSE
In the beginning a resurrection was not necessary. It was not a part of God’s original purpose for mankind, because death was not the natural, purposed thing for humans. Rather, God indicated that he purposed the earth to be full of living humans, not a deteriorating dying race. His work was perfect, hence without flaw, imperfection or sickness. (Deut. 32:4) Jehovah blessed the first human pair, telling them to multiply and fill the earth. (Gen. 1:28) Such blessing certainly did not include sickness and death; God set no limited life-span for man, but told Adam that disobedience is what would cause death. This implies that man would otherwise live forever. Disobedience would incur God’s disfavor and remove his blessing, bringing a curse.—Gen. 2:17; 3:17-19.
Consequently, death was introduced into the human race by the transgression of Adam. (Rom. 5:12) Because of their father’s sinfulness and resultant imperfection, Adam’s offspring could not get a heritage of everlasting life from him; in fact, not even a hope of living forever. “Neither can a rotten tree produce fine fruit,” said Jesus. (Matt. 7:17, 18; Job 14:1, 2) The resurrection was brought in or added to overcome this disability for those of Adam’s children who would desire to be obedient to God.
PURPOSE OF THE RESURRECTION
The resurrection shows forth not only Jehovah’s unlimited power and wisdom but also his love and mercy and vindicates him as the Preserver of those who serve him. (1 Sam. 2:6) Having resurrection power, he can go to the extent of showing that his servants will be faithful to him to the very death. He can answer Satan’s accusation that asserted that “skin in behalf of skin, and everything that a man has he will give in behalf of his soul.” (Job 2:4) Jehovah can let Satan go the full limit, even to killing some in a vain effort to support his false accusations. (Matt. 24:9; Rev. 2:10; 6:11) The fact that Jehovah’s servants are willing to give up life itself in his service proves their service is, not for selfish considerations, but for love. Job was an example. (Job 27:5) It also proves that they acknowledge Him as the Almighty, able to resurrect them, the Universal Sovereign and the God of love. It proves they render exclusive devotion to Jehovah for his wonderful qualities, and not for selfish material reasons. (Consider some of the exclamations of his servants, as recorded at Romans 11:33-36; Revelation 4:11; 7:12.) The resurrection also is a means by which Jehovah sees that his purpose toward the earth, as stated to Adam, is carried out.—Gen. 1:28.
Essential to man’s happiness
The resurrection of the dead, an undeserved kindness on God’s part, is essential to mankind’s happiness and to the undoing of all the harm, suffering and oppression that have come upon the human race. These things have befallen man as a result of his imperfection and sickness, the wars he has waged, the murders committed and the inhumanities practiced by wicked men at the instance of Satan the Devil, during almost all of the 6,000 years of mankind’s history. We cannot be completely happy if we do not believe in a resurrection. The apostle Paul expressed the feeling in these words: “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.”—1 Cor. 15:19.
HOW EARLY WAS RESURRECTION HOPE GIVEN?
After Adam had sinned and had brought death upon himself and thereby introduced death for those who would be his posterity, God, in addressing the serpent, said: “And I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.”—Gen. 3:15.
The one originally causing death is to be removed
Jesus said to the religious Jews who opposed him: “You are from your father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him.” (John 8:44) This is evidence that it was the Devil who spoke through the instrumentality of the serpent, and that this one was a manslayer from the beginning of his lying, devilish course. In the vision that Christ later gave to John he revealed that Satan the Devil is also called “the original serpent.” (Rev. 12:9) Satan got his hold on mankind, gaining influence over Adam’s children, by inducing their father Adam to rebel against God. So in the first prophecy, of Genesis 3:15, Jehovah gave hope that this serpent would be put out of the way. (Compare Romans 16:20.) Not only is Satan’s head to be crushed, but also all his works are to be broken up, destroyed or undone. (1 John 3:8; NW, AV, AT) The fulfillment of this prophecy would of necessity require the undoing of the death introduced by Adam, including bringing back by a resurrection those of Adam’s offspring who go into Sheol (Hades) as a result of his sin, the effects of which they inherit.—1 Cor. 15:26.
Hope of freedom entails resurrection
The apostle Paul describes the situation that God permitted to exist following man’s fall into sin and His end purpose in doing so: “For the creation was subjected to futility [being born in sin with death facing all], not by its own will [the children of Adam were brought into the world facing this situation, though they themselves had no control over what Adam did, and by no choice of their own] but through him [God, in his wisdom] that subjected it, on the basis of hope that the creation itself also will be set free from enslavement to corruption and have the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Rom. 8:20, 21; Ps. 51:5) In order to experience the fulfillment of this hope of glorious freedom, those who have died would have to have a resurrection; they would have to be freed from death and the grave. Thus, by his promise of the “seed” that would crush the serpent’s head, God set a marvelous hope before mankind.—See SEED.
Abraham’s basis for faith
The evidence in the Bible record reveals that when Abraham attempted to offer up his son Isaac he had faith in God’s ability and purpose to raise the dead. And, as stated at Hebrews 11:17-19, he did receive Isaac back from the dead “in an illustrative way.” (Gen. 22:1-3, 10-13) Abraham had a basis for faith in a resurrection because of God’s promise of the “seed.” (Gen. 3:15) Also, he and Sarah had already experienced something comparable to a resurrection in the revitalizing of their reproductive powers. (Gen. 18:9-11; 21:1, 2, 12; Rom. 4:19-21) The family head Job expressed similar faith, saying, in his intense suffering: “O that in Sheol you would conceal me, . . . that you would set a time limit for me and remember me! If an able-bodied man dies can he live again? . . . You will call, and I myself shall answer you. For the work of your hands you will have a yearning.”—Job 14:13-15.
Resurrections performed before ransom was given
Resurrections were performed by or through the prophets Elijah and Elisha. (1 Ki. 17:17-24; 2 Ki. 4:32-37; 13:20, 21) However, these resurrected persons died again, as did those resurrected by Jesus when he was on earth, and by the apostles. This reveals that resurrection is not to everlasting life in every case.
When Jesus resurrected his friend Lazarus, it likely enabled Lazarus to live until Pentecost, when the holy spirit was poured out and the first ones of the heavenly calling (Heb. 3:1) were anointed and spirit begotten. (Acts 2:1-4, 33, 38) Lazarus’ resurrection was similar to those performed by Elijah and Elisha. But it probably opened up to Lazarus the opportunity of receiving a resurrection like Christ’s, which he otherwise would not have had. What a remarkable act of love on Jesus’ part!—John 11:38-44.
“A better resurrection”
There were those faithful persons of old times of whom Paul speaks: “Women received their dead by resurrection; but other men were tortured because they would not accept release by some ransom, in order that they might attain a better resurrection.” (Heb. 11:35) These men exhibited faith in the resurrection hope, knowing that life at that time was not the all-important thing. The resurrection they and others will have through Christ comes after his resurrection and appearance in heaven before his Father with the value of his ransom sacrifice. At that time he repurchased the life right of the human race, becoming the potential “Eternal Father.” (Heb. 9:11, 12, 24; Isa. 9:6) He is “a life-giving spirit.” (1 Cor. 15:44, 45) He has “the keys of death and of Hades [Sheol].” (Rev. 1:18) With the authority now to give everlasting life, at God’s due time he performs a “better resurrection,” since those experiencing it can live forever; none of such unavoidably need to die again. If obedient, they will continue living.
HEAVENLY RESURRECTION
Jesus Christ is called “the first-born from the dead.” (Col. 1:18) He was the first ever to be resurrected to everlasting life. And his resurrection was “in the spirit,” to life in heaven. (1 Pet. 3:18) Moreover, he was raised to a higher form of life and a higher position than that which he had held in the heavens prior to coming to earth. He was granted immortality and incorruption, which no creature in the flesh can have, and was made “higher than the heavens,” second only to Jehovah God in the universe. (Heb. 7:26; 1 Tim. 6:14-16; Phil. 2:9-11; Acts 2:34; 1 Cor. 15:27) His resurrection was performed by Jehovah God himself.—Acts 3:15; 5:30; Rom. 4:24; 10:9.
However, for forty days after his resurrection Jesus appeared to his disciples on different occasions in various fleshly bodies, just as angels had appeared to men of ancient times. Like those angels, he had the power to construct and to disintegrate those fleshly bodies at will, for the purpose of proving visibly that he had been resurrected. (Matt. 28:8-10, 16-20; Luke 24:13-32, 36-43; John 20:14-29; Gen. 18:1, 2; 19:1; Josh. 5:13-15; Judg. 6:11, 12; 13:3, 13) His many appearances, and particularly his manifesting himself to more than five hundred persons at one time, provide strong testimony to the truth of his resurrection. (1 Cor. 15:3-8) His resurrection, so well attested, furnishes “a guarantee to all men in that [God] has resurrected him from the dead.”—Acts 17:31.
Resurrection of Christ’s “brothers”
Those who are “called and chosen and faithful,” Christ’s footstep followers, his “brothers,” who are spiritually begotten as “God’s children,” are promised a resurrection like his. (Rev. 17:14; Rom. 6:5; 8:15, 16; Heb. 2:11) The apostle Peter writes to fellow Christians: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for according to his great mercy he gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance. It is reserved in the heavens for you.”—1 Pet. 1:3, 4.
Peter also describes the hope such ones possess as “precious and very grand promises, that through these you may become sharers in divine nature.” (2 Pet. 1:4) They must undergo a change of nature, giving up human nature to obtain “divine” nature, receiving a spirit body, as heavenly persons possess. They must die a death like Christ’s, one of integrity and a giving up of human life forever. They have to give up blood and flesh; these then receive immortal, incorruptible bodies like Christ’s by a resurrection. (Rom. 6:3-5; 1 Cor. 15:50-57; 2 Cor. 5:1-3) The apostle Paul explains that it is not the body that is resurrected, but, rather, he likens their experience to the planting and sprouting of a seed, in that “God gives it a body just as it has pleased him.” (1 Cor. 15:35-40) It is the soul, the person, that is resurrected, with a body
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