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†. 1Cor 15:1-4 . . Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
. . . For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day
Were you to ask John Q and/or Jane Doe Watchtower Society missionary if they believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, I can assure you they would answer in the affirmative. However, what you may not know is that you and they would not be on the same page as the conversation would be talking about two very different processes that go by the same name. In other words: you would find yourself thrown off by semantic double speak.
The standard Christian understanding of Christ's resurrection is common throughout the gospels; viz: Jesus Christ died as a physical human being and he came back as a physical human being as per John 2:19-22.
But according to the Watchtower Society's way of seeing things; Christ didn't return from death physically at all; and here's why.
In Watch Tower Society theology, an angel named Michael volunteered to come to the earth to die for humanity's sins. But in order to do so; he had to relinquish his angel existence to become a human being seeing as how in Society theology it is impossible for someone to exist as a spirit being and a human being simultaneously. Thus when Michael's so-called "life force" was transferred to flesh and given the name Jesus; he became not only a different species of life, but a whole other person too; viz: except for his so called "life force" Michael the angel ceased to exist.
But Michael's existence as a human being was only temporary. When his human existence passed away on the cross, the rumor is that God transferred Michael's life force back into his angel corpse and restored him to his former spirit existence; thus leaving his human corpse in a permanent state of decease.
There is a really, really big hole in the Society's theology; and that's the dead man's corpse. In order to confirm that Jesus stayed dead, the Society is going to have produce his remains. A piece of evidence of that significance can't be allowed to just slip through a crack unnoticed as if it makes no difference.
†. Acts 1:1-3 . .The first account, O Theophilus, I composed about all the things Jesus started both to do and to teach, until the day that he was taken up, after he had given commandment through holy spirit to the apostles whom he chose. To these also by many positive proofs he showed himself alive after he had suffered.
Did Jesus really show himself alive by many positive proofs after he had suffered? Not according to the Watch Tower Society. In their theology, Michael the angel showed himself alive by means of a materialized body that resembled his alter ego in every way-- nail prints and spear wound to boot --because Michael's human body had to stay dead in order for him to regain his angel body.
There are some seriously fatal flaws in that theory.
1• The New Testament never even one time, on any occasion, nor under any circumstances, nor in any situation, either attests, alleges, alludes, or states that an angel named Michael appeared in Christ's human form cloaked in a materialized body.
2• Michael the angel never once identities himself as Michael the angel when allegedly appearing in a materialized body.
3• Passing one's self off in the guise of a dead man is the lowest form of identity theft imaginable. People do it all the time; and it's what I expect from human beings, but that is not the kind of behavior I have a right to expect from an arch angel.
4• A so-called materialized body is not a real person; it's an avatar.
5• Neither Paul, nor Peter, nor John, nor James, nor Jude, ever even one single time in any of their writings correlate Jesus Christ with Michael the angel: not once. You'd think that if Michael the angel was Jesus Christ, that those men would have said so because that would be a really big deal.
If Prince didn't believe Jesus Christ's crucified body revived, then according to 1Cor 15:1-4 he departed this life an unsaved man.
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