8 And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves. 9 And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.
Later, Peter will talk about what he has seen;
2 Peter 1:12 ¶ Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. 13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; 14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. 15 Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. 16 ¶ For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
Of course, I might add, that right after the relating of his eyewitness experience he states that the word of God is a more certain truth and to be trusted more than one’s experience, which should give many modern feel-good Christians pause.
2 Peter 1:19 ¶ We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: 20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
As the word “translation” is preserved for the changing of the church into a heavenly language in the Bible removing it from the physical world (Colossians 1:13; Hebrews 11:5) what we understand as translating from human language to language is spoken of as “interpretation” as in an interpreter at the United Nations. (See John 1:42, 9:7). Interpretation also refers to understanding, to what something actually means, like a dream (Genesis 40:5, 12, 16, 18). This last verse in 2Peter shows that no one is justified in running off with a special meaning or translation to any verse or prophecy given only to him or her. If you have found something you think no one in the last two thousand years has seen then you need to pray very carefully about it, lest Satan do to your mind what he has done to so many modern Bible translators and authors of Bible lexicons, all of which are hopelessly flawed, according to the late John Chadwick, noted English linguist and classical scholar, author of the famed Lexicographica Graeca.
10 And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.
Most Jews believed in a resurrection of the dead.
John 11:24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. 25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
Remember what Daniel wrote;
Daniel 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
And Isaiah;
Isaiah 26:19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
They still don’t understand that Jesus must die and rise not connecting what Jesus has said to them with the many passages in the Old Testament that refer to the having to die and rising from the dead such as Psalm 22, which Jesus quotes from the cross, and Isaiah 53. There are other passages that the Bible refers to throughout Jesus’ ministry that foreshadow events at the fulfillment of His ministry such as Proverbs 27:6 with Matthew 26:49, Psalm 41:9 with John 13:18, Psalm 34:20 with John 19:36; Zechariah 13:6 etc. etc.
Resurrection from the dead is a key element in Christianity. If you don’t believe that Jesus rose from the dead physically and literally you cannot be saved I don’t care what church you belong to or how sorry you are for your past sins.
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
If you don’t believe that you will rise from the dead physically and literally you certainly aren’t a Bible believer and are missing out on one of the great comforts of trusting in Christ.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
This is the essence of the doctrine of Adoption;
Romans 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
For all the denominational and theological differences among Christians, it is around this belief that we have what may possibly be our only unity; that we believe Christ rose from the dead being God in the flesh, and that by trusting in His righteousness and not our own we, too, shall see eternal life.
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