Down through the centuries orthodox Christians have always confessed with the Apostles' Creed: "I believe...in the resurrection of the flesh." This affirmation of faith in the believer's resurrection is grounded in faith in Christ's resurrection. A major purpose of the latter resurrection was to make possible the former; thus they are both of the same nature (2 Cor. 4:14; 1 Cor. 15:20-23, 48; Phil. 3:21). The two doctrines are therefore interdependent, and will be treated as one doctrine in this article.

In spite of the historic church's unwavering belief in the resurrection of the flesh, there are those today who call themselves "orthodox" but do not adhere to the doctrine. In the past, those who deviated from this venerable truth of apostolic Christianity did so by denying the reality of the resurrection. Today, some veer from course by denying its materiality. What makes their view unique is that they affirm an "empty tomb" while ironically denying that a material body emerged from it. In short, while they deny the materiality of the Resurrection they confess its objectivity, and on the basis of this confession they conclude that their faith remains biblical.

Wolfhart Pannenburg is a case in point. He believes Jesus left an empty tomb behind but that the resurrection body was by nature invisible and immaterial. He declares that for Paul "the future body will be a different one from the present body, not a fleshly body — as he says — a 'spiritual body.'"1 Southern Baptist professor E. Glenn Hinson agrees, adding, "Paul was convinced that the Christ who appeared to him belonged to another order of existence than the Christ the disciples had known in the flesh. The risen Christ has not a physical but a spiritual body."2 Professor Murray Harris of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School provides yet another example. He argues "that after his resurrection his [Jesus'] essential state was one of invisibility and immateriality."3 He adds that the resurrection body of Christians "will be neither fleshly nor fleshy"4 (emphasis added). According to this view, Jesus' resurrection body was not the same physical body He had before His death, but a second embodiment.

Why should these men be classified as "unorthodox" for simply denying that Jesus rose in the same physical body in which He died? Why did Jesus have to rise in the flesh, as long as His tomb was vacated and death was conquered? The answer to these questions has both historical and theological components.