Teachings of the Resurrection

One of the doctrines of the gospel that is not taught very often in the Old Testament is that of the resurrection.  The word itself does not appear in the Old Testaments, but we do have brief references to the doctrine.  For example, Job declared, “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25-26).  His testimony was that his body would rise after death.  Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones also seems to be a witness of the resurrection.  While the most direct application appears to have been that of the restoration of the House of Israel, it’s hard not to read it as pertaining to the resurrection as well in passages such as this: “Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 37:5-6).  Isaiah surely was also speaking of the resurrection when he wrote, “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” (Isaiah 26:19).  Those are the most obvious references to the resurrection that I know in the Old Testament, although surely there are others.  But, in general, they are few and far between.  

               The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, is full of references to the resurrection before Christ came to the earth.  Lehi testified that Christ would “bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise” (2 Nephi 2:8).  His son Jacob taught, “For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection….  The grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel” (2 Nephi 9:6, 12).  Abinadi bore his witness in these words: “But behold, the bands of death shall be broken, and the Son reigneth, and hath power over the dead; therefore, he bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead” (Mosiah 15:20).  Alma taught the words of Abinadi to the people “concerning the resurrection of the dead, and the redemption of the people, which was to be brought to pass through the power, and sufferings, and death of Christ, and his resurrection and ascension into heaven” (Mosiah 18:2).  Amulek taught the people of Ammonihah, “This mortal body is raised to an immortal body, that is from death, even from the first death unto life, that they can die no more; their spirits uniting with their bodies, never to be divided; thus the whole becoming spiritual and immortal, that they can no more see corruption” (Alma 11:45).  Aaron taught the Lamanites “concerning the coming of Christ, and also concerning the resurrection of the dead” (Alma 21:9).  Alma the Younger taught the Zoramites that Christ “shall suffer and die to atone for their sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which shall bring to pass the resurrection, that all men shall stand before him, to be judged at the last and judgment day” (Alma 33:22).  Samuel the Lamanite taught the Nephites, “[Christ] surely must die that salvation may come; yea, it behooveth him and becometh expedient that he dieth, to bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, that thereby men may be brought into the presence of the Lord” (Helaman 14:15).  Those are only some of the teachings about the resurrection in the Book of Mormon, and they clearly show that the resurrection was a gospel principle the righteous Nephites understood and cherished. 

               That’s not to say that Book of Mormon prophets necessarily knew more about the resurrection before Christ came than the prophets in Israel knew.  It’s more likely that we simply don’t have as many of those “plain and precious truths” in the Bible as it is currently constituted.  When Abinadi taught his people he said this, “All the prophets who have prophesied ever since the world began… Have they not said that God himself should come down among the children of men, and take upon him the form of man, and go forth in mighty power upon the face of the earth Yea, and have they not said also that he should bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, and that he, himself, should be oppressed and afflicted?” (Mosiah 13:33-35).  His witness was that all the prophets of the Lord, whether in Jerusalem, Zarahemla, or anywhere else, have known of and spoken of the resurrection of the dead.  For without it, little else in the gospel would make sense.