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1Now, my sacred family members, I want to talk to you about the good story. I was the one who told you the good story, which you took to heart and continue to stand firmly on.
2This good story will set you free and make you whole as long as you hold on tightly to the truth of it. If not, then your faith would have no meaning.
3This is the first and most important truth I passed on to you: The Chosen One died for our bad hearts and broken ways, just as our Sacred Teachings foretold.[#15:3 Isaiah 53:5-12]
4The Chosen One was buried, and on the third day his dead body was raised to life, which our Sacred Teachings also foretold.[#15:4 Psalm 16:8-11]
5Then he showed himself alive to Stands on the Rock (Cephas) and his twelve message bearers.
6After that he showed himself to more than five hundred of his followers at the same time. Most of them live to this day, while others have fallen into the sleep of death.
7He also showed himself to He Leads the Way (James) , then to all the message bearers.
8Last of all the Chosen One showed himself to me, as if I were a child that was born past its time of birth. Among the message bearers I am the least.
9I have no right even to be called a message bearer, since I hunted down and brought harm to Creator’s sacred family.
10But because of the gift of his great kindness, I am what he has called me to be. His gift was not wasted on me. I worked harder than any of the message bearers. But it was not me. It was the gift of his great kindness at work in me.
11It matters not whether you first heard the good story from me or from the other message bearers. This is the story we tell, and this is the story in which you have put your trust.
12So then, if the good story tells us that the Chosen One has risen from the dead, how can any among you say there will be no rising from the dead?
13If there is no rising from the dead, it would mean the Chosen One has not risen.
14If the Chosen One has not risen, then the story we tell means nothing, and your faith is a dried-up spring.
15If it is true that the dead do not rise, this would mean that we falsely represented the Great Spirit when we told everyone that he raised the Chosen One from the dead.
16If the dead are not raised, then the Great Spirit did not raise up the Chosen One.
17If this were true, your faith would have no meaning, and your broken ways would still rule over you.
18It would also mean that our sacred family members who have fallen asleep in death while trusting in the Chosen One have faded away, never to rise again.
19If our hope in the Chosen One is only for this life, then we should be pitied more than all other human beings.
20But the truth is the Chosen One has risen from the dead! He is the firstfruits of the harvest to come. He is the first to rise from the dead and the sign that all who have fallen asleep in death will also rise.
21Since death came through a human being, the victory over death has also come through a human being.
22Everyone dies in Red Clay (Adam) , and everyone comes to life in the Chosen One.
23But all in their own time. The Chosen One rose first—the firstfruits of the harvest to come. Then, when the Chosen One returns, all who are his will live again .
24Then, after the Chosen One has brought down all rulers, powers, and authorities, the good road will reach its goal. Then the Chosen One will give the well-traveled good road over to his Father, the Great Spirit.
25But until then, he must continue his chiefly rule until he has defeated and humbled all his enemies.[#15:25 Psalm 110:1]
26Then the last enemy—death itself—will come to an end.
27For it says in the book of Sacred Songs that the Great Spirit has put all things under the power of the True Human Being. But when it says that “all things” are put under his power, this does not include his Father, the Great Spirit. For he is the one who gave the Chosen One this power in the beginning.[#15:27 Psalm 8:9]
28And once all things surrender to his power, the Son will then honor his Father, turn all this power over to him, and take his proper place under his loving rule. In this way, the Great Spirit will bring all things into harmony with himself.[#15:28 Lit. the Great Spirit will be all in all]
29If there is no rising from the dead, then what do the ones who perform the purification ceremony for the dead hope to accomplish? Why perform this ceremony for them if the dead do not rise?[#15:29 Baptism]
30If the dead do not rise, why would we message bearers keep putting our lives in danger?
31I stare death in the face every day. I say this not to boast in myself but in what our Honored Chief Creator Sets Free (Jesus) , the Chosen One, has done in your lives.
32If the dead do not rise, why would I risk my life fighting with the wild beasts at Village of Desire (Ephesus) ?
If the dead do not rise, some will say , “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
33But do not let people who think like this fool you, for bad company will bring ruin to good character.
34Return to the right way of thinking and stop walking in broken ways. Some of you have no understanding of the ways of the Great Spirit. It is to your shame that I have to speak in this way. Have you no respect for yourselves?
35Now someone may ask, “How do the dead rise? What kind of body will they have when they come back to life?”
36How can one be so foolish? When you plant a seed, it does not come to life unless it first dies.
37The seed that is buried does not look like the full-grown plant that it will become. It is only a seed, perhaps of wheat or something else.
38But the Great Spirit gives it the body he wants it to have. He gives each seed its own kind of body.
39Two-legged human beings and four-legged animals and winged ones and fish all have bodies of flesh, but each one has its own kind of body.
40There are bodies in the sky above and on the earth below, but each of them has a special kind of beauty.
41The sun shines with its own blinding brightness, the moon reflects the light of the sun with a beauty all its own. The stars have a bright-shining tapestry that has no rival, and each star is beautiful in its own way.
42This is how it will be when Creator raises the dead to life. Our death-doomed bodies, which have been planted like a seed into the ground, will come to life never to die again.
43When our bodies are planted into the ground, they are plain and weak. When they rise to life, they will be beautiful and strong.
44Our bodies are unspiritual, made from the earth and planted into the earth when buried. But when our bodies rise from their earth graves, they will be spiritual bodies—made from the spirit-world above. If there is an earthly body, there must also be a spiritual body.
45It is written in our Sacred Teachings, “The first man, Red Clay (Adam) , became a living being.” But the last Red Clay (Adam) , the Chosen One , became a life-giving spirit.[#15:45 Genesis 2:7; #15:45 The name Red Clay is similar in the Hebrew language to the word man .]
46But it was not the spiritual body that came first. It was first the earthly body and then the spiritual.
47The first man came from the ground and was made of dirt. The second man, who is our Honored Chief , came from the spirit-world above.
48The ones born on earth are like the man who was made from the ground. The ones born from the spirit-world above are like the man who came from above.[#15:48 See John 3:3-7.]
49Just as we have worn the image of the man from the earth, we will also wear the image of the man from the spirit-world above.
50My sacred family members, here is what I am saying to you: human beings, in their death-doomed flesh-and-blood bodies, cannot share in the full blessings of Creator’s good road. Neither can bodies that die share the same blessings of bodies than cannot die.
51Behold! I am about to show you a mystery. We will not all fall into the sleep of death, but all of us will be changed.
52It will happen faster than the blink of an eye, when the eagle bone whistle sounds for the last time. When it sounds, the dead will come to life never to die again, and we will all be changed.[#15:52 Lit. trumpet , or in Hebrew shofar , meaning “ram’s horn”]
53For these old, worn-out, death-doomed bodies must be taken off, and our new bodies that will never die must be put on.
54When this happens, the saying that has been written down in our Sacred Teachings will find its full purpose and meaning, “Death has been defeated, let the victory dance begin!”[#15:54 Isaiah 25:8]
55“O Death, where is your victory? O Grave, where is your sting?”[#15:55 Hosea 13:14]
56For our broken ways give death its sting, and our broken ways give the law its power. But no more!
57We give thanks to the Great Spirit, who has given us the victory over our broken ways and over death through our Honored Chief Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One!
58So then, my much-loved family members, you must stand strong, with your feet planted firmly on the ground. Never give up working hard for our Honored Chief, for you know that what- ever you do for him will never fade away.