Rating: ★★★★

Alternate title: The Ineffable Glory: Thoughts on the Resurrection (1921)

Who: E. M. Bounds (1835-1913) was a chaplain in the Confederate Army and held a pastorate in Franklin, Tennessee. During his time in Tennessee, he led a spiritual revival and eventually began an itinerant ministry. He only published two books during his lifetime (The Resurrection (1907) being one of them), but nine others were arranged from manuscripts and published after his death—most of them on prayer. He spent three hours a day in prayer and emphasizes a life of prayer as the one essential of the Christian life.

Overview: The Resurrection is not about the Resurrection of Christ, as readers might expect, but about the bodily resurrection of the dead at the end of time, which is hinted at in the Old Testament but confirmed and prefigured in Christ’s resurrection. This important Scriptural topic is often neglected but provides a wealth of understanding and comfort for believers.

Meat: Bounds shines here as an expositor of the Word in a way not seen in his books on prayer. He writes in the same poetic, forceful style used in his beloved books on prayer. He defends the bodily resurrection of Christ, and of the dead in Christ, mostly on theological grounds within an assumption of biblical authority. This is meant to arm believers against liberal arguments current in his day (for instance, Swedenborgianism) which sought to deny the bodily resurrection and spiritualize the afterlife.

Bounds handles key Scriptures, especially 1 Corinthians 15, by expositing, comparing scripture to scripture, and giving key quotes from commentators.

For those wanting a biblical view of the afterlife, I would point out this little book by Bounds and another title similar in length and content called The Christian After Death by Robert Ervin Hough.

Bones: Especially towards the end of the book, Bounds has a theological axe to grind against the modernism of the day. He loses his biblical thread somewhat in his passion to defend the faith. Nevertheless, I would highly recommend this book as a whole for its unique subject matter and accessibility.

Quotes: 

“The deathless nature of the soul has been taught in the philosophies of earth, pagan and Christian, but the resurrection of the body is distinctively a Christian doctrine. It belongs to the revelation of God’s Word. It is found in the Bible, and nowhere else.” (loc. 86)

“The resurrection of the same bodies which we put in the grave is the doctrine which pervades the Bible through and through.” (loc. 572)

“With another sweep of that terrible scimitar He broke death’s scepter, smashed his crown, captured his keys, then plunging through the ashes of damnation and lunging on the gates of hell, tore them from their sockets, cutting the bars of iron in pieces and ascending the throne of his imperial majesty the devil, He hurled him into the burning marl and sulphurous flame, then placing His right foot upon the neck of the devil and His left foot upon the jaws of death, He lifted his hand to heaven and shouted through the gloom of eternal night ‘I am He that liveth and was dead; and behold I am alive forevermore and have the keys of death and hell.'” (loc. 1168)