Why I Am Skeptical about the Corporate Body View of Resurrection

“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:2-3)

“For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. . . . Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:1, 8)

“I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” (Philippians 1:23)

“. . . to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. . . .” (1 Peter 1:4)

“. . . there is about to be a rising again of the dead, both of righteous and unrighteous;” (Acts 24:15, YLT)

In the traditional view, the above passages are considered by most Christians to be speaking of heaven as populated by individual believers upon death. But hold on. There is a view among some Christians, especially preterists, that resurrection is (according to Grok.com): “fundamentally about the restoration and renewal of God’s people as a corporate entity.” This is called the Corporate Body View or Collective Body View (CBV) of resurrection. The CBV view stands against the traditional Individual Body View (IBV).

So, CBV proponents see a passage like 1 Corinthians 15 (Paul’s major resurrection chapter) as about the whole people of God as a single body.

To begin to understand their thinking, CBV proponents notice that 1 Corinthians 15:54-55 references Old Testament passages about Israel’s redemption (Isaiah 25:8-9 and Hosea 13:14). A related passage is Ezekiel 37:11-27 which metaphorically describes the whole house of Israel being restored to its homeland in resurrection terminology (rising from graves, v. 12) in covenantal terms (v. 26). This sets the stage for their understanding of  the New Testament definition of resurrection.

This Old Testament reference seems like a weak reed upon which to base the New Testament doctrine of resurrection and the afterlife. I argue that CBV proponents are over-playing the New Testament connection to Old Testament usage of national Israel’s cyclically restorative relationship with God. Corporate identity is only a shadow of New Testament realities. Jesus individualized everything.

The word “body” (Greek soma) can be understood as either an individual’s body or collective body (the body of Christ). There are some 142 instances in the New Testament of the use of body. Some CBVers apparently attach a  collective interpretation to every one of these texts. That seems like a biased assessment. While some of the 142 may refer to the collective, I think it is reasonable that many of them are better understood as referring to individual bodies rather than a corporate body, thus supporting the Individual Body View IBV. Are CBVers forcing their interpretation into the text to fit the corporate model?

It is a bit difficult to understand the Corporate Body View (CBV) of resurrection because comprehensive written descriptions of it from its proponents are limited. At least I haven’t seen such.  But in the process of applying Old Testament circumstances of restoration of national Israel to New Testament realities, the Christian hope of heaven for individual believers becomes minimized. Consider these statements:

CBV proponent Michael Miano said this: “CBV advocates also assert that none of the ‘resurrection passages’ found throughout Scripture, nor the ‘hope of Israel’ otherwise known as the doctrine of the ‘resurrection of the dead,’ pertain to any kind of individual body that the saints received or will receive.” ¹

CBV proponent J. L. Vaughn said: “This view says nothing about heaven. So any question about heaven or what we will look like in heaven is irrelevant to CBV. . . . Nothing is said in Scripture about an afterlife, except that there is one.” ²

If you ask a CBVer what they believe about the afterlife and where they think believers go when they die, you are unlikely to get the answer “heaven,” as most Christians would give. Rather, you will get an answer like “I continue to live in the house of God” or “We will reside in the presence of our Creator.” But that’s no different than what believers have already on earth.

I am persuaded that the New Testament speaks of two TYPES of resurrection―spiritual (or metaphorical) “resurrection” and glorified bodily resurrection. The IBV view acknowledges that there is an element of spiritual “resurrection” in the sense of salvation of the living (Ephesians  2:1-7; Colossians 2:12-14). In these passages and others Paul teaches that we are “dead” in our trespasses but made alive in Christ. That is spiritual/metaphorical death and resurrection, thus justification. Unfortunately, CBVers have expanded these passages to fall under the umbrella of corporate and covenantal. But there is no such association in the texts.

Daniel Harden, author of the important book, The Resurrection of the Dead, A Preterist Perspective, suggests that applying resurrection to passages about justification is illegitimate to begin with. To be truly resurrected one has to be alive, then die, then be brought back to life. Passages such as Ephesian 2 and Colossians 2 do not fit the definition of “resurrection.”

But there was also a general resurrection of the physically dead in new glorified bodies at AD 70 when hades was emptied―to heaven for believers, leaving the old physical body behind (Acts 24:15; 1 Corinthians 15:35-49; 2 Corinthians 5:1, 8; Revelation 20:13-15; etc.). This is true resurrection. In my view, this is also the second resurrection implied in Revelation 20. Today, at death, believers are judged and go directly to heaven in their new glorified body (Hebrews 9:27). The IBV view is that spiritual resurrection of the living and glorified body resurrection of the dead are different realities. CBV says that they are the same―both under the false rubric of “covenantal.” They think it involves some sort of resurrection from the old covenant into the new covenant, at the last trumpet (1 Corinthians 15:52).

To clarify, the first (metaphorical) “resurrection” is the born-again experience (John 3:1-8; Eph 2:1-7, etc.). The first post-ascension born-again occurrence was at Pentecost. But there were still millions of souls trapped in hades. All of them were released at the true resurrection in AD 70. At that time, the souls of believers went to heaven. Unbelievers went  to their eternal destiny, either annihilation or eternal conscious torment, depending on your view of gehenna (“hell”).

Passages such as Acts 24:15 cited above (cf. Daniel 12:2; John 5:28-29; Matthew 13:30; 25:31-36; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 20:12-15), say that both the righteous and unrighteous were to be resurrected together. This makes no sense in a CBV paradigm which demands that only the righteous are raised. So, resurrection CANNOT be about justification. The unrighteous (”unjust”) are  never justified. These passages expose the impossibility of the CBV-only definition of “resurrection of the dead.”

While the capacity to sin can be viewed corporately through Adam (Romans 5:12-19), salvation comes through the faith of the individual, not from a collective:“ Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Doesn’t resurrection happen the same way, to the individual? By reasonable inference, CBV implies that John 3:16 means: “Whosever is part of a chosen group has everlasting life.” This taints the gospel. Another sense in which the CBV distorts the gospel: CBV hard-liners hold to the astounding view  that it was Jesus’ spiritual death that saves, and not his physical death and shed blood (Hebrews 9:22; etc.).

The fact that Scripture consistently affirms individual accountability, individual faith, and individual standing before God should also mean that the eschatological promises are also individual in nature. The fact that the concept of resurrection already existed by the first century as an individual afterlife concept serves to affirm this. Nowhere do we see any Jewish literature or early Christian father refer to resurrection as solely corporate in nature.

CBVers limit resurrection to reconciliation with God―in other words justification. But souls proceeding out of hades to heaven is not justification. These are different processes.

These processes occurred at different times. Passages such as John 11:24 and Acts 24:15 put the general resurrection in the future to the writers of the New Testament. But many people had already been justified, i.e. saved in the past, before these texts. So, spiritual/metaphorical “resurrection” and the general resurrection of glorified bodies cannot be the same thing,

Thus, spiritual “resurrection” and bodily resurrection are clearly different things―in nature, in timing, and to whom they apply. Spiritual resurrection is soteriological. Bodily resurrection is eschatological. Thus, the resurrection of the physically dead was qualitatively different from the spiritual “resurrection” of living persons. This dual resurrection is reflective of what we believers experience today: We get saved while we are alive, and we go to heaven when we die.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:35 says, “But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of BODY do they come?’” CBVers assume that Paul is speaking only of the corporate body, not individual bodies. So, they understand resurrection to be the body of Christ  being RAISED―transformed from its state of alienation death into a state of fellowship life. It seems obvious to IBVers that Paul is referring to bodies of individuals rather than the corporate body. The fact that Paul uses the plural in verse 15:40 (bodies) supports IBV not CBV.

Paul uses different terms to describe the afterlife body, including a “spiritual body” or “glorified body” (1 Corinthians 15:35-54). Peter calls it “spirit” (1 Peter 3:18-20). John refers to the afterlife body as “soul” (Revelation 6:9; 20:4). Stephen (Acts 7:55) and Jesus (Luke 23:46) may have been  also referring to the same thing as spirit. Soul is often understood as a living being in the Bible, and is perhaps the most common term for the afterlife body in Christian vernacular.

You have to recognize that “spiritual” is an adjective and can refer to different things. A person can be “spiritual” while in a physical body. That doesn’t change the fact that when attached to soma (body), then it is talking about the vessel, not the person. (Contrary to charges by CBVers, IBV proponents do not hold to flesh, blood, and bone bodies in the afterlife.)

There are several passages in the New Testament confirming the IBV view that people have a recognizable persona or body in the afterlife. Here are three: (1) Matthew 17:1-13. Peter, James, and John recognized Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration and even offered to build them tents. (2) Luke 16:19-31, The Rich Man and Lazarus. Even though this is a parable, it imparts information from Jesus about the afterlife in hades where people are identified. (3) In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul’s use of certain adjectives is best descriptive of individual bodies in the afterlife: heavenly (v. 40), imperishable (v. 42), glorified (v. 43), and immortal (v. 53-54).

There is extrabiblical evidence to support IBV―near death experiences. Books have been written about this phenomenon. It is common for people to report seeing loved ones, and experiencing their own transformed body, in a heavenly form. I have personally known two people that experienced this.

Passages frequently used by CBV proponents do not demand a corporate limitation on New Testament passages about resurrection. In the Hosea passage, for example, individual resurrection is a better conclusion. It is about souls out of sheol/hades, implying resurrection of individuals. The mention of sheol/hades is the common thread connecting the Old and New Testaments as it is mentioned in both Hosea 13:14 and 1 Corinthians 15:55, which literally reads: “O death, where is your victory? O hades, where is your sting?”

Even the Old Testament basis for corporate identity is suspect. Andrew Perriman argues: “It is significant, moreover, that this sort of solidarity [corporate] emerges mostly in connection with sin and punishment. Only rarely is there an extension of salvation or blessing to the household and then it is probably better understood as part of the benefit or reward for the individual. . . . The covenant is made not with Israel as a supra-historical corporate personality, as Robinson believes, but with a particular individual or generation (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses).” ³

CBVers may also parenthetically acknowledge that “the corporate body is made up of individuals.” But that is a misdirection as it does not change their basic perception of corporate resurrection. CBV proponent Dan Maines said in a message to me, “So the disagreement isn’t corporate versus individual as opposites. It’s corporate fulfillment versus individualistic expectation. Scripture presents resurrection as covenantal, historical, and corporate in its accomplishment, while fully preserving personal life, personal faith, and personal existence in Christ.” But Dan is mistaken. Resurrection is not corporate at all. It isn’t even strictly covenantal.

If resurrection is limited to justification, there is nothing better to look forward to in the afterlife. Some CBVers even argue that heaven is on earth now. That would be logically consistent if you think resurrection is limited to justification―or covenant or corporate identity.

They minimize that hades was a temporary abode for deceased souls, and that it was abolished and emptied in AD 70―believers going to heaven―as other preterists believe. (Revelation 20 “death and hades gave up the dead,” ref. Revelation 4:1 “a door to heaven standing open. . . .”).

Further, they make the astounding claim that it was Jesus’ spiritual death that saves, and not his physical death and shed blood (Isaiah 53:7; Romans 5:9; Colossians 1:14, 20; Hebrews 9:14, 22; etc.). This exposes the gnostic underpinning of their system. It also highlights how the CBV view produces an unbiblical result if taken to its logical end. They take this position because Adam’s spiritual death demands that Christ’s death must also have been spiritual. That inference is misleading and incomplete.

Adam’s situation is at least partly why CBVers use the term “covenantal” in addition to “spiritual” so often to describe death. They seem to use “covenantal” as something of a catch-all phrase, confusing the issue. The Bible actually does not use the term “covenant” relative to God’s relationship with Adam, but they may argue that it was effectively a covenant. (I would say that what happened to Adam at the Fall is better described as metaphorical  death, rather than  covenantal or corporate death.)

Like Adam, our bodies today are still grounded in physical decay and death. Adam eventually died physically, without being shown to have regained the same intimacy with God that he had prior to the Fall. What was missing at the Fall was life after death which was given to believers by Jesus.

It seems a reasonable inference that, like the subsequent believers, Adam emerged from physical death in sheol/hades to heaven at Jesus’ Parousia in AD 70 in an immortal body per 1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 20. So, the best conclusion is that resurrection is BOTH-AND: metaphorical and bodily―CBV (properly understood as justification/salvation of believing individuals into the corporate body of Christ) and IBV (as true resurrection of glorified individual bodies of believers to heaven). This is reflective of believers today. We were “dead” in our sins, made alive in Christ, and go to heaven when we die.

Harden summarizes: “Scripture does not paint a picture of corporate resurrection. CBV takes the language of such passages as 2 Cor 5:1 and totally distorts it. And it constantly redefines concepts, phrases, words, even context to fit the system, when a simple, straightforward reading using the common language is self-explanatory. Reading 1 Cor 15:35 using the common, everyday meaning of the words would never lead to the assumption that the reference was to anything other than the actual dead, because the simple language is clear enough.”

CONCLUSION: If we can overcome the confusing label of CBV itself―substituting corporate for justification―the best understanding is that resurrection is “Both-And” CBV and IBV. Thus, the only sense in which resurrection is corporate is the understanding that individuals are saved individually into the corporate body.

Wrap-up and some additional thoughts:

1. The two resurrection processes as described above: (a) affect different people―living vs. dead, (b) operate by a different  process―soteriological vs. eschatological, and (c) operate at different times.
   
   
2. I don’t see how you can miss that 1 Corinthians 15:35-49 is Paul’s explanation of the nature of the afterlife body for believers. His discussion about the seed analogy seems obvious. In this analogy, the hull (fleshly body) is shed (stays in the ground) as a new spiritual, imperishable, gloried body suitable for heaven emerges. In verse 40, “bodies” is plural, clearly teaching that individual bodies rather than a single collective go to heaven. Paul sets this earthly life over and against the resurrection life in heaven in spiritual, imperishable bodies, confirming his teaching of our personal life after bodily death―as Christians have always understood. CBVers are forcing a corporate sense of resurrection onto the text which is not there.
   
   
3. The CBV view, IMHO, misses the fact that the Bible discusses both spiritual AND bodily death, therefore demanding both types of resurrection. I am persuaded that the first type of resurrection was a “resurrection” of the LIVING in a soteriological (salvation) sense―”dead in your sins and made alive in Christ.” Consider these passages: John 3:1-8; 5:24-25; 11:25; Romans 6:1-14, 23; 8:6-11; Ephesians 2:1-7; Colossians 2:12-14; 3:1-4; 1 John 3:14. The second type of resurrection was a resurrection of the physically DEAD in an eschatological/bodily sense (“immortal glorified spiritual body”). I think the following  passages are about bodily resurrection (and judgment): Daniel 12:2-3; Matthew 13:36-43; 16:27-28; 25:30-46; John 5:28-29, 6:39-40; Acts 24:14 (mello); 1 Corinthians 15:35-50; 2 Timothy 4:1 (mello); 1 Peter 4:5, 17; Revelation 20:11-15. To think that the soteriological  “resurrection” of the living and the bodily resurrection of the dead are the same thing, as CBVers  advocate, defies logic. In other words, CBVers are confusing justification with resurrection.
   
   
4. This CBV doctrine is relatively new to the church. CBV adherents argue that is has been around since the beginning. That may or may not be true, but the modern movement largely stems, apparently, from one guy―Max King (1930-2023), who reportedly  developed it from the very liberal theologian John A. T. Robinson, who even doubted the bodily resurrection of Christ. It is reasonable to be suspicious of the origin of all this. I think there is a whole lot of group-think among preterists, and it mostly emanates from King, who we understand adopted universalism. I would guess that the CBV view is held by less than 1% of all Christians, but they can be quite vocal in online discussions.
   
   
5. It is evident enough from Scripture that Jesus has a body in heaven (Philippians 3:21; Colossians 2:9; 1 Timothy 2:5; 3:16; Hebrews 1:3; 4:14; 10:12). There is no indication in these passages, or Acts 1:9-11, that Jesus’ body disintegrated as CBVers propose. It was changed (or glorified), but not annihilated, as CBVers say. Jesus’ eternal body sets the pattern for us. We will have a body in heaven. But it will be an immortal body—a new body suitable for our eternal habitation. Paul used the terms “glorified,” “immortal,” “spiritual,” and “imperishable” explain the nature of our heavenly bodies (1 Corinthians 15:35-50, 52b, 53). Jesus said that we will be like angels in heaven (Matthew 22:30; cf. Matthew 17:2). These terms add to our understanding that our eternal bodies will have physicality—corporeal and personal in some sense, like those of Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:3). Numerous other passages imply consciousness in the afterlife (Genesis 25:8; 35:29; 37:35; 49:33; Numbers 16:30; Numbers 20:24; 31:2; Deuteronomy 32:50; 2 Samuel 12:23; Job 26:5; Psalm 55:15; Isaiah 14:9-11; 44:23; Ezekiel 31:16-17; Luke 16:19-31; Revelation 6:9-11.)
   
   
6. The word raised in 1 Corinthians 15:52 (“For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable.”) is the same Greek word egeiro (Strongs 1453) used for Jesus’ resurrection in Matthew 28:6.
   
   
7. CBV is damaging the preterist brand by over-spiritualizing resurrection. Opponents of preterism see CBV as heretical, calling it “modern Gnosticism.”
   
   
8. CBV adherents are mistaken about heaven. The Bible is not silent on heaven’s benefits. It is described as a PLACE OF REST (Revelation 14:13). It is described as a BETTER EXISTENCE than on earth in the flesh (John 14:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:19; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23). It is described as DIFFERENT FROM EARTH (Ecclesiastes 5:2; Matthew 5:11-12; 16:19; Luke 15:7; John 3:13; 6:38; Philippians 2:10; Colossians 1:20; 2 Peter 1:13-15; Revelation 2:7; 10:1; 20:4-15; etc.). And it is described as the HOPE OF THE BELIEVER (Matthew 5:12; 6:19; 1 Corinthians 2:9; 15:19; Ephesians 1:10; Colossians 1:5; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:19-20; 1 Peter 1:3-4).

Here are some questions to ask a CBV proponent:

• How would resurrection have been understood by the original audience? Consider: Martha in John 11:17-27 (who just witnessed the bodily resurrection of Lazarus); John the Baptist’s messengers in Luke 7:22; the disciples in John 14:2-3; the rich young ruler in Mark 10:17.
• Spiritual/metaphoric “resurrection” per Ephesians 2:1-7 is what happens to LIVING people when they believe. That’s justification. On the other hand, glorified bodies (souls) of believers going from hades to heaven per Revelation 20 is what happened to DEAD people, and continues when people die today (Hebrews 9:27). Do you think these two things are the same process?
• Do you believe that the Bible offers anything better in the afterlife for a believer?
• If there is nothing better awaiting the believer, why should he care? Why should he accept Christ as Savior?
• Do you believe that hades was emptied of souls in AD 70, believers going to heaven?
• Where do people go when they die, in your view?
• What is heaven, in your view?
• What happens to a believer upon his physical death?
• Do you believe that heaven is on earth now for living believers?
• Do you believe that it was Christ’s physical death/shed blood that saves—or was it his spiritual death?

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My thanks to Daneil E. Harden for his assistance with this article. I strongly recommend his book, The Resurrection of the Dead: A Preterist Perspective. I’d also like to thank Colin Ries for his help.

For very detailed theological articles concerning CBV by Edward E Stevens and Jerel Kratt, go here and scroll down Articles by Other Authors.

Here is Jerel Kratt’s in depth articles on audio: Kratt on CBV

Here is a very helpful audio by Michael Heiser about the nature of the after-life body: Spiritual Body

Here is another article about resurrection by Kurt Simmons: A Look at the Resurrection

Here are some additional articles for further research:

The General Resurrection of the Dead

Death, Heaven, and Adam

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1. Michael Miano, The Power of Preterism website, “An Introduction To and Praise of the Corporate Body View CBV,” 5/3/2017. ↩︎
2. JL Vaughn, Facebook page Fulfilled Prophecies 1/20/2025 ↩︎
3. file:///d:/Users/Charles/Downloads/Andrew%20Perriman%20-the-corporate-christ-re-assessing-the-jewish-background%20(1).pdf, pages 248, 252 ↩︎