“Behold I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed–in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’ The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:51–57).
Many Christians believe this passage is prophesying about a future (to us), physical resurrection. But there are many good reasons to believe in was fulfilled in the first century.
First, notice that Paul (the writer) expected some in his audience–the Corinthians–to still be alive when the resurrection happened: “We shall not all sleep [die], but we shall all be changed [resurrected]” (1 Cor. 15:51). Paul clearly believed the resurrection would happen within the lifetimes of the Corinthians he was speaking to (in the first century).
Second, another way to show that this passage was fulfilled in the first century is by comparing Paul’s words to Jesus’s in the Olivet Discourse. Paul said the resurrection would happen when the trumpet sounded: “The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised” (1 Cor. 15:52); and Jesus said, in AD 30, that the trumpet would sound within a generation:
“They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other…Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place” (Matt. 24:30–34, italics mine).
Since the resurrection would happen at the trumpet blast, per Paul, and the trumpet would blast within Jesus’s generation, per Jesus, then the resurrection must have happened within Jesus’s generation. Notice, also, how this timing “just happens” to fit perfectly with Paul saying it would within the lifetimes of the Corinthians (see point 1).
Third, still another reason we know this passage was fulfilled in the first century is that Paul said the general resurrection would happen when Jesus triumphed victoriously over sin and the law: “Death is swallowed up in victory…The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory [over death, sin and the law] through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:54–57). In other words, the general resurrection would happen when the law ended…and the law ended in AD 70 (Heb. 8:13)!
Futurists are on the horns of a dilemma. If they say the general resurrection has still not happened–which is the standard futurist view–then that means the law has still not passed away either because Paul said the two events would happen at the same time (above). This would mean every jot and tittle of the law–including Sabbath keeping, dietary requirements, feast day observances, and circumcision–must still be observed because Jesus said, “not one jot or tittle will pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (Matt. 5:18). On the other hand, if futurists say the law has passed away–which is also the standard futurist view–then that means the general resurrection must have happened too because Paul linked the two events together (1 Cor. 15:51–57). The two events happen at the same time.
But it’s even worse for futurists who say the law passed away at the cross; for if the law passed away at the cross, then that would mean the general resurrection must have happened at the cross too. Yet Paul in AD 63–thirty years after the cross–called Hymenaeus and Philetus heretics for teaching that the general resurrection had already happened (2 Tim. 2:17–18). Keep in mind, Paul said this before AD 70.
This Timothy passage brings up another glaring problem with the popular view of the general resurrection, which asserts that the general resurrection will be a physical, bodies-coming-out-of-graves kind of event. Apparently Hymenaeus and Philetus were pretty successful at convincing people that the resurrection had already happened because Paul called them “a cancer” (v. 17). But how could these heretics have convinced all these people that the general resurrection had already happened if it was supposed to be a physical, bodies-coming-out-of-graves event? All Paul would have had to do to stop this “cancer” was to dig up a grave of a righteous person and show them the (physical) resurrection had not happened yet. For that matter, all Paul would have had to do was point out that Old Testament saints such as Noah, Abraham, and Moses had not been physically resurrected (they were not walking around among them). This would have stopped the Hymenaeus heresy cold. But evidently it was not so easy to disprove. Why? Because the general resurrection is a spiritual event, not a physical event. It cannot be proved or disproved by digging up a grave or by pointing at formerly dead saints!