In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians he saves addressing the early Church’s biggest doctrinal problem for last. That problem was that certain people within the Church denied the resurrection of the dead.
1 Corinthians 15:12 KJV: Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
Simply put, one cannot be a Christian and deny the resurrection of the dead. Denying the resurrection is contrary to the Gospel message. The resurrection of the dead is the hinge on which the door of the Gospel rests. There is no hope whatsoever, without the resurrection of the dead!
1 Corinthians 15:19 KJV: If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
So, what was the cause of this hopelessness? Why was Paul saying these things to the Corinthians? To find the answer to these questions, let’s look at the light other Gospel letters shed upon these questions:
Jude 1:4 KJV: For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
The cause of this hopelessness are men “crept in unawares.” They were typified in the New Testament as the Jewish religious sect known as the Sadducees. In the Old Testament we find examples of these same type of men in Cain, Korah and Balaam. The Gospel writer Jude goes on to tell us these types of men are “spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.”
In Acts 20, Paul warns the Ephesians in detail about the false teachings of men like the Sadducees: “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. [30] Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. [31] Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.”