Athenagoras, On the Resurrection of the Dead 14

The demonstration of the doctrines of truth, or of any matters brought forward for examination, produces unerring faith in what is said. Its starting point does not come from outside somewhere, nor from what certain people think or have decreed, but from the common and natural notion, or from the consequence of secondary things to primary ones. For a proof concerns either primary doctrines, in which case only a reminder is needed to stir up the natural notion, or it concerns things that follow by nature from the primary doctrines and the natural sequence. In the latter case we need an ordering of these things, showing what truly follows from the first or previously established truths, so that we neither neglect the truth or the security it gives, nor confuse or break the things that nature has ordained and defined. Therefore I think it necessary for those who are eager about the matters at hand and wish to judge wisely—whether a resurrection of human bodies occurs or not—to first examine carefully the force of the considerations that contribute to this demonstration, and the place each one occupies, and what is first, second, third, and last among them. Having arranged these, we must set first the cause of the generation of human beings, that is, the purpose of the Creator according to which he made humanity, and closely attach to it the nature of the human beings he made—not as though it were secondary in order, but because judgment cannot be passed on both at the same time, even though they coexist and supply equal force for the question. Through these considerations, as primary and having their origin in creation, the resurrection is clearly shown; and no less through the reasoning of providence can we gain faith in it—I mean through the honor or justice owed to each human being according to just judgment, and the end proper to human life. For many, taking up the account of the resurrection, have attributed the whole cause to judgment alone, supposing the resurrection happens because of judgment. This is clearly proved false by the fact that all human beings who die will rise, but not all who rise will be judged. For if the just requirement of judgment alone were the cause of the resurrection, then those who have not sinned or done any good—namely, infants who have died—would have to not rise. But since all can rise, both the rest and those who died in their first age, they themselves demonstrate that the resurrection comes about not primarily through judgment, but through the Creator's purpose and the nature of the created.