Since none of us alive today has personally experienced a resurrection, we must consider the only reliable account of someone who has; namely, the one called "the firstborn from the dead"—Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was unique in that after he was brought back from the dead, over the course of several weeks, he manifested himself to his disciples in order to convince them that he was indeed resurrected.
According to the Bible, Jesus was dead for parts of three days and on the third day he came back to life. But was he merely a copy of his previous self? Obviously not, for the simple reason that Jesus was "put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit," as the Bible says. Jesus was a different kind of creation, but was he a different person? Well, on several occasions when Jesus materialized in the flesh his disciples didn't even recognize him—but Jesus assured them that it was him. Mary once mistook him for a gardener, but when he said her name in a particular way Mary immediately recognized Jesus. Later, Jesus met his disciples on the road and pretended to be an uninformed traveler. But as he spoke and taught the apostles they gradually recognized that they were being taught by their former teacher. So, even though Jesus was in a different form after his resurrection, he retained his personality and mind. If that had not been the case, then, Jesus would have been guilty of fraud for convincing his followers that he was really Jesus when that was not the case.
What is more, if Jehovah merely brought back a duplicate of Christ then God himself would be guilty of an injustice. That's because Jehovah resurrected Christ because Jesus did not deserve to die. By resurrecting his son, Jehovah was undoing the miscarriage of justice that had taken place. But, if the resurrected Jesus was merely a clone of the original, then the real Christ remains dead and the present Jesus is a false Christ.
From a human standpoint, if we think about it, none of us are the same people we were in the past. Think back ten years; twenty years; look at an old childhood photo of yourself. Do you look the same? Do you think and act as you did when you were younger? Probably not. For better or worse, we all gradually change. Scientists say after seven years there is not even so much as one molecule left of our previous self because of the process of cellular regeneration. So, what makes us who we are? It is hard to say exactly. But, we can say that as long as we recognize ourselves and others, and have some continuity with our past by means of a memory, we are the same person.
Consider the tragic victims of Alzheimer's, for example. In advanced stages of the disease the victims cannot even recognize themselves or their loved ones. Yet, by all accounts they are the same person. But, are they really? Genetically, yes, but since they have no recollection of themselves or their place in the world they literally become lost souls. So, one crucial aspect of who we are is tied up in our memory of our past self.
Ultimately, though, it comes down to trusting God's power and not relying on our own understanding of how the resurrection works. Honestly, we don't have a clue how our own brains work or even what constitutes a thought. It is simply beyond human comprehension that this little blob of wrinkled gray membrane in our skulls can generate thoughts and retain memories. There is no scientific explanation for the phenomenon. The ability to think and reason and recognize ourselves and others is not really a physical thing even though our thoughts are generated by an organic organ.
But surely the Creator knows what a thought is. He must be the Originator of consciousness. He is the universal mind—the only mind really—all others are merely knock-off miniatures. The name Jehovah literally means "He that causes to become." And Jehovah has caused humans to become like himself, in that we are made in his image. One aspect of being made in God's image means that we are sovereign individuals capable of self-awareness. So, how is Jehovah going to reanimate creatures that have long since expired? Again, we have no idea how he animated us in the first place, but, yet, we are aware that we presently exist as individuals. And that is no ordinary thing even though we take life for granted. But, if Jehovah can create life from the inanimate dust and infuse his own mental capabilities into us, it should not be any challenge for him to re-create persons that have already existed and who have left an impression of themselves in Jehovah's own all-knowing and unfathomable mind.
