3. 34-38 (this is a long one - see PDF attachment below)
34
What Is Meant by Resurrection?
The concept of resurrection as spoken of in the Scriptures comes in two forms: in words which mean:
1) “to resurrect,” i.e., the Greek words anastasis and egeiro with anastasis meaning literally “to make to stand up” and egeiro as meaning “to awaken or raise up.” When in combination with the phrase “from the dead,” these words are translated as resurrect/resurrection/resurrected so that a literally physically decaying and brain-dead person is brought back to life. (Please see Luke 20:35; Acts 24:21; 1 Corinthians 15:12, 21, 42).
2) to come back to life in such phrases as “the dead will live.” This may refer to living persons who come to life spiritually or to a literal coming to life in a tangible ‘natural’ mortal body as with Lazarus and others in the Bible record or with a tangible immortal body. We will examine all of these aspects of resurrection shortly.
Although there is no consciousness for any person who dies, yet the one thing that survives them is their complete identity including their being personally and completely remembered in every detail by God in His limitless memory. This is why Job prefaces his rhetorical question to God of: “If a man dies can he live again?” with “that you would set a time limit for me and remember me!” (Job 14:13-14). All of this is true for every person who has ever lived and died. Indeed, a good picture of how the resurrection will happen is given in Ezekiel 37:1-14 concerning the lifeless dry bones that are connected together and then given sinews and covered in flesh and finally with breath entering into them. Although this passage in Ezekiel 37 is allegorical of the reinstatement of the nation of Israel, it is based on the reality of literal resurrection as shown when God completes this picture saying: “I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves…and you will come to life” (verses 12, 14 NASB).
There are no passages or texts in the Scriptures which speak of a resurrection to heaven or to intangible spirit life. Even Jesus, as, “the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead” (Col. 1:18), was resurrected on earth and not to heaven. Of course, after 40 days he did ascend to God’s right hand in heaven, so that he could function as High Priest. However, as we have seen he never promised his followers a resurrection to heaven. As with many other literal terms Jesus also used the concept in a metaphorical way before speaking of the literal resurrection.
Rather than any thought of an intangible spirit body, Jesus used the fact of a literal physical resurrection as a metaphor for people who are alive and who need to be revived spiritually when he said:
“a time is coming—and is now—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and having heard, will live” (John 5:25).
Following on from the statement that any person who believes “has passed from death to life” (John 5:24 NAB), Jesus went on to show that some once spiritually dead but literally living persons who have had a change of heart, will live in the age to come because they hear Jesus’ voice. So spiritual resurrections were occurring throughout Jesus’ life on earth and continue to occur.
The Promise of a Literal Physical Resurrection
The Hebrew Scriptures first introduce the concept of physical resurrection when Abraham offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God (Gen. 22:1-3 and Heb. 11:17-19). As already noted, Job asked, “If someone dies, will they live again? The answer is:
All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. 15 You will call and I will answer you” (Job 14:14-15 NIV).
Later Isaiah, and Daniel spoke of the physical resurrection in the following texts:
“But your dead will live, Lord; their bodies will rise—let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy—your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead” (Isa. 26:19 NIV).
“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2 NIV).
Notice that Isaiah and Daniel use the term “sleep” as a metaphor for the condition of the dead from which they will one day “wake up.” Indeed, the Psalmist David uses the same term when he asks that he, “may not fall asleep in death.” (Ps. 13:3). Later, Paul wrote that, “...if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless ... those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (1 Cor. 15:17-18 NASB).
Christians are those “…who seek glory, honor and immortality” (Rom. 2:7 NAB) and are, “…longing to be further clothed with our heavenly habitation” (2 Cor. 5:2). This means that God is the provider of the spiritual body which Christians will receive at the beginning of the Millennium.
In his detailed description of the first resurrection Paul informs us that our body, “is raised incorruptible. 43 It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one … For that which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and that which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality” (1 Cor. 15:42-44, 53 NAB). This is our own body that is transformed to be an incorruptible, immortal, but tangible human body in just the same way as for Jesus (Luke 24:36-43) because Jesus: “will transform our humble body to be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).
Unfortunately, the REB, the NRSV, and Barclay’s NT render the Greek phrase soma psychikos in 1 Corinthians 15:44 as “physical body.” However, soma psychikos means “the natural body” or “soulical body” even though it certain will be physical. So, most other translations render the word psychikos as “natural” so that the real contrast is between a natural body and a supernatural body according to Paul’s descriptions of it, and not between what is tangible and what is intangible. In fact, N.T. Wright contrasts the two bodies with the terms “the spirit-animated body” and the “nature-animated one” which is “the embodiment of ordinary nature.” So, Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, is contrasting the mortal, natural body that is weak and perishable with the immortal, spiritual body that is powerful and imperishable i.e., supernatural. So, this passage is not about tangibility or physicality. The Bible’s use of the word spiritual is not always associated with things that are intangible as is shown in 1 Corinthians 2:15 where Paul says: “The spiritual person, however, can judge everything.” Yet the spiritual person is obviously a tangible physical person, but guided by holy spirit, and so indicating that the spiritual body is also physical and tangible, but directed, ruled and dominated by holy spirit. Also note Paul’s comment that Christians on earth: “…are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if Spirit of God dwells in you” (Rom. 8:9 NAB). This shows that being “not in flesh,” in this present life, doesn’t mean that one is not a tangible person.
WHAT ABOUT 1 CORINTHIANS 15:50?
Here Paul tells us that: “…flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption” (1 Cor. 15:50 NAB). So, does this mean that inheritors of the kingdom cannot be physical? No! This is because here Paul uses the phrase “flesh and blood” metaphorically so that it represents the natural mortal body given as the parallel to “corruption.” So, this is not actually a reference to the body’s physicality as if to contrast it with the spiritual body, but refers to the absence of natural limitations and sinful inclinations. So, the NJB expresses the fact that: “…mere human nature cannot inherit the kingdom of God: what is perishable cannot inherit what is imperishable” i.e., the Kingdom. So, the flesh and blood body of weak mortal human nature is perishable and therefore decays. What is required to inherit the Kingdom is a body that is not perishable/corruptible. So, verse 53 describes how: “…that which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and that which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality.”
This highlights the “change” from a decaying mortal body to the same body as having become imperishable (verses 52, 53), so that it is immortal, powerful, and glorious. There is no indication here of an exchange so as to become a spirit in the pagan Greek sense of intangibility. Furthermore, the promise of immortality spoken of by Paul means exactly the same as the “everlasting life” which Jesus offered his earliest disciples and those future from his time.
Literal Resurrection Is Always Physical - Tangible
In our later studies of Revelation 2o:4, 5, 11-13 which provide us with the only information that there will be two times of resurrection we will see that both the first and second resurrections are literal and physical. We note that when there are two of something shown to be ‘first’ and ‘second’ they are of the same character e.g., “the first man was of the earth and made of dust, the second man is of heaven” (1 Cor. 15:47 Mounce) and so showing that Jesus was a man just like Adam i.e., both are of the same nature. So, too, with the second death as real death just as is the first death; they, too, are of the same nature. In this regard Dean Alford who wrote:
As regards the text itself, no legitimate treatment of it will extort what is known as the spiritual interpretation now in fashion. If, in a passage where two resurrections are mentioned, where certain psuchai ezesan [souls came to life] at the first, and the rest of the nekroi ezesan [dead came to life] only at the end of a specified period after the first, …If in such a passage the first resurrection may be understood to mean spiritual rising with Christ, while the second means literal rising from the grave; then there is an end of all significance in language, and Scripture is wiped out as a definite testimony to anything. If the first resurrection is spiritual, then so is the second, which I suppose none will be hardy enough to maintain: but if the second is literal, then so is the first…
So, if one resurrection is literal then so is the other. Furthermore, Revelation 20:4, 5 speaks of those who will have experienced the first resurrection already and are shown in verse 1 as sitting on thrones because: “…they came to life, and reigned with the Christ for a thousand years (the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection” (Rev. 20:4c-5 NIV). Indeed, if the phrase “came to life” for those in this first resurrection means that they were literally physically resurrected then the same is true for those classified as “the rest of the dead.”
So, for both “the righteous and the unrighteous” the phrases “came to life” or “come to life” clearly refer to literal tangible resurrection of the whole person. In Matthew 9:18 the same phrase is used by the synagogue ruler with reference to his daughter’s resurrection when he said to Jesus: “Come and lay your hand upon her, and she will come to life.” This phrase is also used in Romans 14:9 which states that, “the Messiah died and came back to life.” These are all clear references to literal physical resurrection.
To allay anyone’s concerns it is essential to realize that the concept of universal salvation commonly called Universalism is not what is being promoted here. Such a concept is not in line with biblical teaching because all totally unrepentant wicked persons will finally be permanently destroyed (Please see my book, How God Works in Human Affairs).
DANIEL ON THE RESURRECTION - DANIEL 12:2
Although the concept of resurrection was spoken of in the Hebrew Scriptures at a time earlier than the time of Daniel, he was the first to show that there will be a physical awakening of the dead—a resurrection of all people for either one of two different destinies.
Daniel prophesied that: “many [multitudes] of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, [1] these to everlasting life, [2] but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2 NASB). In fact, he may even have been speaking of three classifications of people as being resurrected according to the Old Greek of the LXX of Daniel 12:2b which reads as: “some to everlasting life but others to shame and others to dispersion [and contempt] everlasting.”
However, the use of the word “many” in the NASB and most other translations does not limit this number. Indeed, the Hebrew word for “many” is a Semitic idiomatic way of speaking with the meaning of “numerous” or “multitudes” in the sense of how large the number is, but is not indicating a limit to the number. Indeed, theologian Jeremias says, “The expression is ‘not exclusive’ (“many but not all”) but in Semitic manner of speech, inclusive (“the totality, consisting of many”).” This usage of the word “many” is illustrated in several Scriptures which show that Jesus’ sacrifice was for the whole world (John 1:29; 3:16; 6:51) even though the word “many” is used in Matthew 26:28. So with this understanding the NIV and Young’s Literal Translation both use the term “multitudes” in their rendering of Daniel 12:2:
“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” (NIV).
“And the multitude of those sleeping in the dust of the ground do awake, some to life age-during, and some to reproaches -- to abhorrence age-during” (YLT).
Please note that this passage in Daniel is speaking of different destinies for different categories of people but the impression is given that they will all be resurrected contemporaneously. In fact, the timing of resurrection is not Daniel’s focus.
Furthermore, the term “life everlasting” in Daniel 12:2 in most translations is better rendered “life of the age to come” as the meaning of the Hebrew phrase ha’ olam ha’ba. It is also rendered “age-abiding life” in Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible rather than “everlasting…”
NOTE: In terms of the translation of Daniel 12:2 the understanding given by Jewish commentators Saadia Haggaon (10th century) and Aben Ezra (12th century) on this passage was advocated by Bible translator S.P. Tregelles. This resulted in his rendering of verse 2 as: “And many from among the sleepers of the dust of the earth shall awake; these shall be unto everlasting life; but those, the rest of the sleepers, those who do not awake at this time, shall be unto shame and everlasting contempt.” However, the above boldened phrase does not appear in any other Bible translation that I am aware of and so does not carry enough weight to promote the idea that Daniel is informing us of a time interval between resurrections. This information comes only from the later Book of Revelation.
JESUS ON THE RESURRECTION – JOHN 5:28-29
After speaking of the raising to spiritual life of living people who are spiritually dead in his time (John 5:24) Jesus expands on Daniel’s statement that there will be two different destinies for people in the future literal resurrection by showing what these classifications of people will be.
“Do not be amazed at this; for a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, 29 and will come out: those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the bad deeds to a resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28-29 NASB).
Or as J.B. Phillips presents it: “the time is coming when all those who are dead and buried will hear his voice and out they will come—those who have done right will rise again to life, but those who have done wrong will rise to face judgment!” Certainly, there is no contextual reason to imagine that the word “all” in this passage is not in the absolute sense. It means all who are in their graves, indicating all who have ever lived and died and therefore a universal resurrection and not of only Christians. As in many of his parables, Jesus separates all people into only two groups. In this case it is, “those who did the good deeds” and “those who committed the bad [evil] deeds.” Again, no separation of the resurrection into different events at different times is mentioned for the resurrection because only the classifications were Jesus’ focus. Again, the impression is given that they will all be resurrected contemporaneously.
PAUL ON THE RESURRECTION - ACTS 24:15
Later the Apostle Paul spoke of these two classifications of people for being resurrected in the future saying:
“I have a hope in God, which these men themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection, both of the righteous and the unrighteous” (Acts 24:15 CSB).
As with Jesus’ statement that “all who are in the tombs…will come out” Paul also shows the all-encompassing nature of the resurrection by noting that there is no third class as excluded from the resurrection. All people are either “righteous” or “unrighteous.” So, Paul is restating what Daniel and Jesus have already shown. Once again, no separation of the resurrection into different events at different times is mentioned because, like Daniel and Jesus, the classifications of people were also Paul’s focus. However, Paul does comment on the timing in his first letter to the Corinthians (15:22-23) which we will examine shortly.
Evidently, without additional information the three main texts above would leave one to think that the resurrection of “the righteous and the unrighteous” would occur at the same time and many have come to that conclusion as well as deciding that it would occur when Jesus returns. On this issue theologian Samuele Bacchiocchi makes the following observation in his book Immortality or Resurrection? (p.259):
All three cited texts (Acts 24:15; Dan 12:2; John 5:28-29) seem to suggest that the resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous will take place contemporaneously. However, Revelation 20 suggests that there will be two separate resurrections…
So, it is only by the statements in Revelation 20:4, 5, 11-13 that we can know that there will be an interval between a first resurrection and a later one and that this interval will be of a 1,000+ years.
THE RESURRECTION PERSPECTIVE IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION
Concerning this interval there are no translation issues in Revelation 20:4-5 and all pre-millennial commentators view this as a reference to a future literal 1,000 years before the second resurrection takes place. Indeed, it will be a literal 1,000, years between Jesus’ return and the judgment scene at the Great White Throne. Concerning this, in vision John saw:
“thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls [lives] of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection”
Please note that nothing is mentioned here about “who did the good deeds…and those who committed the bad deeds” or “the righteous and the unrighteous” as spoken of in the earlier texts of Daniel 12:2; John 5:28-29; and Acts 24:15 although Revelation 20:4-5 must include those stated destinies and classifications of people.
Furthermore, in Revelation 20:12 John says: “I saw the dead—the great and the small…” i.e., everyone who had been dead but who are now standing before the throne. Then in verse 13 John informs us that, “the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them”—all of these statements again emphasising the all-encompassing universalism of the resurrection.
Indeed, those in the first resurrection are evidently the victorious Christians because only true Christians are, “given authority to judge” and will reign “with Christ” throughout the 1,000 years from when he returns just prior to the start of the 1,000-year period. So now for the first time we can see that everyone else i.e., “The rest of the dead” are to be resurrected at a later time—when “the thousand years were ended.”
MEMORIAL TOMBS
It is argued that, because the word “memorial tombs” in John 5:28 implies that only those in God’s memory will be resurrected and some are not remembered by God, and so those who have been horrendously wicked e.g., Stalin, Hitler etc will never be resurrected to answer for their crimes.
RESPONSE: This is, in itself, a very weak and misguided argument because “memorial tombs” are called such so that the dead person will be remembered by their loved ones as well as by God, even if the person has been very wicked. Even unmarked graves are called “memorial tombs” in the Scriptures (Luke 11:44). Simply being called “memorial tombs” is for the benefit of humans as well as the fact that God will remember every detail of everyone who has ever lived and died. So, this term does not contradict the pattern Jesus established that “all” would be resurrected.
WIPING OUT THE MEMORY OF THEM
It is also argued from Isaiah 26:14 that those destroyed can never be resurrected. This passage reads: “Dead they are [other masters vs. 13], they cannot live, shades (Heb. Rephaim meaning “shadowy ones”), that cannot rise; Indeed, you have punished and destroyed them, and wiped out all memory of them” (Isa. 26:14).
RESPONSE: It is noted by professors of linguistics that Rephaim is a particularly difficult term to translate and is typically rendered as “the departed spirits” or “the shades” or “dead ones” in most translations. However, this does not refer to the pagan teaching that, at death, a person’s spirit separates from his body. This is because verse 19 shows that it is impossible that, “the earth will let [disembodied spirits] come to life.” It simply means that those particular individuals—these “other masters”—have ceased their oppressive rulership of Israel and are now more like an ineffective shadow because they are dead. However, the understanding of this passage is, according to its context, of poetic language and not directly that of future resurrection. So, the phrase “they will not rise up” because they are dead concerns these “other masters” as never returning to power over Israel and is most likely a reference to the hybrid Nephilim in earlier passages of the Old Testament.
PERPETUAL SLEEP
It is further argued from Jeremiah 51:39, 57 that some will “sleep a perpetual sleep” and so never wake up in the resurrection. Here God says: “While they are inflamed I will prepare them a feast and make them drunk, that they may become merry, then sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, declares the Lord … will make drunk her officials and her wise men, he governors, her commanders, and her warriors; they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, declares the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts” (Jer. 51:39, 57 ESV).
RESPONSE: This is a clear allusion to Belshazzar’s feast on the very night Babylon fell to Cyrus the Persian. Although “sleep” is often used as a metaphor for being dead it also obviously refers generally to literal sleep. So, the “perpetual sleep, from which [Belshazzar and his princes etc.] will not wake up,” has nothing to do with resurrection, but simply that in falling asleep in their drunken stupor, after all their bragging, they would not wake up because they would be slain (Dan 5:30). And this is what happened when Cyrus’ soldiers broke into Babylon, and yet Belshazzar and company did not even know that Babylon’s walls had been breached. So again, this text also does not contradict the pattern Jesus established that “all,” would be resurrected along with Paul’s statement that it would “be a resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous.”
APPOINTED TO DIE ONCE
From Hebrews 9:27-28 it is argued that once a person has died they are judged at that time and there can be no future judgment in a resurrection resulting in their condemnation to death again. In other words, does this not mean that their normal death from which they will not rise was their judgment and so there can be no resurrection for them at the end of the Millennium? The text says: “just as people are appointed to die once, and then to face judgment, so also, after Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, to those who eagerly wait for him he will appear a second time, not to bear sin but to bring salvation” (NET).
RESPONSE: There is no time scale given concerning when or how they will “face judgment” after they have died. So, this does not preclude their facing a judgment after a future resurrection. Otherwise, this would contradict the second resurrection statements given in Revelation 20. In the above argument the context 0f the words of Hebrews 9:27 has not been noted. The real reason for such human death is not because people are human but because of sin and which verse 28 shows is dealt with by Jesus’ bearing “the sins of many” and so only dying once. Indeed, the theme of Hebrews 9:11ff is that Jesus “did not enter to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the sanctuary year after year with blood that is not his own.” So, verse 27 does not preclude the resurrection of someone “to face judgment” for the evil they had previously done (John 5:29), but who may still have an unrepentant heart and so be “thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:15). Furthermore, the mention of “second death” in Revelation 2:11; 20:6, 15; and 21:8 has two aspects to it. It means final death as well as being second in time for anyone who is resurrected but proves to be unredeemable. Just as the first death is a death which is not final as well as first in time so, too the second death will be a later death than the first death for the unredeemable resurrected person. This is paralleled by the concept of first and second resurrections which also involve time.
ALL SINS WIPED OUT AT DEATH
The parenthetical statement in Romans 6:7 is sometimes referenced to show that nobody can be judged for their sins after they have died because the text says: “For someone who has died has been freed from sin.”
RESPONSE: Once again it is the context of this statement that helps in our understanding and which does not concern physical death but a person’s becoming dead to sin (note vss. 1, 6). The passage speaks of a living Christian’s baptism as picturing his having been crucified, buried, and then resurrected. So, this death and resurrection is all metaphorical language to show one’s having been united with Christ. This is well explained by most theologians and a good explanation of this can be found in Hard Sayings of the Bible p. 551.
Ecclesiastes 3:17 states that: “God will judge the righteous and the wicked” so that no-one escapes His judgment. This means that judgment by God will be of everyone who has ever lived and died and therefore judgment will be universal. However, for faithful and victorious Christians as “the household of God” judgment is throughout their Christian lives (1 Pet. 4:16-17) and therefore before they are granted immortality.
Further to this, Jesus spoke of a coming “Day of judgment” (Matt. 10:15; 11:22, 24) and Paul stated that, “[God] has set a Day when He will judge the inhabited world, and do it justly, by means of a man whom He has designated” (Acts 17:31 CJB. Also, note Romans 3:6b). So, because the entire world is to be judged, this shows that everyone of both “the righteous” and “the unrighteous” dead will have to be resurrected so that they may be judged. So, when the Apostle John is told about “the rest of the dead” (Rev. 20:5 NIV) as separated from those of “the first resurrection” this clearly refers to everyone else who has ever lived and died.
Here I hope to show that the Bible teaching is that of only one literal resurrection of true Christians who will each be given a glorious, immortal, spiritual (not spirit), and tangible body that is fully human.
All whom God approves as true and victorious Christians will be in “the first resurrection” (Rev. 20:5) at the time Jesus returns (1 Cor. 15:23, 52). These ones are from among “those who have done good” (John 5:29) and from among “the righteous.” (Acts 24:15) and will have proved themselves worthy of receiving immortal life. In fact, Jesus focused specifically on the future resurrection when he said: “You will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14). Additionally, Martha said concerning Lazarus that: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her: ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, will live even if he dies’” (John 11:24-25). Evidently, anyone with trust in Jesus as loyal to him will experience the same resurrection as Lazarus will yet experience i.e., the resurrection of victorious Christians.
Unlike the second resurrection this first one will not be for the purpose of their being judged worthy for resurrection because these Christians will have already been judged prior to that time (1 Pet. 4:17). It will be, however, for the purpose of forming the government that will rule in the Kingdom of God (Rev. 2:26-27). In fact, they are to be judges of those non-Christians in a second resurrection (Rev. 20:4).
TRUE CHRISTIANS ARE VICTORIOUS CHRISTIANS
In Jesus’ messages to the seven congregations noted in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 he shows how each individual Christian must be a conqueror—they must be victorious because they must demonstrate their “righteousness” before being granted the privilege to rule in God’s future Kingdom. So, for each conqueror this will be:
Ephesus: To “grant for them to eat of the tree of the perfect life, which is in the paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7).
Smyrna: They “will never be harmed by the second death” (Rev. 2:11).
Pergamum: “I will give [them] some of the hidden manna. I will also give them a white stone with a new name written on it” (Rev. 2:17).
Thyatira: They will be “given authority over the nations, to rule them with an iron sceptre. And I will give them the morning star” (Rev. 2:26).
Sardis: They will be “clothed in white clothing.” Jesus will “never erase their name from the book of the perfect life.” “I will confess their name in the presence of my Father and of His angels” (Rev. 3:5).
Philadelphia: Jesus will “make them…a pillar in the sanctuary of my God, and they won’t go out of it anymore. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my new name” (Rev. 3:12).
Laodicea: “I will give permission for them to sit with me on my throne” (Rev. 3:21).
Please note what Jesus said in one of his assessments of these seven congregations:
“You have a few individuals in Sardis who have not stained their clothes, and they will walk with me dressed in white clothing, because they are worthy. The one who conquers will be dressed like them”
Here, it appears that the majority did not qualify for this future walk with Jesus unless they made the big changes in their lives that he required of them and so to become conquerors. Indeed, Jesus showed that during the persecution of the great tribulation, “many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other” (Matt. 24:10). So, it is vital that one remains a faithful victorious Christian if one wishes to be in the first resurrection and which is why Paul said:
“My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.12 Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me” (Phil. 3:11-12).
Paul also speaks of those who have had to be disciplined for immoral conduct and that, if they have repented, they may also be saved when Jesus returns on “the day of the Lord” (1 Cor. 5:5). This seems to imply their being in the first resurrection provided they become a conquering victorious Christian. All will have to be such a conqueror because they will be acting as kings and priests in establishing the Kingdom under Jesus’ rulership.
Because these faithful ones prior to Jesus’ time were Messianists in the sense of looking forward in faith to the coming of the Messiah (Gal. 3:8), they are retrospectively Christians in just the same way as are the faithful ones since Messiah’s first coming. The key factors are that:
[1] “As it was, they [from Abel onward] were longing for a better place, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:16 NTE).
[2] “…not accepting release so that they might receive a better resurrection” (Heb. 11:35 NTE). This better resurrection, shown above, is “the first resurrection” of Revelation 20:5, 6 which is “the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14).
“[3] “…all of these people…didn’t receive the promise. God was providing something better for us, so that they wouldn’t reach perfection without our doing so as well” (Heb. 11:39, 40 NTE).
So, these righteous ones who lived before Christ will attain the better (the first) resurrection and will not “reach perfection without our doing so as well.” Indeed, they will be resurrected at the one specific time as for all other Christians (1 Thess. 4:17) i.e., when it is time for Jesus’ royal arrival.
The term “first resurrection” (Rev. 20:5-6) implies a second resurrection. The second is often termed ‘the general resurrection’ and does not involve true and victorious Christians, but non-Christians and Christians who were not victorious. This resurrection will occur after the thousand years have ended.
THOSE WHO DID THE GOOD DEEDS
Because all of the statements in Daniel 12:2; John 5:28-29; and Acts 24:15 do not concern the separation of the resurrection into two events, but only the classification of people i.e., the type of people by their activities, we can see that the descriptions in those texts may easily be applied to those of the second resurrection in Revelation 20:5 i.e., “the rest,” and categorized as follows: “some to everlasting life, (Dan. 12:2b), “who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, (John 5:29b) and “a resurrection…of the righteous” (Acts 24:15).
Certainly, victorious Christians would be counted as among: “the righteous,” and among “those who have done good,” so that they “awake… to life of the age to come” which would be in the first resurrection for the purpose of rulership. However, it appears that some who have been Christian spiritual builders but were not victorious as Christians because they built with “wood, hay, and straw” (1 Cor. 3:13-14) “will still be saved.” However, this will be on the “Day” when their work is “revealed by fire” and burned up—no doubt on judgment Day—at the time of the Great White Throne judgment after the second resurrection. They evidently were not fit for rulership in the Kingdom of God.
Finally, there will be many non-Christians who have “done good” and will be classified as “righteous,” but died prior to the first resurrection. Additionally, there may be many who had never heard the Christian message or heard it in a meaningful way. All these will be ones who will be given their first chance to harmonize their lives with God’s will or to repent of their wrongs.
THOSE WHO HAVE COMMITTED BAD DEEDS
In contrast to the first category of resurrected people Daniel, Jesus, and Paul describe: “the others to shame and everlasting contempt,” “and those who committed the bad deeds,” and “the unrighteous.” This category includes all those who have practiced the most heinous of crimes against others and without repentance. These will all be raised in the second resurrection for punishment as part of “the rest of the dead” who “did not come to life until the thousand years were finished” (Rev. 20:5).
THE REST OF THE DEAD WILL BE RESURRECTED AS MORTALS
Because this second resurrection will be to judgment it must of necessity be a resurrection to mortality in “the natural” human body as their initial physicality. This must be the case because only chosen Christians will be granted the gift of immortality. So, in this second resurrection the coming back to life will be as mortals just the same as that which Lazarus experienced when Jesus brought him back to life, but was limited so that Lazarus would have eventually died again. Nevertheless, those judged worthy of having their names remain in “the book of life” (Rev. 20:15) will then be granted immortality (Rev. 21:4).
The First Resurrection – the Earlier One - Is Better
Not only did Paul, in Philippians 3:11, call the first resurrection “the earlier resurrection from the dead” because it will be the first resurrection, but the writer to the Hebrews calls it, “a better resurrection” (Heb. 11:35). But in what way will it be better? F. F. Bruce discusses this on p. 326 of his commentary: The Epistle to the Hebrews where he says:
The resurrection to which they looked forward was “better” than that to which the boys of Zarephath and Shunem had been raised by Elijah and Elisha. Those boys were restored to mortal life, and in due course died…
So, the first resurrection is better because each Christian will receive an immortal, imperishable life, whereas those of the past, such as Lazarus, regained only their normal mortal lives and those in the second resurrection after the end of the Millennium also will receive only their mortal life at that time.
Firstly, Paul explains the order of the resurrection, saying:
“Just as all who are incorporated in Adam die, so also all who are incorporated in the Messiah will be made alive. 23But each in his own order: Messiah the first fruits; afterward those who belong to the Messiah when it’s the time of his coming as king. 24Then the end comes, when he hands over the Kingdom to his God and Father, when he has eliminated every form of rule and every authority and power, 25because he must continue to reign until He has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be eliminated is death” (1 Cor. 15:22-26 KGV).
N.T. Wright also correctly and very clearly renders 1 Corinthians 15:23 as: “at the time of his royal arrival (Gk parousia)” which is yet future. Also, the fact that “those who belong to the Messiah” i.e., victorious Christians, are resurrected at the time of Jesus’ arrival excludes “the rest of the dead” until “the end” i.e., the end of the Millennium. So, the destruction of death itself (1 Cor. 15:26) at that time corresponds to “the rest of the dead coming to life” in Revelation 20:5, 11-15 before “death and Hades are hurled into the lake of fire” (verse 14). This separation of the two parts of the resurrection was recognized by second century Christians as noted in Justin Martyr’s Dialog with Trypho.
The first resurrection occurs at a single time when Jesus returns from heaven immediately prior to the beginning of the Millennium. There is no resurrection of any Christians at the point of their deaths. This is because, “the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess. 4:16).
First Thessalonians 4:16 to 5:6 gives nine details of the time of the end. Eight of the details of Matthew 24:30-43 match the details of 1 Thessalonians 4:16-5:6 indicating that the ninth detail (#4) in Matthew 24:31, namely, “will gather,” must also match and so be the same event as the being “caught up” mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 i.e., the resurrection/rapture. These details are:
Son of man (24:30) / Lord himself (4:16).
Clouds of heaven (24:30) / air (4:17).
Great sound of a trumpet (24:31) / the trumpet of God (4:16).
Gather together (24:31) / caught up together (4:17). (Please see the chapter on the rapture).
Know that summer is near (24:32) / times and the seasons (5:1).
Marrying, then flood came (24:38) / safety then destruction (5:3).
Coming of the Son of man (24:39) / day of the Lord (5:2).
Watch (24:42) / stay awake and keep our senses (5:6).
Known in what watch the thief was coming (24:43) / thief in the night (5:4).
Evidently Paul was writing about the same subject in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 as Jesus had spoken of in Matthew 24, namely the time of the end that culminates in the resurrection when Christians are gathered together by the angels to meet Jesus. So, the sequence given in Matthew 24:29-32 can clearly be seen to present the event of the first resurrection as occurring after the great tribulation.
The Apostle Paul states that the last trumpet will be the time for the first resurrection. So, Paul reveals that: “We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed” (1 Cor. 15:51-52 NLT).
Leading scholar on the use of the Greek language in the New Testament Adolph Deissmann informs us that:
parousia means advent, coming, arrival. From the Ptolemaic period down to the 2nd century A.D. we are able to trace the word in the East as a technical expression for the arrival or visit of the King…(or other person in authority)......Adventus coins were struck...Epiphany nearly always means the future parousia of Christ. Also, the Greek-English lexicons of Bauer, Thayer, Moulton and Milligan, Liddle and Scott, and Abbot-Smith all give coming or arrival as the definition of Parousia with reference to Christ. So, N.T. Wright renders all relevant texts as “coming as king,” “appearing as King,” “royal arrival” or “royal appearing” and so concerning the, “Resurrection from the dead... 23then those who belong to the Messiah will rise at the time of his royal arrival (Gk parousia)” (1 Cor. 15:21, 23). This links with Jesus’ words: “I will come again and receive you to myself” (John 14:3 NASB) at his second coming.
JESUS’ RETURN WILL BE ONLY AFTER THE GREAT TRIBULATION
With great concern for the faulty thinking of those Christians in Thessalonica Paul writes:
“With regard to the royal coming of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, and our being gathered together to him, we say to you, brothers and sisters: 2Don’t be easily shaken from your composure or alarmed by any kind of spiritual statement or message or letter supposedly from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, because that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction, is revealed. … 8Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord Jesus will defeat with the breath of his mouth; and he will destroy [his works] by the displaying of his arrival. 9The royal coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the activity of the Satan” (2 Thess. 2:1-3, 8-9).
As is evident from Joel 2:32 and Matthew 24:29 that, “the day of the Lord” follows after the great tribulation. Also, because “the day of Yahweh” became “the day of the Lord/day of Christ” in the Christian Scriptures it will occur when Jesus returns, at which point the “gathering together to him” i.e., the first resurrection occurs. (Please see my book The End-Time Events for Jesus’ Return in Chapter 39 and 40).
The First Resurrection Is to Occur on “the Last Day”
The Greek word for “last” is eschatos which also means “final.” So, this presumably refers to the final day of the present age. So, when Jesus says to the crowd following him concerning those who God had given him, “I will resurrect him on the last day” (John 6:40, 44, 54) and to Martha Jesus said of Lazarus, “he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day” (John 11:24 NASB), he clearly meant right at the end of “the present age.” Furthermore, the last day of the present age must also immediately precede the first day of the “age to come” [the Millennium and onward], (Luke 20:35, Mark 10:30) and so making the theory of the first resurrection as occurring many years before the great tribulation impossible.
Summary of When the First Resurrection Occurs
After the Man of Lawlessness appears.
After the great tribulation.
At the descending and parousia of the Lord Jesus.
At ‘the end of the age.’
On ‘the Last Day.’
At the last trumpet.
It is the earlier resurrection and is the better one than the second resurrection.
Clearly, the great tribulation has not yet arrived and therefore the first resurrection has not yet occurred!
Simply put, “the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished” (Rev. 20:5). Although this is most likely a parenthetical statement, it nevertheless provides two pieces of information. Firstly, that there will be an interval between the resurrection of victorious Christians and “the rest of the dead” and secondly, that that this interval will be of a thousand years.
Although the phrase, “the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished” (Rev. 20:5) is parenthetical in many English versions this does not mean that it is not really part of the Bible text showing that the second resurrection will occur after the Millennium. In fact, this statement in Revelation 20:5 is confirmed by the context in Revelation 20:7-14 where firstly Satan is destroyed, “when the thousand years are finished” (vs. 7) after which the Great white throne judgment occurs (vs. 11) and then the second resurrection occurs as described by John saying, “I saw the dead, the great and the small…,” as well as the statement that, “the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them” (vss. 12-13). After this “Death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire – the second death” (vs.14) – all of this confirming the legitimacy of the teaching that, “the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished” so that the second resurrection will occur after the Millennium and so cannot be at any earlier time.
So now we must attempt to answer the question: How will God, through Jesus, deal with these ones who are brought back to life in this second resurrection?
As shown in chapter 35 of this book the complete resurrection will be universal. In other words, everyone who has ever lived and died will be raised—either as victorious Christians in the first resurrection when Jesus returns immediately prior to the beginning of the 1,000 years or as “the rest of the dead” to be judged after that period in a second resurrection. However, many Christians believe that, “the rest of the dead” are raised simply to be condemned and immediately thrown into “the lake of fire—the second death” and so to be destroyed forever. But is this second resurrection to be one that results in automatic “damnation” as the KJV wrongly translates the Greek of John 5:29 rather than “to judgment”? Certainly, a judgment may hand down either a favourable verdict or an unfavourable one. So, as with any just court, some on “the day of judgment” will be condemned and others will be acquitted. Therefore, the second resurrection is for the purpose of judging “the rest of the dead” and not for an instantaneous condemnation of them.
As we saw in the previous chapters the statements in Daniel 12:2; John 5:28-29; and Acts 24:15 do not show a first and a second resurrection (although Revelation. 20:5, 11-14 does do so). Rather, these passages concern the classification of people according to their attitudes and activities, so that we should not imagine that all of “those who did the good deeds” (John 5:29b) and are “the righteous” (Acts 24:15) will be ONLY in the first resurrection—a resurrection for victorious Christians only. Certainly, “those who have done evil,” and are “the unrighteous” would only be in the second resurrection, but it also seems evident that those who are non-Christians “who did the good deeds” or are Christians who have failed to be victorious and “who did the good deeds” would also be among “the rest of the dead” in the second resurrection. Indeed, this understanding may well fit with the Old Greek rendering in the LXX of Daniel 12:2b which reads as: “some to everlasting life but others to shame and others to dispersion [and contempt] everlasting” if this rendering is correct and so giving a further breakdown of the types of people to be involved in the resurrection.
This judgment of resurrected ones after the second resurrection event will be conducted by Jesus (Acts 17:31) at the Great White Throne as shown in Revelation:
“... Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; ... 12And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was opened—the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. 13The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds. 14Then Death and Hades were thrown into the fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire. 15If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:11-15 NET).
So, a person’s deeds were already written in the books before their resurrection. This means that they are to be judged by what they had done prior to their deaths—good or bad. So clearly the result of the many individual judgments will vary.
FAVOURABLE AND UNFAVOURABLE JUDGMENTS
In giving instructions to his disciples for their preaching work Jesus showed a distinction of types of people when he said:
“If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town” (Matt. 10:14-15).
Then in his woes on the unrepentant cities he said:
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you…But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you” (Matt. 11:21-22, 24).
Furthermore, to those lacking faith Jesus said:
“The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here”
This last passage shows that these ones will be resurrected i.e., they “will stand up at the judgment” and the day of judgment is shown to be after the Millennium is completed i.e., in the second phase of resurrection and at the Great White Throne (Rev. 20:11-15) where Jesus presides as judge (Acts 17:31). This scenario also clearly applies to those of “Sodom and Gomorrah” and “Tyre and Sidon” and so giving a general picture of those who are “the unrighteous” (Acts 24:15) as rising in a second resurrection “at the judgment”—“on the day of judgment.” So those to be viewed negatively will be: the towns that don’t welcome Jesus’ message along with Chorazin, Bethsaida, and this generation. These are compared with others of “the unrighteous” namely, Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon, Nineveh, and the Queen of the South. All of these will rise—be resurrected on the day of judgment, but clearly some will get a better judgment at the Great White Throne than others.
Indeed, Jesus, himself, showed that there would be different responses from different peoples at the time for judgment after the thousand years when he showed that, “it would be more bearable in the judgment” for some than for others.
NOTE: The term “this generation” is better rendered “the society of this age” or “the present evil society.”
THE LIMITED INFORMATION ON THIS JUDGMENT
On this aspect of the second resurrection the amount of information given in Revelation 20 is somewhat limited, but we do know from this passage that:
“the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds” (verse 12).
“if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (verse 15).
So, whenever information is rather limited the Christian may choose to extrapolate the rest of the scenario from other passages and all that he or she has come to know about God’s character in terms of how He deals with people.
GOD’S MERCIFUL DESIRE FOR ALL HUMANS
Firstly, throughout human history God has always sought for humans to repent i.e., to change their mindset and lifestyle to harmonize with His purpose. So, Paul writes that, “perhaps you despise his [God’s] great kindness, tolerance, and patience. Surely you know that God is kind, because he is trying to lead you to repent” (Rom. 2:4 GNT).
Although justice must be seen to be done by God, it is clear that He is not seeking to destroy people, but looks for their repentance. Indeed, the Apostle Peter showed God’s history as having been a history of great patience with people and so allowing them a considerable amount of time to make changes in their lives as Peter wrote, saying, “The Lord isn’t slow to keep his promise, as some think of slowness, but he is patient toward you, not wanting anyone to perish but all to change their hearts and lives” (2 Pet. 3:9 CEB).
JESUS AS THE MERCIFUL JUDGE
As with God’s patience and mercy we may expect the same level of these qualities from Jesus as the one who is the very image of God and who will be the judge sitting on the Great White Throne (John 5:22; Acts 17:31) after the second resurrection has occurred or is occurring (Rev. 20:13). Certainly, Jesus will demonstrate godly wisdom and fairness in dispensing justice (Isa. 11:2-4, John 8:16).
Referring back to what was said in earlier chapters we can see that apart from all the victorious Christians who were resurrected as immortal in the first resurrection to be rulers in the Kingdom, the words of Daniel, Jesus, and Paul indicate the following as classes of people who will stand before the Great White throne on the day of Judgment:
“…some to everlasting life, others to shame and contempt” (Dan. 12:2).
“…those who did the good deeds and those who committed the bad deeds” (John 5:29b).
“…the righteous and the unrighteous” (Acts 24:15).
All of these come under the category of “the rest of the dead” in Revelation 20:5, 12-13.
ACCORDING TO ONE’S UNDERSTANDING
God’s patience with people has always been according to their understanding of Him. We know this because Jesus had said concerning the world, “If I hadn’t come and spoken to them, they wouldn’t have any sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin” (John 15:22 GW). So, considering the hundreds of millions of dead people who had not been “spoken to,” either directly by Jesus or through the pages of the Bible, it is evident that such ones would not simply be resurrected and then immediately destroyed. In fact, many of such people lived naturally according to many of God’s precepts even though they were not connected to Israel or to Christianity. So, the Apostle Paul showed that there would be different responses from different peoples at the time for judgment after the thousand years when he contrasted the Jewish way of thinking from that of the Gentiles who maintained a godly conscience as Paul notes in his letter to the Romans, saying:
“For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus” (Rom. 2:14-16 ESV).
This passage once again shows the wide range of people who will be in the second resurrection to experience the Day of Judgment. So, these will include those who have never heard about Jesus at all, those who never knew Jesus in a true and meaningful way, those who did good but were indifferent to him and those who just did bad or evil things. This last category includes all those who have practiced the most heinous of crimes against others and without repentance before they died.
THE BASIS FOR JUDGMENT
Certainly, “the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds” (Rev. 20:12). This refers to their deeds throughout “this age” up until they died. However, just as God, through Jesus, has always shown, “kindness, tolerance, and patience” in His “trying to lead [people] to repent” during “this age” by the patient educating of them, it is evident that He would treat those of the second resurrection in the same way because His character does not change. This would likely involve a necessary amount of time after their resurrection t0 allow people to learn what God’s will is for them if they are willing to learn and then to repent.
THOSE WHO REPENT
Such repentant ones may still be punished for what they have done. Perhaps such punishments will be of varying degrees according to the principle that Jesus laid out when speaking of Christian leaders who failed him:
“And a servant who knows what the master wants, but isn’t prepared and doesn’t carry out those instructions, will be severely punished. 48 But someone who does not know, and then does something wrong, will be punished only lightly. When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required”
The statement that: “if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:15) implies that many will be “found written in the book of life”—they were repentant and proved to be redeemable. Therefore, it will be the exception rather that the rule for someone to fail to repent and to be acquitted. So, for all those who do repent they are necessarily given a favourable verdict and acquitted of their sins and with their names not being removed from the book of life and so will not be destroyed in the lake of fire—second death, but be granted future life. In fact, Revelation 21:4 says that “death will be no more” which implies that these who are acquitted will finally be granted immortality in spite of the fact that the Revelation does not directly say so.
THOSE WHO DO NOT REPENT
Evidently, just as in “this age” there are many who do not wish to learn what God’s will is, so too, there will be many after the second resurrection who will reject God. These ones have the same stubborn mindset as the rebellious people existing during the end–times who will have suffered the plagues poured out on them and yet, “…refused to turn away from their activities” (Rev. 16.11. Also please see Rev. 9:20-21). This pattern is strongly implied by the fact that those who are deserving of such second death at that time are described as:
“cowards, faithless people, the unclean, murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars – their destiny will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8 NTE).
So, the judgment for these ones will be one of condemnation resulting in their destruction as noted in the Book of Revelation because, “if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:11-15 LEB). This lake of fire is a symbol picturing “the second death”—a death which allows for no further future for them and therefore meaning their total destruction—a permanent cessation of life.
Nevertheless, it is not appropriate for any Christian to make judgments about how some of those infamous people from history who have done the most monstrously wicked things will respond and react to their being confronted at the Great White Throne judgment on the Day of Judgment. Such judgment must be left to, “the righteous judge” (2 Tim. 4:8).
WHAT JUDGMENT DAY ACCOMPLISHES
This scenario of the Great White Throne judgment is one which demonstrates that justice has been done. This is because prior to their deaths in “this age” those who had committed the most heinous of crimes against humanity have either answered only to a human court or have not answered in “this age” at all for those crimes. However, all must finally answer to God for what they have done. On the other hand, absolutely everyone has been given a fully fair chance to be forgiven and to grasp onto a wonderful relationship with the Creator and his Messianic Son and all of the wonderful future life offered to them.
The second resurrection takes place a short while after the end of the Millennium.
Those who are “the righteous and the unrighteous” are resurrected and then will stand before Judge Jesus in front of the Great White Throne for judgment.
Everyone will be given a fair chance of life. This is their first real chance.
Some will be acquitted and some will fail to repent and so be condemned.
The implication of the words in Revelation 20:15 is that many will not be destroyed because they still have their name written in the book of life. This results in:
The final stage of the Kingdom goes on everlastingly in perfection with no more death of humans.
Resurrection
34
What Is Meant by Resurrection?
The concept of resurrection as spoken of in the Scriptures comes in two forms: in words which mean:
1) “to resurrect,” i.e., the Greek words anastasis and egeiro with anastasis meaning literally “to make to stand up” and egeiro as meaning “to awaken or raise up.” When in combination with the phrase “from the dead,” these words are translated as resurrect/resurrection/resurrected so that a literally physically decaying and brain-dead person is brought back to life. (Please see Luke 20:35; Acts 24:21; 1 Corinthians 15:12, 21, 42).
2) to come back to life in such phrases as “the dead will live.” This may refer to living persons who come to life spiritually or to a literal coming to life in a tangible ‘natural’ mortal body as with Lazarus and others in the Bible record or with a tangible immortal body. We will examine all of these aspects of resurrection shortly.
The Dead Are in God’s Memory
Although there is no consciousness for any person who dies, yet the one thing that survives them is their complete identity including their being personally and completely remembered in every detail by God in His limitless memory. This is why Job prefaces his rhetorical question to God of: “If a man dies can he live again?” with “that you would set a time limit for me and remember me!” (Job 14:13-14). All of this is true for every person who has ever lived and died. Indeed, a good picture of how the resurrection will happen is given in Ezekiel 37:1-14 concerning the lifeless dry bones that are connected together and then given sinews and covered in flesh and finally with breath entering into them. Although this passage in Ezekiel 37 is allegorical of the reinstatement of the nation of Israel, it is based on the reality of literal resurrection as shown when God completes this picture saying: “I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves…and you will come to life” (verses 12, 14 NASB).
There Is Never Any Resurrection to Heaven
There are no passages or texts in the Scriptures which speak of a resurrection to heaven or to intangible spirit life. Even Jesus, as, “the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead” (Col. 1:18), was resurrected on earth and not to heaven. Of course, after 40 days he did ascend to God’s right hand in heaven, so that he could function as High Priest. However, as we have seen he never promised his followers a resurrection to heaven. As with many other literal terms Jesus also used the concept in a metaphorical way before speaking of the literal resurrection.
The Contrasting Spiritual Resurrection
of Living Persons
of Living Persons
Rather than any thought of an intangible spirit body, Jesus used the fact of a literal physical resurrection as a metaphor for people who are alive and who need to be revived spiritually when he said:
“a time is coming—and is now—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and having heard, will live” (John 5:25).
Following on from the statement that any person who believes “has passed from death to life” (John 5:24 NAB), Jesus went on to show that some once spiritually dead but literally living persons who have had a change of heart, will live in the age to come because they hear Jesus’ voice. So spiritual resurrections were occurring throughout Jesus’ life on earth and continue to occur.
The Promise of a Literal Physical Resurrection
The Hebrew Scriptures first introduce the concept of physical resurrection when Abraham offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God (Gen. 22:1-3 and Heb. 11:17-19). As already noted, Job asked, “If someone dies, will they live again? The answer is:
All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. 15 You will call and I will answer you” (Job 14:14-15 NIV).
Later Isaiah, and Daniel spoke of the physical resurrection in the following texts:
“But your dead will live, Lord; their bodies will rise—let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy—your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead” (Isa. 26:19 NIV).
“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2 NIV).
Notice that Isaiah and Daniel use the term “sleep” as a metaphor for the condition of the dead from which they will one day “wake up.” Indeed, the Psalmist David uses the same term when he asks that he, “may not fall asleep in death.” (Ps. 13:3). Later, Paul wrote that, “...if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless ... those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (1 Cor. 15:17-18 NASB).
The Future Resurrection Body for
All True Christians
All True Christians
Christians are those “…who seek glory, honor and immortality” (Rom. 2:7 NAB) and are, “…longing to be further clothed with our heavenly habitation” (2 Cor. 5:2). This means that God is the provider of the spiritual body which Christians will receive at the beginning of the Millennium.
In his detailed description of the first resurrection Paul informs us that our body, “is raised incorruptible. 43 It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one … For that which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and that which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality” (1 Cor. 15:42-44, 53 NAB). This is our own body that is transformed to be an incorruptible, immortal, but tangible human body in just the same way as for Jesus (Luke 24:36-43) because Jesus: “will transform our humble body to be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).
Unfortunately, the REB, the NRSV, and Barclay’s NT render the Greek phrase soma psychikos in 1 Corinthians 15:44 as “physical body.” However, soma psychikos means “the natural body” or “soulical body” even though it certain will be physical. So, most other translations render the word psychikos as “natural” so that the real contrast is between a natural body and a supernatural body according to Paul’s descriptions of it, and not between what is tangible and what is intangible. In fact, N.T. Wright contrasts the two bodies with the terms “the spirit-animated body” and the “nature-animated one” which is “the embodiment of ordinary nature.” So, Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, is contrasting the mortal, natural body that is weak and perishable with the immortal, spiritual body that is powerful and imperishable i.e., supernatural. So, this passage is not about tangibility or physicality. The Bible’s use of the word spiritual is not always associated with things that are intangible as is shown in 1 Corinthians 2:15 where Paul says: “The spiritual person, however, can judge everything.” Yet the spiritual person is obviously a tangible physical person, but guided by holy spirit, and so indicating that the spiritual body is also physical and tangible, but directed, ruled and dominated by holy spirit. Also note Paul’s comment that Christians on earth: “…are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if Spirit of God dwells in you” (Rom. 8:9 NAB). This shows that being “not in flesh,” in this present life, doesn’t mean that one is not a tangible person.
WHAT ABOUT 1 CORINTHIANS 15:50?
Here Paul tells us that: “…flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption” (1 Cor. 15:50 NAB). So, does this mean that inheritors of the kingdom cannot be physical? No! This is because here Paul uses the phrase “flesh and blood” metaphorically so that it represents the natural mortal body given as the parallel to “corruption.” So, this is not actually a reference to the body’s physicality as if to contrast it with the spiritual body, but refers to the absence of natural limitations and sinful inclinations. So, the NJB expresses the fact that: “…mere human nature cannot inherit the kingdom of God: what is perishable cannot inherit what is imperishable” i.e., the Kingdom. So, the flesh and blood body of weak mortal human nature is perishable and therefore decays. What is required to inherit the Kingdom is a body that is not perishable/corruptible. So, verse 53 describes how: “…that which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and that which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality.”
This highlights the “change” from a decaying mortal body to the same body as having become imperishable (verses 52, 53), so that it is immortal, powerful, and glorious. There is no indication here of an exchange so as to become a spirit in the pagan Greek sense of intangibility. Furthermore, the promise of immortality spoken of by Paul means exactly the same as the “everlasting life” which Jesus offered his earliest disciples and those future from his time.
Literal Resurrection Is Always Physical - Tangible
In our later studies of Revelation 2o:4, 5, 11-13 which provide us with the only information that there will be two times of resurrection we will see that both the first and second resurrections are literal and physical. We note that when there are two of something shown to be ‘first’ and ‘second’ they are of the same character e.g., “the first man was of the earth and made of dust, the second man is of heaven” (1 Cor. 15:47 Mounce) and so showing that Jesus was a man just like Adam i.e., both are of the same nature. So, too, with the second death as real death just as is the first death; they, too, are of the same nature. In this regard Dean Alford who wrote:
As regards the text itself, no legitimate treatment of it will extort what is known as the spiritual interpretation now in fashion. If, in a passage where two resurrections are mentioned, where certain psuchai ezesan [souls came to life] at the first, and the rest of the nekroi ezesan [dead came to life] only at the end of a specified period after the first, …If in such a passage the first resurrection may be understood to mean spiritual rising with Christ, while the second means literal rising from the grave; then there is an end of all significance in language, and Scripture is wiped out as a definite testimony to anything. If the first resurrection is spiritual, then so is the second, which I suppose none will be hardy enough to maintain: but if the second is literal, then so is the first…
So, if one resurrection is literal then so is the other. Furthermore, Revelation 20:4, 5 speaks of those who will have experienced the first resurrection already and are shown in verse 1 as sitting on thrones because: “…they came to life, and reigned with the Christ for a thousand years (the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection” (Rev. 20:4c-5 NIV). Indeed, if the phrase “came to life” for those in this first resurrection means that they were literally physically resurrected then the same is true for those classified as “the rest of the dead.”
So, for both “the righteous and the unrighteous” the phrases “came to life” or “come to life” clearly refer to literal tangible resurrection of the whole person. In Matthew 9:18 the same phrase is used by the synagogue ruler with reference to his daughter’s resurrection when he said to Jesus: “Come and lay your hand upon her, and she will come to life.” This phrase is also used in Romans 14:9 which states that, “the Messiah died and came back to life.” These are all clear references to literal physical resurrection.
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All the Dead Will Come Back to Life -
A Universal Resurrection
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All the Dead Will Come Back to Life -
A Universal Resurrection
To allay anyone’s concerns it is essential to realize that the concept of universal salvation commonly called Universalism is not what is being promoted here. Such a concept is not in line with biblical teaching because all totally unrepentant wicked persons will finally be permanently destroyed (Please see my book, How God Works in Human Affairs).
Universal Resurrection as Demonstrated by
Daniel, Jesus, Paul, and in the Revelation
Daniel, Jesus, Paul, and in the Revelation
DANIEL ON THE RESURRECTION - DANIEL 12:2
Although the concept of resurrection was spoken of in the Hebrew Scriptures at a time earlier than the time of Daniel, he was the first to show that there will be a physical awakening of the dead—a resurrection of all people for either one of two different destinies.
Daniel prophesied that: “many [multitudes] of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, [1] these to everlasting life, [2] but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2 NASB). In fact, he may even have been speaking of three classifications of people as being resurrected according to the Old Greek of the LXX of Daniel 12:2b which reads as: “some to everlasting life but others to shame and others to dispersion [and contempt] everlasting.”
However, the use of the word “many” in the NASB and most other translations does not limit this number. Indeed, the Hebrew word for “many” is a Semitic idiomatic way of speaking with the meaning of “numerous” or “multitudes” in the sense of how large the number is, but is not indicating a limit to the number. Indeed, theologian Jeremias says, “The expression is ‘not exclusive’ (“many but not all”) but in Semitic manner of speech, inclusive (“the totality, consisting of many”).” This usage of the word “many” is illustrated in several Scriptures which show that Jesus’ sacrifice was for the whole world (John 1:29; 3:16; 6:51) even though the word “many” is used in Matthew 26:28. So with this understanding the NIV and Young’s Literal Translation both use the term “multitudes” in their rendering of Daniel 12:2:
“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” (NIV).
“And the multitude of those sleeping in the dust of the ground do awake, some to life age-during, and some to reproaches -- to abhorrence age-during” (YLT).
Please note that this passage in Daniel is speaking of different destinies for different categories of people but the impression is given that they will all be resurrected contemporaneously. In fact, the timing of resurrection is not Daniel’s focus.
Furthermore, the term “life everlasting” in Daniel 12:2 in most translations is better rendered “life of the age to come” as the meaning of the Hebrew phrase ha’ olam ha’ba. It is also rendered “age-abiding life” in Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible rather than “everlasting…”
NOTE: In terms of the translation of Daniel 12:2 the understanding given by Jewish commentators Saadia Haggaon (10th century) and Aben Ezra (12th century) on this passage was advocated by Bible translator S.P. Tregelles. This resulted in his rendering of verse 2 as: “And many from among the sleepers of the dust of the earth shall awake; these shall be unto everlasting life; but those, the rest of the sleepers, those who do not awake at this time, shall be unto shame and everlasting contempt.” However, the above boldened phrase does not appear in any other Bible translation that I am aware of and so does not carry enough weight to promote the idea that Daniel is informing us of a time interval between resurrections. This information comes only from the later Book of Revelation.
JESUS ON THE RESURRECTION – JOHN 5:28-29
After speaking of the raising to spiritual life of living people who are spiritually dead in his time (John 5:24) Jesus expands on Daniel’s statement that there will be two different destinies for people in the future literal resurrection by showing what these classifications of people will be.
“Do not be amazed at this; for a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, 29 and will come out: those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the bad deeds to a resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28-29 NASB).
Or as J.B. Phillips presents it: “the time is coming when all those who are dead and buried will hear his voice and out they will come—those who have done right will rise again to life, but those who have done wrong will rise to face judgment!” Certainly, there is no contextual reason to imagine that the word “all” in this passage is not in the absolute sense. It means all who are in their graves, indicating all who have ever lived and died and therefore a universal resurrection and not of only Christians. As in many of his parables, Jesus separates all people into only two groups. In this case it is, “those who did the good deeds” and “those who committed the bad [evil] deeds.” Again, no separation of the resurrection into different events at different times is mentioned for the resurrection because only the classifications were Jesus’ focus. Again, the impression is given that they will all be resurrected contemporaneously.
PAUL ON THE RESURRECTION - ACTS 24:15
Later the Apostle Paul spoke of these two classifications of people for being resurrected in the future saying:
“I have a hope in God, which these men themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection, both of the righteous and the unrighteous” (Acts 24:15 CSB).
As with Jesus’ statement that “all who are in the tombs…will come out” Paul also shows the all-encompassing nature of the resurrection by noting that there is no third class as excluded from the resurrection. All people are either “righteous” or “unrighteous.” So, Paul is restating what Daniel and Jesus have already shown. Once again, no separation of the resurrection into different events at different times is mentioned because, like Daniel and Jesus, the classifications of people were also Paul’s focus. However, Paul does comment on the timing in his first letter to the Corinthians (15:22-23) which we will examine shortly.
Evidently, without additional information the three main texts above would leave one to think that the resurrection of “the righteous and the unrighteous” would occur at the same time and many have come to that conclusion as well as deciding that it would occur when Jesus returns. On this issue theologian Samuele Bacchiocchi makes the following observation in his book Immortality or Resurrection? (p.259):
All three cited texts (Acts 24:15; Dan 12:2; John 5:28-29) seem to suggest that the resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous will take place contemporaneously. However, Revelation 20 suggests that there will be two separate resurrections…
So, it is only by the statements in Revelation 20:4, 5, 11-13 that we can know that there will be an interval between a first resurrection and a later one and that this interval will be of a 1,000+ years.
THE RESURRECTION PERSPECTIVE IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION
Concerning this interval there are no translation issues in Revelation 20:4-5 and all pre-millennial commentators view this as a reference to a future literal 1,000 years before the second resurrection takes place. Indeed, it will be a literal 1,000, years between Jesus’ return and the judgment scene at the Great White Throne. Concerning this, in vision John saw:
“thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls [lives] of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection”
(Rev. 20:4-5 NIV).
Please note that nothing is mentioned here about “who did the good deeds…and those who committed the bad deeds” or “the righteous and the unrighteous” as spoken of in the earlier texts of Daniel 12:2; John 5:28-29; and Acts 24:15 although Revelation 20:4-5 must include those stated destinies and classifications of people.
Furthermore, in Revelation 20:12 John says: “I saw the dead—the great and the small…” i.e., everyone who had been dead but who are now standing before the throne. Then in verse 13 John informs us that, “the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them”—all of these statements again emphasising the all-encompassing universalism of the resurrection.
Indeed, those in the first resurrection are evidently the victorious Christians because only true Christians are, “given authority to judge” and will reign “with Christ” throughout the 1,000 years from when he returns just prior to the start of the 1,000-year period. So now for the first time we can see that everyone else i.e., “The rest of the dead” are to be resurrected at a later time—when “the thousand years were ended.”
Answering Arguments
Against a Universal Resurrection
Against a Universal Resurrection
MEMORIAL TOMBS
It is argued that, because the word “memorial tombs” in John 5:28 implies that only those in God’s memory will be resurrected and some are not remembered by God, and so those who have been horrendously wicked e.g., Stalin, Hitler etc will never be resurrected to answer for their crimes.
RESPONSE: This is, in itself, a very weak and misguided argument because “memorial tombs” are called such so that the dead person will be remembered by their loved ones as well as by God, even if the person has been very wicked. Even unmarked graves are called “memorial tombs” in the Scriptures (Luke 11:44). Simply being called “memorial tombs” is for the benefit of humans as well as the fact that God will remember every detail of everyone who has ever lived and died. So, this term does not contradict the pattern Jesus established that “all” would be resurrected.
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WIPING OUT THE MEMORY OF THEM
It is also argued from Isaiah 26:14 that those destroyed can never be resurrected. This passage reads: “Dead they are [other masters vs. 13], they cannot live, shades (Heb. Rephaim meaning “shadowy ones”), that cannot rise; Indeed, you have punished and destroyed them, and wiped out all memory of them” (Isa. 26:14).
RESPONSE: It is noted by professors of linguistics that Rephaim is a particularly difficult term to translate and is typically rendered as “the departed spirits” or “the shades” or “dead ones” in most translations. However, this does not refer to the pagan teaching that, at death, a person’s spirit separates from his body. This is because verse 19 shows that it is impossible that, “the earth will let [disembodied spirits] come to life.” It simply means that those particular individuals—these “other masters”—have ceased their oppressive rulership of Israel and are now more like an ineffective shadow because they are dead. However, the understanding of this passage is, according to its context, of poetic language and not directly that of future resurrection. So, the phrase “they will not rise up” because they are dead concerns these “other masters” as never returning to power over Israel and is most likely a reference to the hybrid Nephilim in earlier passages of the Old Testament.
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PERPETUAL SLEEP
It is further argued from Jeremiah 51:39, 57 that some will “sleep a perpetual sleep” and so never wake up in the resurrection. Here God says: “While they are inflamed I will prepare them a feast and make them drunk, that they may become merry, then sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, declares the Lord … will make drunk her officials and her wise men, he governors, her commanders, and her warriors; they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, declares the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts” (Jer. 51:39, 57 ESV).
RESPONSE: This is a clear allusion to Belshazzar’s feast on the very night Babylon fell to Cyrus the Persian. Although “sleep” is often used as a metaphor for being dead it also obviously refers generally to literal sleep. So, the “perpetual sleep, from which [Belshazzar and his princes etc.] will not wake up,” has nothing to do with resurrection, but simply that in falling asleep in their drunken stupor, after all their bragging, they would not wake up because they would be slain (Dan 5:30). And this is what happened when Cyrus’ soldiers broke into Babylon, and yet Belshazzar and company did not even know that Babylon’s walls had been breached. So again, this text also does not contradict the pattern Jesus established that “all,” would be resurrected along with Paul’s statement that it would “be a resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous.”
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APPOINTED TO DIE ONCE
From Hebrews 9:27-28 it is argued that once a person has died they are judged at that time and there can be no future judgment in a resurrection resulting in their condemnation to death again. In other words, does this not mean that their normal death from which they will not rise was their judgment and so there can be no resurrection for them at the end of the Millennium? The text says: “just as people are appointed to die once, and then to face judgment, so also, after Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, to those who eagerly wait for him he will appear a second time, not to bear sin but to bring salvation” (NET).
RESPONSE: There is no time scale given concerning when or how they will “face judgment” after they have died. So, this does not preclude their facing a judgment after a future resurrection. Otherwise, this would contradict the second resurrection statements given in Revelation 20. In the above argument the context 0f the words of Hebrews 9:27 has not been noted. The real reason for such human death is not because people are human but because of sin and which verse 28 shows is dealt with by Jesus’ bearing “the sins of many” and so only dying once. Indeed, the theme of Hebrews 9:11ff is that Jesus “did not enter to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the sanctuary year after year with blood that is not his own.” So, verse 27 does not preclude the resurrection of someone “to face judgment” for the evil they had previously done (John 5:29), but who may still have an unrepentant heart and so be “thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:15). Furthermore, the mention of “second death” in Revelation 2:11; 20:6, 15; and 21:8 has two aspects to it. It means final death as well as being second in time for anyone who is resurrected but proves to be unredeemable. Just as the first death is a death which is not final as well as first in time so, too the second death will be a later death than the first death for the unredeemable resurrected person. This is paralleled by the concept of first and second resurrections which also involve time.
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ALL SINS WIPED OUT AT DEATH
The parenthetical statement in Romans 6:7 is sometimes referenced to show that nobody can be judged for their sins after they have died because the text says: “For someone who has died has been freed from sin.”
RESPONSE: Once again it is the context of this statement that helps in our understanding and which does not concern physical death but a person’s becoming dead to sin (note vss. 1, 6). The passage speaks of a living Christian’s baptism as picturing his having been crucified, buried, and then resurrected. So, this death and resurrection is all metaphorical language to show one’s having been united with Christ. This is well explained by most theologians and a good explanation of this can be found in Hard Sayings of the Bible p. 551.
God’s Judgment of Everyone Through Jesus
Ecclesiastes 3:17 states that: “God will judge the righteous and the wicked” so that no-one escapes His judgment. This means that judgment by God will be of everyone who has ever lived and died and therefore judgment will be universal. However, for faithful and victorious Christians as “the household of God” judgment is throughout their Christian lives (1 Pet. 4:16-17) and therefore before they are granted immortality.
Further to this, Jesus spoke of a coming “Day of judgment” (Matt. 10:15; 11:22, 24) and Paul stated that, “[God] has set a Day when He will judge the inhabited world, and do it justly, by means of a man whom He has designated” (Acts 17:31 CJB. Also, note Romans 3:6b). So, because the entire world is to be judged, this shows that everyone of both “the righteous” and “the unrighteous” dead will have to be resurrected so that they may be judged. So, when the Apostle John is told about “the rest of the dead” (Rev. 20:5 NIV) as separated from those of “the first resurrection” this clearly refers to everyone else who has ever lived and died.
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Who Will Be in the First Resurrection and Who in the Second?
The First Resurrection Is for All True Christians
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Who Will Be in the First Resurrection and Who in the Second?
The First Resurrection Is for All True Christians
Here I hope to show that the Bible teaching is that of only one literal resurrection of true Christians who will each be given a glorious, immortal, spiritual (not spirit), and tangible body that is fully human.
All whom God approves as true and victorious Christians will be in “the first resurrection” (Rev. 20:5) at the time Jesus returns (1 Cor. 15:23, 52). These ones are from among “those who have done good” (John 5:29) and from among “the righteous.” (Acts 24:15) and will have proved themselves worthy of receiving immortal life. In fact, Jesus focused specifically on the future resurrection when he said: “You will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14). Additionally, Martha said concerning Lazarus that: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her: ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, will live even if he dies’” (John 11:24-25). Evidently, anyone with trust in Jesus as loyal to him will experience the same resurrection as Lazarus will yet experience i.e., the resurrection of victorious Christians.
Unlike the second resurrection this first one will not be for the purpose of their being judged worthy for resurrection because these Christians will have already been judged prior to that time (1 Pet. 4:17). It will be, however, for the purpose of forming the government that will rule in the Kingdom of God (Rev. 2:26-27). In fact, they are to be judges of those non-Christians in a second resurrection (Rev. 20:4).
TRUE CHRISTIANS ARE VICTORIOUS CHRISTIANS
In Jesus’ messages to the seven congregations noted in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 he shows how each individual Christian must be a conqueror—they must be victorious because they must demonstrate their “righteousness” before being granted the privilege to rule in God’s future Kingdom. So, for each conqueror this will be:
Ephesus: To “grant for them to eat of the tree of the perfect life, which is in the paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7).
Smyrna: They “will never be harmed by the second death” (Rev. 2:11).
Pergamum: “I will give [them] some of the hidden manna. I will also give them a white stone with a new name written on it” (Rev. 2:17).
Thyatira: They will be “given authority over the nations, to rule them with an iron sceptre. And I will give them the morning star” (Rev. 2:26).
Sardis: They will be “clothed in white clothing.” Jesus will “never erase their name from the book of the perfect life.” “I will confess their name in the presence of my Father and of His angels” (Rev. 3:5).
Philadelphia: Jesus will “make them…a pillar in the sanctuary of my God, and they won’t go out of it anymore. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my new name” (Rev. 3:12).
Laodicea: “I will give permission for them to sit with me on my throne” (Rev. 3:21).
Please note what Jesus said in one of his assessments of these seven congregations:
“You have a few individuals in Sardis who have not stained their clothes, and they will walk with me dressed in white clothing, because they are worthy. The one who conquers will be dressed like them”
(Rev. 3:4-5 NET).
Here, it appears that the majority did not qualify for this future walk with Jesus unless they made the big changes in their lives that he required of them and so to become conquerors. Indeed, Jesus showed that during the persecution of the great tribulation, “many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other” (Matt. 24:10). So, it is vital that one remains a faithful victorious Christian if one wishes to be in the first resurrection and which is why Paul said:
“My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.12 Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me” (Phil. 3:11-12).
Paul also speaks of those who have had to be disciplined for immoral conduct and that, if they have repented, they may also be saved when Jesus returns on “the day of the Lord” (1 Cor. 5:5). This seems to imply their being in the first resurrection provided they become a conquering victorious Christian. All will have to be such a conqueror because they will be acting as kings and priests in establishing the Kingdom under Jesus’ rulership.
Abraham and the Men of Old Will Attain to
the First Resurrection
the First Resurrection
Because these faithful ones prior to Jesus’ time were Messianists in the sense of looking forward in faith to the coming of the Messiah (Gal. 3:8), they are retrospectively Christians in just the same way as are the faithful ones since Messiah’s first coming. The key factors are that:
[1] “As it was, they [from Abel onward] were longing for a better place, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:16 NTE).
[2] “…not accepting release so that they might receive a better resurrection” (Heb. 11:35 NTE). This better resurrection, shown above, is “the first resurrection” of Revelation 20:5, 6 which is “the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14).
“[3] “…all of these people…didn’t receive the promise. God was providing something better for us, so that they wouldn’t reach perfection without our doing so as well” (Heb. 11:39, 40 NTE).
So, these righteous ones who lived before Christ will attain the better (the first) resurrection and will not “reach perfection without our doing so as well.” Indeed, they will be resurrected at the one specific time as for all other Christians (1 Thess. 4:17) i.e., when it is time for Jesus’ royal arrival.
The Second Resurrection Is for All Those (Start for Deanna)
Who Died as “the Rest of the Dead”
Who Died as “the Rest of the Dead”
The term “first resurrection” (Rev. 20:5-6) implies a second resurrection. The second is often termed ‘the general resurrection’ and does not involve true and victorious Christians, but non-Christians and Christians who were not victorious. This resurrection will occur after the thousand years have ended.
THOSE WHO DID THE GOOD DEEDS
Because all of the statements in Daniel 12:2; John 5:28-29; and Acts 24:15 do not concern the separation of the resurrection into two events, but only the classification of people i.e., the type of people by their activities, we can see that the descriptions in those texts may easily be applied to those of the second resurrection in Revelation 20:5 i.e., “the rest,” and categorized as follows: “some to everlasting life, (Dan. 12:2b), “who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, (John 5:29b) and “a resurrection…of the righteous” (Acts 24:15).
Certainly, victorious Christians would be counted as among: “the righteous,” and among “those who have done good,” so that they “awake… to life of the age to come” which would be in the first resurrection for the purpose of rulership. However, it appears that some who have been Christian spiritual builders but were not victorious as Christians because they built with “wood, hay, and straw” (1 Cor. 3:13-14) “will still be saved.” However, this will be on the “Day” when their work is “revealed by fire” and burned up—no doubt on judgment Day—at the time of the Great White Throne judgment after the second resurrection. They evidently were not fit for rulership in the Kingdom of God.
Finally, there will be many non-Christians who have “done good” and will be classified as “righteous,” but died prior to the first resurrection. Additionally, there may be many who had never heard the Christian message or heard it in a meaningful way. All these will be ones who will be given their first chance to harmonize their lives with God’s will or to repent of their wrongs.
THOSE WHO HAVE COMMITTED BAD DEEDS
In contrast to the first category of resurrected people Daniel, Jesus, and Paul describe: “the others to shame and everlasting contempt,” “and those who committed the bad deeds,” and “the unrighteous.” This category includes all those who have practiced the most heinous of crimes against others and without repentance. These will all be raised in the second resurrection for punishment as part of “the rest of the dead” who “did not come to life until the thousand years were finished” (Rev. 20:5).
THE REST OF THE DEAD WILL BE RESURRECTED AS MORTALS
Because this second resurrection will be to judgment it must of necessity be a resurrection to mortality in “the natural” human body as their initial physicality. This must be the case because only chosen Christians will be granted the gift of immortality. So, in this second resurrection the coming back to life will be as mortals just the same as that which Lazarus experienced when Jesus brought him back to life, but was limited so that Lazarus would have eventually died again. Nevertheless, those judged worthy of having their names remain in “the book of life” (Rev. 20:15) will then be granted immortality (Rev. 21:4).
The First Resurrection – the Earlier One - Is Better
Not only did Paul, in Philippians 3:11, call the first resurrection “the earlier resurrection from the dead” because it will be the first resurrection, but the writer to the Hebrews calls it, “a better resurrection” (Heb. 11:35). But in what way will it be better? F. F. Bruce discusses this on p. 326 of his commentary: The Epistle to the Hebrews where he says:
The resurrection to which they looked forward was “better” than that to which the boys of Zarephath and Shunem had been raised by Elijah and Elisha. Those boys were restored to mortal life, and in due course died…
So, the first resurrection is better because each Christian will receive an immortal, imperishable life, whereas those of the past, such as Lazarus, regained only their normal mortal lives and those in the second resurrection after the end of the Millennium also will receive only their mortal life at that time.
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When Do Each of the Resurrections Occur?
The First Resurrection Occurs
When Jesus Returns
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When Do Each of the Resurrections Occur?
The First Resurrection Occurs
When Jesus Returns
Firstly, Paul explains the order of the resurrection, saying:
“Just as all who are incorporated in Adam die, so also all who are incorporated in the Messiah will be made alive. 23But each in his own order: Messiah the first fruits; afterward those who belong to the Messiah when it’s the time of his coming as king. 24Then the end comes, when he hands over the Kingdom to his God and Father, when he has eliminated every form of rule and every authority and power, 25because he must continue to reign until He has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be eliminated is death” (1 Cor. 15:22-26 KGV).
N.T. Wright also correctly and very clearly renders 1 Corinthians 15:23 as: “at the time of his royal arrival (Gk parousia)” which is yet future. Also, the fact that “those who belong to the Messiah” i.e., victorious Christians, are resurrected at the time of Jesus’ arrival excludes “the rest of the dead” until “the end” i.e., the end of the Millennium. So, the destruction of death itself (1 Cor. 15:26) at that time corresponds to “the rest of the dead coming to life” in Revelation 20:5, 11-15 before “death and Hades are hurled into the lake of fire” (verse 14). This separation of the two parts of the resurrection was recognized by second century Christians as noted in Justin Martyr’s Dialog with Trypho.
The first resurrection occurs at a single time when Jesus returns from heaven immediately prior to the beginning of the Millennium. There is no resurrection of any Christians at the point of their deaths. This is because, “the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess. 4:16).
“The Gathering” Noted in Matthew 24:31
Involves the First Resurrection
Involves the First Resurrection
First Thessalonians 4:16 to 5:6 gives nine details of the time of the end. Eight of the details of Matthew 24:30-43 match the details of 1 Thessalonians 4:16-5:6 indicating that the ninth detail (#4) in Matthew 24:31, namely, “will gather,” must also match and so be the same event as the being “caught up” mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 i.e., the resurrection/rapture. These details are:
Son of man (24:30) / Lord himself (4:16).
Clouds of heaven (24:30) / air (4:17).
Great sound of a trumpet (24:31) / the trumpet of God (4:16).
Gather together (24:31) / caught up together (4:17). (Please see the chapter on the rapture).
Know that summer is near (24:32) / times and the seasons (5:1).
Marrying, then flood came (24:38) / safety then destruction (5:3).
Coming of the Son of man (24:39) / day of the Lord (5:2).
Watch (24:42) / stay awake and keep our senses (5:6).
Known in what watch the thief was coming (24:43) / thief in the night (5:4).
Evidently Paul was writing about the same subject in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 as Jesus had spoken of in Matthew 24, namely the time of the end that culminates in the resurrection when Christians are gathered together by the angels to meet Jesus. So, the sequence given in Matthew 24:29-32 can clearly be seen to present the event of the first resurrection as occurring after the great tribulation.
The First Resurrection Is At “the Last” Trumpet
The Apostle Paul states that the last trumpet will be the time for the first resurrection. So, Paul reveals that: “We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed” (1 Cor. 15:51-52 NLT).
The Gathering/First Resurrection Occurs Only
When Christ Arrives
When Christ Arrives
Leading scholar on the use of the Greek language in the New Testament Adolph Deissmann informs us that:
parousia means advent, coming, arrival. From the Ptolemaic period down to the 2nd century A.D. we are able to trace the word in the East as a technical expression for the arrival or visit of the King…(or other person in authority)......Adventus coins were struck...Epiphany nearly always means the future parousia of Christ. Also, the Greek-English lexicons of Bauer, Thayer, Moulton and Milligan, Liddle and Scott, and Abbot-Smith all give coming or arrival as the definition of Parousia with reference to Christ. So, N.T. Wright renders all relevant texts as “coming as king,” “appearing as King,” “royal arrival” or “royal appearing” and so concerning the, “Resurrection from the dead... 23then those who belong to the Messiah will rise at the time of his royal arrival (Gk parousia)” (1 Cor. 15:21, 23). This links with Jesus’ words: “I will come again and receive you to myself” (John 14:3 NASB) at his second coming.
JESUS’ RETURN WILL BE ONLY AFTER THE GREAT TRIBULATION
With great concern for the faulty thinking of those Christians in Thessalonica Paul writes:
“With regard to the royal coming of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, and our being gathered together to him, we say to you, brothers and sisters: 2Don’t be easily shaken from your composure or alarmed by any kind of spiritual statement or message or letter supposedly from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, because that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction, is revealed. … 8Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord Jesus will defeat with the breath of his mouth; and he will destroy [his works] by the displaying of his arrival. 9The royal coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the activity of the Satan” (2 Thess. 2:1-3, 8-9).
As is evident from Joel 2:32 and Matthew 24:29 that, “the day of the Lord” follows after the great tribulation. Also, because “the day of Yahweh” became “the day of the Lord/day of Christ” in the Christian Scriptures it will occur when Jesus returns, at which point the “gathering together to him” i.e., the first resurrection occurs. (Please see my book The End-Time Events for Jesus’ Return in Chapter 39 and 40).
The First Resurrection Is to Occur on “the Last Day”
The Greek word for “last” is eschatos which also means “final.” So, this presumably refers to the final day of the present age. So, when Jesus says to the crowd following him concerning those who God had given him, “I will resurrect him on the last day” (John 6:40, 44, 54) and to Martha Jesus said of Lazarus, “he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day” (John 11:24 NASB), he clearly meant right at the end of “the present age.” Furthermore, the last day of the present age must also immediately precede the first day of the “age to come” [the Millennium and onward], (Luke 20:35, Mark 10:30) and so making the theory of the first resurrection as occurring many years before the great tribulation impossible.
Summary of When the First Resurrection Occurs
After the Man of Lawlessness appears.
After the great tribulation.
At the descending and parousia of the Lord Jesus.
At ‘the end of the age.’
On ‘the Last Day.’
At the last trumpet.
It is the earlier resurrection and is the better one than the second resurrection.
Clearly, the great tribulation has not yet arrived and therefore the first resurrection has not yet occurred!
The Second Resurrection Occurs
After the Millennium
After the Millennium
Simply put, “the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished” (Rev. 20:5). Although this is most likely a parenthetical statement, it nevertheless provides two pieces of information. Firstly, that there will be an interval between the resurrection of victorious Christians and “the rest of the dead” and secondly, that that this interval will be of a thousand years.
Although the phrase, “the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished” (Rev. 20:5) is parenthetical in many English versions this does not mean that it is not really part of the Bible text showing that the second resurrection will occur after the Millennium. In fact, this statement in Revelation 20:5 is confirmed by the context in Revelation 20:7-14 where firstly Satan is destroyed, “when the thousand years are finished” (vs. 7) after which the Great white throne judgment occurs (vs. 11) and then the second resurrection occurs as described by John saying, “I saw the dead, the great and the small…,” as well as the statement that, “the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them” (vss. 12-13). After this “Death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire – the second death” (vs.14) – all of this confirming the legitimacy of the teaching that, “the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished” so that the second resurrection will occur after the Millennium and so cannot be at any earlier time.
So now we must attempt to answer the question: How will God, through Jesus, deal with these ones who are brought back to life in this second resurrection?
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38
The Merciful Judgment of People in
the Second Resurrection
38
The Merciful Judgment of People in
the Second Resurrection
As shown in chapter 35 of this book the complete resurrection will be universal. In other words, everyone who has ever lived and died will be raised—either as victorious Christians in the first resurrection when Jesus returns immediately prior to the beginning of the 1,000 years or as “the rest of the dead” to be judged after that period in a second resurrection. However, many Christians believe that, “the rest of the dead” are raised simply to be condemned and immediately thrown into “the lake of fire—the second death” and so to be destroyed forever. But is this second resurrection to be one that results in automatic “damnation” as the KJV wrongly translates the Greek of John 5:29 rather than “to judgment”? Certainly, a judgment may hand down either a favourable verdict or an unfavourable one. So, as with any just court, some on “the day of judgment” will be condemned and others will be acquitted. Therefore, the second resurrection is for the purpose of judging “the rest of the dead” and not for an instantaneous condemnation of them.
As we saw in the previous chapters the statements in Daniel 12:2; John 5:28-29; and Acts 24:15 do not show a first and a second resurrection (although Revelation. 20:5, 11-14 does do so). Rather, these passages concern the classification of people according to their attitudes and activities, so that we should not imagine that all of “those who did the good deeds” (John 5:29b) and are “the righteous” (Acts 24:15) will be ONLY in the first resurrection—a resurrection for victorious Christians only. Certainly, “those who have done evil,” and are “the unrighteous” would only be in the second resurrection, but it also seems evident that those who are non-Christians “who did the good deeds” or are Christians who have failed to be victorious and “who did the good deeds” would also be among “the rest of the dead” in the second resurrection. Indeed, this understanding may well fit with the Old Greek rendering in the LXX of Daniel 12:2b which reads as: “some to everlasting life but others to shame and others to dispersion [and contempt] everlasting” if this rendering is correct and so giving a further breakdown of the types of people to be involved in the resurrection.
Judgment of “The Rest of the Dead”
This judgment of resurrected ones after the second resurrection event will be conducted by Jesus (Acts 17:31) at the Great White Throne as shown in Revelation:
“... Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; ... 12And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was opened—the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. 13The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds. 14Then Death and Hades were thrown into the fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire. 15If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:11-15 NET).
So, a person’s deeds were already written in the books before their resurrection. This means that they are to be judged by what they had done prior to their deaths—good or bad. So clearly the result of the many individual judgments will vary.
FAVOURABLE AND UNFAVOURABLE JUDGMENTS
In giving instructions to his disciples for their preaching work Jesus showed a distinction of types of people when he said:
“If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town” (Matt. 10:14-15).
Then in his woes on the unrepentant cities he said:
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you…But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you” (Matt. 11:21-22, 24).
Furthermore, to those lacking faith Jesus said:
“The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here”
(Matt. 12:41-42).
This last passage shows that these ones will be resurrected i.e., they “will stand up at the judgment” and the day of judgment is shown to be after the Millennium is completed i.e., in the second phase of resurrection and at the Great White Throne (Rev. 20:11-15) where Jesus presides as judge (Acts 17:31). This scenario also clearly applies to those of “Sodom and Gomorrah” and “Tyre and Sidon” and so giving a general picture of those who are “the unrighteous” (Acts 24:15) as rising in a second resurrection “at the judgment”—“on the day of judgment.” So those to be viewed negatively will be: the towns that don’t welcome Jesus’ message along with Chorazin, Bethsaida, and this generation. These are compared with others of “the unrighteous” namely, Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon, Nineveh, and the Queen of the South. All of these will rise—be resurrected on the day of judgment, but clearly some will get a better judgment at the Great White Throne than others.
Indeed, Jesus, himself, showed that there would be different responses from different peoples at the time for judgment after the thousand years when he showed that, “it would be more bearable in the judgment” for some than for others.
NOTE: The term “this generation” is better rendered “the society of this age” or “the present evil society.”
THE LIMITED INFORMATION ON THIS JUDGMENT
On this aspect of the second resurrection the amount of information given in Revelation 20 is somewhat limited, but we do know from this passage that:
“the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds” (verse 12).
“if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (verse 15).
So, whenever information is rather limited the Christian may choose to extrapolate the rest of the scenario from other passages and all that he or she has come to know about God’s character in terms of how He deals with people.
GOD’S MERCIFUL DESIRE FOR ALL HUMANS
Firstly, throughout human history God has always sought for humans to repent i.e., to change their mindset and lifestyle to harmonize with His purpose. So, Paul writes that, “perhaps you despise his [God’s] great kindness, tolerance, and patience. Surely you know that God is kind, because he is trying to lead you to repent” (Rom. 2:4 GNT).
Although justice must be seen to be done by God, it is clear that He is not seeking to destroy people, but looks for their repentance. Indeed, the Apostle Peter showed God’s history as having been a history of great patience with people and so allowing them a considerable amount of time to make changes in their lives as Peter wrote, saying, “The Lord isn’t slow to keep his promise, as some think of slowness, but he is patient toward you, not wanting anyone to perish but all to change their hearts and lives” (2 Pet. 3:9 CEB).
JESUS AS THE MERCIFUL JUDGE
As with God’s patience and mercy we may expect the same level of these qualities from Jesus as the one who is the very image of God and who will be the judge sitting on the Great White Throne (John 5:22; Acts 17:31) after the second resurrection has occurred or is occurring (Rev. 20:13). Certainly, Jesus will demonstrate godly wisdom and fairness in dispensing justice (Isa. 11:2-4, John 8:16).
Who Will Stand Before the Great White Throne? (Start Deanna)
Referring back to what was said in earlier chapters we can see that apart from all the victorious Christians who were resurrected as immortal in the first resurrection to be rulers in the Kingdom, the words of Daniel, Jesus, and Paul indicate the following as classes of people who will stand before the Great White throne on the day of Judgment:
“…some to everlasting life, others to shame and contempt” (Dan. 12:2).
“…those who did the good deeds and those who committed the bad deeds” (John 5:29b).
“…the righteous and the unrighteous” (Acts 24:15).
All of these come under the category of “the rest of the dead” in Revelation 20:5, 12-13.
ACCORDING TO ONE’S UNDERSTANDING
God’s patience with people has always been according to their understanding of Him. We know this because Jesus had said concerning the world, “If I hadn’t come and spoken to them, they wouldn’t have any sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin” (John 15:22 GW). So, considering the hundreds of millions of dead people who had not been “spoken to,” either directly by Jesus or through the pages of the Bible, it is evident that such ones would not simply be resurrected and then immediately destroyed. In fact, many of such people lived naturally according to many of God’s precepts even though they were not connected to Israel or to Christianity. So, the Apostle Paul showed that there would be different responses from different peoples at the time for judgment after the thousand years when he contrasted the Jewish way of thinking from that of the Gentiles who maintained a godly conscience as Paul notes in his letter to the Romans, saying:
“For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus” (Rom. 2:14-16 ESV).
This passage once again shows the wide range of people who will be in the second resurrection to experience the Day of Judgment. So, these will include those who have never heard about Jesus at all, those who never knew Jesus in a true and meaningful way, those who did good but were indifferent to him and those who just did bad or evil things. This last category includes all those who have practiced the most heinous of crimes against others and without repentance before they died.
How Will “the Rest of the Dead” be Judged?
THE BASIS FOR JUDGMENT
Certainly, “the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds” (Rev. 20:12). This refers to their deeds throughout “this age” up until they died. However, just as God, through Jesus, has always shown, “kindness, tolerance, and patience” in His “trying to lead [people] to repent” during “this age” by the patient educating of them, it is evident that He would treat those of the second resurrection in the same way because His character does not change. This would likely involve a necessary amount of time after their resurrection t0 allow people to learn what God’s will is for them if they are willing to learn and then to repent.
THOSE WHO REPENT
Such repentant ones may still be punished for what they have done. Perhaps such punishments will be of varying degrees according to the principle that Jesus laid out when speaking of Christian leaders who failed him:
“And a servant who knows what the master wants, but isn’t prepared and doesn’t carry out those instructions, will be severely punished. 48 But someone who does not know, and then does something wrong, will be punished only lightly. When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required”
(Luke 12:47-48 NLT).
The statement that: “if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:15) implies that many will be “found written in the book of life”—they were repentant and proved to be redeemable. Therefore, it will be the exception rather that the rule for someone to fail to repent and to be acquitted. So, for all those who do repent they are necessarily given a favourable verdict and acquitted of their sins and with their names not being removed from the book of life and so will not be destroyed in the lake of fire—second death, but be granted future life. In fact, Revelation 21:4 says that “death will be no more” which implies that these who are acquitted will finally be granted immortality in spite of the fact that the Revelation does not directly say so.
THOSE WHO DO NOT REPENT
Evidently, just as in “this age” there are many who do not wish to learn what God’s will is, so too, there will be many after the second resurrection who will reject God. These ones have the same stubborn mindset as the rebellious people existing during the end–times who will have suffered the plagues poured out on them and yet, “…refused to turn away from their activities” (Rev. 16.11. Also please see Rev. 9:20-21). This pattern is strongly implied by the fact that those who are deserving of such second death at that time are described as:
“cowards, faithless people, the unclean, murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars – their destiny will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8 NTE).
So, the judgment for these ones will be one of condemnation resulting in their destruction as noted in the Book of Revelation because, “if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:11-15 LEB). This lake of fire is a symbol picturing “the second death”—a death which allows for no further future for them and therefore meaning their total destruction—a permanent cessation of life.
Nevertheless, it is not appropriate for any Christian to make judgments about how some of those infamous people from history who have done the most monstrously wicked things will respond and react to their being confronted at the Great White Throne judgment on the Day of Judgment. Such judgment must be left to, “the righteous judge” (2 Tim. 4:8).
WHAT JUDGMENT DAY ACCOMPLISHES
This scenario of the Great White Throne judgment is one which demonstrates that justice has been done. This is because prior to their deaths in “this age” those who had committed the most heinous of crimes against humanity have either answered only to a human court or have not answered in “this age” at all for those crimes. However, all must finally answer to God for what they have done. On the other hand, absolutely everyone has been given a fully fair chance to be forgiven and to grasp onto a wonderful relationship with the Creator and his Messianic Son and all of the wonderful future life offered to them.
Summary of Events After the Millennium
The second resurrection takes place a short while after the end of the Millennium.
Those who are “the righteous and the unrighteous” are resurrected and then will stand before Judge Jesus in front of the Great White Throne for judgment.
Everyone will be given a fair chance of life. This is their first real chance.
Some will be acquitted and some will fail to repent and so be condemned.
The implication of the words in Revelation 20:15 is that many will not be destroyed because they still have their name written in the book of life. This results in:
- Those condemned to destruction as wicked and unredeemable being thrown into the symbolic lake of fire so that they are destroyed forever.
- Those whose names are left “in the book of life” because they have been acquitted are then granted a future in the eternal Kingdom of God. The implication is that they will be granted immortality.
The final stage of the Kingdom goes on everlastingly in perfection with no more death of humans.
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