Topical Studies
Resurrections , Order of
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Does this passage explains the fate of the lost of humanity? It actually does, just not in the way most understand it. Jesus, while dead Himself, did not bring the souls of the dead to salvation through preaching to them personally in some kind of nether world. Such a scenario is theologically ridiculous. However, His resurrection did make salvation possible for the "lost" dead. By living again, He has broken the grip of death over mankind (see I Corinthians 15:20-22, 55-57; Hebrews 2:14-17). As Paul says in I Corinthians 15, each category of individual will be resurrected in a specific order: first Christ, then His saints at His coming (verse 23), then "the rest of the dead" (Revelation 20:5, 11-13), and lastly, the incorrigible wicked to the second death (Revelation 20:14-15). The "lost" of humanity will rise as "the rest of the dead" in the Great White Throne Judgment, and have the opportunity to hear and to accept or reject the good news of salvation. This will be their first opportunity to receive God's calling, an opportunity that God will extend to every member of humanity. God is not callous by any means. Perhaps the best known of all Bible verses asserts this clearly: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). He will make sure that every human being has an opportunity to hear the gospel and have the choice to enter His Kingdom. God's victory over death and over Satan, won through His resurrection of the sinless Jesus Christ, will eventually be proclaimed to all people from all ages. That is a victory worth shouting about!
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Jesus and 'the Spirits in Prison'
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Isaiah 65:20-25 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Isaiah envisioned the final days of the judgment period when the resurrected billions will receive their call to participate in God's plan. These resurrected multitudes will be counted among God's elect—made participants in His Master Plan, and given the opportunity to enter God's Family (verses 22-23). They will then have a close relationship with God the Father (verse 24). Imagine the astonishment of those resurrected at the beginning of this period of judgment. Each person will be in his first moment of consciousness since death. At first, some may think they are in heaven, hell, or purgatory. Most will simply be confused—bewildered. Nothing that many had been taught about an afterlife will turn out to be true. Faced with undeniable evidence that their old teachings and ways were false, they will be more willing to start over and be taught the truth. Untold millions who have not had any religious teaching whatsoever will start learning from scratch. Who will teach these thousands of millions? Millions of teachers who will have been born into God's Family in the first resurrection and during the Millennium! Those resurrected to mortal life will then undergo a process of conversion similar to that of Christians today. They will be taught God's laws and will learn they are guilty of sin and deserving of the death penalty. They will learn of God's mercy, and that Christ paid the penalty for them, if they will accept His payment. The vast majority will repent. Upon repentance and faith in Christ as their personal Savior, they will be forgiven, and God's Spirit will be given to them. Then they, as children of God, can begin growing spiritually—developing God's holy, righteous, and perfect character within them. Unlearning all the falsehoods learned in their first life and learning God's true ways will take time. And building character will take time, because character can be developed only through time and experience.
The Last Great Day: God's Master Plan Completed!
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Matthew 11:20-24 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Christ mentioned the people of Tyre and Sidon, Sodom, Nineveh in Jonah's time, and finally the Queen of the south. All of these examples of people who lived in different generations are compared to those of Jesus' day, the vast majority of whom did not understand or believe Christ's message. Jesus tells us that they all will be resurrected with the generation that lived during His time! Jesus gave enough examples of people living at widespread times to prove that most of humanity will be alive at the same time on this earth. There will be pre-Flood men and women, all twelve tribes of Israel, those who lived during the Middle Ages, and the vast majority living now. Even babies and children who died untimely deaths will be resurrected then. They will all rise in the second resurrection because they had not been called by God during their first life. The ancient peoples Jesus mentioned in Matthew 11 and 12 would have repented if He had personally come to them in their day. They will repent when resurrected and given access to the Holy Spirit after the Millennium. The Bible shows that the vast majority of those who ever lived will finally be born into God's Family at the end of this coming period of judgment, pictured by the Last Great Day. God's Master Plan of salvation for mankind will then be complete. Then the spirit-composed members of God's great ruling Family can look forward to new heavens and a new earth—and to new and wonderful opportunities in ruling the universe under God our Father and Jesus Christ, our Elder Brother!
Why Christians Should Keep God's Holy Days
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Matthew 11:21-24 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Jesus spoke of a time of judgment when those ancient peoples would be given an opportunity to understand what He had been preaching to the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. They, too, will hear the good news! Christ mentioned the people of Tyre and Sidon, Sodom, Nineveh in Jonah's time, and the Queen of the South. All of these examples of people who lived in different generations are compared to those who lived in the cities and towns of Jesus' day, the vast majority of whom did not understand or believe His message. Jesus tells us that they will all be resurrected with the generation that lived during His time! Jesus gave enough examples of people living at widespread times to prove that most of humanity will be brought back to life at the same time on this earth. There will be pre-Flood men and women, all twelve tribes of Israel, those who lived during the Middle Ages and the vast majority living now. Even babies and children who died untimely deaths will be resurrected then. They will all rise in the second resurrection because they had not been called by God during their first lifetime. This group includes all people of all times except those who will have already been born of God, and those relatively few people who already had their opportunity to receive eternal life, but deliberately rejected it and sinned willfully. Those few will be resurrected in the third and final resurrection, and they will be destroyed in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:13-15).
The Last Great Day: God's Master Plan Completed!
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1 Peter 2:7-10 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Does this mean that some people are appointed to stumbling? If this were all we had, we could make a strong case that God has predestined some to be eternally lost in the Lake of Fire. It means that those who now stumble have simply been passed over at this time. God has appointed them to fill a different part in His scheme of things, and they will not have the same opportunity we now enjoy until the time He has set for them. Does not Revelation 20:5-6, 11-13 reveal a second resurrection? Does not II Peter 3:9 say God is "not willing that any should perish," and I Corinthians 15:23, that each will be resurrected "in his own order"? A myriad of scriptures reveals this is not the only day of salvation. Portions of Ezekiel 37, Zechariah 14, Matthew 11-12, Isaiah 2, Micah 4, and Romans 11 all reveal a coming resurrection of the dead when those resurrected will be offered salvation.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Sovereignty of God: Part Seven
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1 Peter 4:17 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
God judges His children today by evaluating how well they live by His written Word. Their rewards in God's Kingdom will depend on their character development during their mortal life. It is a process requiring time and opportunity for learning and growth. Those resurrected after the Millennium will be judged the same way. They, like Spirit-begotten Christians today, will be given enough time to prove they are willing to live God's way through a life of overcoming and obedience to God. In this period of judgment after the 1,000 years, not only will the Bible be opened, but the Book of Life will also be opened. These people will be given an opportunity to receive eternal life! God, in perfect fairness, will give them an opportunity for salvation, just as He gives to those He calls now. But, in this last great judgment, people will not be subject to Satan's influence as we are today, because Satan will have been put away (Revelation 20:10). With God's Spirit freely available, and freed from Satan's spiritual influences, they will be given their one and only opportunity for salvation through repentance, baptism, receiving God's Spirit, and growing in godly character during a second mortal life. They, like Christians today, will be required to act on the knowledge God will give them, to choose righteousness as defined by God's spiritual law, to quit breaking that law. Those who continue to live God's way of life will be changed from mortality to immortality at the end of this period of judgment. Those people who were born to physical life first—many before the First Coming of Jesus Christ and even those born before the Flood—have not yet had the opportunity to participate in God's plan. Their chance is coming, but they will be called last—in the Last Great Judgment. Those now being called into God's church, although born later, are being given their opportunity as God's firstfruits (James 1:18). Even people born during the Millennium will be called to participate in God's plan before the vast majority of mankind, who have lived in this first 6,000 years of human experience. Referring to this age, Jesus said: "The last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen" (Matthew 20:16). The Last Great Day pictures the completion of God's Master Plan—the Great White Throne Judgment period after the Millennium. Revelation 20:5 shows that a second resurrection will occur after the Millennium, and verses 11-12 reveal that those in this resurrection, who died not having been called to participate in God's plan of salvation, will then be given their opportunity to become members of God's divine Family.
The Last Great Day: God's Master Plan Completed!
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2 Peter 2:5 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
The ungodly are sinners. God, being the just God that He is, judged according to His law. He wanted to save these people so that they could be resurrected and given an opportunity for salvation at a better time. Not being able to abide their rebellion, He wiped them out because they were sinners, ungodly, breaking His law.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 16)
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2 Peter 3:9 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Even as all men die, the same all will be made alive through Christ (I Corinthians 15:22). Everyone who has ever lived and died will be resurrected—first Christ was resurrected, then later the saints who lived before Christ's Second Coming will be resurrected at His return. But what about the vast majority who were not Christ's? Paul in I Corinthians 15:24 includes them all in "the end"—when Christ completes His job of conquering every enemy (verse 25). That will happen after the Millennium (Revelation 20:7-10). Those who have not heard or understood God's truth have not been irrevocably condemned to eternal death. They have not sinned willfully. They have not had a chance! Even if they lived up to the best they knew while alive, the Bible teaches that there is only one way to salvation—through belief in Christ and spiritual conversion and growth as defined in the Bible. Most of our loved ones who have died "unsaved" did not die eternally lost. They most likely were not called during this age, but their call will come later. After the Millennium they will be resurrected to mortal life and given spiritual understanding and the opportunity to become members of God's Family.
The Last Great Day: God's Master Plan Completed!
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Revelation 20:4-5 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
The Bible speaks of a "first" resurrection, implying that there will be more than one resurrection. The second resurrection will contain those who are not "the dead in Christ," but simply the dead—those millions who are not Christ's—who have not been converted, who have not heard the Gospel or understood it. The sentence, "This is the first resurrection," refers to the resurrection to immortal life of the firstfruits of God's plan, which will occur at Christ's return, just before the 1,000-year period begins (verses 4, 6). But notice the first sentence in verse 5: "But the rest of the dead [those who have not yet had an opportunity to understand God's truth] lived not again [would not come up in a resurrection] until the thousand years were finished." This resurrection, which will occur after the 1,000 years, is the second resurrection. It will be a resurrection to mortal life.
The Last Great Day: God's Master Plan Completed!
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Revelation 20:5 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
The first part of verse 5 is actually a parenthetical comment. The verse should read: "(But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.) This is the first resurrection. " The sentence, "This is the first resurrection," refers to the spiritual resurrection of the firstfruits of God's plan, which occurs at Christ's return, just before the 1,000-year period begins (verses 4, 6). But notice further the first sentence in verse 5: "But the rest of the dead [those who never had an opportunity to understand God's truth] lived not again [would not come up in a resurrection] until the thousand years were finished." This resurrection, which occurs after the 1,000 years, is the second resurrection. It is a resurrection to mortal life!
Staff
Is This the Only Day of Salvation?
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