The Components of the Second Resurrection: As We Presently Know Them

It's interesting that while we were there in Santiago, Chile, we had two sessions of questions and answers from the brethren. And one of the questions that came up is one that is quite common.

It's about what happens to all the people that live in Africa, in the deep jungle, or in India, where they have just multiple gods, or China, which is very hard to promote any type of religion because technically the Chinese government is atheist. They don't believe in God, so they don't promote it. And so what happens to all these millions and millions of people that have lived over time?

Now, whatever happened to the people that died in Noah's flood? Are they all lost? Is that it? That people, little babies, that got drowned on that big flood, where hardly anybody, well, the only people that survived was Noah's family. And so that's a question. You see people dying many times, very young in life. We live in a dangerous world, especially now.

We've got all these motorcycles going on and little kids. I see them just zooming by about 50 miles an hour in some of these little bikes. No helmet, nothing. And of course, people, when you're 17, 18, 19, you think you're immortal, but you're not. And so it's a question we ask, and we've had people pass away recently. And so it's a question that we have. And so I'd like to answer with the biblical teaching on this, especially about, you know, what happens to people that have not been called in this life, who have not received God's Spirit, which is something you have to receive as an adult.

You don't receive it as a little baby because it's such a great responsibility. The person has to prepare to receive God's Spirit and to take care of it. It says they're quench not the Spirit. It's like a fire that you got to keep it going or else it can go out. And so it's a great responsibility. And so there's something here that most people in other parts, they never hear about, which is mentioned in Revelation chapter 20, about the second resurrection. People don't know that in the Bible there is more than one resurrection.

And in the Bible it's called the Great White Throne Judgment. And this isn't about the people that knew Christ or received Christ, but rather just the billions and billions of people that have lived over time that never received God's Spirit, the calling in this life, which is mentioned in Revelation chapter 20, verses four and five. So again, we have to let the Bible speak for itself. And here it talks about the resurrection. After Christ comes back, he says in verse four, when Christ comes back, he says, I saw thrones, which means seats of authority.

People are going to receive seats of authority at that time, and they sat on them. So before that, nobody receives the authority. But now is the time to deliver the blessings and rewards to the saints. He says, and judgment was committed to them. So now they become kings and priests, judges in the coming world, which Christ is going to establish here on earth. That's when the rewards come. Not one minute before. So we're still running the race. We're still, we want to be part of that. Not because it's something we want to take, like, egoistically, but because what an opportunity to serve under Christ, to be there, that first resurrection.

Not because anybody's worthy of it, but if He calls you to it, shouldn't we be thankful? Shouldn't we do our part to make sure we are faithful? It goes on to say, Then I saw the souls, in other words, these people have come back to life of those who had been beheaded for the witness to Jesus. So these are some of the martyrs that you've had over time, but also people that have just been persecuted for the Word of God. It says, And for the Word of God. So you were faithful to the Word of God in your life, who had not worshiped a beast or his image.

So they never bowed their knees to the false teachings and pagan teachings, he says, or his image. And they had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived, so now that's a resurrection, and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. That's the reward. But that's not the only resurrection, because you think, okay, these are the people that persevered, that have God's Spirit, who have continued on. But what about the rest of the people that have died, that are in their graves? So here it says, and this is the first time that it's mentioned as a second resurrection, verse 5, but the rest of the dead, those not resurrected in the first resurrection, did not live again until the thousand years were finished, until that thousand-year reign of Christ.

And the next one should be here, starting in verse 6. This is the first resurrection, blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. So I'm not going to talk about the first resurrection very much, but I'm going to talk about the second resurrection, where people died many times tragically, even babies, whatever age they've been, or all kinds of things that happened to them.

That's what we are going to focus on. And then in verse 11, this is after the thousand years is over. So this is a continuation of verse 5. You could just read verse 5 and then go to verse 11.

Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven, fled away. And there was found no place for them. When Jesus Christ sits on his throne now for this second resurrection judgment, nothing can hinder it. No power can impede it. It says, and I saw the dead. Remember how it said that those dead had not come to life until after the thousand years? Well, here they are. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. So you see here, God is the one who's doing the judging.

And this is Christ. And books were open. So these people that are small and great, they're the ones that were from the smallest insignificant people, little babies that died in the hospital. And who knows how back that goes? Even pre, even in the mother's womb. We're not sure 100 percent, but certainly once they receive God, the spirit of man in them. When that baby, or whatever stage, receives life, then that spirit starts recording a person's life.

And that happens even before the baby is born. He's already acting, he's thinking inside the mother's womb. And so it says that they are standing because they've been resurrected and books were open. The term books has to do with the Bible.

And throughout the Bible it says we are going to be judged not according to man's laws, we're going to be judged according to God's laws. So everybody's going to be judged by what the Bible says, because that's the holy word of God. And another book was open, which is the Book of Life. And throughout the Bible, the Book of Life is open to the person who becomes converted, gets baptized, gets his life cleaned and purified, and then receives God's Spirit.

So here is a chance. They didn't have it in this life, but they will have it at that life. But Christ died for every person, for every African in the deepest jungle in Africa, in India, where it's just awful. The confusion and poverty and so many people, they just have to pick up dead on the streets. It's just so pathetic. But you know what? They get a chance to come back to life and to have an opportunity here, to have the books of the Bible open to them, to understand them, and then the opportunity to receive God's Holy Spirit.

It says, and so once they're taught God's way of life and they have the book of life, the names in that book of life, it says, and the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. So these people that have come back now have the evaluation.

About that period of time before God the Father comes with the New Jerusalem, that's happening. Do we need to turn the air a little higher up? Is there any way we can do that? The AC? Who can check on that? Pardon? Corwin. Okay. Corwin, nothing can be done about it? Okay. All right. So we don't have that much time left. Now going to Revelation 13.8, we find that Christ accepted being a sacrifice for man's sins before human beings were created on this earth.

Before God's plan of salvation was enacted. Notice Revelation 13.8. It says, "...and all who dwell on the earth will worship him," talk about the beast, "...whose names had not been written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world." So he accepted dying for everybody's sins without any exception. And so we have what is called colloquially, you know, plan A that God had and plan B.

So when God created Adam and Eve, put him in the Garden of Eden, he had two trees which symbolized two ways of life. One was the tree of life, which means submitting to God, receiving God's Spirit, and following his way of life. But plan B was, no, we're going to do things our own way. We're going to be in this garden and we're going to take of the tree of good and evil. And so they had that choice and God had to let them.

But before he did, he also had to submit them to a testing. And so he allowed Satan to come in, possessing a serpent and able to talk with Adam and Eve. And so that was the case where plan B was chosen. And so that allowed man to be expelled and the tree of life was no longer available. That's on chapter 3 of Genesis. But that was temporary. That doesn't mean, okay, human beings will never have access to eternal life. Yes, but through Jesus Christ, through his sacrifice, we are able to do it. This is explained in Romans chapter 5. I don't really need it to put it toward the congregation, please, because I'm fine. My thermostat was set in the first seven years of my life. That's my theory. And you know what? I lived in Cuba, so I'm used to hot weather. Cold weather is what I have a hard time with. So I'm fine. I don't have any problem there. Let's go to Romans chapter 5, where this is explained. Romans chapter 5 in verse 12. This is an explanation. The difference between the plan B that Adam and Eve chose and plan A, which God and the Word had chosen. It says in verse 12, Therefore, just as through one man, talking about Adam, sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sin. Nobody has been able to avoid sinning in their lives. So everybody's guilty before God. It says, for until the law, talking about the law in Sinai, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. So still, the laws were active that were given to Adam and Eve, and then through mankind. But it wasn't codified until Mount Sinai. That's what he's talking about. Verse 14.

Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, talking about the age of Mount Sinai, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam. So it doesn't mean that they rebelled against God like Adam and Eve did, but people that have been decent and good and whatever. Still it says they all had to die because of their own sins. He says of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. Offense means a transgression from Adam. For if by one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. So his is much greater than what Adam caused mankind. So okay, we all are sinners. We all don't deserve eternal life. But Christ's sacrifice is so much greater than the damage that was done previously. You can read the rest all the way to verse 21. I don't have time right now. But we see here the consequences of Adam's sin and Christ's perfect sinless life and sacrifice. So I'd like to use an analogy, an illustration of what happens to people in the first resurrection, in the second resurrection, and then there's a third resurrection that is mentioned also in Revelation 20. So let's go first of all to the components of human beings. Today the components or parts of a human being are described in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 23. First Thessalonians 5 verse 23, it says, Now may the God of peace himself sanctify, which means bless, set apart, you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So there are actually three components to human beings when they are born. And so the best analogy I've used, I can use, is that of one of these old CD players. People don't use that much, or you can use a laptop now, or maybe a smartphone. But I like to use this good old sunny Walkman. And here, you know, I've got the plug. So there's three parts to our human body.

Okay, the soul is when you connect the current, and that activates the body to be able to be alive. So that's the first thing. You know, when a baby's born, he's connected by his mother's placentia, and because the mother has life, that is produced. Secondly, is the CD player itself. So this is the first part is comparable to the soul in a person. The nefesh in the Hebrew, tsuki in the Greek, it just means the life essence. That's why the Bible says the blood, the soul is in the blood, because of course that's activating it, but it's physical, this first part of the cord.

The CD player is comparable to the human body. So you can have a human body not plugged dead. The human body with the connection is alive. And so this composes our mind, our bodies, at all. And then, what do we have? Here we have the CD. And that is comparable to the spirit of man.

God places in every human being, and this records a person's life. From a little baby all the way to death. And so you put the CD player, and it connects to the person's brain, and then you put, you plug it in, and the recording starts. It's very interesting that in Old Reader's Digest, there was a story of a young man who had a car accident and suffered brain injury. And it was very serious. So I'd like to read that. It's called, The Boy Who Backtracked to Infancy. This account details the remarkable case of a young man who suffered severe head trauma in a car accident and experienced massive retrograde amnesia.

I mean, retrograde him backwards. So what happened here was the CD that is the spirit of man could not make a connection any longer with the memory and the brain. But the CD was still all recorded. And so this child was in a, this boy was in a coma for a number of days. But then he recovered his consciousness. But the blow had been so severe that the body and the brain, which was recording his actions, it's like the needle, in these CD players, you have a laser type of light that acts as the needle.

And so what happened was that in this CD, the needle retrogressed to the start. In other words, everything that had happened to him, 21 years or so, everything here, the needle went back. And this is what happened. It says, he lost his ability to speak or walk and completely regressed to behaving like a newborn. It was like, okay, the beginning of the memory, it started, and he was like a little newborn. He was squeezed in, a young man, but he could only think like a newborn.

As his neurological rehabilitation progressed, he gradually relearned how to crawl. So he started crawling, then eating, walking over the ensuing months, essentially reliving the stages of human development until his adult memories and personality finally returned. So finally, that needle in the brain was able to connect and bring it all back to where he was originally. So it shows, again, that when a person is being recorded, in this way, the spirit of man is what retains a person's identity. And that goes up to God at the moment of death. Let's go to Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Ecclesiastes chapter 12. It's talking here about the human being as they get older. It says, verse 6, Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed.

Here it's talking about what poetically means. Your life is hanging on a string. Well, here's the silver cord. Very many things can snap that cord. So he says, Relate your lives with God while there is time. Or the golden bowl is broken, which means you fall over and you smash your head. Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, which is talking about the body shattered. He says, Or the wheel, which I talk about the legs, broken at the well. Then when death happens, the dust will return to earth as it was. So what do you do? Okay, you have the connection. The soul dies.

No more electricity goes into your body. And your body eventually turns to dust. But what happens to the CD? With all your identity personality, it says here. And the spirit, talking about the spirit in man, will return to God who gave it. So we see here the first resurrection. We all have the three components, but there's a fourth component that is added in a person's life when he receives God's Spirit. And so your spirit in man is there, but you have the fourth component, which is God's Holy Spirit. Now working with you and developing spiritual character, working with these three components of the human body. In the second resurrection, these people come back to life. The disc, and once a person dies, the recording stops. Wherever that disc is, according to a person's life, that's where it ends there. And then the spirit goes up, but then in the second resurrection, they get their physical body, now healthy, everything working perfectly, and God inserts his Spirit in man, and the person comes back to life. That's why it says, the small and great, the rich and poor, tiny and huge, whatever it is, it all comes back, and then that person has to, again, choose between the two trees.

You have a chance to receive God's Spirit, to follow God's way, or if you choose the plan B, then you've had your chance. Christ's sacrifice is rejected, and then you end up in the third resurrection, which are the ones who are resurrected, and we can read that in Revelation chapter 20, after the second resurrection is over, and that's why God is going to be fair and just to every person, no matter if they lived in China or in the jungles. You know, most of these people, they lived like little animals, especially in these jungles. Did you see that series on America, and all of these jungles in the Amazon, living in those areas? It's horrible!

But that's where they were born, and so it says in Revelation chapter 20, in verse 12, again, the second resurrection, you can put that on in your margin, they were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books.

That's their judgment. I hope my dad, my mom, my grandparents, and your grandparents, and your fathers, and mothers, and children, or these tragic cases of people dying very young. Well, they're going to be back here. They're going to have a chance. We're going to get to see them again in a much better world, because Christ will be supervising this stage as well. And then after everybody is judged in the second resurrection, which will be billions of people, the earth will be renovated during that thousand-year period to contain anywhere from 30 to 40 billion people that have lived from the time of Adam, all the way to the last person in Christ's coming, and even in the millennium. We're going to have people being born at that time, too.

So it says here in verse 13, this is the third resurrection, the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Here, another group of people. Who are these? It says, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. So this is the tomb that delivers up people. It says, and they were judged each one according to his works. Notice no opening of the book of life, no opening, because these are the incorrigibly wicked. They are going to have to just have a judgment, just like the rich man in the story of Lazarus. When he woke up, there was a lake of fire, and he's going to be judged. People are going to see and witness that judgment. And so then, notice what happens afterwards. It says, then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. That's the end of death. No more human beings being judged. This is the second death. So people die a second time in this third resurrection, and anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. So the book of life was open, and yet the incorrigibly wicked people that say, no God, I want to be a criminal. I want to kill people. I want to do awful things. And there are people that way. They're used to that torture and damaging and all the horrible crimes in society.

And so these people, their CDs are permanently erased, and God's Spirit is completely washed and erased of all memory of these people. And so they had their chance. Notice, going back to the second resurrection, in Ezekiel 37, let's go to Ezekiel 37, to see a couple of these people that wake up in the second resurrection. We have numerous examples of people doing this. One is in Ezekiel 37, verses 8. Now this is the famous valley of the dry bones. I'm not going to go into that whole thing about, all of a sudden, these people are resurrected, the bones are all together. It says in verse 8, Indeed I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over, but there was no breath in them. So people are brought back to life. The CD is placed back, and all kinds of things. People died in the silliest things, and they say, what happened? I jumped off this bridge, and the CD stopped. So that's when they get turned on in the CD, and it says here, verse 9. Also, he said to me, prophesy to the breath. This is the breath he's talking about here. You've got to connect the soul, the living soul, back into the person. You've got to put them in. They've got the CD, they've got the recorder, but God has not given them life yet. He says, Thus says the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath came into them. And they lived and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. A huge amount of people. This is just part of ancient Israel that is being resurrected. Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off. They die. They think, never going to come back to life. Therefore, prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves and bring you into the land of Israel.

Then you shall know that I am the Lord. When I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up from your graves, I will put my spirit. So now that fourth component, not the spirit of man, which is what gives us intelligence, gives us the reasoning skills, the ability to think and imagination and everything that a human being can do. No, this is God's spirit. So they're getting a chance to relive their lives. Now with his spirit, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.

Have spoken it and performed it, says the Lord.

Let's look at the queen of Sheba. Now, she was never converted. She went to visit Solomon.

She was very rich, very intelligent, but she just had an encounter with Solomon, and then she went back to her land. She was never converted. What happens with her? Notice in Matthew 12, Matthew 12, in verse 42. It says, in verse 42, it says, the queen of Sheba will rise up in judgment with this generation, the one that witnessed all of these miracles from Christ. All of those Jews that never accepted the witness of Christ at that time. They will come up in this generation and condemn it. And he talks about here, about all of these people that they saw the miracles, they didn't do anything about it. It says, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed a greater one than Solomon is here. And so these people, the queen of Sheba, says is going to have a better judgment than those that received the witness of Jesus Christ in his land.

And so, yes, we're going to have tragedies happen, but remember, not everything is lost.

We have a plan of salvation that God is going to give every human being a chance. It just depends when. You want to do it when you're young God's way, or you want to do it your way until you get yourself into so much trouble. You come back all beaten up and, you know, through that meat grinder that is this society before you come in and kneel before Jesus Christ. So it depends on us when.

Let's go to the final scripture in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

In verse 13, this is what happens. We always mention this when a person has died in the funeral.

It says verse 13, but I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep. The Bible calls it going into unconsciousness, falling asleep. In other words, a person's not going to be judged immediately after his death. See, this disc goes up to God, but until that person is resurrected again, they are asleep. They are unconscious.

He says, lest your sorrow, your sorrow as others who have no hope. So many people, they don't have any hope of some of these tragedies. They just go to pieces. They don't ever know that that person hasn't been lost. This is just the first stage of a person's life. The second stage is going to be much better in God's kingdom. And believe me, sometimes with the world, the way it is, and what can happen in this world that's coming, that's going to be horrible, you know, some people are going to want to die before that great tribulation takes place.

And we have all of these things that are going to be loosed upon this earth. So, you know, some of these people, they at least lived a pretty normal life until they died. What about those that have to go through all those tribulations and all the tests ahead? So it goes on to say, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. So again, this is the first resurrection. These are the ones that died in Jesus. They already had God's Spirit. They're already with a CD. It goes up to God, and it is cleaned up and perfected.

No more sins to worry about. You never will want to sin. You'll have perfect, godly character for those who die in Jesus Christ. Now, you have to die in Jesus Christ. Who knows if you die in Jesus Christ or not? God the Father and Jesus, though. No, there are only two. So we'll see who actually perseveres to the end and is faithful to the end. So it goes on to say, for this we say to you, by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. So it says here that if Christ comes back and the ones who have God's Spirit, who are alive in Jesus and not dead in Jesus, it says, we're not going to be resurrected first. Who's going to be resurrected first?

That's right. Those who are sleeping in Christ. So then, in a sense, we're all going to be together, and all the dead are reunited, and then those who are alive join that group. Notice how that's described. He said, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. You know, before those that are alive in Christ will do it. Then we who are alive, Paul, thought that Christ was going to come in his time. He said, and remain alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So everybody from the time of Abel, righteous Abel, through time will all be together. We'll be able to see Abel, we'll be able to see Abraham. We're all going to be working together as a team with Moses and David and prophets and all the faithful people. We're all going to be one big team. That's what we're looking forward to. He says, and we will meet the Lord in the air, the bride of Christ, composed of those dead in Christ and those who are alive in Christ. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Guess what?

Never going to have to separate. He's going to be there taking care of us, guiding us, because we're all spirit beings now. Now we can fly at the speed of thought. We can materialize or dematerialize at by thought. We can be together. We can see Christ as a spirit being. He can see us, because we're a spirit being at that time. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. Comfort that God knows what he's doing. He's allowed death so far, but death is not going to have the last word. God and Jesus Christ are going to have the last word. And they paid a tremendous price to see us in that coming kingdom. So let's be encouraged. We know we're going to go through different tragedies and tough times, but the Father and Jesus Christ have a plan for everybody on this earth that ever lived.