The Resurrection of the Dead

Mr. Luck was talking about death and realizing at times how small our lives are. That's interesting because that is an entirely human concept. Every day when we leave our subdivision, we drive down the road, we drive by a guy has a little farm in there, a farm and some horses, and he has a couple donkeys out there. I really don't think as I drive by and look at them every day that they're contemplating life and death. It's a human concept because we're made in the image of God to actually contemplate our existence. Why do we exist? Why are we here? And what happens to us after we die? I always find it interesting when I'm at a funeral and many, many times a child, little child, will walk up and have a just intense look. I want to question, and I'll get down, you know, look out in the eye, and it's always something like, what happened to my uncle? What happened to my grandpa? Where is he? Why did he have to die? Why did God let him die? Where is God? Are you God? I've been asked that one too. I've got to find him someplace. Maybe you're it. Are you God? And they're dealing with, for the first time, trying to deal with this, we're here and then we're not here. We're here and then we're not here. We've been going through a series of sermons on the doctrines of Hebrews 6, 1 and 2, which starts with Christ, and then two bookends here. The other is going on to perfection, and then there are these six doctrines in between those two statements. And so far, we have dealt with repentance and faith and baptisms and laying on of hands. The next doctrine in that list is the resurrection of the dead. Now, I might say resurrection of the dead, and most of us may think that's a straightforward concept that we might have. But the resurrection of the dead is a very complex, debated, hotly debated idea in the Christian world. What exactly is it? When does it take place? Why does it take place? What does it entail? And here it is. It's one of the foundational doctrines. If we understand what it truly means, it focuses us in on what God is doing not only in our lives, but in the lives of humanity, and that there is a hope for life after death, but it is not what most people think.

Most people think, if you talk to most Christians, they're going to say that, well, we have an immortal soul. And when the body dies, the soul leaves and either goes to heaven, or it's in communion with God, conscious communion with God, or goes to hell, or it's being tortured. I'm not going to talk about the immortal soul too much today, but I have to talk about it a little, because it is the foundation of why, how we look at what the Bible says about the resurrections, and there's more than one. And it says there's more than one.

The immortal soul doctrine is not in the Old Testament. When I say that, the overwhelming majority of theologians or biblical teachers, whether they're in Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxism, or any type of Protestantism, the overwhelming majority, and by the way, almost all Jews, will say that the idea of the immortal soul is not found in the Old Testament. Now, I stress that as a starting point, because you say, well, where do we come out of just nowhere to come up with our doctrine? Now, understand, this is almost, I mean, there's a few that disagree, but almost universally agreed upon. That you can't go to the Old Testament and find a concept of immortality of the soul. And the reason why is the word translated soul in our English Bible, which in Hebrew doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean immortal. It means it's alive.

In fact, animals are called souls. And in the Hebrew concept of a soul, it's a body that God gives a spirit to, which is life. God takes a body, gives it life, and it's a soul. It becomes a soul. The most common belief in Christianity is that God creates a body, then takes a created soul, which is the person, and puts it inside the body. And now, basically, we're trapped inside a body. And that's the main concept. And that death is the freedom of the soul from the body.

Now, this isn't in Old Testament. This is not in Old Testament concepts at all. So, the argument is it's something new revealed in the New Testament. But we have a major problem. Many of the Scriptures in the New Testament that talk about the soul or the resurrection, because the resurrection is what they've talked a lot about in the New Testament, many of them will actually take Scriptures from the Old Testament and quote them. So, they're quoting the verses that mean one thing here, and then you have to come to the conclusion they mean another thing here.

Because how can it mean there is no mortal soul here, but if you quote the same verse here, now in Greek, it means that. And it creates a lot of concepts of what do we do? How do we answer these problems? Because most Christians also believe in the bodily resurrection, that you must receive a body. So, what happens when someone dies? Their body collapses and deteriorates, and the soul goes to heaven, but then it's got to come back and get a body. That's what the resurrection is. It's got to come back and get a body. That's the idea.

There's different ideas. How do people in hell get a body? How did they get a body? Because they have to have a body, too. So, it creates a complexity on how you answer those problems. I'm only stressing this, because we're going to get to a point in here where I'm going to explain the belief that you don't have an immortal soul, which is only part of this, but the belief that you die, that you are not conscious, that you are asleep until a resurrection changes Christianity at a core level, at a very core level.

It changes what Christianity is in ways that you don't think about. The idea that you die and go to sleep, and then God wakes you up at some point, and that's what a resurrection is, is actually being believed more and more by numerous Protestant theologians. And they are persecuted for it, and there's a reason why. You can accept a lot of things like you should keep the Sabbath, and you may have some Protestant theologians say, well, that's sort of Jewish, but you know, as long as you believe in Jesus, you're okay.

Don't believe in the immortality of the soul, or believe that when you die, you're asleep until a resurrection, and it's a major issue. You've heard me mention John Stott before, because he just died a few years ago. He was an Anglican minister that it actually, I think it was Time magazine, he was one of the 100 most influential people of the century.

And he was almost excommunicated from the Anglican church, because he said, you know what, we don't have an oral soul. Bible doesn't teach it. We're so locked into something we've taught for so many hundreds of years, we're missing the truth. And there were Anglican ministers who claimed that he wasn't converted, and that he probably should be just kicked out of the church for believing that. Why would they do that? Over, you know, the immortal soul? Or that you're asleep when you're dead, waiting a resurrection? Why would that be such a major problem? First of all, let's look at a little bit, just a couple places in the Old Testament, and I'm going to answer that question.

In the Old Testament, if you go through death, it's very interesting, when people die, they go to Sheol, which is translated hell. In the Bible, in your English Bible. It's also translated pit or grave. Basically, the word Sheol literally means a hole in the ground. When people die, they go into a hole in the ground, where there's no thoughts, no interaction with God.

Both Solomon and David talk about that. No memories. You're totally, completely unconscious, if you will. There's nothing happening in your mind when you're in this place. This is the common teaching of the Old Testament that almost everybody agrees on. You get a Catholic theologian, or maybe a Lutheran theologian, or a Methodist.

Yeah, that's what it means. Now, let's look at a couple places where someone in the Bible talks about awaking. That you're asleep, but you wake up. You're actually asleep in the dust. A couple times they talk about you're in the dust. You're not asleep in heaven. You're asleep in the dust.

I think of Job when he said, if a man dies, shall he live again? And he says, I will wait until my appointed time, and then I will be changed. I'm going to die, and I'm going to turn back in the dust, and then at some appointed time, God is going to change me. So there is this concept, though, that you see developed through the Old Testament that you are awakened out of death. Look at Isaiah. Let's go to Psalm 17. Psalm 17.

Verse 15. David says, as for me, he's talking to God, I will see your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied, now notice what he says, when I awake in your likeness. David says, I finally will awake and see you. He believed there was going to be a time when he would awake. Now he wasn't asleep at that time, but he was going to go to sleep. He was going to die. And when he awoke, he would actually not just know of God, and have this incomplete interaction with God that we have as human beings. We would actually see Him. See Him.

Isaiah 26. I'm just trying to catch a few verses here because the resurrection is scattered throughout the Old Testament. It's not explained in detail as it is in some places in the New Testament. Isaiah 26 verse 19. You're dead, Isaiah says, you're dead shall live. This is God's dead. You're dead shall live. Together with my dead body, he believed in a bodily resurrection. Remember in the Hebrew thought, in the word neifesh and other related words, you don't have the duality of an eternal soul and a body. One is created, the other simply houses this one. The concept is they both are created and now you have a living being, a living soul. The spirit or the life or sometimes it's just called the breath of God. The breath of God, the spirit of God, He gives this life into this body and it is a soul. So this duality actually comes from Greek philosophy.

It was Plato that entered into the concept, he brought the concept into the Western world that the body was created by God. He believed that all the gods were there, but there was one God who created all the gods. So this God had other gods create the body and then the soul was put into it. In fact, the soul existed before it came into it. Some early Catholic theologians believed that too. You were in heaven a long time ago but you sinned so God had to put you in a body.

Where did that come from? It's not biblical. None of that is biblical. It comes from those ideas of splotonic ideas. So the soul then is eternal. His proof that the soul is eternal is that it can't conceive of eternal death. It says it can't conceive of it. It's not true. Therefore, we are eternal. That idea came into Judaism a little bit before the first century and some started to accept it then and then it came into Christianity within the second century already. After the death of John, it began to come in and people began to believe, not all of them because you can find writings in the second century where people did not believe. They believed you died and you were asleep awaiting Christ's return and they write it. And there's others talking about, no, you're not asleep. You're in heaven interacting with God. But sometimes you're not really happy because you don't have the body. You need to get a body. So you're sort of unhappy but you're there with God waiting to come back, anticipating to come back to get a body. So that idea just kept formulating into Christianity. Daniel 12. By the end here, close to the end of the Old Testament, we have a little bit more developed idea of death and resurrection. But it is still, at least what's written in the Old Testament, is still very incomplete for us. It's in the New Testament that it all comes together.

So Daniel 12, verse 1, And at that time, Michael, this is the archangel Michael, shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was, since there was a nation even to that time. And in that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. So this is a time when the judgment of God is coming out on humanity, and people are going to be saved. Now notice verse 2, And as many of those who sleep in the dust, and this is the common idea, they're in the dust, they're asleep in the dust, as many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Verse 3 is very fascinating because this gives a glimpse into, okay, if you are resurrected to life, what does that really mean? Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. It talks about eternal life. Not only eternal life, but eternal life with such power and energy that the only way he can describe it is like shining stars. Okay. So we have the concept of resurrection to eternal life. So, well, that's interesting. That's nice. So you die, and you're asleep, and then you're resurrected. Yes. What does the New Testament teach? Well, except for a few scriptures that you pull out to say this proves the immortal soul, the overwhelming weight of what is taught in the New Testament is exactly what was taught in the Old Testament.

Now, there are different ways you can interpret the Scripture. One of the ways that we've always looked at interpreting Scripture is if you have 100 verses that say one thing and four that say something else, or seem to say something else. You don't use the four to interpret the 100. You use the 100 to interpret the four. Okay. The majority texts always interpret a little minority. Let's look what Jesus said in John 6, because this is the emphasis of Jesus Christ throughout His ministry. John 6. And let's just read the verse 39. Jesus says, This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him, may have everlasting life. When do they receive this everlasting life? And I will raise him up at the last day. The concept of resurrection. Jesus said, I am the resurrection. In fact, Paul says, Jesus, by active resurrection, this is in Colossians 1, 15 and 18, by the active resurrection, Jesus becomes the firstborn among many brothers. So if we want to be the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, we must follow through and be resurrected. Paul talks about wanting to obtain the resurrection. So the resurrection is the central point of one of the goals of the New Testament. People say, yeah, I understand. You die and go to heaven. Resurrection means you come back and get your body. But that's not what it means. Why is it so hard to give up the idea that your soul goes to heaven and comes back and gets a body? Why is that so hard? When all through the Scripture, death is called sleep. Well, yeah, it's just, that's a metaphor. It doesn't mean you're really asleep. Or one of the greatest interpretations is the body sleeps by decaying, but the soul doesn't sleep. You can't find Scriptures to support that. Here's why it's so hard.

I don't say this to put down other people's beliefs, but what you believe matters, right? So this is important. The entire structure of the worship system of Catholicism, and to a certain extent, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, requires that you have an immortal soul, because their worship system requires you to go to Mary and the saints as intercessors between you and God. If they are not there, you are not going to God. Their entire worship system is based on that. If they're asleep and they are not there, then the entire worship system of Catholicism, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, is based in a superstition's fiction. Understand the gravity of that. Your church has no meaning if there is no immortal soul. It has none. It has none.

Because how do you get to God through all the intercession of Mary and the saints? And if they're not there, you're not getting to God.

That's why this is defended so strongly by not only Catholicism, but, strange enough, by many Protestants. Although, as I said before, there's a lot of Protestant theologians who are doubting it. Martin Luther doubted it. He could not have an immortal soul. He wasn't sure. But he wrote that he wasn't sure that maybe we don't. So Protestants have doubted it, but to actually go in that direction changes so much. We take it for granted. You die, you sleep, you gotta wake your shoe. We take that for granted. No, never take that for granted. That's why it's one of the foundational doctrines. To believe that changes the way you see the world. It changes the way you see God. And that's one reason why we don't have any intercessors between us and God except Jesus, right? Because He's the only one there. There's nobody else home. Think about Hebrews. Hebrews 11. We're going to have to go there. The famous faith chapter. And it tells about all these people in the Old Testament. And at the end it says, none of these have obtained the promise because they will not be...well, let's turn there. I want to get it exact. Hebrews 11. I quote Scriptures and of course I paraphrase them some, and sometimes you want to get it right, exactly right. Verse 39, Hebrews 11. All these people in the Old Testament that we know are going to be resurrected by God, this is why so many Christian theologians have taught over the years that people like Abraham and Moses and Sarah, they had to go to a certain compartment in hell and wait for Jesus to die. Or some of them believe they're still there, waiting for the resurrection, because they don't know quite what to do with them.

And all these people in the Old Testament, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. What promise? Well, the whole thing is about the Kingdom of God, eternal life and the Kingdom of God. That's the whole chapter. They did not receive it, yet. He says, why? God, having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. They're not there yet. They haven't received it yet, because it all happens. All the saints of God are resurrected at the same time. That's part of the plan.

So you understand why this is important. Because it determines how we view, how do we get to God? How do we have a relationship with God?

And I... It's sad to think about... I mean, I feel sadness over thinking of people praying to an intercessor that's not there. I feel sad praying for someone to go to God for me, go to Jesus for me, and that person isn't there. So what about the resurrections? Now we're going to talk about two great resurrections, and then we're going to talk a little bit about... I have to speculate a little on the second resurrection a little bit. Now, when we talk about these two great resurrections, they weren't revealed until the book of Revelation. And the reason I stress that is I'm not sure, say in 50 AD, when Paul was writing his books, he would have understood these two resurrections with the clarity that we have because Revelation hadn't been given yet. You see what I mean? So we go to Revelation, and before we go here, another thing too. These two general resurrections are not specific resurrections. Lazarus was raised by Jesus. When Jesus died at his crucifixion, there were a lot of people resurrected walking around on the earth. Peter resurrected Dorcas, right? She woke up. She's walking around on earth. These people died again. Dorcas isn't still walking on the earth today. These people resurrected, lived out a lifetime, and died again. But you know what I find really fascinating? People talk about all these near-death experiences that they have. We're not talking about near-death experiences. We're talking about dead experiences. These people were dead for days. In the case of Lazarus, in the case of Jesus' crucifixion, I don't know how long some of those people had been dead. Not one of them told anybody what it was like in heaven. Think about that. Not one. God says, good, go tell them what it was like in heaven. Not one of them said, why? I want to go back. Not one. If God wanted to teach us about what it's like in heaven, somehow He missed the chance to do it. Or He didn't want to teach us about heaven. Or they never went there. They were asleep. When they woke up, I've had people in the hospital after an operation, and they've said, you know, I don't fear death anymore. I've had people tell me this numerous times. Why? I died. They put me under. Three hours later, I opened my eyes and thought, is it done? What happened? You know, I'm at 98, and I woke up saying 97. And I, in between there, there's nothing. They tore my chest open, and there's nothing in there. You know, if I wasn't sore, I wouldn't even know what happened. Yeah, that's what death is. You go to sleep, and God wakes you up. So these people died, resurrected, didn't go to heaven. They went to sleep. They woke up. They await one of the great general resurrections that happened that are prophesied in the Book of Revelation. So let's go to Revelation 20 and look at the first resurrection.

Revelation 19 is about Jesus Christ's return. There's a great detail about Him coming back as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, defeating the armies that are gathered against Him. Verse 1 of chapter 20 tells something that He does then. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in His hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that servant of old who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and put a seal on him, so he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years were finished. But after these things, he must be released for a little while. So here we have the millennium, which means a thousand. This is the only place in the Bible, chapter 20, that we understand that Jesus is going to reign on earth for a thousand years. And there's a resurrection at the beginning and a resurrection at the end. It's the only way... There are lots of scriptures. There's lots of prophecies in the Old Testament about the Messiah coming, establishing His kingdom on the earth, and ruling over the nations. And all nations will come to Him and they'll beat their swords in the plowshares. You think of dozens and dozens of prophecies about Christ's return, but there's only one place here that says it's a thousand years. This is where we get the millennium. He's going to reign for a thousand years. And that's a bookend between two events. This thousand years has a bookend on both sides. Verse 4, And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. And I saw the souls of those who were beheaded. Now, what's it mean, souls? The lives of those. The lives of people who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had received his mark on their foreheads of their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. So we have all these people who were martyrs during the Tribulation, and they're resurrected. They're alive again. But notice verse 5, But the rest of that dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. Oh, so we have one resurrection, and now we have another resurrection. He says, This is the first resurrection. So these saints being resurrected is the first resurrection. That means there has to be a second one. Blessed and holy is He who has partied in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. The second death is an important concept. These people who are resurrected cannot die again.

The second death has no power. They died one time. But the second death has no power over them. Now this is going to be real important when we get to the second resurrection. So that means these people have to be resurrected as spirit beings. They say, Oh, okay, so they're spirits. They float around like ghosts. I'm going to have to look at what the Bible says about that. There's a number of in-depth scriptures that talk about the resurrection. We'll look at two of them here. First one is in 1 Thessalonians 4. So this is the first resurrection. It says, When Christ returns to set up God's kingdom on the earth, and those resurrected we see in Revelation are all the martyrs from the tribulation period. Here we're going to see that Paul says, It's all the saints. We go back to Hebrews. We will be perfected together. It's all the saints, Old Testament saints, New Testament saints. Verse 13. Mr. Luck read this, or part of this. He read one of these verses here. But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep. Now, think of the sort of the hoops we've got to jump through. Those who bodies have fallen asleep in the dust, whose souls are in heaven waiting to get their bodies back.

You know, and I don't mean that to make fun of anybody. I understand how they come to those conclusions. These are smart people. The problem is, it complicates what's said.

It's not that complicated. Some parts of the Bible are very complicated. This actually isn't. It says, Who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrows others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 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." In other words, if you're alive when Jesus Christ comes back and you're a saint, you have God's Spirit, you don't go up first. They do. Now, Christ comes back and stands on the Mount of Olives, and the saints are resurrected.

Now we have another problem, if you're an evangelical and you believe in the rapture, because you believe this refers to the rapture. But the dead arise first. But according to their own teachings, the dead are resurrected when Christ comes back. So there's two kinds of dead. The dead are resurrected at the rapture, and then years later there's the dead who arise when Christ comes back. So we've got, that's three, four, at least three resurrections. The number gets bigger. The first resurrection is when Christ comes back, Revelation 19, Revelation 20. So this has to be the same time. And the dead rise first. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus shall we shall always be with the Lord, therefore comfort one another with these words." We don't have to have them come down, get their bodies, go up, meet Christ. Okay, you see the problem? And it's not a problem, but I understand the issue. They're coming with Christ, but then they've got to jump down and get their bodies because then they're resurrected. Because your soul's in heaven and it's got to pick up its body. And that's what the resurrection is, is the pickup of your body. So we miss all that.

They come with Christ because they're resurrected, not because they're coming, and then have to be resurrected. It's all simplified. They're waiting asleep in the dust to be awakened. But the difference in the first resurrection is they're not resurrected with the same bodies they had before they died.

This first resurrection is a resurrection to spiritual life. And Paul understood that, or explained it at least, better than anybody. Let's go to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 15, sometimes called the resurrection chapter, he's talking about the whole first part of this chapter is there's going to be a resurrection. Now, if he was talking to a group of Jews, if he was writing to a group of Jews, they would have at least been interested. I mean, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection. Sadducees didn't. But he could have had all kinds of discussions about the resurrection to a group of Jews. This is real difficult to a group of Greeks. Corinth is a church mainly of Greeks. It's right in Greece. Very few Jews involved, and we know that from the issues that they had to deal with. Very few of Jews in the church. And Greeks don't believe in spirit bodies because they believe there's two things. They believe in duality. There are bodies and there is spirit. Matter and spirit. And remember, all your body is is the suitcase for your soul, which is spirit. And when your suitcase breaks down, the soul leaves it. That's why Plato eventually ended up believing in reincarnation. God just makes sure another suitcase to move into. You see? And eventually you get to work it out and you get to go to heaven and be with the gods. No one really gets to meet the one true God, but you at least get to be with the other gods.

So he's talking to Greeks and he says, oh yeah, you have a spiritual body. Now they're going to have real trouble with that. You can't. There are bodies, there are things, there are corporal things, and corporal things. I'm thinking to Tom, oh he's not here. Last time I said corporal. He said, that's corporal. So I got corporal things. And there are... You don't make mistakes with Tom, you know. There's corporal things and there's spirit. Greeks, now you can't put these things together. That's why they had such a hard time with the incarnation. You can't put the Son of God in a body. You can't mix these two things together. Paul says, oh yeah, there's spirit body. It's not made of things, it's made of spirit. He explains to him here, but someone will say, how are the dead raised? And with what body do they come? He says, foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. What you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be but mere grain. Perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as he pleases and to each seed its own body. He says, okay, let's simplify this for you. He says, if I take... Well, they wouldn't have had corn in Europe at the time, so you have to use grain. If I take some wheat and I plant wheat, it is little kernels. And then I get this stock of wheat that grows up. And it's like nothing like the little kernel I planted, except now little kernels form at the top. He says, and that has to go in here and die for this to grow. Okay? So one body producing another body, it happens in nature all the time. That argument probably didn't work that well. Paul had a way of giving an argument and prepared for her people's response giving another argument. He does that numerous times. Okay, if that one doesn't work, let me give you another one. Because remember, he's writing, but he knows what people are thinking. He says, all flesh, not the same flesh. There's one kind of flesh of man, another of animals, another fish, another of birds. Okay. Some are going to buy that. This one is amazing. There also are celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies, but the glory of the celestial one and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There's one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars, for one star differs from another star in glory. You know what's amazing about this? We scientifically can prove what he's saying in a way that he could not. He didn't have the science to think this through. The moon is a rock, basically. I mean, I'm simplifying. But it's a rock, and it doesn't produce light. It reflects light. The sun is energy and produces light. And he says, okay, let me explain the two bodies. They put it in our terms. One's a rock. It can't make light. It just, like, bounces off of it. The other one is pure energy that generates light. It's just brilliant. In the modern scientific world, that's a hard one to argue. Oh, yeah. Those are two totally different bodies.

So what he's saying is there can be a spirit body. No, we're not disembodied ghosts. There is a spirit body. That's why people will know each other in the resurrection. But it won't be this body. I'm glad for that. I don't know about you, but I'm glad it won't be this one. He says, verse 42, So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption as raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, as raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown in natural body, as raised in spiritual body. There is a natural body. There is a spiritual body. Why is he driving this home? Okay, we get it, Paul. Because to his Greek audience, this is just like, what is he saying?

No! There's matter in their spirit, and they can't mix together. He said, no, we're not mixing them together, although Jesus that we did, right? The incarnation. He's saying, what we're saying is, there's a body. God's going to create a body that's not made out of stuff, and you're going to get one at this resurrection.

That's why in verse 46, he says, However the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. He goes on and he tells him, Adam, you were made like Adam, and he even says, out of dust, but you could be made like Christ out of spirit. God can do this.

Verse 50 now, Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, but the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and shall be changed. Same thing we read in 1 Thessalonians. Same thing in Revelation 19 and 20. When Christ returns at the sound of this trumpet, this resurrection takes place to a spirit body.

We know Jesus has a spirit body because He kept appearing to people in it. And then He turned and walked through the wall.

Yeah, I'd like one of those.

That's one of my favorite scriptures in 1 John where John says, We don't know what we'll be like, but we'll be like Him. I just love that phrase. I don't know exactly what we're going to be like, but we get a little idea, because remember, He had seen Jesus resurrected. We'll be like Him. I've seen Him. Okay, we'll be like that somehow. Not Jesus. I mean, He's divine. He's the eternal Son. But we'll be like Him.

That's what the first resurrection is. And that's why then it's very interesting in verse 54. Well, let's go to verse 53. For this corruptible must put on in corruption. This mortal must put on in mortality. We don't have immortality. We must receive it. So when this corruption is put on in corruption, and this mortal has put on in mortality, then shall we brought the past to saying that as written, death is swallowed up in victory. Death isn't swallowed up in victory until what we are. This body is changed into something else. Only then do we become immortal. Only then can we live forever. And that's why it says in Revelation 20 that at that first resurrection, they can't be touched by the second death. They're immortal.

So let's now go back to Revelation 20. We read that there was a first resurrection.

I couldn't figure out how to make this into an hour's sermon. I only had five hours worth of notes. I literally just erased entire pages. Revelation 20. Remember verse 4? Well, let's go to verse... It talks about how after the end of the thousand years, Satan is released for a little bit. There's a great rebellion. And then it says in verse... Oh, let's go to verse 11.

He says, Then I saw a great white throne, and Him who sat on it, this is at the end of the thousand years, and whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in it, and they were judged, each one according to his works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire, and this is the second death. Anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. So, the common viewpoint of this, and I've mentioned this before because the imagery affected me when I first saw it, and I was very young. I mean, as a little kid, but I don't know, teenager, was I found a tract about, repent now, or you're going to end up in the Great White Throne Judgment. And you opened it up and then a picture of what strangely looked like Abraham Lincoln sitting on the, you know, if you've been to the Lincoln Monument, you know, he's looking down on you, it was really sort of horrifying, and people were just stretched out in front of him into infinity, it looked like, and he had two levers, and he was doing this. And you'd see people then suddenly be changing into a ghost and floating off down here, or they'd be plummeting down, screaming into hell where there were demons and fire, and they'd be stabbing him and all this. And so, you know, he just, and you go to... because you're being judged by your works and you're being sent to heaven or hell. Okay, is that what this means?

There's an interesting idea, very few people believe this, but there's actually some Sabbath keepers that believe this, is that he's saying there's two modes of salvation. One is through Christ and one is through works. So when you're resurrected here in this physical resurrection, because it's obviously not spiritual, right? Because they can suffer the second death. So this physical resurrection, you're resurrected, and God says, well, let's see, I know you were an atheist, but you're a good person, so you get to go to heaven. Or you were a Hindu, you didn't believe in Jesus, but you... and remember Jesus making the judgment. You didn't believe in me, but you get to go to heaven. That is a serious heresy. I don't like... the word heresy is a very serious word to use, because it discounts the work of Jesus Christ. You can't receive salvation except through Jesus Christ, and to say that you can is a heresy. It is against God. So be careful anybody that says, oh no, he's going to judge them by their works whether they were good people or not. No, he's not. That's not how this works. So what does this mean? Oh, well, everybody just comes up and they all go to hell. That's the other other option. Oh, okay, everybody's resurrected. And God says, the great majority of you are now going to hell, which is what the Calvinists believe. And God's going to say, good, I'm great. Look how loving and wonderful I am. And all the people who are saved are going to say, you're great, you're wonderful, and then rejoice at the fact that 99% of all people go to hell. Is that what God is?

And there's a huge amount of Protestants who believe that. Well, I can't say that. Calvinism is dying because it's so horrifying that nobody wants to be part of it. Everybody's going to hell, practically. Yeah, and we all are going to have a good time over it. You know, it's going to be a party because they go to hell.

This is a physical resurrection because they can suffer the second death.

Now we have to find, are there physical resurrections in the Bible that aren't part of those individual resurrections? You know, Lazarus, Dorcas, that have to do with an end-time mass resurrection. And there is. Ezekiel 37.

If you believe in the immortal soul, or if you believe you die in good heaven, Ezekiel 37 gives you a real problem. So one of the most common interpretations of Ezekiel 37 is, this is a prophecy. And of course it's a vision, so it's not like this is literally how this is going to happen. It's a vision of what's going to happen. And this is really about what happened to Israel in 1948, when God brought the Jews back to Israel and fulfilled this prophecy. I believe Ezekiel 37 is an allegory, yes, is a vision about something that's literally going to happen. And if it's literal, it cannot have happened yet. If it's literal, it cannot have happened yet. Verse 1, the hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and sent me down in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones. And he caused me to pass by them all around, and behold there were very many in the open valley, and indeed they were very dry. And he said to me, Son of Man, can these bones live? And then notice the wisdom, if God ever asked you a question, this is the way to answer. Oh Lord, you know. God asked you a question. Either don't say anything or say, Oh Lord, you know. Because whatever we say is probably not going to be right. Okay. Again he said to me, prophesied to these bones and saying to them, Oh dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God, these bones, to these bones. Surely I will cause breath to enter into you. This is the concept of nafesh. You live because the breath comes into you. The word breath in English is translated a couple of ways. It's translated as breath, and it's translated as spirit. So he says, prophesied that life, that breath comes into them.

I will cause breath to enter into you and you shall live. Now I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you. Cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live. Then you will know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded, Ezekiel says, and as I prophesied there was a noise and suddenly a rattling and the bones came together bone to bone. Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came on them and the skin covered them all, but there was no breath in them. Can you imagine watching millions, hundreds of millions of people, bones, just coming together, and then the organs come together and they're just, as far as you can see, nothing but dead people. But they've all sort of, all the pieces have come back together. There's new bodies here because the bodies were gone. They were asleep in the dust, asleep in the dust. Also he said to me, this is verse 9, prophesied to the breath, prophesied, said a man, and said to the breath, Thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, so that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath came upon them, and they lived and stood on their feet an exceedingly great number, or great army. Then he said to me, said a man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, our bones are dry or hope is lost and we ourselves are cut off. Remember, this is an allegory. The bones were saying, oh, I'm out here by myself. I'm just a shin bone and I'm by myself. The bones aren't talking, okay? He's saying these people had no hope when they died. God heard this. And in this allegory, he says, it's like they're crying out because they're all dead. He didn't say they're in heaven talking to me.

He says, therefore, prophesy and say to them, so this is a physical resurrection, by the way. I believe there's going to be, this picture is a literal physical resurrection.

And this is what we teach. That we don't have to convolute this into something like the bringing of Israel together, the Jews together in 1948. This is a literal, physical thing that's going to happen in the future, and here's why, what he says next. That says, the Lord God, behold all my people, I will open your graves. Okay? This is what he said he's going to do, and that didn't happen in 1948. I will open 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, oh my people, and brought you up from your graves. You get the idea that they're coming out of the graves? I will put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I the Lord have spoken it and performed it, says the Lord.

The pouring out of God's spirit on Israel was never part of the Old Covenant. Individuals received God's spirit. Remember Moses? Remember Joshua, when God poured out his spirit on the 70 elders? And Joshua said, two of them were over there prophesying. Should I go shut them up? And it's typical of Joshua. And Moses rebukes him. It says, oh Joshua, I wish that all the people, I wish all of them had God's spirit. The receiving of God's spirit upon the mass of Israel was never part of the Old Covenant. It is part of the New Covenant. This means these people are being resurrected to be given the opportunity to become participants in the New Covenant. Because that's how you receive God's spirit. And whatever's happening here is happening to everybody. I mean, this is happening to Israel, but you know why I know it's happening to everyone? Think about Jesus saying, oh, hello to you in Mesidia. If these miracles had been done in Sodom, he says, Mesidian, and Chorizan. If they had been done in Sodom, God would have never destroyed the Sodomites. Because they would have responded to these kinds of miracles, and it would be easier for them in the day of judgment. What does it mean, easier for them? I thought everybody's getting resurrected and thrown in like a fire. Everyone's going to have an opportunity to choose the New Covenant, to choose whether they received God's spirit. Either that or Ezekiel 37 has no meaning. I have no meaning to it at all. I can't give you a meaning to it. It either is a prophecy about something that's going to happen or it's not. If it is, then the people of Israel who died under the Old Covenant are going to be resurrected and given God's spirit. But that's what it says in Jeremiah. That's what it says in Deuteronomy. I will circumcise you in the heart. I will create a new covenant with you, and I will give you my spirit, you and your descendants.

And when you read about the Messiah coming, all it talks about is He has come for the world. He has come for everyone, not just for Israel. He's come for all people, because everybody's the children of God. And so in this great white throne judgment, there is an opportunity given to these people to decide. They will be judged by their reaction to this being offered the new covenant, not by what they did in their past life. They're not going to be judged by what they did in their past life. They're going to be judged by what they do then. And they're going to have to repent, accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. Who will be living on earth at the time?

In Jerusalem. And they're going to have to be baptized. They're going to have to come and have hands laid on. They're going to have to receive God's Spirit and become full participants in the new covenant. If they refuse to, they will be judged by their works. That's why there is a lake of fire.

So that is, by the way...

We don't have a lot of unique teachings that you can't find somebody else that believes, by the way. It's amazing how you look at what other churches teach, especially in the past. It's just the Reformation. You find churches that believe in the Sabbath. You'll find churches believe in... sometimes. Every once in a while. Not very often, the Holy Days. You'll find lots of churches believe... or keep the Passover over the years. You'll find churches who don't believe in the immortal soul. A few that don't believe in the Trinity. But this one's pretty unique. Of course, the whole package of what we believe is unique. But I mean this specific one. The idea that all you meant... not universal salvation. You know, there are people who teach universal salvation. Oh, everybody's saved. No, not everybody's saved. But the chance... there's the belief that everybody gets a chance. The people who lived on a Polynesian island for 500 years, generation after generation after generation, and never heard the name Jesus, are not going to hell without a chance. That's what this means. They'll have an opportunity at the New Covenant. That's the second chance. Nope. Because remember something. The only reason you and I have an opportunity, because we live in Satan's world, we're deceived by Satan, is because God picked us out. If God doesn't pick you out, you don't have a chance. You have no chance at all if God doesn't do something in your life. None. Unless you just want to believe in, like I said, double damnation. I think that's a technical, actual technological turn. God made us look through time and said, oh, all you people are going to sin. All of you are going to hell. And I'll arbitrarily pick a few people to save to show how wonderful I am. And that's a whole theological school that believes that. Say, everybody's going to hell because God picked them. God made them, knew they would sin, and therefore sent them there. That's a pretty cruel God.

What we have here is a concept of justice. You get the chance to repent of your crimes, be forgiven for your crimes, and be changed to be converted into a different person. You get that chance. That's the second resurrection. Now, this brings us to two questions. I'll have the answer here before I wrap up because these two questions always come up. One is, what happens to the people who come through the tribulation and they're physical people on earth? Okay, they're physical people on earth during the millennium. And then they just create more and more children all throughout the millennium. Now, the Seventh-day Adventists have an easy way of dealing with that, and that is, there are no people on earth during the millennium, so we don't have to worry about them. It's nice and clean, but there's too many scriptures that talk about the Messiah being on earth and the nations coming to Him, and they're beating their swords in the plowshares. Yeah, you can't really throw those out. So, we put those in there and, okay, that millennial period is the rule of Jesus Christ on earth, and there's lots of people. What happens to them? Well, all of them, without Satan around, will have an opportunity to respond to God. That's what the, especially the Old Testament prophecies talk about that. How all people have this chance to come to God. So, what happens to them when you're, you know, 99 years old? You've obeyed God, you've repented, you've had His Spirit. Do you just...what happens to you? Do you die? Well, it doesn't tell us. So, we've got to get into a little speculation here. Well, there's a couple of answers. One, everybody lives to be a thousand. And then you're judged...then, of course, you have the Great White Throne Judgment, which is a period of time. So, you live to be a thousand. You live through the Great White Throne Judgment, and then you get judged then. That's a long time to live as a human being. I don't know. There's...that's not...the Bible doesn't tell us that. Of course, it doesn't say it doesn't happen either. The other option is that they...they die, and then they're resurrected in the Great White Throne Judgment.

So, you have God's Spirit. You've been converted, but you don't get to be changed. You have to die and then come up in another physical resurrection. Because remember, the second resurrection is physical. That doesn't make sense. That you resurrect somebody physically after they become a saint. All saints get resurrected. So, the third option is that during the millennium, there's a continuation of the first resurrection. That when a person is prepared and ready to be changed, they are changed. You see what I mean? Someone's...okay, I'm 80 years old. God has worked with me. I've repented. I've received God's Spirit. I've become the child of God, and I'm 80, and God says, you're ready. Now, what's He going to do with me? But you've got to live another 800 years to the end of the millennium, and then the Great White Throne Judgment. Or, I'm going to let you die and resurrect you physically again. Or, is this a continuation of the first resurrection, and you get changed?

That's the only one that makes sense to me. But, you know, I can't tell you this what the Bible teaches. Because it doesn't say. There is a scripture in Isaiah that can apply to the Great White Throne Judgment, but can just as easily apply to the millennium. It says everybody will be 100 years old. That means that 100 something happens to you. I don't know what that means, either. I'm just telling you, I don't even know what that means. So, the bottom line is, the Bible doesn't tell us. I have my belief. I've told you my belief, but I can't say that's what the scripture says. Because everybody asks questions. That is a big question. What happens to the people of the millennium? And my first reaction is, I don't know. But then I say, well, I've got to give some answer. I can only tell you what other people say, and I can tell you what I believe. But what I believe is not scripturally provable.

I try to only teach what I know has some scriptural proof to it. I'm sure somebody has another idea I've never thought of. So, after services, someone will come up and say, I've got a new idea. And it may be right. I don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us. As I always tell people, I tell you what, when we get there, come ask me.

Because I'll have the answer, then. Second question is, what happens to an incorrigibly wicked person that's going to go to the lake of fire that's, say, alive today? I mean, throughout history, there's just people that reject God, that hate God, make people that He's given His Spirit to, that turn against Him. And they're incorrigibly wicked. It says they're going to go to the lake of fire. Okay, they die. What happens to them? They can't come up in the first resurrection because of that spirit. Okay, well, they come up in the second resurrection.

Remember, the second resurrection has to be a period of time because God's Spirit is poured out on these people and they become God's people. We just read that in the Seqal 37. So there's some period of time in here. So do all the incorrigibly wicked get resurrected and put into prison? Is there some giant prison on earth? Will all the incorrigibly wicked people through history get put into this prison? What happens to them?

And here's where we have a speculative teaching. Let's go back to Revelation. Remember, there's a difference between what is explicit and implied. I say that all the time. Boy, I'll get up and pound away the explicit. Implied, I say, well, this is the best we can do. Explicit. There's two resurrections. I can pound that one all day long because I know that one. Who goes why? This is the first resurrection. Oh, okay. The next one is the second resurrection. I can figure that one out. Here's a statement that is very interesting. Verse 11, we read that. It talks about how the Great White Throne Judgment, there's this resurrection.

And they're judged. And then verse 13, the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades. Death itself is being destroyed here. Hades, which is hell, is being destroyed here. So death is being destroyed. And delivered up the dead who were in them, and they were judged each one according to his works.

That death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Anyone else found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This is where we get this sort of, it's not explicit, but implied teaching. There's a third resurrection. Because all those incorrigibly wicked people aren't resurrected and put into prison. The scripture says everyone, and interesting, Murfreesboro this morning, I had someone come up after because, oh, everybody's interested in the resurrections. I always have questions. They said, why did God just sit in that accordion with people, die and just let them die?

I mean, they're asleep. They never wake up. They don't know it. I said, because the scripture says that everyone, everyone, every's knee must bow before Jesus Christ. Even before you go in the lake of fire, you're forced to kneel before Jesus Christ and acknowledge, he died for me and I rejected him. You may hate him, but he's still going to make you bow and understand what I did for you, what God did through me for you, what I gave up in heaven to come down here and be like you.

And every knee must bow, and everyone must be judged by him. He said, all judgment from the Father has been given to me. He's going to judge, and he's going to say, no, my Father will not accept you. You will go in the lake of fire. That's why they must be resurrected. Everybody must appear before him. So when do those people come up? And what we sort of put together is probably what happens is at the end of the Great White Throne Judgment when he's about to judge those going into the lake of fire.

Everybody else will be judged and changed. All that's left is people going into the lake of fire, which is the total destruction of the earth by fire. He's going to resurrect all the people who are incorrigibly wicked throughout history, and they're going to be there. He's going to say, this is why you're here, and this is the sentence I pass on you, and before you die you must bow before me. And he will make them bow before me.

And then Jesus Christ is going to destroy the earth by fire.

So I don't know what else you do with those people. God does, by the way. God knows what he's going to do with them. So what I think he's going to do with them is actually a material. And he's never asked me. And my answer would be, Lord, you know.

The resurrection of the dead is an encouraging and incredible doctrine. It tells us about the resurrection of the saints together. I can't imagine coming up in the same resurrection with Abraham and Sarah and Mary and Paul. And I'm going to go on. Wow. I can't even imagine that. But he says, no, we get the family all together. Then there's that great resurrection of everybody that never had their chance. And they're given an opportunity. It's not a second chance. They never had a chance. They get a chance to choose. Do I want God's Spirit? Do I want to be changed? And then there's the light of fire for the incorrigibly wicked. And as I said, we take this for granted. But understand why throughout centuries this has been a persecuted doctrine. You know, faith, repentance, baptisms, people argument. Well, actually baptism was a persecuted doctrine back in the 13, 14, 15 hundreds, but for a different reason. Well, about the same reason. The reason they were persecuted for baptism then was the Anabaptists said that you have to repent to be baptized. And the Catholics and all the Protestants, everybody at that point was practicing infant baptism. They said, well, wait a minute. Then you're saying we're not Christians because we were baptized as babies. And the Anabaptists said, that's right. So they killed the Anabaptists. All Christians agreed then to kill those people because once again, what were they saying? Well, if infant baptism isn't real and we were all baptized as infants, then we're not Christians. Understand the problem with the immortal soul or the idea that you're asleep awaiting a resurrection. If that's not true, the whole system of worship within Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox churches is a falsehood. There's nobody there to pray to.

And that's why it's so upset. I understand from their viewpoint why that would be so frightening. So that brings us then to the last of these six foundational doctrines. And I want to do this one before the Feast of Trumpets, which is the first resurrection, celebrates the first resurrection. And I want to do the next one before the Feast of Tabernacles because it deals with the eternal judgments. What does God want for His children forever? And what is the light of fire? What exactly happens to those who are put there? So that's what we will cover the next time as we finish up the series on Hebrews 6.1 and 2.