Resurrection
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. (I Cor 15)
Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, is addressing the believers at Corinth. He is dealing with the resurrection from the dead and specifically the order of resurrection. If we understand this passage with a strict and literal interpretation, we see three resurrections.
The Firstfruits
At His Coming
The End
How strict should we be? The degree to which we take this passage literally determines the scenario that we end up with.
Many years ago I worked with a man who told me an interesting story. He was involved in a serious car accident. When the ambulance arrived, the emergency workers found him unresponsive. They were able to resuscitate him. Of course, he was told about the details of the accident afterward. They told him that he had been dead. At least there was no breathing, no pulse. After he was revived he remembered nothing. Since he was “dead” and remembered nothing, he believed that death means nothingness.
He told me that he now had no fear of death. To him death means no consciousnesses of anything. I had no reply at the time. I did not understand it. I had no doubt about his story. I am sure that his heart stopped. There was no breathing. He was clinically dead. However, he was not dead dead. Later, he was a living person telling me about this experience. Though he had been dead in a real sense, he was not dead in an absolute sense. He did not pass away permanently, not to be resuscitated ever again.
Several people, both in Scripture and in modern times, have been resuscitated. The most amazing was probably Lazarus, having been in the grave four days. A missionary tells about a 96 year old woman being raised from the dead. She saw unspeakable things and talked with a man clothed in light. She was called back to her body by the missionary. She was quite upset about it, too.
These are not resurrections. They are resuscitations. Some of them are quite remarkable. However, a resuscitation is only temporary. It does not last. Real death will come at a later date.
The believers in Thessalonica were concerned about a few things. Apparently they were suffering persecution and were concerned they had missed the Rapture. They were told by some that they were in The Day of the Lord. They were also concerned about their family members and friends who had died. Did they miss the Coming of the Lord?
In the famous Rapture Passage of II Thess 4:13-18 Paul tries to settle some of these questions. Actually Paul is not talking about Rapture, except incidentally. He is talking about Resurrection. Not only are the departed not going to miss the Appearing of the Lord, they are going to participate and be raised from the dead into resurrection bodies first, then the living.
This is the mystery. It is not that Christ is coming to take us to Himself. Jesus promised that years earlier (John 14:3). The mystery is that we who are dead will be raised first, then we who are living will be changed. The reason is that the natural body cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (I Cor 15:50-53). Paul is not referring to the earthly Millennial Kingdom, but rather to the eternal, invisible one. This is not to say that the resurrected saints will never see the Millennial Kingdom on the earth. The focus seems to be upon ruling from invisible places (Col 1:16, Eph 2:6).
We see three resurrections in the Scriptures. The first is “Christ the firstfruits”. This is very obviously unique. We are told something very strange in the Gospels. There was a certain number of saints that were resurrected with Him. In Heaven John tells us that he saw 24 elders (Rev 4:4). They were clothed in white garments. This strongly suggests that they were resurrected humans. Where could resurrected humans come from if they were not part of this firstfruits resurrection?
The second resurrection is “they that are Christ's at his coming”. This is the event that I referred to earlier. How literal we take the wording here determines how our eschatological doctrine looks. They that are Christ's at His Coming definitely refers to the I Thess 4 event, the Rapture passage.
In Rev. 6 John sees souls who had been slain. This is at the 5th seal. We are not told how many. It seems that martyrs are being added to these souls. Two or three drop in. Half a dozen at a time. They are crying out for vengeance. They are given a white robe and told to wait until the full number of the martyrs comes in. They cannot put the white robe on because they are just souls. They do not yet possess a physical body.
After the 6th seal, John sees an innumerable multitude. He is told they have come out of the Great Tribulation. They must be the same people as the souls under the altar. Now, however, the number is complete. No one is being added to the group. Also, now they have put on the white robe they were given earlier. They have bodies now that they did not possess earlier. It seems they have experienced resurrection. When did that happen? The elder said they came out of the Great Tribulation.
“Well, good for them.”
There is just a little problem here. John again sees those who were beheaded because they resisted the beast. They came to life after The Great Tribulation and John is told,
...This is the first resurrection. (Rev 20:5)
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. (Rev 20:6)
Paul just told us, in effect, that the Rapture is the second (or the next) resurrection. Now John tells us that these from the Great Tribulation are in the first resurrection. Revelation 20 is telling us that the resurrection after the Great Tribulation is the first resurrection. It is the next resurrection after the special resurrection of Christ and the few with Him as the Firstfruits.
The next resurrection is the third one (the second general resurrection). As Paul says “ Then cometh the end...”. You do not want to be part of the third resurrection. This is the final judgment of the unsaved. It seems there is only one flight out of here that you can take. You cannot be part of the firstfruits resurrection. That one happened 2,000 years ago. You do not under any circumstances want to be part of the last one. Your flight is scheduled for departure after things on earth have been bad but before things get bad bad. We may suffer the wrath of nature, the wrath of men, even the wrath of Satan. We who are redeemed do not suffer the wrath of God.
Alternative Ending
Daniel 12:2 speaks about 2 different kinds of resurrection, one unto life and one unto everlasting contempt. Should we interpret Paul's teaching to say that the next one is the same as John's first one is the same as Daniel's resurrection unto everlasting life? If so, that gives us an entirely different understanding. Could the next resurrection that we are expecting, the one that Revelation 20 calls the first resurrection, be the first general resurrection? Instead of one single future event, could that be referring to the first type of general resurrection, the one unto life?
If we take that approach we could see a Pre-Tribulation resurrection, and one of the martyrs, and one of the Two Witnesses, and the Tribulation saints, and those entering the Millennium. All of these events could be considered parts of the first general resurrection unto life. Can we be dogmatic about future events?
When I was in high school there was a constant contention about Chevy vs Ford. Which one was better and which was junk? We did not even have our drivers' license yet. All of this argument was based upon zero knowledge. There are strong feelings about which football team is better than another one. We can quote some statistics which may even be accurate, but the “better” argument is again based upon zero knowledge. This vague better is an unknowable.
I am from Minnesota. We always had Iowa jokes. The same thing happens with almost any two adjoining states or countries. This is an arbitrary thing in the minds of children (or childish adults) based upon zero knowledge. Today, it is beyond remarkable that church people have such heated fights over future events. The timing of many of these events is unknowable. We can be dogmatic where the Bible speaks and we cannot be where the Bible does not clearly say.
Is green better than orange? It is childish and unknowable. A dogmatic attitude about unknowables is dangerous.
It may be that we will need some good news in the end times. Paul tells us to comfort one another with the words about Jesus coming, at the proper time, to take the faithful believer to Himself.
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (I Thess 4)
Apr 4, 2024