Resurrection of “The righteous
and the unrighteous.” The apostle Paul said to a group of
Jews who also entertained the hope of a resurrection that “there is going to be
a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.”—Ac 24:15
Subheading will be (1) Time of the
earthly resurrection.
(2) Resurrection to Life and to Judgment.
(3) Soul Recovered From Sheol.. (4)
‘Passing Over From Death
to Life.
(5) An Undeserved Kindness of God.
(6) Ransom applied to
all for whom it
was given. (7) Jehovah joyfully
anticipates the resurrection. (8) Some Not Resurrected.
(9 ) Resurrection During 1,000 Years.
(10) How would it
be possible in 1,000 years
to resurrect and educate the
billions now in the
grave?
(1) Time of the
earthly resurrection.
The
Bible makes it plain who are “the righteous.” First of all, those who are to
receive a heavenly resurrection are declared righteous.—Ro
Then
the Bible calls faithful men of old such as Abraham righteous. (Ge 15:6; Jas
2:21) Many of these men are listed at Hebrews chapter 11, and of them the
writer says: “And yet all these, although they had witness borne to them
through their faith, did not get the fulfillment of the promise, as God foresaw
something better for us [spirit-begotten, anointed Christians like Paul], in
order that they might not be made perfect apart from us.” (Heb 11:39, 40)
So, the perfecting of them will take place after that of the ones having part
in “the first resurrection.”
Then
there is the “great crowd” described in Revelation chapter 7, who are not
members of the 144,000 “sealed” ones, and who consequently do not have “the
token” of the spirit as being spirit-begotten. (Eph 1:13, 14; 2Co 5:5)
They are described as coming “out of the great tribulation” as survivors of it;
this would seem to locate the gathering of this group in the last days shortly
before that tribulation. These are righteous through faith, being clothed in
white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb. (Re 7:1, 9-17) As a class, they
will not need to be resurrected, but faithful ones of that group who die before
the great tribulation will be resurrected in God’s due time.
Also,
there are many “unrighteous” persons buried in Sheol (Hades), mankind’s common
grave, or in “the sea,” watery graves. The judgment of these along with “the
righteous” resurrected on earth is described in Revelation 20:12, 13: “And
I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and
scrolls were opened. But another scroll was opened; it is the scroll of life.
And the dead were judged out of those things written in the scrolls according
to their deeds. And the sea gave up those dead in it, and death and Hades gave
up those dead in them, and they were judged individually according to their
deeds.”
Time of the earthly resurrection. We note that this judgment is
placed in the Bible in the account of events occurring during Christ’s Thousand
Year Reign with his associate kings and priests. These, the apostle Paul said,
“will judge the world.” (1Co 6:2) “The great and the
small,” persons from all walks of life, will be there, to be judged
impartially. They are “judged out of those things written in the scrolls” that
will be opened then. This could not mean the record of their past lives nor a set of rules that judges them on the basis of their
past lives. For since “the wages sin pays is death,” these by their death have
received the wages of their sin in the past. (Ro 6:7, 23) Now they are
resurrected that they might demonstrate their attitude toward God and whether they
wish to take hold of the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ that was given for
all. (Mt 20:28; Joh 3:16) Though their past sins are not accounted to them,
they need the ransom to lift them up to perfection. They must make their minds
over from their former way of life and thought in harmony with God’s will and
regulations for the earth and its population. Accordingly, “the scrolls”
evidently set forth the will and law of God for them during that Judgment Day,
their faith and their obedience to these things being the basis for judgment
and for writing their names indelibly, at last, into “the scroll of life.”
Resurrection to Life and to Judgment. Jesus gave the comforting assurance
to mankind: “The hour is coming, and it is now, when the dead will hear the
voice of the Son of God and those who have given heed will
live. . . . Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in
which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those
who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things
to a resurrection of judgment.”—Joh 5:25-29.
A judgment of condemnation. In Jesus’ words here, the word
“judgment” translates the Greek word kri′sis. According to
Parkhurst, the meanings of this word in the Christian Greek Scriptures are as
follows: “
If
Jesus, in speaking of judgment, meant a trial the result of which might be
life, then there would be no contrast between this and the “resurrection of
life.” Therefore, the context indicates that Jesus meant by “judgment” a
condemnatory judgment.
“The dead” that
heard Jesus speak on earth.
In considering Jesus’ words, we note that when Jesus spoke, some of “the dead”
were hearing his voice. Peter used similar language when he said: “In fact, for
this purpose the good news was declared also to the dead,
that they might be judged as to the flesh from the standpoint of men but might
live as to the spirit from the standpoint of God.” (1Pe 4:6) This is so because
those hearing Christ were ‘dead in trespasses and sins’ before hearing but
would begin to ‘live’ spiritually because of faith in the good news.—Eph 2:1;
compare Mt
John
Jesus
was therefore evidently taking a similar position in time in speaking of “those
who did good things” and “those who practiced vile things,” namely, a position
at the end of the period of judgment, as looking back in retrospect or in
review of the actions of these resurrected persons after they had
opportunity to obey or disobey the “things written in the scrolls.” Only at the
end of the judgment period would it be demonstrated who had done good or bad.
The outcome to “those who did good things” (according to “those things written
in the scrolls”) would be the reward of life; to “those who practiced vile
things,” a judgment of condemnation. The resurrection would have turned out to
be either to life or to condemnation.
The
practice of stating things as viewed from the standpoint of the outcome, or
stating them as already accomplished, considering them in retrospect, is common
in the Bible. For God is “the One telling from the beginning
the finale, and from long ago the things that have not been done.” (Isa
46:10) Jude adopts this same viewpoint when he speaks of corrupt men who
slipped into the congregation, saying of them: “Too bad for them, because they
have gone in the path of Cain, and have rushed into the erroneous course of
Balaam for reward, and have perished [literally, they destroyed
themselves] in the rebellious talk of Korah!” (Jude 11) Some of the prophecies
use similar language.—Compare Isa 40:1, 2; 46:1; Jer 48:1-4.
Consequently
the viewpoint taken at John 5:29 is not identical with
that at Acts 24:15 in which Paul speaks of the resurrection of “the righteous
and the unrighteous.” Paul is plainly referring to those who have had a righteous
or unrighteous standing before God during this life, and
who will be resurrected. They are “those in the memorial tombs.” (Joh 5:28; see
MEMORIAL TOMB.) At John 5:29, Jesus views such persons after their
coming out of the memorial tombs and after they, by their course of
action during the reign of Jesus Christ and his associate kings and priests,
have proved themselves either obedient, with eternal “life” as their reward, or
disobedient, and so deserving “judgment [condemnation]” from God.
Soul Recovered From Sheol.
King David of Israel wrote: “I foresaw the Lord always before my face; for he
is on my right hand, that I should not be moved . . . moreover also
my flesh shall rest in hope: because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell
[Sheol], neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (Ps
15:8-10, LXX, Bagster [16:8-11, NW]) On the day of Pentecost,
33 C.E., the apostle Peter applied this psalm to Jesus Christ, in
declaring to the Jews the truth of Christ’s resurrection. (Ac 2:25-31) The Scriptures,
both the Hebrew and the Greek, therefore show that it was the “soul” of Jesus
Christ that was resurrected. Jesus Christ was ‘put to death in the flesh, but
made alive in the spirit.’ (1Pe
Throughout
the Scriptures it is evident that there is no “immaterial soul” separate and
distinct from the body. The soul dies when the body dies. Even of Jesus Christ
it is written that “he poured out his soul to the very death.” His soul was in
Sheol. He had no existence as a soul or person during that time. (Isa 53:12; Ac
2:27; compare Eze 18:4; see SOUL.) Consequently, in the resurrection there is
no joining again of soul and body. However, whether spiritual or earthly, the
individual must have a body or organism, for all persons, heavenly or earthly,
possess bodies. To be again a person, one who has died would have to have a
body, either a physical or a spiritual body. The Bible says: “If there is a
physical body, there is also a spiritual one.”—1Co
But
is the old body reassembled in the resurrection? or is
it a precise replica of the former body, made exactly as it was when the person
died? The Scriptures answer in the negative when they deal with the
resurrection of Christ’s anointed brothers to life in the heavens:
“Nevertheless, someone will say: ‘How are the dead to be raised up? Yes, with
what sort of body are they coming?’ You unreasonable person! What you sow is
not made alive unless first it dies; and as for what you sow, you sow, not the
body that will develop, but a bare grain, it may be, of wheat or any one of the
rest; but God gives it a body just as it has pleased him, and to each of the
seeds its own body.”—1Co
The
heavenly ones receive a spiritual body, for it pleases God for them to have bodies
suitable for their heavenly environment. But those whom Jehovah pleases to
raise to an earthly resurrection, what body does he give them? It could not be
the same body, of exactly the same atoms. If a man dies and is buried, by
process of decay his body is reconverted into organic chemicals that are
absorbed by vegetation. Persons may eat that vegetation. The elements, the
atoms of that original person, now are in many persons. In the resurrection it
is obvious that the same atoms cannot be in the original person and in all the
others at the same time.
Neither
is the resurrected body necessarily one constructed to be the exact duplicate
of the body at the moment of death. If a person has had his body mutilated
before death, will he return in the same way? That would be unreasonable, for
he might not be in a condition even to hear and to do “those things written in
the scrolls.” (Re
‘Passing Over From Death to Life.’ Jesus spoke of those who ‘have
everlasting life’ because they hear his words with faith and obedience and then
believe on the Father who sent him. He said about each one of such: “He does
not come into judgment but has passed over from death to life. Most truly I say
to you, The hour is coming, and it is now,
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who have given
heed will live.”—Joh 5:24, 25.
Those
who have ‘passed over from death to life now’ would not be those who had
literally died and were in actual graves. At the time when Jesus spoke, all
mankind were under the condemnation of death before God the Judge of all. So
the ones Jesus referred to were evidently persons on earth who had been dead in
a spiritual sense. Jesus must have referred to such spiritually dead ones when
he said to the Jewish son who wanted to go home first to bury his father: “Keep
following me, and let the dead bury their dead.”—Mt 8:21, 22.
Those
who become Christians with true belief were once among the spiritually dead
people of the world. The apostle Paul reminded the congregation of this fact,
saying: “It is you God made alive though you were dead in your trespasses and
sins, in which you at one time walked according to the system of things of this
world . . . But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with
which he loved us, made us alive together with the Christ, even when we were
dead in trespasses—by undeserved kindness you have been saved—and he raised us
up together and seated us together in the heavenly places in union with Christ
Jesus.”—Eph 2:1, 2, 4-6.
Thus,
because of their no longer walking in trespasses and sins against God, and
because of their faith in Christ, Jehovah lifted his condemnation from them. He
raised them up out of spiritual death and gave them hope of everlasting life.
(1Pe 4:3-6) The apostle John describes this transfer from deadness in
trespasses and sins to spiritual life in these words: “Do not marvel, brothers,
that the world hates you. We know we have passed over from death to life,
because we love the brothers.”—1Jo
An
Undeserved Kindness of God. The provision of a resurrection for
humankind is indeed an undeserved kindness of Jehovah God, for he was not
obligated to provide a resurrection. Love for the world of mankind moved him to
give his only-begotten Son so that millions, yes, even thousands of millions
who have died without a real knowledge of God might have opportunity to know
and love him, and so that those who love and serve him can have this hope and
encouragement to faithful endurance, even as far as death. (Joh 3:16) The
apostle Paul comforts fellow Christians with the resurrection hope, writing to
the congregation at Thessalonica about those of the congregation who had died
and who had hope of a heavenly resurrection: “Moreover, brothers, we do not
want you to be ignorant concerning those who are sleeping in death; that you
may not sorrow just as the rest also do who have no hope. For if our faith is
that Jesus died and rose again, so, too, those who have fallen asleep in death
through Jesus God will bring with him.”—1Th
Likewise,
for those faithful to God who died with hope of life on earth under God’s
Messianic Kingdom, and also for others who have not come to know God,
Christians should not sorrow as the rest do who have no hope. When Sheol
(Hades) is opened, those in there will come out. The Bible mentions many who
have gone there, including the people of ancient
Ransom applied to
all for whom it was
given. The greatness and expansiveness of God’s love and
undeserved kindness in giving his Son that ‘whoever should believe in him might
have life’ would not limit the application of the ransom to only those whom God
chooses for the heavenly calling. (Joh 3:16) In fact, the ransom sacrifice of
Jesus Christ would not be completely applied if it left off with those who
become members of the Kingdom of heaven. It would fall short of accomplishing
the full purpose for which God provided it, because God’s purpose was that the
Kingdom have earthly subjects. Jesus Christ is High
Priest not only over the underpriests with him but also for the world of
mankind who will live when his associates also rule as kings and priests with
him. (Re 20:4, 6) He has “been tested in all respects like ourselves [his
spiritual brothers], but without sin.” Therefore he can sympathize with the
weaknesses of persons who are conscientiously trying to serve God; and his
associate kings and priests have been tested in the same way. (Heb
Servants
of God have anxiously looked forward to the day when the resurrection will
complete its work. In the outworking of his purposes, God has set exactly the
proper time for it, in which his wisdom and long-suffering will be fully
vindicated. (Ec 3:1-8) He and his Son, being both able and willing to perform
the resurrection, will complete it in that set time.
Jehovah joyfully anticipates
the resurrection. Jehovah and his Son must
anticipate the full carrying out of that work with great joy. Jesus showed this
willingness and desire when a leper entreated him: “‘If you just want to, you
can make me clean.’ At that [Jesus] was moved with pity, and he stretched out
his hand and touched him, and said to him: ‘I want to. Be
made clean.’ And immediately the leprosy vanished from him, and he became
clean.” This touching incident demonstrating Christ’s loving-kindness for
mankind was recorded by three of the Gospel writers. (
Some Not Resurrected.
While it is true that Christ’s ransom sacrifice was given for mankind in
general, Jesus indicated that its actual application nevertheless would be
limited when he said: “Just as the Son of man came, not to be ministered to,
but to minister and to give his soul a ransom in exchange for many.” (Mt
20:28) Jehovah God has the right to refuse to accept a ransom for anyone he
deems unworthy. Christ’s ransom covers the sins an individual has because of
being a child of sinful Adam, but a person can add to that by his own
deliberate, willful course of sin, and he can thus die for such sin that is
beyond coverage by the ransom.
Sin against the
holy spirit.
Jesus Christ said that one who sinned against the holy spirit
would not be forgiven in the present system of things nor in that to come. (Mt
12:31, 32) A person whom God judged as having sinned against the holy spirit in the present system of things would therefore
not profit by a resurrection, since his sins would never be forgiven, making
resurrection useless for him. Jesus uttered judgment against Judas Iscariot in
calling him “the son of destruction.” The ransom would not apply to him, and
his destruction already being a judicially established judgment, he would not
receive a resurrection.—Joh
To
his opposers, the Jewish religious leaders, Jesus said: “How are you to flee
from the judgment of Gehenna [a symbol of everlasting destruction]?” (Mt 23:33;
see GEHENNA.) His words indicate that these persons, if they did not take
action to turn to God before their death, would have a final adverse judgment
entered against them. If so, a resurrection would accomplish nothing for them.
This would also appear to be true of “the man of lawlessness.”—2Th 2:3, 8;
see
Paul
speaks of those who have known the truth, have been partakers of holy spirit, and then have fallen away, as falling into a
condition in which it is impossible “to revive them again to repentance,
because they impale the Son of God afresh for themselves and expose him to
public shame.” The ransom could no longer help them; hence they would receive
no resurrection. The apostle goes on to liken such ones to a field that
produces only thorns and thistles and is therefore rejected and ends up being
burned. This illustrates the future before them: complete annihilation.—Heb
6:4-8.
Again,
Paul says of those who “practice sin willfully after having received the
accurate knowledge of the truth, [that] there is no longer any sacrifice for
sins left, but there is a certain fearful expectation of judgment and there is
a fiery jealousy that is going to consume those in opposition.” He then
illustrates: “Any man that has disregarded the law of
Moses dies without compassion, upon the testimony of two or three. Of how much
more severe a punishment, do you think, will the man be counted worthy who has
trampled upon the Son of God and who has esteemed as of ordinary value the
blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has outraged the
spirit of undeserved kindness with contempt? . . . It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” The judgment is more severe
in that such ones are not merely killed and buried in Sheol, as were violators
of the Law of Moses. These go into Gehenna, from which there is no
resurrection.—Heb 10:26-31.
Peter
writes to his brothers, pointing out that they, as “the house of God,” are
under judgment, and he then quotes from Proverbs 11:31 (LXX) warning
them of the danger of disobedience. He here implies that their present judgment
could end with a judgment of everlasting destruction for them, just as Paul had
written.—1Pe
The
apostle Paul also tells of some who will “undergo the judicial punishment of
everlasting destruction from before the Lord and from the glory of his
strength, at the time he comes to be glorified in connection with his holy
ones.” (2Th 1:9, 10) These would therefore not survive into the Thousand
Year Reign of Christ, and since their destruction is “everlasting,” they would
receive no resurrection.
Resurrection During
1,000 Years. A very liberal estimate of the number of persons
that have ever lived on earth is 20 billion (20,000,000,000). Many students of
the subject calculate that not nearly so many have lived. Not all of
these, as it has been shown in the foregoing discussion, will receive a
resurrection, but even assuming that they did, there would be no problem as to
living space and food for them. The land surface of the earth at present is
about 148,000,000 sq km (57,000,000 sq mi), or about 14,800,000,000 ha
(36,500,000,000 acres). Even allowing half of that to be set aside for other
uses, there would be more than a third of a hectare (almost 1 acre) for each
person. As to earth’s potential food production, a third of a hectare will
actually provide much more than enough food for one person, especially when, as
God has demonstrated in the case of the nation of Israel, there is abundance of
food as a result of God’s blessing.—1Ki 4:20; Eze 34:27.
On
the question of the earth’s food-producing power, the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization maintains that, with only moderate improvements in agricultural
methods, in even the developing areas the earth could easily feed up to nine
times the population that scientists have estimated for the year 2000.—Land,
Food and People, Rome, 1984, pp. 16, 17.
How,
though, could the thousands of millions be adequately cared for, in view of the
fact that most of them did not in the past know God and must learn to conform
to his laws for them? First, the Bible states that the kingdom of the world
becomes “the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he [rules] as king
forever and ever.” (Re
How would it
be possible in 1,000 years
to resurrect and educate
the billions now in the
grave?
Nevertheless,
an illustration reveals what a simple, practical thing Jehovah has in mind for
mankind. Not to prophesy, but merely for the purpose of illustration, let us
assume that those who compose the “great crowd” of righteous persons who “come
out of the great tribulation” on this system of things alive (Re 7:9, 14)
number 3,000,000 (about 1⁄1666 of earth’s present population). Then if,
after allowing, say, 100 years spent in their training and in ‘subduing’ a
portion of the earth (Ge 1:28), God purposes to bring back three percent of
this number, this would mean that each newly arrived person would be looked
after by 33 trained ones. Since a yearly increase of three percent, compounded,
doubles the number about every 24 years, the entire 20 billion (20,000,000,000)
could be resurrected before 300 years of Christ’s Thousand Year Reign had
elapsed, giving ample time for training and judging the resurrected ones
without disrupting harmony and order on earth. Thus God, with his almighty
power and wisdom, is able to bring his purpose to a glorious conclusion fully
within the framework of the laws and arrangements he has made for mankind from
the beginning, with the added undeserved kindness of the resurrection.—Ro
11:33-36.
Article
from the Insight book of WT V/2
Here
the beginning of the article
RESURRECTION
The
Greek word a·na′sta·sis literally means “raising up; standing up.”
It is used frequently in the Christian Greek Scriptures with reference to the
resurrection of the dead. The Hebrew Scriptures at Hosea 13:14, quoted by the
apostle Paul (1Co
Through Jesus Christ. The foregoing shows that the teaching of resurrection
appears in the Hebrew Scriptures. Nevertheless, it remained for Jesus Christ to
“shed light upon life and incorruption through the good news.” (2Ti
Christ
himself when on earth performed resurrections. (Lu
A
Sure Purpose of God. Jesus Christ pointed out to the
Sadducees, a sect that did not believe in resurrection, that the writings of
Moses in the Hebrew Scriptures, which they possessed and claimed to believe,
prove there is a resurrection; Jesus reasoned that when Jehovah said He was “the
God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (who were actually
dead), He counted those men as alive because of the resurrection that He, “the
God, not of the dead, but of the living,” purposed to give them. God, because
of his power, “makes the dead alive and calls the things that are not as though
they were.” Paul includes this fact when speaking of Abraham’s faith.—Mt
God’s ability to resurrect. For the One with the ability and
power to create man in His own image, with a perfect body and with the
potential for full expression of the marvelous characteristics implanted in the
human personality, it would pose no insurmountable problem to resurrect an
individual. If scientific principles established by God can be used by
scientists to preserve and later reconstruct a visible and audible scene by
means of videotape, how easy it is for the great Universal Sovereign and
Creator to resurrect a person by repatterning the same personality in a newly
formed body. Concerning the revitalizing of Sarah to have a child in her old
age, the angel said: “Is anything too extraordinary for Jehovah?”—Ge 18:14; Jer
32:17, 27.
How the Need for Resurrection
Arose. In the beginning a resurrection was not necessary. It was not a
part of God’s original purpose for mankind, because death was not the natural,
purposed thing for humans. Rather, God indicated that he purposed the earth to
be full of living humans, not a deteriorating, dying race. His work was
perfect, hence without flaw, imperfection, or sickness. (De 32:4) Jehovah
blessed the first human pair, telling them to multiply and fill the earth. (Ge
1:28) Such blessing certainly did not include sickness and death; God set no
limited life span for man, but he told Adam that disobedience is what would
cause death. This implies that man would otherwise live forever. Disobedience
would incur God’s disfavor and remove his blessing, bringing a curse.—Ge 2:17;
Consequently,
death was introduced into the human race by the transgression of Adam. (Ro
5:12) Because of their father’s sinfulness and resultant imperfection, Adam’s
offspring could not get a heritage of everlasting life from him; in fact, not
even a hope of living forever. “Neither can a rotten tree produce fine
fruit,” said Jesus. (Mt 7:17, 18; Job 14:1, 2) The resurrection was
brought in, or added, to overcome this disability for those of Adam’s
children who would desire to be obedient to God.
Purpose of the Resurrection. The resurrection shows forth not
only Jehovah’s unlimited power and wisdom but also his love and his mercy and
vindicates him as the Preserver of those who serve him. (1Sa 2:6) Having
resurrection power, he can go to the extent of showing that his servants will
be faithful to him to the very death. He can answer Satan’s accusation that
asserted that “skin in behalf of skin, and everything that a man has he will
give in behalf of his soul.” (Job 2:4) Jehovah can let Satan go the full limit,
even to killing some in a vain effort to support his false accusations. (Mt
24:9; Re 2:10;
Essential to man’s happiness. The resurrection of the dead, an
undeserved kindness on God’s part, is essential to mankind’s happiness and to
the undoing of all the harm, suffering, and oppression that have come upon the
human race. These things have befallen man as a result of his imperfection and
sickness, the wars he has waged, the murders committed, and the inhumanities
practiced by wicked people at the instance of Satan the Devil. We cannot be
completely happy if we do not believe in a resurrection. The apostle Paul
expressed the feeling in these words: “If in this life only we have hoped in
Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.”—1Co
How Early Was Resurrection
Hope Given? After Adam had sinned and had brought death upon
himself and thereby introduced death for those who would be his posterity, God,
in addressing the serpent, said: “And I shall put enmity between you and the
woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and
you will bruise him in the heel.”—Ge 3:15.
One originally causing death to
be removed. Jesus said to the religious Jews who opposed him: “You
are from your father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father.
That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth,
because truth is not in him.” (Joh 8:44) This is evidence that it was the Devil
who spoke through the instrumentality of the serpent, and that this one was a
manslayer from the beginning of his lying, devilish course. In the vision that
Christ later gave to John, he revealed that Satan the Devil is also called “the
original serpent.” (Re 12:9) Satan got his hold on mankind, gaining influence
over Adam’s children, by inducing their father Adam to rebel against God. So in
the first prophecy, of Genesis 3:15, Jehovah gave hope that this Serpent would
be put out of the way. (Compare Ro 16:20.) Not only is Satan’s head to be
crushed but also all of his works are to be broken up, destroyed, or undone.
(1Jo 3:8; NW, KJ, AT) The fulfillment of this prophecy
would of necessity require the undoing of the death introduced by Adam,
including bringing back by a resurrection those of Adam’s offspring who go into
Sheol (Hades) as a result of his sin, the effects of which they inherit.—1Co
15:26.
Hope of freedom
entails resurrection. The apostle Paul describes
the situation that God permitted to exist following man’s fall into sin and His
end purpose in doing so: “For the creation was subjected to futility [being
born in sin and with death facing all], not by its own will [the children of
Adam were brought into the world facing this situation, though they themselves
had no control over what Adam had done, and by no choice of their own] but
through him [God, in his wisdom] that subjected it, on the basis of hope that
the creation itself also will be set free from enslavement to corruption and
have the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Ro 8:20, 21; Ps 51:5)
In order to experience the fulfillment of this hope of glorious freedom, those
who have died would have to have a resurrection; they would have to be freed
from death and the grave. Thus, by his promise of the “seed” that would crush
the serpent’s head, God set a marvelous hope before mankind.—See SEED.
Abraham’s basis for faith. The evidence in the Bible record
reveals that when Abraham attempted to offer up his son Isaac he had faith in
God’s ability and purpose to raise the dead. And as stated at Hebrews 11:17-19,
he did receive Isaac back from the dead “in an illustrative way.” (Ge 22:1-3,
10-13) Abraham had a basis for faith in a resurrection because of God’s promise
of the “seed.” (Ge 3:15) Also, he and Sarah had already experienced something
comparable to a resurrection in the revitalizing of their reproductive powers.
(Ge 18:9-11; 21:1, 2, 12; Ro 4:19-21) Job expressed similar faith, saying,
in his intense suffering: “O that in Sheol you would conceal me, . . . that you would set a time limit for me and
remember me! If an able-bodied man dies can he live again? . . . You
will call, and I myself shall answer you. For the work of your hands you will
have a yearning.”—Job 14:13-15.
Resurrections before ransom was given. Resurrections
were performed by or through the prophets Elijah and Elisha. (1Ki
Because
of having been resurrected by his friend Jesus, Lazarus was likely alive
Pentecost 33 C.E., when the holy spirit was poured out and the first ones
of the heavenly calling (Heb 3:1) were anointed and spirit begotten. (Ac 2:1-4,
33, 38) Lazarus’ resurrection was similar to those performed by Elijah and
Elisha. But it probably opened up to Lazarus the opportunity of receiving a
resurrection like Christ’s, which he otherwise would not have had. What a
remarkable act of love on Jesus’ part!—Joh
“A better resurrection.” There were those faithful persons
of old times of whom Paul speaks: “Women received their dead by resurrection;
but other men were tortured because they would not accept release by some
ransom, in order that they might attain a better resurrection.” (Heb 11:35)
These men exhibited faith in the resurrection hope, knowing that life at
that time was not the all-important thing. The resurrection they
and others will have through Christ comes after his resurrection and
appearance in heaven before his Father with the value of his ransom sacrifice.
At that time he repurchased the life right of the human race, becoming the
potential “Eternal Father.” (Heb 9:11, 12, 24; Isa 9:6) He is “a
life-giving spirit.” (1Co
Heavenly Resurrection. Jesus Christ is called “the firstborn from the dead.” (
However,
for 40 days after his resurrection Jesus appeared to his disciples on different
occasions in various fleshly bodies, just as angels had appeared to men of
ancient times. Like those angels, he had the power to construct and to
disintegrate those fleshly bodies at will, for the purpose of proving visibly
that he had been resurrected. (Mt 28:8-10, 16-20; Lu 24:13-32, 36-43; Joh
20:14-29; Ge 18:1, 2; 19:1; Jos 5:13-15; Jg 6:11, 12; 13:3, 13)
His many appearances, and particularly his manifesting himself to more than 500
persons at one time, provide strong testimony to the truth of his resurrection.
(1Co 15:3-8) His resurrection, so well attested, furnishes “a guarantee to all
men” regarding the certainty of a future day of reckoning or judgment.—Ac
Resurrection of Christ’s
“brothers.” Those who are “called and chosen and faithful,”
Christ’s footstep followers, his “brothers,” who are spiritually begotten as “God’s
children,” are promised a resurrection like his. (Re
Peter
also describes the hope such ones possess as “precious and very grand promises,
that through these you may become sharers in divine nature.” (2Pe 1:4) They must
undergo a change of nature, giving up human nature to obtain “divine” nature,
thus sharing with Christ in his glory. They must die a death like Christ’s—maintaining
integrity and giving up human life forever—and then they receive immortal,
incorruptible bodies like Christ’s by a resurrection. (Ro 6:3-5; 1Co
In
the case of Jesus Christ, he gave up his human life as a ransom sacrifice for
the benefit of mankind. The 40th Psalm is applied to him by the inspired writer
of the book of Hebrews, who represents Jesus as saying, when he came “into the world” as God’s Messiah: “Sacrifice and offering you did not
want, but you prepared a body for me.” (Heb 10:5) Jesus himself said: “For
a fact, the bread that I shall give is my flesh in behalf of the life of the
world.” (Joh 6:51) It follows that Christ could not take his body back again in
the resurrection, thereby taking back the sacrifice offered to God for mankind.
Besides, Christ was no longer to abide on earth. His “home” is in the heavens
with his Father, who is not flesh, but spirit. (Joh 14:3;
Christ’s
faithful brothers, who join him in the heavens, give up human life. The apostle
Paul shows that they have to have new bodies repatterned, or refashioned, for
their new environment: “As for us, our citizenship exists in the heavens, from
which place also we are eagerly waiting for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who will refashion our humiliated body to be conformed to his glorious
body according to the operation of the power that he has.”—Php 3:20, 21.
Time of the heavenly resurrection. The heavenly resurrection of Christ’s
joint heirs begins after Jesus Christ returns in heavenly glory, to give first attention
to his spiritual brothers. Christ himself is called “the firstfruits of those
who have fallen asleep in death.” Paul then says that each one will be
resurrected in his own rank, “Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who
belong to the Christ during his presence.” (1Co
These
have been under judgment, so at Christ’s return it is time to give the reward
to them, his faithful anointed ones, just as he promised his 11 faithful
apostles on the evening before his death: “I am going my way to prepare a place
for you. Also, . . . I am coming again and
will receive you home to myself, that where I am you also may be.”—Joh 14:2, 3;
Lu 19:12-23; compare 2Ti 4:1, 8; Re 11:17, 18.
“The Lamb’s marriage.” These as a body are called his
(prospective) “bride” (Re 21:9); they are promised to him in marriage, and they
must be resurrected to the heavens in order to take part in “the marriage of
the Lamb.” (2Co 11:2; Re 19:7, 8) The apostle Paul looked forward to
receiving his heavenly resurrection. (2Ti 4:8) When Christ’s “presence” takes
place, there are some of his spiritual brothers yet alive on earth, “invited to
the evening meal of the Lamb’s marriage,” but those of their number who have
died are given first attention by a resurrection. (Re 19:9) This is explained
at 1 Thessalonians 4:15, 16: “For this is what we tell you by Jehovah’s
word, that we the living who survive to the presence of the Lord shall in no
way precede those who have fallen asleep in death; because the Lord himself
will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and
with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise
first.”
Paul
then adds: “Afterward we the living who are surviving
will, together with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air;
and thus we shall always be with the Lord.” (1Th
First resurrection. Revelation 20:5, 6 refers to
the resurrection of those who will reign with Christ as “the first
resurrection.” The apostle Paul speaks of this first resurrection also as “the
earlier resurrection from the dead [literally, the out-resurrection the out of
dead (ones)].” (Php 3:11, NW, Ro, Int) On the expression
Paul uses here, Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New
Testament (1931, Vol. IV, p. 454) says: “Apparently Paul is thinking
here only of the resurrection of believers out from the dead and so double ex
[out] (ten exanastasin ten ek nekron). Paul
is not denying a general resurrection by this language, but emphasizing that of
believers.” Charles Ellicott’s Commentaries (1865, Vol. II, p. 87)
remarks on Philippians
Earthly Resurrection. While Jesus was hanging on a stake, one of the evildoers
alongside him, observing that Jesus was not deserving of punishment, requested:
“Jesus, remember me when you get into your kingdom.” Jesus replied: “Truly I
tell you today, You will be with me in
The
evildoer, Jesus said, would be in