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If you die...will you live again?

You are going to be surprised by the NEW FACTS
you will learn about life after death in this article — facts you may NEVER
have been taught, but information your Bible has ALWAYS contained.

 

Is DEATH the end of everything? Just what is the chance of your coming back to life, or living again? Anyone in great physical danger fights for his life! He exerts almost superhuman energy to save himself — and he does not give up until all strength is gone!

Why this fear of death?

The answer is obvious — death is the opposite of life! It snuffs out this very mortal life that you would defend with all your strength!

All people down through the ages have had to die, but this is not a satisfying answer when you yourself have to face it.

Whether or not you realize it, your only hope of living again is by a resurrection! But what is your assurance, if any, of such an occurrence? Where can you look for such assurance?

You can look to the Bible! It will give you the answers to those important life and death questions that no human mind can give! It is the revealed Word of God.

The preachers today do not grasp the fact that the whole Bible deals with one subject only: the formation — through a resurrection — of the Kingdom of God by God the Father!

It can also be called the Family of God. It will be a family of SPIRIT BEINGS with God the Father at the head; Christ will be the eldest Son, and those who are finally saved at the resurrection will be the other sons.

The resurrection to immortality represents the vital transition from this mortal body — by being born again — into the spirit form, and entrance into the Kingdom of God! "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). As we proceed to study the various resurrections, let us keep in mind how the Master Mind, God the Father, reveals His plan to us. It will build our faith in the resurrection! We will know that we are in a world that is running according to a preconceived, definite plan!

 

Resurrection of Jesus Christ Foretold in Advance

From the time Adam and Eve sinned, God foretold the coming of one who would again give man an opportunity for immortal life, and foretold of His descent through Abraham. He who was to give us the opportunity of a resurrection to eternal life — Christ!

David foretold Jesus' resurrection about 1000 years B.C. (Psalm 16:10), and Isaiah about 700 years B.C. (Isaiah 7:14 and 26:19). Christ Himself foretold that His resurrection would occur the third day — 72 hours (not in 1½ days — 36 hours, as the churches today teach), and it happened in 72 hours! (Write for our free booklet The Resurrection Was Not on Sunday.)

The resurrection of Christ was an entirely different type of event than has ever happened on this earth before or since. The pagans had taught about immortal souls and that people returned to life after death in various other forms (i.e., reincarnations), but they could never produce proof. Christ, before His crucifixion, raised many of the dead back to life to fill out their natural life span (Matt. 9:24, 25; Matt. 10:8; Luke 7:15; John 11:44).

These resurrections were all only for a short return to a physical life, and were of no great importance except to the ones involved!

But on Christ's resurrection depends the resurrection and eternal life of all of us; for I Cor. 15:17, 18 says, "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." Doomed to eternal death!

Do you understand it? Had Christ been an ordinary mortal man without the Spirit of God, He would have sinned sometime during His life and could not have paid our debt for sin! "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23) — eternal death! His sin would have taken His own life and God would not have resurrected Him! He would have had no life left to pay for our sins — we could not expect to be resurrected to eternal life!

Suppose Christ had died but set no time as to when He would be resurrected, and suppose further, that after a year or so His body disappeared. You and I would have no evidence whatever that we would ever be resurrected and become immortal! His body might only have been stolen.

But Christ has given us the evidence! When the Scribes and Pharisees asked Christ for a sign (of His being the Messiah — or Savior) He said He would be three days and nights in the grave (Matt. 12:40) — not one and a half days as the churches today believe, but three! By this teaching of a day and a half, the devil is trying to take our very evidence of a hope for salvation away from us.

Christ arose the third day! He was crucified late Wednesday afternoon and arose late Sabbath (Saturday) afternoon.

The thing that confuses people is that they mistake the Sabbath that is mentioned as drawing on in Luke 23:54 for a weekly Sabbath, whereas it is actually an annual Sabbath — which happened to fall on Thursday in A.D. 31, the year of the crucifixion.

After this came the weekly Sabbath on Saturday. Between these days the women bought and prepared spices (Mark 16:1).

God has seen to it that these two important world events — the crucifixion and the resurrection — have been well witnessed! Christ's healing and miracles had attracted a large following. People were interested in Him wherever He went. On the day of His crucifixion a large multitude was present (Matt. 27:24).

Mary (Jesus' mother) and the other two Marys and John were present also (John 19:25, 26).

As Christ said He would rise the third day the chief priests and Pharisees took great precautions to see that His body did not disappear by being stolen by the disciples, so a guard was set and a great stone was rolled over the sepulcher entrance (Matt. 27:63-66).

Christ's body did disappear though! Christ was resurrected as a divine spirit being! He had been resurrected from the dead the third day and appeared to Mary Magdalene (John 20:1, 14), the disciples (John 20:19), and after that about 500 people saw him at one time! (I Cor. 15:6.) Fifty days later in Jerusalem a large number gathered from all over the world to observe Pentecost and await the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4).

From this point, the news of the resurrection was spread by the apostles (Acts 4:2) and their converts.

 

Resurrection Is Necessary

You have probably been taught that you have been born with an immortal soul which goes immediately to heaven, purgatory or hell when you die. This is not true! Your Bible does not teach it! "The first man is of the earth, earthy" (I Cor. 15:47).

The same Hebrew word nephesh which means fleshly life — whether of animal or man — was translated "creature" in Gen. 1:24, where it was associated with animals, and "soul" in Gen. 2:7, where the Bible speaks of man becoming a living soul!

In other words, both animal and man are composed of one thing — the same thing — mortal flesh, and, as born into this world, one has no more an immortal soul inside him than the other! (Eccl. 3:19, 20)

No one would contend that any beasts are in purgatory or eternal torment.

Another passage, which shows that anyone who dies goes to his grave and is there now, is Acts 2:29 which shows that David is now in his sepulcher, "David . . . is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

Now notice this: if people are in heaven, purgatory or hell where most preachers today say they are, then they are still alive; therefore they could not be resurrected — for the very word "resurrection" itself implies that those resurrected were dead!

Therefore a resurrection is necessary if a person who once died is brought to life again! How sadly and without reason have the Bible teachings been distorted! We could not attain immortality and God would be defeated in His main purpose of creating man — the creation of a spirit being! But we do have this hope of a resurrection!

 

Bible Teaches Resurrection for All

"There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust" (Acts 24:15). Paul said this when he was being tried before Felix. Do you grasp the meaning of this? Everyone is going to be resurrected!

"The hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [judgment]" (John 5:28,29). Daniel 12:2 gives the same thought — a resurrection for everyone.

Now you are going to be in for a surprise! Undoubtedly you are going to learn of one resurrection that you never heard of before and possibly two or three! Yet they are in your Bible. The things that are in the Bible are just not being taught today!

 

The First Resurrection

The first resurrection of man to immortality that has ever occurred in this world (except Christ's), will occur when Christ comes at the last trump. I Thessalonians 4:16-17 describes this: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a [great} shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump [last trump] of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

"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." But they will go immediately to Jerusalem to start their 1000-year rule. Read Zechariah 14.

This is the resurrection just ahead now!! I Corinthians 15:51 through 56 describes this same resurrection and Revelation 11:15 describes the blowing (sounding) of the "last-trump" which ushers this period in. Read these verses!

The JUST DEAD will be raised by the power of God exerted through Jesus Christ (John 6:44). These are they who have repented (i. e., turned from their former ways), been baptized, received the gift of the Holy Spirit and were overcomers to the end (Acts 2:38 and Romans 8:11).

Note! This Holy Spirit is a GIFT that is given only to those who qualify to receive it!

Of this resurrection, Revelation 20:6 says, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death [i.e., the eternal death] hath no power. . . ."

"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them . . ." (Rev. 20:4). This is the resurrection to the spirit form (I Cor. 15:44) just described. Now notice verse 5, but the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished" — all but the good stay dead through the 1000 years! There are no resurrections in the millennium of those long dead!

A thousand-year period follows Christ's second coming and during this time Christ rules the earth (Isaiah 11; Jeremiah 31:1-18; Ezekiel 36). This one thousand years is the time represented by the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:34 and Exodus 23:16) in God's Holy Days. It is a time when God really begins in earnest to save people who live in the end of this age and into the world tomorrow!