Another Resurrection
At the end of the thousand years, during which time Christ has been ruling the world and the earth has been full of the knowledge of the Eternal (a condition that certainly has not been present up to now), there will be another resurrection!
Matthew 13:24 through 30 and verses 36 through 42 (the parable of the tares), describe this harvest! Note verse 30: "Let both grow together until the harvest."
Also note verse 39: ". . . The harvest is the end of the world" — or consummation of the age — the one thousand-year age and the time of resurrection which will follow. Matthew 25:31 to 34 describes the salvation of the world during the millennium and this resurrection also!
Now you are really going to get a surprise! Yet it is only what your own Bible tells you if you will read it!
Some of you have been told ever since you could remember that if anyone is not saved in the present life then he is eternally lost!
But what about all those millions and millions of people back there who were born before Christ's time who never had the chance of salvation because Christ had not yet come to make it available?
Remember that the Bible says, "If the Spirit [the Holy Spirit] of him [God the Father] that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ . . . shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Romans 8:11). But the Holy Spirit from the Father was not generally available to people on the earth until after Christ ascended!
Christ had to ascend unto heaven first! Christ said in John 16:7, "For if I go not away, the Comforter [the Holy Spirit} will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." The Holy Spirit first came to this earth to be available to all men fifty-four days after Christ was crucified! It came on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4).
These millions are not lost forever! They never were called to be saved! God is a just God and He has provided a way whereby they can be saved!
Also, what about the great number since Christ's day who have shown very little interest in religion and have died? Are they lost forever? No, because they have never had a chance for salvation. They are blinded. God is not trying to save many now. He has blinded them! Read Romans 11:5, 7, 8, 25. Also Acts 7:42; Isaiah 28:13; Matthew 13:10, 11, 13.
NO SECOND CHANCE!
Now notice when God is going to give these people their first chance for salvation! Note this carefully! You have probably never heard it explained before in its true meaning!
"Ye shall know that I am the Eternal, when I have opened your graves . . . and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land . . ." (Ezekiel 37:13-14). This is speaking of ancient Israel — a people who had been scattered among the nations almost 150 years before this was written!
When does this take place? It cannot take place before Christ returns to the earth at His second coming because that will bring about the first resurrection. It will not take place then but only after one thousand years have elapsed from the time for the first resurrection, because as we have already seen, only those who have qualified for eternal life before Christ's second coming will be resurrected then! (Also see Rev. 20:5).
Therefore there are only two classes this resurrection can possibly refer to — the incorrigibly wicked who have knowingly rejected the truth or the dead who never had a chance! The evil dead are those who deliberately decided they did not want to be ruled by God. There is no reason to give them a see and chance to attain immortality! They had their chance and turned it down!
Therefore it is the vast blinded majority, who never really had a chance to accept God's way of life, who are resurrected!
Read what Revelation 20:11-12 says about this resurrection: "And I saw a great white throne . . . and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God [these people are standing — a resurrection] . . . and another book was opened, which is the book of life [they are given life]; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books."
It is the great white throne judgment!
Even the worst of the sinners who never had a chance will be in this resurrection, for even the inhabitants of Sodom will be there! (Matt. 10:15; 11:23, 24; Luke 10:12)
God is indeed a just God (Deut. 32:4) and all will have their chance to be saved!
The Final Resurrection
Revelation 20:13-15 describes the final resurrection in which the sea, death, and hell (hades, the grave) give up their dead to be judged. These are they who, after being begotten by God, rebelled, and those who have lived contrary to God's way of life and have refused to repent, be baptized, and thus receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. These are cast into the lake of fire which is described in verse 14 as the second death.
It is an everlasting death!
Why So Many Resurrections?
At first glance it seems strange that there are so many resurrections, but let us examine. God the Father is forming a spirit family of His very own from us mortals here on this earth, but He is also seeing to it that we develop into beings of character — beings that can ultimately be trusted with the great power that God will give us!
This will take time in order that man may learn that his (man's) own ways of doing things, guided by his own natural tendencies, are wrong and that he must be guided by God's laws in all his activities or only wretchedness and death will result! We are just starting to see the terrible end results now of man's own way of running this earth!
God is going to enlarge His Kingdom gradually. An increasing number will be given immortality at each resurrection. Only those who qualify to become spirit beings and are changed into spirit can enter into this kingdom, for I Cor. 15:50 says, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."
Matthew 13:31-32 describes the manner of growth of this kingdom: "The kingdom of heaven [or Kingdom of God] is like to a grain of mustard seed . . . which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among the herbs, and becometh a tree."
Only one person has been born into this Kingdom so far — this is Jesus Christ. This was done by His resurrection to immortality (Romans 8:29; Col. 1:18).
These resurrections to immortality which are to give birth to the rest of the citizens of this spirit kingdom have not started yet, but will start at Christ's second coming! When these do start, there will be a shorter space between each succeeding resurrection.
These people who are transformed into spirit beings will be used to govern the mortal beings here on this earth. These spirit beings of the Kingdom will be rulers, priests, and judges (Rev. 1:6; 20:4; I Cor. 6:2). Ultimately ALL mortal men must be in this spirit kingdom or cease to exist! All of the Bible does start to make sense once God's plan is understood!
No wonder the apostles, who were all witnesses to the resurrection of Christ to immortality (Acts 2:32; 3:15), were so joyous that they went diligently up and down the land preaching this hope.
It CAN Happen to You!
The apostles had the Old Testament scriptures to read. They knew that David had said there would be a resurrection. They knew that Isaiah had later said the same thing. They also knew that job had spoken of a resurrection from the dead to immortality. Christ had told them time and again "He must . . . be killed and be raised again the third day" to immortality (Matt. 16:21). It was too great a thing for them to comprehend. For even when told He had been resurrected, "they [still] knew [comprehended] NOT the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead" (John 20:9).
But when the resurrected Christ soon afterward came back to these same apostles who had witnessed closely His terrible death and remained among them for some time — "Being seen of them forty days" (Acts 1:3) — and when they, at the end of this time, saw Him ascend into heaven (verse 9), they became convinced a resurrection of themselves and all people to immortality is possible!
No wonder they were so joyous that they went diligently up and down the land preaching the Good News — the Gospel — of a resurrection into the Kingdom of God! Your belief in a resurrection to eternal life is based on fact! It is true! Men like yourself witnessed and recorded for you the resurrection of another man of the same flesh as yourself — Christ (Heb. 2:14). A resurrection can happen to you!