There's More to Life than Death
The Great God has put us here on this earth for a great eternal purpose. Not just to have the best fling possible, then die. There is a tremendous purpose, not even understood by this world's religions, in our existence. We are on this earth for a reason. It involves the answer to why we humans suffer through the gamut of emotions, troubles or good times of human life.
Ancient Job knew the reason.
Job once reached a point near death, psychologically and physically. Everything dear to him had been taken away. He lost all of his children in a tornado, as well as all of his wealth because of thieves and a fire. Now, he was physically stricken and racked with pain. Runny, puss-filled boils covered his entire body from head to foot. The idea of death seemed sweet to Job.
Job knew that if he died now, his present pain and distress would be over. Then he would wait in death, asleep in the grave, as the Bible puts it in I Thessalonians 4:13-14, until God jerked him up out of that grave later. "If a man die, shall he live again?" Job asked himself in a sort of reassurance knowing full well he would. And he answered himself with the next words: "All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands" (Job 14:14-15).
If a Man Die, Shall He Live Again?
But how will man, dead in the grave, live again? Jesus himself answers: "Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming, in the 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 [judgment]" (John 5:28-29).
There will be an accounting for our behavior in this life! You are going to be in one or another resurrection. There are going to be, in fact, three kinds of resurrection. But what does the Bible mean by a resurrection?
The First Resurrection
Paul describes the first resurrection as taking place at Christ's Second Coming to restore the government of God over the whole earth. This soon coming event is described in I Thessalonians 4:16: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first."
"This is the first resurrection" (Revelation 20:5, last sentence). "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection," says God, "on such the second death hath no power" (Revelation 20:6).
Those who will be in the, first resurrection are described in Revelation 14:12: " . . . they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." They are few in number because most people do not keep the Ten Commandments! Included, in Hebrews 11, are Bible notables: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Rahab and a host of others not mentioned, but known and chosen by God. They will never have to face death again. They will rise out of their graves as immortal spirit sons of God. They will be changed from flesh and blood mortality to eternal immortal spirit life. They are those who were converted in this life, who received the promise of eternal life through the Holy Spirit which imparts the divine nature (II Peter 1:4) and impregnates them with the beginning of eternal life (I Peter 1:23).
But what about the multitudes of people who never knew God, or the Bible? What about the hundreds of millions of people now living in areas of the world who have no access to the Bible? Those deliberately kept from the knowledge of God in this atheistic secular, deceived world?
The Second Resurrection!
The billions of people who once lived, but never knew God, and never had the opportunity to understand and choose His way of life, will have their opportunity. They will have their turn in the second resurrection, a thousand years after the first resurrection. These are those mentioned in Revelation 20:5, called "the rest of the dead": "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Think of it! Every person now living without the true revealed knowledge of God, or who has lived and died, will have a time of judgment in which either to accept or reject the way of life of God.
John describes the second resurrection in Revelation 20:12: "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." There would be no reason for a book of life to be opened if none were to receive eternal life. It will be a time when humanity as a whole will come to know God and receive his Holy Spirit, which imparts a new spiritual life in mortal humans once again living in the flesh. See Ezekiel 37:11-14.
The Third Resurrection
There are, sadly, those who knowingly reject God, and God's way of life. These will be in the third resurrection.
The third resurrection is absolutely final. All who spurn God and God's way of life, and died a natural death, will be resurrected — in the third resurrection — to a final, eternal death. It is called the second death, from whence there will never be a resurrection: "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [Hades, the grave] delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life [at the time of the second resurrection] was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:13-15). They shall be turned to ashes (Malachi 4:3).
It's Time to Consider
The message should be clear — it's time to take thought, to consider and to ask yourself where you stand before God.
God does exist! What he says in the Bible will happen! Any claiming to be an atheist, nonbeliever, agnostic or whatever, will not change the truth of God, nor reality about life, death and what happens after death. God even warns that disbelief is no excuse: "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20).
Don't be deceived! Each of us will ultimately reap what we sow! "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Galatians 6:7-8).
Be warned! Each of us will have to personally answer. to God for what we've done in this life. We will each have to give an account for our own actions: "For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Romans 14:10-12).
Don't treat this information lightly, and let it in one ear and out the other. There will be a judgment: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad" (II Corinthians 5:10). Only the few are now called to judgment. Judgment now is on the Church of God (I Peter 4:17), not the world as a whole.
It Is Time to Change
Each of us has made mistakes. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's expectations, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). The point is — it's time to stop sinning! And start doing what is right! That's called repentance, change.
Says God: "Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?" (Ezekiel 33:11). Note, it does not say "live forever as immortal souls in hell."
God makes it clear: "If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live" (Ezekiel 18:21-22).
God's mercy toward those who change — who repent — who stop going the get way, and turn to the give way, is spelled out in the Bible. It is beyond human understanding: "Come now," implores the Great God, "and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18).
Says God to those who properly fear him, that is, respect his authority and his commands, "For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us" (Psalms 103:11-12).
God's very name, as he himself spelled it out, proclaims his loving mercy toward those who ask him for forgiveness and seek to do his commandments: "The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin . . ." (Exodus 34:6-7).
God mercifully made man mortal, so that if he did choose irrevocably to go the wrong way he would die, not suffer eternal punishing in a hell fire. That final death of the wicked, those who choose the way of get, will be death by fire, when this earth burns up. They will be turned to ashes, but the earth will be renewed — an eternal inheritance for those who choose the way of give, of love — the way of the Ten Commandments.
Solomon's simple conclusion sums it all up: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).
God grant you the wisdom — and desire — to take the proper steps that lead to repentance and the receiving of the Holy Spirit that imparts the impregnating seed of eternal life in mortal man. It is made plain in a full-length book The Incredible Human Potential by Herbert W. Armstrong — available in bookstores in the United States and Canada. It is published by Everest House. Request your copy.