The Resurrection. (extra study)

RESURRECTION

Questions were raised during study 2 about the Resurrection, and since this is an important part of the end times, let’s look at it.

The resurrection of those who have died in Christ during the church age obviously takes place when Christ comes for His Church. But the raising of Old Testament saints is not referred to. This appears to have already taken place following Jesus’ own resurrection. It is referred to in Matt. 27;52-53 : “And the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which slept arose…. And then in Ephesians 4vv8-10: “…when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men. (Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.) The Jews believed that the righteous dead were reserved in Paradise. See Ps 16;10 “Thou wilt not leave my soul in ‘hell’”  ( lit Sheol – in OT the place of departed spirits).

Hell; A lot of misunderstanding because this word is used almost universally for the ‘afterlife’ by translators especially in the OT.

Nb In OT. The word translated ‘hell’ is usually Sheol. The place of departed spirits / Paradise which was thought by the later Jews to be the abode of the souls of the pious until the resurrection: but some understand this to be a heavenly paradise.  Others say the upper regions of the heavens. According to the early church Fathers, the paradise in which our first parents dwelt before the fall still exists, neither on the earth nor in the heavens, but above and beyond the world. ie heaven.
Jesus Himself made reference to this as we have seen, when talking to the penitent thief. Lu 23;43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.  Eph 4;8-10 (see above)  seems to suggest that upon His resurrection Jesus emptied paradise taking the righteous with Him to Heaven,  where they are now arrayed as a great cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12v1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses) surveying the events of this present dispensation.

That the souls and spirits of the OT saints are already in Paradise is inferred by Enoch who went to be with God, Elijah, who went up in the chariot, Moses, who God personally buried.  The latter two appeared to Jesus on the mount of transfiguration.

Jesus referred to Paradise in the story of the rich man and Lazarus; Luke 16;19-21

Beggar went to ‘Abraham’s Bosom’.  Rich man to Hell (Hades).

Because we only have words for ‘Heaven’ and ‘Hell’ it is difficult sometimes to adequately translate the Greek and Hebrew which have several different words for ‘the afterlife’.   It is clear that whatever the name, there is a distinction between the abode of those who have been faithful to God (OT) or ‘saved’ (NT), and are awaiting the final judgement of rewards – the ‘Bema’ Seat, and those who are awaiting the judgement of eternal punishment.

In the NT.  Hell is the place of the future punishment called “Gehenna” or “Gehenna of fire”. This was originally the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, where the filth and dead animals and executed criminals of the city were cast out and burned; a fit symbol of the wicked and their future destruction.  The Greek word ‘Tartarus’ is used by Peter in 2 Pet 2;4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

Hades is the NT term for Sheol. The abode of the dead; Acts 2;31 quotes Ps 16;10.

So the resurrection of the righteous dead actually takes place in 4 parts.

1)         OT saints already raised at Christ’s resurrection.   (see above)

2)         The saints of the Church age. And the dead in Christ shall rise first,

3)         We who are alive and remain; “… then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them, in the clouds, to meet the Lord the air” (1 Thess. 4v 16-17).

The bodies of the dead in Christ are in the graves. Their souls and spirits are already with the Lord, for Paul says; “Absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5v8).  At the coming of the Lord these souls and spirits will be reunited with their resurrection bodies.

4)         The resurrection of those converted during the tribulation, who are executed for their faith, which will take place at the end of the tribulation and immediately before the millennial reign of Christ. Revelation 20v4  “those who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark on their heads or in their hands, and they lived again and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

The statement that follows; “This is the first resurrection” indicates that this brings to an end the first resurrection.

The last phase of the resurrection takes place after the Millennium when the unbelieving dead are raised to face judgement. Their resurrection is graphically described as we have seen in Rev. 20v13-14; 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 the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell (Hades) delivered up the dead which were in them;