In the spiritual sense, to resurrect means to bring back to life.  To resurrect a human being means that he/she was once alive, then died, and now has been brought back to his/her former living status.  Beginning with Adam and Eve, man has been fascinated with the subject of death and the possibility of life beyond death.  Satan deceived God’s most prized creation by promising them a life in which death would not be a factor (Gen. 3:4).  There was no caveat connected to his program.  Adam and Eve could do whatever they wanted to do, including reject the God Who created them.  No matter what they did, they would “… not surely die.”  Satan promised them eternal life for pleasing themselves.  God also had promised them eternal life.  However, His program involved strict obedience to His Law.  The choice for Adam and Eve was clear. They could choose Plan A–do as they were commanded to do and live forever, or Plan B–do whatever they wanted to do and live forever.  This was the point at which they chose which god they would believe and obey.  That is the reference point at which man has determined his fate ever since.   If Jesus can be believed, the vast majority have chosen, are choosing and will continue to choose Plan B.

Satan (the Serpent) deceived Eve with a lie.  By embracing his lie she and Adam rejected God’s Truth.  The focus of the decision was life and death.  To this day man refuses to accept God’s revelation about life and death.  Satan has succeeded in hiding God’s Truth concerning the inevitable death and resurrection of every person who has ever lived.  In the church scenario, people belonging to “the” church do not literally die–they simply change locations by going straight to heaven.  The unfortunate souls who are involved in “those” churches (or no churches) go straight to hell where they will burn forever.  Neither theory is Biblical.  Read Life After Death? and Hell using “Death” and “Hell” as your respective key words.  The central theme of Satan’s schema is that man’s soul–supposedly the most important part–never dies, that upon taking his last breath in this phase of life he (his soul) is instantly transported into the next life where he either lives in paradise or in fire.  The moral of this theory is that man’s soul is immortal.

The modern church accepts the Serpent’s “immortal soul” theory even though there is no Biblical foundation for it.  In my youth we often sang about going to heaven “where the soul of man never dies.”  Yet God tells us straight up–twice–that, “the soul that sins, that soul dies” (Eze. 18:4,20).  Church people have three problem stems relative to this subject.  1) they do not see the connection between their sins and their spiritual deaths, 2) they do not know what sin is, 3) they do not understand the soul–what it is and what it is not, and 4) they do not believe God’s revelation about the inevitable death and resurrection of all human beings.  My three series on the subject: Life After Death, The Resurrections and Hell address this important concept.

In Genesis 2:7 we are told that “God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”  This series of events in no way indicates that eternal life–immortality–is guaranteed.  The word “soul” is an English translation of the Hebrew word “nephesh.”  Nephesh is the Biblical word that identifies the physical body of any oxygen-breathing entity, including animals, birds, reptiles, rodents–and man.  In Ecclesiastes 3:19 the Lord tells us that man dies just as do animals.  The soul (flesh part) of man dies, decays and returns to the earth exactly as does the flesh of other creatures (creations).  That the soul is physical, composed of physical matter and eventually dies is proved in many places in the Bible, for example Psalm 103:13-16/ 1 Peter 1:24 and James 4:14.

The Scriptures tell us that every human being that has ever lived will die and be resurrected.  “For as in Adam all men (people) die, even so in Christ all will be brought back to life.  But every man (will die and be resurrected) in his own time” (1 Cor. 15:22,23).  The question is not IF a person will die and be resurrected, but WHEN.

Jesus of Nazareth set the example for those who would join Him in the coming Kingdom of God.  Being the first to be resurrected, He became “the firstborn (again) among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29).  His resurrection made the resurrection of all other people not only possible, but inevitable.  Every human who has ever lived will be resurrected, but not at the same time and not to the same reality.  The Holy Scriptures speak of three resurrections of three distinct groups of people at three different times.  Let us briefly study those resurrections.

The first resurrection will involve those true saints–called “firstfruits” of God–who are, upon the Messiah’s Second Advent (return to earth) either dead or alive.  This resurrection will bring back to life those saints who will have died earlier, who had gone to their deaths in a state of righteousness.  “Righteous Abel” was the first to have died in that spiritual condition.  After Abel came such notable figures as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, the prophets, the apostles and those few (Mat. 7:13,14) who followed in their spiritual footsteps by walking in holiness until the end of their lives (Mat. 10:22/ Rom. 5:21;6:22).  The first resurrection is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17.  In an instant, in the “twinkling of an eye” both the dead and the living will be born again–changed from physical to spiritual bodily composition.  No one is saved or born again in this life.  Conversion places one on the track toward salvation that will be awarded at the return of Jesus Christ to earth.  One must remain on that track in order to receive eternal life at that time.  Few, Jesus warns us in Matthew 7:13,14, will do so.  Though many will have been called to remain on the right track, most of those called will end up in Satan’s Catholic/Protestant religious system.  Read Bait and Switch and Born Again.  Use “Bait” and “Born” as your key words respectively.

The first resurrection concerns the raising from the dead of God’s true saints (holy ones) who will have lived “in Christ” beginning with Abel and ending with Christ’s return to earth.  The resurrection of the “dead in Christ” will be followed immediately by the resurrection of those who will be living in Christ at His coming.  These are those few (Mat. 7:13,14) who will have obeyed the “voice” of the Holy Spirit until the moment when the trumpet sounds, the archangel shouts,  lightning flashes from east to west and Christ appears in the clouds.  Those who will have died in Christ and those still living in Him at His coming will then be taken up to where Jesus awaits.  From there they will descend to Jerusalem from whence they will rule and reign with Him over the earth for 1000 years (Rev. 20:5,6).

Revelation 20:5 describes the second resurrection: “But the rest of the DEAD will not live AGAIN until the thousand years are finished.”  These will have lived and died during the time between the creation and the first resurrection who did not qualify for the first resurrection.  These will be resurrected in human form at the end of the 1000-year Millennium, taught the ways of God and be given the opportunity to be part of the Kingdom of God.  This period is called the Great White Throne Judgment (vss 11,12).  Those alive at time of the first resurrection who did not qualify for it will remain alive to face the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.

Those who will be brought back to life in the second resurrection will include all Catholics, Protestants, athiests and those of the other religions Satan has sprinkled throughout the world’s societies.  These people will have never heard the true gospel and will have remained ignorant of God’s Truth throughout their lives.  Most of historical humanity will be restored to human life in the second resurrection.  God does not want anyone to die eternally.  Therefore, all people must be given the opportunity to hear the true gospel and be allowed to accept or reject it.  Most of those in the second resurrection will accept it, repent of their sins and will live eternally on earth.  However, only the “firstfruits”–those who will rise in the first resurrection–will live in New Jerusalem as spirit beings.  From there they will rule and reign with Christ forever.

The Great White Throne Judgment is described in Isaiah 65:17-25.  In verse 20 we read, “There will be no more an infant of days, nor an old man that has not fulfilled his days, for THE CHILD will die a hundred years old.  But the SINNER (the one who rejects God’s gospel that God’s “firstfruits” will teach during the Millennium) will die at the age of 100 and will be cursed by God.  All people resurrected during the second resurrection will live 100 years.   “THE CHILD” referred to in verse 20 refers to one who will have been taught the Lord’s gospel by God’s firstfruit saints and will have embraced it.  They will also be born again (changed from physical to spiritual bodily composition) in the “twinkling of an eye.”  Those who refuse to conform to God’s rules will be cast into the Lake of Fire.

The third resurrection is referred to as the “second death.”  All who have heard the true gospel during their previous lives and rejected it will be resurrected to condemnation (Jn. 5:29), shame and everlasting contempt (Dan. 12:2).  These will be cast into the Lake of Fire where they will (Mal. 4:3).  In that they had earlier died, the death by burning is called the second death.  This death will also include those who survived the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord, were taught the true gospel during the Millennium but refused to embrace it.  L.J.