The Meaning of the Term Resurrection
The meaning of the Greek word a-NA-sta-sis, the word translated "resurrection," is to be raised to life again, to stand on one’s feet before God.
The current emphasis on the so-called "rapture" of the believers has greatly confused and obscured the hope of the resurrection, the central hope and doctrine of Christianity, by repeatedly emphasizing the lifting of the saints from the earth rather than the resurrection.
There were forty days between the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and His ascension to the Father. Since our resurrection will be patterned after His it is not unlikely that there will be an interval of time between our resurrection and our ascension to meet the Lord in the air.
God would have us look to our resurrection unto the fullness of incorruptible life in the Presence of Christ as being our hope and goal, not to being caught up from the earth into the air, or to eternal residence in Heaven, which are not central doctrines or hopes of the Divine salvation.
The first resurrection from the dead, the resurrection of the royal priesthood, was the hope and goal of the Apostle Paul and must become our hope and goal. The first resurrection will take place after the destruction of our last enemy, physical death, and is the climactic act of our redemption. Our journey through the air is not to be compared in importance with our resurrection and should not be emphasized to the extent that is true today.
Focusing on attaining to the first resurrection has a direct, positive effect on the willingness of the believer to press forward in Christ each day. Focusing on our journey through the air, the teaching that our being caught up to the Lord is to prevent suffering and to remove us from the danger of Antichrist, is having an exceedingly harmful effect on Christian people. The saints are not preparing themselves to stand in the evil day. They are being taught there will be no evil day. They are not arming themselves with a mind to suffer and many may forsake Christ during the days of persecution and moral horrors that are at hand.
No passage of the Scriptures teaches that the believers in Christ will be translated to Heaven in order to escape Antichrist and the great tribulation. The lawless-grace-rapture error will prove to be one of the most destructive heresies ever to influence Christian thinking.
It is important to understand that the first resurrection, the resurrection which is out from among the dead, the resurrection that will take place when the Lord appears, is for the royal priesthood only. This resurrection must be attained. The first resurrection is mentioned in the following verse:
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection [Greek, out-resurrection] of the dead. (Philippians 3:11). This resurrection is not the general resurrection of the dead but the resurrection of the priesthood.
The first resurrection, the out-resurrection from among the dead, is for the purpose of placing the victorious saints on the thrones in the air that control life on the earth. The first resurrection is described as follows:
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that 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 upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4-6)
"This is the first resurrection." "They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years."
The general resurrection, the resurrection of the dead, not from the dead as in the first resurrection, is set forth as follows:
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. (Revelation 20:12)
There is no need to attain to the general resurrection. All people who have lived on the earth, with the exception of the royal priesthood, will appear here.
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 damnation. (John 5:28,29)
The first resurrection, the resurrection of the royal priesthood, must be attained. The general resurrection does not need to be attained. It shall happen to all people who have lived and died on the earth.
People should begin to enter the process of resurrection as soon as they place their faith in Christ. The sacrament of water baptism has been given to us as a means of portraying our death to the world and the beginning of our new life in Christ. We are to count ourselves as dead with Christ and risen from the dead with Christ. The death we die as we count ourselves crucified with Christ and risen and ascended with Christ is a true death! The consequent resurrection and the ascension to the right hand of the Father in Christ are a true resurrection and true ascension!
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:11)
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3) Because the death we experience as we place our faith in Christ is a true death in the sight of God, in that we have separated ourselves from our adamic nature, Divine judgment takes place. It is appointed to people to die once and after this to be judged.
Because we have died in Christ, and through His Spirit are putting to death our sinful nature, the sentence of judgment is that we are totally forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness.
As we die and are judged, the process of resurrection begins to take place in our inner nature. Each time we are led to put to death, through the Spirit of God, some aspect of our adamic nature, we are forgiven, cleansed from all unrighteousness, and given to eat of the tree of life. This is a symbolic way of saying that a portion of Christ’s Life is added to our personality. Because we have been forgiven and cleansed we are able to go past the guardian cherubim, past the flaming sword of Divine judgment, and eat of eternal, incorruptible resurrection life.
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24 ) Not only is the Life of Christ added to our spiritual personality but it is added also to the "house" of incorruptible life that is being formed in Heaven as we continually experience dying and then living in Christ.
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: (II Corinthians 5:2)
In the Day of Christ the Life of Christ that has been formed in our entire personality, in our spirit, in our soul, and in our house from Heaven, will be revealed. The revelation of Christ’s Life in the people that form the Body of Christ, the Church, will release the material creation from the bondage of corruption and bring the saved peoples of the earth into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.