Two Resurrections

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We just celebrated Easter, the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps because of the teaching of Gnosticism, which emphasizes the superiority of the spiritual rather than the physical, we have lost sight of the central hope of the Christian Gospel—the bodily resurrection of the Christians.

(3/27/2005) The Lord Jesus told us that everyone who is in the graves shall hear His voice and come forth, the righteous to eternal life and the wicked to condemnation.

Our bodily resurrection is important for two reasons: first, what we receive at that time will determine what our true name, our true character is and our destiny for eternity; second, we will be able to live once again on the earth. Paradise on the earth shall be regained. The Lord Jesus is redeeming for us all that we lost at the beginning.

The influence of Gnosticism has influenced Christian thinking to the extent we do not look forward to bodily resurrection but to life in a mansion in Heaven. Eternal life in a mansion in Heaven is not the inheritance of God’s people. Our inheritance is physical life once again on the earth, although in a superior body.

We cannot be "raptured" (caught up to meet the Lord as He comes to install His Kingdom on the earth) until we first have been resurrected. It is the resurrection that is the victory over the last enemy, physical death. Right now, by the decisions we are making, we are deciding the kind of resurrection we will have, whether to contempt and corruption, or else to eternal life and glory. It may be true that there is no truth more needed to be restored to us.

We must remember there are two resurrections, both set forth in the twentieth chapter of the Book of Revelation. There is the first resurrection, the bodily resurrection of the members of the royal priesthood. No books are opened at this resurrection for the people thus raised have passed through the Judgment Seat of Christ prior to their restoration to life on the earth.

After a thousand years (literally or figuratively) have occurred, the remainder of the people on the earth will be raised. Each individual will be judged according to his or her works. Those whose names are not found written in the Book of Life will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. Those whose names are found written in the Book of Life, when the sheep are separated from the goats, will enter life in the new heaven and earth reign of God and the Lamb. These "sheep" are the inheritance of the Lord and His priesthood.

The Apostle Paul, in the Book of Philippians, listed the requirements for participation in the first resurrection. We must set aside all else, counting it rubbish, that we may gain Christ. In this manner we attain to the resurrection (Greek: resurrection out from) the dead (Philippians 3:11). Those who attain to this early resurrection, which shall take place at the next coming of the Lord, are His priests, His mighty men, His soldiers who will work with Him in the installation of the Kingdom of God on the earth.

The United States Marine Corps has need of a few good men, they say. The Lord Jesus Christ has need of a few stalwart believers who will press forward until they stand with the Lord on Mount Zion. These compose Gideon’s army, and they shall destroy the enemy so that all Israel may be saved.