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The Resurrections -- What Really Happens
All mankind are like the first man Adam in that all die. That is, man is not born immortal. All, every human who ever died, shall be resurrected or made alive again. If we were born immortal, there would be no cause for God to make us alive again, as we would already be alive eternally! Jesus Christ was the first to be resurrected. The group that will be resurrected next are all dead Christians, they that are Christ's, which will be resurrected at the Second Coming, or at His coming. Only God the Father knows the exact date of the Second Coming and the accociated resurrection of all dead Christians:
Although only the Father knows the actual date, numerous signs will appear which indicate that the end is near: wars, rumors of wars, the antichrist, etc. When these signs appear, some of the generation alive at that time will live to see the Second Coming of Christ:
One of these signs can be used to place a time period around the return of Christ. In 1400 BC, God sent Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage and form a nation for the first time. The Bible states that in the end times, God's chosen people will be gathered together a second time to form a nation:
"In that day" indicates the end times, and ensign indicates a national flag. After World War II, the scrappy Jews who survived the war years returned to the land promised to Abraham and formed a nation in 1948. Today all nations recognize their flag, even if some do not honor it. So when the prophesied signs of the end times appear, some of the generation alive at that time will live to see the Second Coming of Christ. One of these end time signs is that God's chosen people will be gathered a second time to form a nation. In Genesis, God placed an upper limit on man's life span:
That is, no human can live longer than one hundred and twenty years. Therefore, if Jesus is going to return during the lifetime of those alive when the nation of Israel was formed a second time in 1948, He must return during or before the year 2068. This is due to the fact that any babies born in 1948 will be at their biological limit in the year 2068 (1948 + 120 = 2068). A baby born in 1948 can live until 2068 if he or she lives their maximum possible period of life. More realistic life spans today are 80-90 years. In any event, a rough estimate on the Second Coming of Christ is during or before the year 2068. Jesus will return to save the earth from destroying itself:
Sound familiar? God returned and recreated the earth in Genesis because it had reached a state of desolation due to Satan's rebellion and mismanagement:
There is a dualism throughout the Bible. For example, Israel will be gathered from around the world a second time to form a nation, Jesus will come to earth a second time, two sets of the ten commandment tables were produced by God, there are two resurrections for humans, and you must be born again (twice) to gain eternal life, etc. Immediately before Jesus returns to the earth, Satan will be locked up for a thousand years:
This thousand years is the millennium and is equivalent to the Sabbath. God completed the Genesis recreation in six days and rested on the seventh. Therefore, he blessed the seventh day and made it holy. This is a model for what is now occurring on the earth. Man was created and given instructions on how to live, the Ten Commandments. He has six "days" to work on the earth and choose his way or God's. Individually, there are a few who choose God's way and live a happy existence on earth. However, as a group, mankind chooses his own way and rebels against God:
So this rebellious nature in both man and some angels results a second time in the near destruction of the earth. For God, or anyone who lives for eternity, a thousand years is like one of our days:
God is a spiritual being who lives forever. If you live for eternity, a thousand years is like one of our twenty-four hour days. Therefore, man's six days on the earth equates to six thousand years in God's days. It has been approximately 6,000 years since the Genesis recreation. Jesus was born about 4,000 years after the Genesis recreation and it is now 2009 years since the birth of Jesus. This is another indication that we are in or near the end times. Our "six days" of work are almost over. The millennium will be the Sabbath day. Thus six thousand years of work, and a thousand years of rest. We were given the Sabbath day as a way of recognizing and remembering what is happening here on earth. The Sabbath is a sign! However, Satan has tricked most Christian churches into doing the exact opposite. We are supposed to work the first six days of the calendar week, Sunday through Friday, and rest on the seventh day of the week, Saturday. Instead, we rest on the first day, Sunday, and work the next six. In western society, we desecrate the Sabbath even more as we rest the first day, work five days, and do personal work or party on the Saturday Sabbath. Since it has always been done that way, most churchgoers simply say it does not make any difference. We have our special day to rest and worship God, the Jews have their Sabbath, and the Muslims have theirs. It just does not matter. Wrong!
If it does not matter, why did God make it one of the ten commandments? He did not say "Remember a day of your choice, to keep it holy..." He specifically said, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy...":
God even gives us the definition of the Sabbath, "But the seventh day is the sabbath..." In my Random House College Dictionary, the Sabbath is defined as follows:
1 - the seventh day of the week, Saturday. Why is it important to keep God's Sabbath day and not one of your choosing? God answers that in verse 11:
By selecting the wrong day as the Sabbath, we forget why it was established, and fail to recognize that the earth and man are following the same Genesis creation pattern under God's time period. The Sabbath is a sign of what is presently happening. That is, six days of work followed by a Sabbath, where a day is equal to one thousand years. Should Christians be expecting a Sabbath, or period of rest?
This period of rest, or Sabbath, will be equal in length of time to one of the six work periods which it follows. Therefore, the rest period for the people of God will be one thousand years, or the millennium! Satan, the present ruler of the world, has tricked man once again by changing the Sabbath so that we will not be prepared for or recognize the end times. Considering the millennium once again, in what regard is the millennium a day of rest? It is a day of rest because Satan will be restrained during this thousand-year period. We have been working against Satan! So God the Father is the only one who knows the exact time of the Second Coming. However, using the Sabbath as the sign it was established to represent along with the end time prophecies, the Second Coming should be sometime during or before the year 2068. The Second Coming is significant because it coincides with the first of two mass resurrections for deceased humans. In actuality, there are three resurrections of importance in the scriptures. The following chart outlines these three resurrections:
The first resurrection is that of Jesus Christ. He set the example for those who follow by becoming the first to be resurrected:
Jesus lived for thirty-three years as a human on the earth. He was then crucified and resurrected on the third day. Every single human who has ever lived will follow this example set by Jesus:
All humans who ever lived will be made alive again, or resurrected. All includes both believers and nonbelievers! However, all will not be resurrected at the same time. There will be an order to the resurrections:
So Jesus will be resurrected first, and that has already occurred. The resurrection which we presently await is the one at which "they that are Christ's" will be resurrected. "They that are Christ's" refers to Christians. When does this resurrection for all Christians occur? It occurs at the Second Coming of Jesus to the earth, or "at his coming." The Second Coming is described in Revelation chapter nineteen:
Do you recall who the Word was?
The only part of the Trinity of God who became flesh and dwelt among us was Jesus Christ. Therefore, the deity named "The Word of God" coming from heaven on a white horse is Jesus Christ. This is His Second Coming to the earth! At His Second Coming, all Christians are to be resurrected as spiritual bodies and reign with Jesus for a thousand years. The first mass resurrection for mankind is described only a few verses away from the description of the Second Coming:
All dead Christians are resurrected at this first mass resurrection. Christians who are alive on the earth when Jesus returns will be born again as spirits and meet Him in the air:
Remember that physical bodies have a limited life span of one hundred and twenty years. If these Christians were resurrected as physical bodies, they could not live through the thousand-year millennium with Christ as the verse states:
They were buried, or sown in the ground, as physical bodies. They are resurrected, or born again, as spiritual bodies. The following verse defines the almost universally misunderstood meaning of the term "born again:"
That is, to gain eternal life you must first be born as a human being, or born of water. You are 70-80% water and you were carried in water in the womb. You are born first as a flesh and blood physical human being. You must then be born again as a spirit at, or after, your resurrection. All Christians who are born again of the spirit at the first resurrection are now members of the Kingdom of God. They have now become equal unto the angels:
Notice that Christians become "children of the resurrection." That is, they are born at the resurrection. They were born once before in their existence, their physical birth. Since Christians are born a second time as a spiritual being at the resurrection, they are born again! It is an actual, real experience, not simply some emotional occurrence experienced during your physical life on earth. What does the Bible state we must become to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?
We are converted into spiritual, immortal bodies, as opposed to our present physical, mortal bodies. We are new spirits, and thus spiritual "children." This blessed birth occurs at the resurrection, thus we are children of the resurrection. We are little children also in that all sins we ever committed as humans have been forgiven. We are sinless, just as we were when first born as a human. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins when He died on the cross. Therefore, we are saved from the second death, and live for eternity. The wages of sin is death, but we are now sinless, having been born again as spiritual, sinless children of the resurrection. Therefore, we do not suffer the second death. Like Jesus, God's only Son, we will have become the children of God. The family has become much larger:
Jesus will no longer be the only Son of God! In fact, Jesus will now be our brother, as we also are now the sons and daughters of God; thus making us joint heirs with Jesus Christ. What a wonderful big brother we will have! However, that event is in our future if we are Christians. There are no Christians anywhere, dead or alive, who are presently born again Christians. You cannot be born again until Jesus returns! If you believe in Jesus Christ your name is written in the book of life as an inheritor of eternal life under terms of the New Testament. Those terms are believing in Jesus as your Savior. Those who believe in Jesus will receive everlasting life as inheritors under the New Testament covenant:
The New Testament will be probated upon the Second Coming of Christ at the resurrection:
When you are born again the second time at the resurrection as a spiritual body which will live forever, only then can you truthfully claim to be a born again Christian! Until that time, you have not been born again, regardless of what you have been told. You have only been born once as a human. The Kingdom of God consists only of spirits. Therefore, to become members of the Kingdom of God, you must be born again as a spirit:
At this point after the first mass resurrection, all mankind who died as Christians along with Christians who were alive at the Second Coming have been born again as spiritual beings. They will now enjoy the millennium Sabbath with Jesus:
The thousand-year millennium will be spent resting, rejoicing, and apparently new member training, since these new spirits will judge angels and others following the second resurrection:
These angels which born again Christians shall judge are angels who sided with Satan in his rebellion against God and are now restrained in hell:
So God's forgiveness extends even to the angels who rebelled, if they repent. Jesus even visited and preached to them in prison:
Why would Jesus preach unto the fallen angels and let them be judged if there is no possibility of their forgiveness and release? Following the millennium, Satan is released from prison, and he and his followers are defeated in battle. Satan is cast into hell where he is tormented for eternity:
The devil cannot be killed because he is a spirit. The fire and brimstone are not for him, but are there to kill humans which shall be cast into hell and suffer their second death. It is the devil who will be tormented day and night for eternity, not the mythical souls of nonbelievers! This cannot be physical torture since the devil's spiritual body does not feel pain. It is the torment of knowing he failed, being defeated, seeing lowly humans being upgraded to take his place, never being given another opportunity, separation from the Kingdom of God, etc. He has rebelled, been defeated, and lost his freedom and authority for eternity. The second resurrection for man occurs after the millennium. Who will be involved in this second and last mass resurrection? The only portion of mankind remaining in their graves are the nonbelievers. Every single human either believes in Jesus as his Savior, or does not believe in Jesus as his Savior. There are only two groups. All who died believing in Jesus were resurrected during the first mass resurrection. Therefore, all remaining to be resurrected are nonbelievers. Since none of these nonbelievers have their names written in the book of life as heirs to eternal life, they will all be resurrected as mortal human beings:
It is very important that you notice that last verse above! It states that after the judgment of those resurrected in the second mass resurrection, whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Be aware that absolutely none of those resurrected at the second mass resurrection had their names written in the book of life when resurrected! Every single human, dead or alive, with their names written in the book of life were born again as spirits at the first mass resurrection! So why are they checking the book again? Something obviously occurred since these nonbelievers were resurrected to cause the book of life to be modified. Otherwise, there would be no reason to check the book again for their names. What happened? Would God raise these people again as physical bodies only to humiliate them during judgment before casting them into the lake of fire? Why bother raising them from the dead only to inflict another painful physical death upon them? Once again, this flies in the face of "God is love." If the nonbelievers are being resurrected to be humiliated by judgment before being killed a second time, why not simply allow them to remain dead? Of course, God is love, and He is raising the nonbelievers for a reason! One event prophesied to occur before the end of time is that the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world:
In fact, the scriptures state that the gospel is preached to those that are now dead! From the New International Version of The Holy Bible:
The dead cannot be preached to while dead, as the dead know absolutely nothing:
Those that are "now dead" can only be preached to after regaining consciousness. These dead nonbelievers have known nothing since their first human death. They will regain consciousness upon being resurrected from the dead as humans once again at the second resurrection. At that time, they will be taught the good news of the scriptures and may accept Jesus as their Savior and gain everlasting spiritual life with God at that time! It will be the first opportunity for many of them. The second resurrection and great white throne judgment occur before the end of our time. The end of time is the end of the earth and our world as we know them today. It is the end of the age, or day, of man. It is also the end of man and the beginning of a new time. The end of our earth occurs in the very next verse after those not written in the book of life are cast into the lake of fire. At this point there are no more living humans. All have been judged and the judgments carried out. The age of God's rule on earth now begins. What we have been praying for in the Lord's Prayer has now been answered; "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven:"
Therefore, the second resurrection and associated judgment occur in our time, the age of man. As long as men are alive the age of man continues. The age of man will be over when the last nonbeliever is cast into the lake of fire and dies. Billions of people have died never having the opportunity to accept Jesus as their Savior. These nonbelievers are raised again as mortals during the second mass resurrection and given that opportunity! The majority of people who ever lived have never, ever, heard the true message of the Holy Scriptures, even in the United States. Remember that the scriptures have been very successfully sealed until the end of time! At this time these people will hear the true message for the first time from angels, including Christians born again as spirits in the first resurrection, with Satan and his myths and lies totally defeated. Most people have never been given a choice based on Biblical truth! Their choice was based on myths and fear. Those times will be over! Probably 99.999 percent of everyone who ever set foot in a Christian church will scoff at the idea that one can be saved after his or her first death. These people point to the following verse as proof of their claim that one must accept or reject Jesus before their first death:
Their interpretation of this verse is another trick of Satan to cause man unnecessary fear and worry. The true meaning of this verse is explained in chapter 25 entitled, Today Is the day of Salvation. The first two resurrections were singular events in time. Jesus was one person, so He was resurrected in one instant. The Bible states that dead Christians will be resurrected as spirits at the Second Coming. Christians who are alive at that time will rise to meet them in the air. That is, all Christians, dead or alive, are born again as spirits at the same moment in time, the Second Coming. This group will have no problem with living space, food, or water; as they are now spiritual beings. The final resurrection will be one thousand years after the first mass resurrection for humans, and will include every other human who ever lived. This group of nonbelievers will be much larger than the group of Christians resurrected. They will be resurrected as mortals with a 120 year maximum life span. If all are resurrected at the same time, there will be a logistics problem with living space along with a time crunch in being able to judge them within their 120 year maximum life span. Will the earth be able to support this vast multitude of resurrected humans at one time? In addition, since the maximum life span of the human body is 120 years, will there be sufficient time to judge all these humans before they die again? One hundred and twenty years is 63,072,000 minutes. If all are judged before God at the great white throne, in 120 years only 63 million could be judged working day and night if each judgment required only one minute! Let's look closer at these two apparent problems. The Bible never states that all will be resurrected as a group. It states that all will be resurrected after the millennium. Suppose that a manageable group is resurrected initially. As each individual is taught the true gospel of Jesus Christ and judged, he or she will either be born again as a spirit into the Kingdom of God or cast into the lake of fire and die the second death. Either way, that former human is no longer a drain on the resources of the earth. As each case is handled, another human could be resurrected from his or her first death. The entire second mass resurrection might be one event requiring thousands of our years. However, there is no rush of time as spirits live for eternity and 1000 years is like one day to them. All we can know for sure is that this last resurrection will occur regardless of the logistics. Through God all things are possible! The main fact is that everyone will be given a choice. If they were not given a choice on earth prior to their death, they will be given a choice after their resurrection as mortal humans in the second mass resurrection. Their choice will be based on hearing the true gospel message for the first time. It will be preached at this time in the entire world, before the end of the age of man can occur. Christians who were born again as spirits at the first mass resurrection will teach the true gospel message to the vast multitude of nonbelievers resurrected during this second mass resurrection:
These priests of God and of Christ will spread the true gospel message to this multitude of nonbelievers. The Bible states that the bulk of humanity will learn the Holy Scriptures from a child:
These born again Christians from the first mass resurrection are these children! They were born as children of the resurrection and have lived through one thousand years of training with Jesus prior to the second resurrection of nonbelievers. Thus they are one day old children! Since they are immortal, a thousand of mortal man's years are like a day to them! Those nonbelievers who accept Jesus upon hearing the true gospel message after the second resurrection will then have their names written in the book of life, thus saving them from the second death. This is why the book of life is checked again after their judgment. These new Christians are then born again as spiritual beings into the Kingdom of God. What are these people judged on? Their works! For over fifty years I have been taught that only believing in Jesus leads to eternal life. And after reading the Bible several times, I still believe that:
But if their works do not save people, why are they judged by their works? There are levels of authority in heaven and on earth. God the Father is the supreme ruler, and there are then levels within the angels, cherubims and archangels for example. These new spirits produced after the second mass resurrection will be judged by their works. The judgment will hold them responsible for their behavior as humans as well as defining their positions of authority in the Kingdom of God. Remember that all Christians who were born again as spiritual bodies during the first mass resurrection became priests of God and of Christ. They did not have to face the judgment to assign their job responsibilities and authority. Let's consider infants who died shortly after birth. They will be resurrected as physical bodies in the second resurrection as they died as nonbelievers. There will be no sins written against their names as they never reached an age where they understood what sin was. However, they will reach that age here, because there is no rush of time. After sufficient time they will make their decisions regarding Jesus as their Savior and either be born again as spiritual bodies or destroyed in the second death. Noah, John, Paul, Luke, and Mary Yates will be resurrected as physical bodies at the second resurrection if they died not believing in Jesus Christ. They will grow to maturity and the children of the first resurrection will correctly explain the true good news of the gospel to them. They will then make their own personal choice regarding Jesus! Their mother could not make it for them, although most Christian clergy claim this to be the case! They claim she sent them to heaven to be with God for eternity. That is not the case. They must make this personal decision on their own! God created them with freedom of choice so they could choose. It is their individual decision, not their mothers. No one can choose for them! Christians must convince themselves that the above paragraph is correct! The message that every individual chooses his or her personal fate regardless of their age at death must replace the false message that murdered children go immediately to heaven for eternity. The price for not preaching this truth will be paid with the small dead bodies of sacrificed children! If the "church" continues to teach this false theology, these "Christian" sacrifices will continue in the future! Those who do not accept Jesus as their Savior are not saved from the second death:
They are cast into the lake of fire where they die their second death because they were raised in the second resurrection as mortal beings and still have not accepted Jesus since that time. What kind of fool would not accept Jesus under these circumstances? Very likely they would be those who prospered and were very successful as judged by mankind's criteria. They prefer the old system whereby they were rich and powerful. Look at what Jesus states about a rich man gaining eternal life:
Rich people often tend to have very competitive personalities and may be power seekers. God's system is designed to weed out people with these characteristics. After all, this was Satan's character flaw. He wanted to exalt himself and become like the most high God. This flaw led Satan to rebel against God. Why allow those humans with the same flaw to become immortal and possibly perpetuate rebellion? They are weeded out because they do not believe in Jesus. Why do they not believe in Jesus? Look how wonderfully successful they have been on their own. Who needs Jesus? It is not these haughty humans who are going to inherit the earth, but the meek:
After all have been judged and either been born again or killed in the lake of fire described as the second death, there is no longer any need for the concept of death. At this point, everyone in existence is a spiritual body which will live forever. Any former humans still alive, exist as spirits. We have now truly become equal unto the angels. The word hell used in Revelation 20:14 is better translated into English as grave. Since death is no longer a valid concept, there is no longer any need for a grave. Because no one will ever die again, no one will ever be buried in a grave again. Therefore, the concepts of death and hell (the grave) are both cast into the lake of fire and destroyed:
If the extension of life from a maximum of one hundred and twenty years to eternity is our goal, then death is our enemy because death terminates life. Now that every being is an immortal spiritual body, death has been totally defeated. There will be no more death! Death and the grave are thus cast into the lake of fire and destroyed as prophesied:
Why is the lake of fire, or hell, eternal? Any bodies being restrained there are eternal spiritual bodies. These are Satan and any unrepentant angels who rebelled with him. No men will be there, only spiritual bodies. Any men who were cast into hell have died! Bodies which are resurrected as mortal in the second resurrection and cast into the lake of fire are burned to death and that is the end of them. Thus, it is called the second death. In summary as regards our mortal physical bodies:
The few who will never die are those Christians who are alive at the Second Coming of Christ. They will be born again as spirits and meet Jesus in the air upon his return:
Christians (We) shall not all die (sleep), but all will be born again as spirits (changed). When they receive their spiritual bodies their physical bodies are no longer required and will be discarded. These Christians will not experience death in the usual sense. However, as their physical bodies will rot and decay, they could be said to die in that they no longer support a life. Thus the following verse remains a true statement:
Those humans who died as Christians will be born again as spiritual bodies upon Jesus' return. This is the first resurrection. This much larger group will die once. Those who died as nonbelievers and are resurrected again as physical bodies in the second resurrection following the millennium, and still refuse to accept Jesus as their Savior, will be cast into the lake of fire and suffer their second death. These individuals will die twice as humans. There is no recovery from the second death. It is eternal! They do not suffer in hell for eternity. Their death is eternal, not their act of dying! They are gone, dust, erased, nada, gone bye-bye, etc. So these will die twice. After this, death and the grave are finished. Any remaining life is spiritual. The end of time and the age of man are now completed. Man, as a physical being, no longer exists! The place which Jesus has prepared for us will now descend from heaven:
The new heaven and earth refer to our new earth and sky, not heaven where God resides. God's heaven was not made desolate by the rebellious angels and men who ruled over the earth, so it did not need to be made anew. Notice that the items necessary to support human life are no longer required because there is no longer any human life to support. For example, there are no seas and there is no night:
The third of the Trinity of God which will dwell with us on earth is Jesus, as He conquers the earth back from Satan:
Jesus then rules the earth forever and ever. "The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them...," places God in the form of Jesus on the earth. Although there are no longer any physical men at this point, man's domain was the earth. The indication is that Jesus will dwell on the earth. That is, where men were. Not only do you not go to heaven immediately after your death if you are a Christian, you are not there at this point either, which is at least a thousand years after Christ's return. Since He has made a new earth and brought it back with Him, one would suppose that He expects you to be happy with it for some time. After all, what might heaven be? Spirits do not require food, clothing, lodging, or any solid physical place to stay. Those concepts apply only to the physical human world. Heaven might better be defined as being with one of the Trinity of God. After all, Jesus prepared a place for us and returned with it, and shall reign forever and ever. Will heaven then be here on earth? No. However, the scriptures never indicate that Christians will live for eternity in heaven as we have always been incorrectly taught! It is always stated in the scriptures that Christians will spend eternity in the Kingdom of Heaven. This Kingdom of Heaven includes heaven and other territories. God's will is not presently being done on the Earth, so the Earth is not now included in the Kingdom of Heaven. In fact, we are instructed in the Lord's prayer to pray for the Earth to become part of the Kingdom of Heaven:
After the Second Coming and Jesus' defeat of Satan, the Earth will once again become part of the kingdom:
So Jesus will defeat Satan and the Earth will become part of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus will then rule the Earth from new Jerusalem for ever and ever. What will born again Christians be doing?
And how long will we be on the Earth reigning with Jesus? For eternity:
In any event, you will be an unrestrained spirit with freedom of choice. If you desire to go to heaven there should be nothing to stop you. However, based on the description and conditions of the new earth and new Jerusalem, no one should desire to leave!
Proceed to the next chapter.
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