Although resurrection is listed as one of the elementary doctrines of Christ (Heb 6:1-3), it is a bit of a challenge to get the right people in the right place at the right time. With the help of the Holy Spirit I will try to stimulate your thinking and perhaps provoke you into reading your Bibles on this subject.
I only know of six Resurrections mentioned in the Bible. Christ, The Firstfruits, The Bride, The First Resurrection, The (dry bone) Resurrection of all Israel and finally The Great White Throne Resurrection and Judgement.
Acts 24:15 tells us both the just and unjust will be raised. No one was resurrected before Christ. He was the first of the firstfruits.
Acts 24:23 Enoch was taken by God, Elijah was taken in a chariot of fire, a young man was brought back to life by Elisha, Lazarus was raised by Christ as were at least a couple of others, but we must realize that being brought back to life is not the same thing as being resurrected.
For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
1 Corinthians 15:42-53
Now lets take these Resurrections on at a time...
FIRST: MESSIAH
Jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up His Spirit.
Matthew 27:50
To Satan, not to God. He spent 3 days in the pit as a sin-laden soul. Your sins not His.
Then four miracles happened.
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two (it was about 5 inches thick of fine twined linen), from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split (some were as large as five ton, and they split cross-grain!).
Matthew 27:51
The curtain being torn in two gave us entrance to the Most Holy Place, where we can communicate with God, through Christ by His Spirit. The forth and greatest miracle of all. The Firstfruits.
SECOND: THE FIRSTFRUITS
The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of THE SAINTS WHO HAD FALLEN ASLEEP WERE RAISED, and coming out of the tombs AFTER HIS RESURRECTION they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
Matthew 27:52-53
The Firstfruit Resurrection occurred AFTER Christ was raised and they were all SAINTS (separated to God) and all SLEEPING.
But we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17
This supports the “Soul Sleeping Theory” mentioned by Paul.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God.
2 Corinthians 5:1-5
To our knowledge these Firstfruits are not here on earth dwelling among us, so they must be with the Master in the 3rd Heaven. Incedentally there are a group:
Then I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps, 3 and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste; it is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes; these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are spotless.
Revelation 14:1-5
These Saints could be infants, children, super righteous adults, or the Bride (The Chosen)!
THIRD: THE BRIDE
It is probable that the Bride will be taken out of the Church (Kingdom of Heaven) in the middle of Daniel’s 70th Week, when Christ makes His APPEARANCE in the heavens sending His Angels forth to cast Satan and his host to earth, slay the first beast and seal the 144,000 Jews.
The seventh chapter of Revelation deals with two subjects, the sealing of the 144,000 Jews and those who were resurrected and came out of great Tribulation, showing a resurrection took place before the outpouring of God's wrath and after the first six seals of revelation were opened which lasted for 42 months.
This will be the greatest Tribulation to GOD'S PEOPLE that the world will ever see. What follows is the greatest tribulation to THE NATIONS the world will ever see, the Wrath of God.
It's apparent he Bride or Chosen is raptured between these TWO events. Read about the Bride in Matthew 25:1-13. Remember they are ALL VIRGINS, and they are ALL IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, and THEY ALL SLEPT. Those locked out were not cast into hell nor the pit, they just did not qualify to be part of the Bride of Christ!
Notice: OIL IS THE DETERMINING FACTOR, and oil is always symbolic for the Holy Spirit.
We see the Bride mentioned again in Revelation:
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
Revelation 19:7-8
Here we are told the fine linen garment the Bride will wear is HER RIGHTEOUS DEEDS, not the garment of Salvation woven by Christ. She already has that! The difference is REWARD. FAITH PLUS SPIRITUAL MATURITY.
and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification.
1 Corinthians 2:4-7
FORTH: THE FIRST RESURRECTION
These Saints did not qualify for brideship but they did qualify as priests of God and of Christ and they shall reign with Him for 1000 years. Their qualifications: they had been BEHEADED for their testimony to Jesus and for the Word of God and did not worship the beast nor its image and had not received its MARK on their foreheads nor their hands.
Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years.
Revelation 20:4-6
Time of Resurrection:
Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, AT THE LAST TRUMPET. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality.
1 Corinthians 15:51-53
But that in the days of THE TRUMPET CALL to be sounded by THE SEVENTH ANGEL, the mystery of God should be fulfilled.
Revelation 10:7
Then THE SEVENTH ANGEL blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.” 16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying, “We give thanks to thee, Lord God Almighty, who art and who wast, that thou hast taken thy great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but thy wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, for rewarding thy servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear thy name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
Revelation 11:15-18
This could be called the Resurrection of Martyrs!
FIFTH: RESURRECTION OF ALL ISRAEL
Sometime during Christ’s 1000 year reign, probably near the beginning there will be a resurrection of the entire house of Israel.
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host.
Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you home into the land of Israel.
Ezekiel 37:9-12
Spirit equals Spirit of life. See Genesis 2:6-7; Malachi 2:15; Isaiah 57:16;
SIXTH: GREAT WHITE THRONE RESURRECTION AND JUDGEMENT
Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it; from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also ANOTHER BOOK WAS OPENED, WHICH IS THE BOOK OF LIFE. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. THIS IS THE SECOND DEATH, THE LAKE OF FIRE; and if any one’s name was not found written in THE BOOK OF LIFE, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:11-15
Those in the First Resurrection will come to life and reign with Christ 1000 years.
The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.
Revelation 20:5
The 1000 years end with the White Throne Judgement. Those in the Kingdom of God that did not make the Martyr's Resurrection will undoubtedly make this one along with all those saints that fell asleep (died) during the Millenium.
Most theologians call this the resurrection of the damned. They will probably change their philosophy when they find themselves there.
I hope you will get something out of all this.
Agape,
Bud