The Word of Truth teaches in the clearest and most positive terms that all the dead will be raised. No doctrine of the faith rests upon a more literal and emphatic body of Scriptural authority than this, nor is any more vital to Christianity. "If there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen" (1Corinthians 15:13,14).
Two resurrections, differing in respect to time, and of those who are the subjects of the resurrection, are yet future. In the Scriptures we read: "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). If it be objected that the word "hour" would indicate a simultaneous resurrection of the two classes, it is answered that the "hour" of verse 28 has already lasted more than 2000 years. In 2Peter 3:8, John 8:56 and 2Corinthians 6:2, the word "day" is used similarly.
In Revelation 20:4-6, the two resurrections are mentioned together, with the important addition of the time which intervenes between the resurrection of the saved and of the unsaved. The testimony of Scripture is clear that believers' bodies are raised from among the bodies of unbelievers, and caught up to meet the Lord in the air one thousand years before the resurrection of the latter [ie., of the unsaved]. It should be firmly held that the doctrine of resurrection concerns only the bodies of the dead. After death, disembodied spirits are instantly in conscious bliss or woe (see Philippians 1:23; 2Corinthians 5:8; Luke 16:22,23).
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