Reference Scripture Revelation 20:4-6
  1. Who are they that are resurrected?
    • HINT: For Jesus
    • HINT: For their testimony of God's Word
    • HINT: Did not worship the beast or his image - See Revelation 13:14-15
    • HINT: Did not receive the beast's mark. - See Revelation 13:16-17
    • We have seen in Revelation 13:5 that the beast operates for the last three and a half years of Daniel's last "week". He comes up from the Abyss, (see Revelation 11.7), at the time of the "abomination that causes desolation" sign mentioned in Daniel 9:27. This is the same time that the Lord returns from Heaven to gather his body, the Church. So the Church never sees the beast, or his false prophet, and never has to worry about receiving the mark of the beast. So we can know that those of the First Resurrection are not of the Church.
    • So the time table we see, is first the Lord returns and gathers his body, then three and a half years later the First Resurrection. Early on I was quite confused by this. I wondered how the Church could be first and yet the first Resurrection be later.
    • Here is what the Lord has revealed to me: What does it mean to be resurrected? It means to be dead, buried, then to be brought back to life in a new body.
      Please Read Luke 7:11-16

     

  2. Was the person dead?
    • Did the dead man who came back to life get a new body?
    • So he was not resurrected
      Please Read Mark 5:22-24, 35-43

     

  3. Was the girl dead?

     

  4. Did the girl get a new body?
    • So she was not resurrected.
      Please Read Luke 8:40-56
    • NOTICE: In verse 50 that Jesus said that the dead girl would be healed. Notice also that Jesus said that she was not dead but sleeping. This the the same thing that he said about Lazarus. This is important. These people were not resurrected, but rather they were healed.
      Please Read John 11:14-15, 38-44

     

  5. Was Lazarus dead?
    • Did he get a new body?
    • So Lazarus was not resurrected, he was brought back to life like the others.
    • When Jesus "catches- up" his body, do those who rise up to meet the Lord in the air get new bodies? Yes
      Please Read 1 Corinthians 15:51-57
    • NOTE: Jesus received a changed body too at his resurrection. Jesus received an immortal body at his resurrection and called it "flesh and bones" in Luke 24:39, in contrast to our bodies which are called flesh and blood.

     

  6. So why isn't the Church resurrected?
    Please Read John 5:24 and John 11:25-26
    • As Christians we will never see death; we have already crossed over from death to life. You must be dead to be resurrected. Our life is hidden in Christ. Jesus' resurrection is our resurrection. When the body of a Christian lies down in death, the Christian's soul goes up into Heaven to be with Christ. The soul of the unbeliever lies asleep in the earth awaiting the Last Day, the day of the second resurrection, the Day of Judgment.
    • So the answer to question I) above is that they are post Christian age saints--mostly martyred children of Israel.

     

  7. How long do they reign with Christ?
    • See Isaiah 65:20-25

     


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