Scripture Text – Matthew 24:3-14
The Resurrection
The coming of the Lord will affect all the inhabitants of the earth. The Church will be “caught away”; Israel will be put through the “fiery furnace of tribulation” but finally gloriously delivered by the archangel; and the nations will be judged and brought into subjection.
Then Paul gives the order of the events as they relate to the Church:
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. – 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.
The dead in Christ shall rise first. Certainly this statement alone is enough to refute the unscriptural theory held by so much of Christendom that “all the dead will rise simultaneously” at the general resurrection at the last day. Jesus says, through Paul, “The dead in Christ will rise first.” This implies that the dead out of Christ will rise later. Surely if the dead “in Christ” are to rise first, the others will rise last. So it is. At the coming of the Lord Jesus only those who have died in the faith will rise in their glorified bodies. John tells us in Revelation 20 that the “wicked dead” will not be raised until after the thousand years—then to be judged at the Great White Throne. The dead in Christ, however, will live and reign with Christ for a thousand years before that time and so they must of necessity be raised before the Kingdom Age. Scripture plainly states:
But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. – Revelation 20:5.
Immediately after the resurrection of the “saved” dead, the living believers will be changed. They shall pass from mortality to immortality. In a moment our bodies will be changed into the likeness of His glorious body. We will have immortal, spiritual, painless, perfect, eternal, deathless bodies. This will occur at the coming of Christ, for the Apostle Paul says:
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. – Philippians 3:20–21.
The dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them. In 1 Corinthians Paul wrote:
Behold, 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 incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. – 1 Corinthians 15:51-53.
Notice the order. First, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and then we shall be changed.
Jesus teaches the same truth in John 11. You recall that after Lazarus had died Jesus was met by Martha before He came to the tomb, and she said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus answered, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Martha knew nothing of the first resurrection. She held the common notion that there would be only one general resurrection at the last day. Then Jesus revealed to her the comforting truth of the first resurrection of the saved before the kingdom, at the coming of the Lord for His Church:
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” – John 11:25.
This speaks of the resurrection of the dead believers. “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live,” said Jesus. Then He added:
“And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” – John 11:26.
The dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive shall be changed without dying. “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”
To Be Continued
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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