How is it possible that all Israel will be saved and yet people will be going into the millennial reign of Christ without being transformed and having new bodies?

Will all Israel that’s a part of the church be transformed into heavenly bodies?

How will there be people going into the millennium without heavenly bodies?

It doesn’t make sense to me

What makes sense matters, but the first question of paramount concern is what does the text SAY?!

Secondly, what is the evidence for how the biblical writers expected to be understood? Were they correct in how they understood their own prophecies? Or was there a deeper, allegorical meaning that eluded their limited understanding?

Was their interpretation of what Yahweh spoke merely a reflection of a “primitive, nationalistic, time bound” understanding that would someday be replaced by a different interpretation that could not have been understood or recognized by the prophets or their contemporaries? That’s the hermeneutical question in debate.

After establishing the plain person’s plain reading of plain language, we can then begin to look for light as to how certain antinomies (difficulties / paradoxes) can be reconciled WITHOUT violence to the original author’s intention.

The very meaning of the millennium is at stake here. Why should God make such a point of ending the age around the “controversy of Zion”, a conflict that is destined to draw all nations into an insoluble, inescapable dilemma over the Land and people of Israel that sets off the final world conflict? (Isa 34:8; Zech 12:2-3).

It will be a kind of valley of decision designed to test hearts, primarily over the issue of the nature of saving grace and the ‘kind’ of righteousness (not one’s own but the Lord’s alone) that can stand in the judgment.

In other words, why should God be so determined on saving an elect remnant of ethnic Jews (“natural branches”) unless it is to set the wayward nation of an irrevocable divine election forth as the statement and demonstration of His free and sovereign prerogative to change and qualify them for a final and secure inheritance of the Land by predestined grace.

He has set them at the center of the nations, that He might show in them for a thousand years of public demonstration, the power of His ability to choose whom He will, and quicken whom He will (Mt 11:27; Jn 5:21; Ro 9:18) at the “set time” of His choosing (Ps 102:13; 110:3; Isa 30:18; Gal 1:15-16), and thus finally and forever preserve, not only them but each and everyone of their children after them in abiding holiness, never again to depart (Isa 59:20-21; Jer 32:40, et al.).

Why? What’s He out to prove? What’s His point?

The design is to press upon the consciousness of the nations God’s faithfulness to His immutable covenant word that most of the world doesn’t even know exists, as multitudes are even now being preconditioned to despise and dismiss this word by the events that are swiftly hurling us to the time of final reckoning.

That covenant (called synonymously “new” / and “everlasting”) is not fully complete or satisfied (in all its original terms) until there is not a living Jew on the post-tribulation earth that is not born again and preserved in the “everlasting salvation” of the “everlasting righteousness” of Christ throughout the entirety of the millennial interim as an all holy nation, “never again” to depart (Isa 45:17, 25; 59:20-21; 60:21; Jer 31:34; 32:37-41, Dan 9:24, with so many more that could be listed ).

This uniformity of a completely saved and eternally preserved Jewish population at peace in their own, covenanted Land is the goal of the covenant, since only then will the long blinded Jewish nation have their spiritual eyes opened. A coming day when the blind shall see, and those who always before resisted the Spirit opposer shall learn doctrine is promised all throughout Moses and the prophets (compare Deut 29:4 with Deut 4:25-31; 30:1-6; Isa 29:18, 24; Acts 7:51).

Only when, not a mere remnant, but “all” the people are righteous (Isa 60:21; Jer 31:34), with an eternal righteousness not their own (Isa 45:24; 54:17; Jer 23:5-6; Dan 9:24), can they fulfill the covenant conditions and thus keep the Land forever in abiding peace and security.

This will be possible because the tendency to backslide and come back under the curses of the covenant will be forever cured by the everlasting righteousness of the everlasting covenant. No more will the righteous remnant suffer the sins and exile of the larger apostate nation, since all will be preserved in new covenant righteousness forever, “world without end” (Isa 45:17).

It is one thing for God to bring the Jews into the Land, but a radical transformation is required for them to be assured of permanent security in the Land. This is the very thing the everlasting / new covenant guarantees. From this, it is clear to see why the prophets understood that nothing short of a climactic, apocalyptic day of the Lord could ever bring about such a radical and permanent change in the whole of the nation.

More specifically, not all the nation but only the remnant who escaped death in order to arrive at that ultimately transformative day (Ps 102:13; 110:3; Isa 66:8; Eze 39:22; Zech 3:9; 12:10; 13:8-9; Mt 23:39; Acts 3:21; Ro 11:26; Rev 1:7) .

This is why, not only a remnant, but the entirety of the nation must “all” know Him (Jer 31:34; Eze 39:22, 28-29) in order for them to be able to keep the Land forever, as promised in the plain language of the covenant. As I like to say, “in order for the Jews to inherit the Land forever, they must have a righteousness that is forever”.

This righteousness, which is the Lord’s own righteousness alone (Isa 45:24-25; 54:7; Jer 23:5-6), must extend, not only to a remnant, but the whole of the nation and all the children born to them in future generations, lest the tendency to backslide send them back under the curses of the broken covenant.

This “everlasting righteousness”, which is none their own, but the Lord’s alone, is that righteousness that was perfected in the Son and imputed to the believer whose faith is counted for righteousness. This righteousness, once imputed, is invariably made manifest by the gift and fruits of the enlivening Holy Spirit.

Of course, all of this applies now to every true-born believer of this age and the assurance of eternal inheritance in the age to come (both the millennium and the new heavens and earth), but God intended an earthly demonstration of His ability to accomplish this divine, self assigned “mission impossible” here, on this earth with the Jewish people, here, at the scene of the crime, so to speak, in the presence of a helplessly bound enemy (Satan).

It was necessary that this grace be exhibited and put on display by weak, natural jars of clay, supernaturally upheld in holiness by the gift of the Holy Spirit and nothing of human power.

Manifestly, God has set this interim period as the demonstration of His ability, not only “to graft them in again” but to keep them in, forever!. This requires an interim that is a glorious advance on the present age, yet short of the final, ultimate perfection that follows the millennium.

This newly and suddenly saved remnant of penitent survivors (like Paul’s sudden arrest on the Damascus road) will enter the millennium in their natural bodies and be assisted back to their Land by surviving gentiles compare Isa 14:2; 40:22; 60:9; 66:20; Zech 8:23). Manifestly, these survivors from among the nations did not take the mark, but were also not yet born again (not yet “in Christ”) at the time of the last trump, when Jesus was revealed from heaven (Isa 26:12-13 with Mt 24:29-31; 1Cor 15:52).

Many scriptures speak of this sudden salvation of the surviving remnant of penitent Jewish survivors at the Lord’s post-trib return (Ps 102:13; 110:3; Isa 59:17-21; 66:8; Jer 30:6-7; Eze 39:22, 28-29; Zech 3:9; 12:10; Mt 23:39; Acts 3:21; Ro 11:26; with Rev 1:7) with the result that now, an all saved Jewish population will never again backslide and fall back under covenant judgment, but “all”, from the least to the greatest will know the Lord (Isa 59:21; Jer 31:34; 32:40; Eze 37:25; 39:22). THIS is the OT context behind Paul’s statement, “and so all Israel shall be saved”.

This sudden national salvation of a surviving remnant is everywhere shown to take place at the post-tribulational day of the Lord. It’s purpose is the open and public vindication of “My covenant with THEM (natural branches) when I shall (future) take away THEIR (the irrevocably elect and no less beloved enemy’s) sin …”

Several scriptures show very definitely that the time Paul has in view is the post-trib day of the Lord, which the NT obviously equates with Christ’s return. When Jesus arrives in glory, the dead in Christ, together with all those alive in Christ at the time, will be changed in an instant, immediately translated into glorified immortality.

At the same time (“in one day”; Ps 102:13; 110:3; Isa 66:8; Zech 3:9; Eze 39:22; Mt 23:39; Ro 11:26; Rev 1:7) ; a surviving remnant of Jews, having just been brought to the end of their power (Deut 32:36; Dan 12:7), “look upon their pierced Messiah”, and immediately go apart to weep in deepest contrition, as when Joseph revealed himself to his estranged brethren (compare Gen. 45 with Mic 5:3-4; Zech 12:10; Mat 23:39; Rev 1:7). After the great purgation of tribulation judgment, the newly saved Jewish remnant (Eze 20:33-40; Amos 9:9-10) goes into the millennium in natural, albeit Spirit filled bodies (Eze 39:22, 28-29).

Now, with it established that the scripture is very clear that a surviving remnant will make up the newly born nation, entering the post-tribulational kingdom in natural bodies, returning by every natural means of transport back to the Land to build and plant, raise families, and witness to the nations, the question is naturally raised, “what will be the relationship of those who enter the millennial kingdom in their natural bodies and those who have been translated at the rapture?”

When taken together, the cumulative evidence of scripture creates what can be called a “necessary inference”. I believe the puzzle is only solved, with due respect to all that the scripture says, by recognizing what I like to call, a “dimensional divide”.

The mystery of the rapture is not a mystery as to its time. That is no mystery (compare Hos 13:14; Isa 25:7-8; 27:12-13; Mt 24:29-31 with 1Cor 15:5-54 ). The mystery has to do with a ‘dimensional divide’ between those who will be putting on resurrected bodies with capacities that are like the angels and like the Lord in His post-resurrection appearances for the purpose of spiritual rule, (as for example, ruling over 5 or 10 cities), but in a realm of existence, not any less on earth, but not immediately visible to saved and unsaved mortals in the millennium (compare Mt 19:28; 22:30; Lk 19:17:18; 1Cor 13:12).

There is so much more that can help clarify and harmonize, but the greatest problem (other than failure to fully depend on the Spirit for the mercy of illumination) is lack of OT literacy on the popular level, and on the scholarly level, the tendency to embrace of a set of a-priori presuppositions that seeks to harmonize the testaments by a radical method of reinterpretation and spiritualization. It’s a great, historic deficiency in the church due to centuries of neglect of the OT and artificial, unsatisfactory solutions that fail to convincingly harmonize the testaments.

Second point implicit in your question is the relationship of the body to national Israel:

To be clear, Israel can only be saved as it becomes the body of Christ by the transforming, regenerating revelation of Christ. If they are alive to God, they are “in Christ”, and thus part of His body sharing in the unity of the Spirit, equally with all saints, whether Jew or Gentile.

1 Corinthians 6:17
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

In the natural order, there is a necessary and crucial distinction between Israel and the church, just as between male and female. But there is no distinction at all in the unity of the one new man, that is all who know the Lord, whether in times past, in this age, or the millennial age to come.

This unity of the Spirit in the God-Man is not a new truth, but an old truth that has come to full light in the revelation of the mystery. (Remember this: something that is newly revealed, or has come to much greater light, does not mean that it did not exist before, just as the revelation of Jesus has brought much clearer light on the triune nature of the Godhead. Yet no one would say that such new revelation created something that did not exist before).

In distinguishable contrast from the one new man of the Spirit, natural Israel and the supernatural preservation of Jewish identity throughout the generations, belongs to a corporate election that does not guarantee the salvation of any individual in the set apart nation. Instead, precisely because of the covenant mandate, belonging to the Jewish race commends the covenant breaker to a “double” discipline, as foretold in scripture and witnessed throughout history.

So when Israel comes to faith on that day, they will be no less the living body of Christ, albeit with a unique and special calling, role, and stewardship to be lived out openly in the presence of the nations throughout the millennium.

Thus, the millennium exists primarily for this open covenant vindication and demonstration of every word and aspect of His everlasting covenant, to be lived out in literal detail before the nations and also the onlooking principalities and powers. This will show show for a thousand years of open, fully visible demonstration that God was indeed able, not only to bring the people He first brought out of Egypt back into the Land, but now, because of an “everlasting righteousness” (namely, the righteousness of the Son), eternally secure to one and all, they will abide, preserved in holiness and peace in the Land, within the originally specified borders of the promise.

We are led then to infer, most necessarily on the basis of 1Cor 15:50-52, that all who come to faith during the millennium, with any who die in the Lord during the millennium, will be raised with their new body at the end of the millennium when the great transition to the new heavens and earth follows the final rebellion.

If that explanation does not fully satisfy every question, it is also to be considered that there is a mystery about time in the realm of the Spirit as it intersects with natural historical time. In any event, lingering questions must not be permitted to impose on the clarity of what the text plainly ‘SAYS’.

May the kind Shepherd, “come alongside”, and cause our hearts to burn within us, as He opens to us the Scriptures.

Reggie

The post What Kind of Bodies Will Israel Have in the Millennium? appeared first on Mystery of Israel.

Paul knew the trumpet of Isa 27:12-13 (also Ps 47:5; Joel 2:1; Zeph 1:16-18) sounds at the same time the nation is being born “at once” / in “one day” in Isa 66:8 (with Ps 102:13; Eze 39:22; Zech 3:9; 12:10; 14:7). That is the same moment the AC is being destroyed in “one day” (Is 9:14; 10:17; 47:9) by the breath of the Messiah’s mouth / voice (Isa 11:4; 30:27-33; 31:8-9; 42:11-14; 66:6-8; Joel 3:16; Zeph 1:7, 14-18; Zech 9:14).

As Paul’s manifest use of the Septuagint’s translation of Isa 11:4 in 2Thes 2:8 makes clear, the AC is destroyed at the instant of the Lord’s return to judge the wicked, raise the dead, and assert His rod iron rule over the nations the “last trump” (1Cor 15:52; Rev 10:7; 11:15). It all lines up with the moment (“twinkling of an eye”) of His return like the lightning flashing across the sky (Mt 24:27, 29-31; Rev 1:7).

Obviously, the NT writers believe their OT, literally! They put the pieces together by the help and leading of the Holy Spirit. They are not advancing ‘new truth’ but unraveling the mystery of what stood written in the OT prophetic scriptures (Acts 26:22-23; Ro 11:25-29; 16:25-26; 1Pet 1:11). That’s the glory and compelling proof of the gospel, that it was all foretold!

But the timing of the resurrection and the last trumpet was NOT the mystery! Observe that Paul very plainly identifies that the post-tribulational resurrection of Isa 25:8 & Hos 13:14 is “brought to pass” (“THEN shall be brought to pass”) at the last trumpet (1Cor 15:51-55). So what is the “mystery” that Paul is showing us? I would suggest that it is the phenomenon of the “change” (compare Job 14:14 NKJV) into a new dimension of existence, with new powers and capacities for rule that Jesus says will be “like the angels” (Mt 22:30; Lk 20:36).

It is a dimension that will permit the everyday believer of this age to “know as they are known” (1Cor 13:12) with the capacity to “judge angels” (1Cor 6:3). Recognition of this “dimensional divide” helps to explain how the now glorified saints can, “like the angels”, exert a spiritual rule over that number from the nations who were not raptured, but survived to enter the millennium in their natural bodies.

Paul is giving us a resolution to a paradox (antinomy) that has perplexed many.

If our view of scripture commits us to take the scriptures of the OT in their plainly intended meaning. And if we believe that these can and should be harmonized with NT revelation, then Paul’s mystery of the translation becomes most helpful in making some crucial distinctions. For example, how do we reconcile the many OT scriptures that show Jewish and gentile survivors of the final tribulation entering the post-DOL millennial age in natural bodies, building, evangelizing, having children, etc.

How do we understand the nature of this cohabitation of the glorified redeemed and the un-resurrected, Spirit filled survivors of Israel on the millennial earth? Will the resurrected be visible to one another but not to the unresurrected. It would appear so from a number of scriptures (e.g., Isa 26:10; 60:12; Zech 14:16-19; Rev 20:7-9).

If the plain language and context of many OT scriptures be given due respect and weight, and if a reconciling harmony can be expected to exist without ignoring or neglecting the plain meaning of any text of the inerrant scripture of truth, then Paul’s revelation of this “mystery” leads to what we might call a “necessary inference” that serves to very satisfactorily explain this perplexity.

Not only will the DOL bring the separation between the righteous and the mark taking wicked, the last trump will also bring a ‘dimensional divide’ between those who were already “in Christ” at that time (1Cor 15:23, 52) and the penitent remnant of Israel who are just then receiving the transforming “revelation” (not mere physical sight) of Jesus at the moment of His return in the clouds of heaven (notably analogous to Paul’s sudden arrest on the Damascus road; compare Ps 102:13; 110:3; Isa 66:8; Eze 39:22; Mic 5:3-4; Zech 3:9; 12:10; Mt 23:39; Acts 3:21; Ro 11:26; Rev 1:7).

At this revelatory self disclosure of their long rejected “Joseph” (Mic 5:1-4; Zech 12:10; 13:1 with Mt 23:39; Rev 1:7), the penitent survivors of Israel “go apart to mourn” in deepest contrition (Zech 12:10). With every Jewish survivor now saved and filled with the Spirit, and with the assistance of earnestly seeking gentile survivors (Isa 14:2; 49:22; 60:9; 66:20; Zech 8:23), the broken and beautified, uniformly saved “Jewish” nation, begin their long trek back home across land and sea (notably across the dried up riverbeds of the great historic rivers of Nile and Euphrates; see Isa 11:12, 15-16; 19:4-8; 27:12-13; Zech 10:9-11; Rev 16:12).

My grace granted aim at this year’s conference will be to address the two inextricably related questions: “Why the Jew?” & “Why a Millennium?” What has God invested in a thousand years of open vindication and public demonstration of His everlasting covenant, not only in the sight of the nations, living and past, but of the principalities and powers who continually raise the question ,”has God really said?”, in their long war on the Word.

The post Paul’s Mystery of the Rapture appeared first on Mystery of Israel.

What would you say is the cost of making the first resurrection either the new birth or something else?

Contrasted with the first resurrection coming at the end of the last persecution with the destruction of the final beast, the obvious answer is the necessary details of all that. But is there something more that is lost? It sure feels like it.

Lost is all that God has invested in the demonstration that Israel was first set apart to demonstrate and vindicate “through their fall” and national resurrection by a sovereign act of discriminating grace (Eze 36:22, 32). Lost is all the meaning of God’s own affliction and sacrifice in their temporary surrendering over to blindness and dispersion “for our sake”. (Ro 11:11-12, 28). Lost too is all that God has invested in the crisis events of the end that signal and lead up to that great transition of greatest consequence to millions.

Lost is the purpose of 1000 years of open demonstration and vindication of the ‘everlasting covenant’, as every Jew who revered the scripture understood it before the cross, and as the apostles of the Lamb manifestly understood it after the cross.

In all references to the forward looking “everlasting / new covenant” the expectation is clear, that AFTER a final tribulation of unequaled severity, the penitent survivors of Israel would be born to new national life in one day (Ps 102:13; 110:3; Isa 66:8; Zech 3:9) through the spiritual regeneration of the new / everlasting covenant. That “from that day and forward”, not SOME but “ALL” would know the Lord from the least to the greatest (Isa 4:3; 45:17, 60:21; Jer 31:34; 32:40; Eze 39:22, 28-29), and this blessed preservation would extend without exception unto children’s children, “world without end” (Isa 44:3; 59:21; 61:9; 65:24; 66:22; Eze 37:25).

From this time and forward, all of Israel would lie down in safety, none making them afraid, or menacing their peace again forever (). This is because that at the end of the final week (Daniel’s 70th week), the surviving remnant of Israel, having come now to faith by the Spirit’s revelation of Jesus to their hearts, will enter into the “everlasting righteousness” that was secured when reconciliation was made for sin at the end of the 69th week (Dan 9:24-26).

It is not enough that Jews and gentiles be saved on equal footing by faith in Jesus’ once and for all sacrifice. For the promises of the covenant to have their complete and plenary fulfillment, it is necessary for two crucial events to be accomplished, 1.), the finishing of the mystery of iniquity by the finishing of the mystery of God at Jesus’ seventh trumpet return (2Thes 2:3-8; Rev 10:7; 11:15), and 2.), the salvation of “all Israel” that ends Israel’s temporary and partial blindness at the end of the times of the gentiles” (Mt 23:39; Ro 11:25-29; Lk 21:24).

God has joyously placed Himself under sworn obligation to His covenant oath that the hopelessly intractable nation that He first brought out of Egypt, He is able to bring into the specific Land of specific promise, and not only bring them in, but keep them there in abiding, unbroken peace, because of the everlasting righteousness that is not their own. That through His work with them, He might show on the public stage of history one of the greatest, open and visible demonstrations of the glory of sovereign, electing grace.

It is for this very cause (“in order that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls”) that He first chose Jacob on a basis utterly apart from any inherent quality in himself, and for this purpose, to make this very point, He has miraculously preserved their public visibility throughout all the centuries. That the people He first set His love upon, and for nothing that can be credited to them (Eze 36:22, 32), He has invested this open demonstration and vindication of HIs glory on the question of whether He is able to graft in again, and thus fulfill the everlasting covenant in all its parts and aspects, literally and tangibly on this earth, the opposition of history and all the demons of hell notwithstanding.

It is our appreciation of this, and our fellowship with Him in this great burden of the prophets that is at stake. We need to get beyond what any given truth of scripture will ‘do for us’, and enter into the fellowship of what this means to Him. He desires that we “come and see”, feast and fellowship in the mysteries of His manifold wisdom that He delights to reveal to His friends, even the hidden wisdom ordained to our glory.

He desires that we know what this great demonstration and vindication means to Him as His answer, not only to His people and the nations, but to the gainsaying principalities and powers that have so long ruled this present age, always raising that original, but no less perennial question, “has God really said?” For this great event of divine satisfaction, we are commanded to give Him no rest “till He stablish and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth”, against all odds!

Finally, there is the question of hermeneutics, which can have the end effect of raising the same question, “has God really said?” Going beyond the fully agreed and acknowledged use of metaphor, figurative language, poetic, symbolic and apocalyptic conventions of speech found all throughout the Bible, has anyone ever paused to document the sheer volume of scripture, not of figurative but plain words of plainest meaning, that would have to be spiritualized and divested of their natural sense, in order to sustain the non-millennial interpretations that see nothing on this present earth after the post-tribulational day of the Lord? I realize that’s a long sentence, but read that again.

It would be a worthwhile exercise just to go through and document the massive amount of scripture that describes conditions on this earth after the great day of the Lord, but that fall clearly short of the final perfection. Plain language could never be thus handled by anyone who believes the scripture infallible and without error unless deferring to powerful presuppositions as to what these scriptures ‘cannot’ mean.

Many have noticed how little agreement exists among amillennialists over what is meant by “the first resurrection”. There is only agreement on what it cannot mean. This can only be attributed to strong presuppositions that precede and influence exegesis, in this case, the plain person’s plain reading of plain language.

Even if we had never heard of the duration of the millennium from John’s Revelation, any plain reading of the OT would have led to the necessary inference of glorious but yet imperfect conditions on this earth between the post-tribulational DOL and the perfection of new heavens and new earth. We know that such views existed in the intertestamental period and among Jews during the post-Christian centuries.

Nothing in the NT contradicts but only re-affirms that fundamental expectation of events on this earth, only now in the full light of the revelation of the mystery of two comings of Messiah. And finally, have our amillennial brethren ever been to the future day of the Lord to confirm and report back that Israel will surely NOT be gathered?

The time for that event was always described as happening at one time only, i.e., the post-tribulational day of the Lord. On what ground can they certify to us that this will not happen right on schedule, when the prophets said it would? And what do they do with the modern state of Israel? Is it an accident of history? To those who have this hope, the trajectory of history seems firmly right on course.

Looks like we’re in for stormy weather, and it threatens to be a lot stormier if we do not have an anchor in what these events mean and where they’re designed to take the church and Israel in these ultimately transitional, closing days, particularly when they are staring us right in the face.

Reggie

The post The First Resurrection appeared first on Mystery of Israel.

Are you saying that Christians who die today will not be resurrected until the last day?

Yes. Jesus said that everyone that the Father has given Him will be drawn to Him and raised at the ‘last day’, not sooner. Like any Jewish believer of the time, Martha’s response shows the common expectation of Jewish believers, that her brother would rise ‘at the last day’ (Jn 11:24).

John 11:23-24
Jesus said unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha said unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

If we compare Job’s amazing expectation that he would see with his own eyes,in a real flesh and bone body, his Redeemer when His feet shall stand upon the earth, with Zechariah’s prophecy that the Messiah’s feet would stand on the Mount of Olives at the day of the Lord.

Job 19:25-27
For I know that my redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

Zechariah 14:4
And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east…

And if we see when Isaiah expected to be raised at the time of Israel’s national deliverance at the post-tribulational day of the Lord. along with all the righteous dead (Isa 25:7-8; 26:19-20).

Isaiah 25:7-8
And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.

Isaiah 26:16-19
LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. Like as a woman with child, that draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

This, with Daniel’s personal assurance that he would be raised at the end of the unequaled trouble when his people would at last be finally and permanently delivered out from under the cruel yoke, not only of the gentiles but of the sin that sold them (see Dan 12:1-2, 13),

Daniel 12:1-2
And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which stands for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Daniel 12:13
But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

These and several other passages show why the hope of OT believer was to be raised at the ‘last day’, as confessed by Martha. Of course they did not understood this term to mean the last day of the present earth’s existence, but the last day of this present evil age. This is the same hope that Jesus promises to those who would henceforth believe on Him (see Jn 6:39-40; 44, 54). The early church knew of no other!

John 6:39-40, 44
And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose none, but raise them up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which sees the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Paul was bound in chains for the ‘hope of Israel’, which he identified as the ‘hope of the resurrection of the dead’ (see Acts 23:6; 26:6-7; 28:20). This hope has never changed to something else. Perfected union with the Lord in risen, fully perfected bodies is the ‘blessed hope’ of the body of Christ, even better understood by the fuller light of the gospel. But a better understanding does nothing to change the time established by Jesus and the many plain scriptures from both testaments.

According to scripture, a believer has already been spiritually raised, united, and sit down with Christ, waiting for the redemption of the body when the Lord shall return a second time “immediately after the tribulation of those days” to “gather together His elect” (compare Mt 24:31 with 2Thes 2:1). Until then, those who die ‘in the Lord’ (Rev 14:13) are said to ‘sleep in Christ’. Paul says that the spirits of departed saints are alive and “present with the Lord” (compare Mt 22:32; 2Cor 5:8).

It is absurd to suppose that an eternally alive, redeemed spirit, “present with the Lord”, is unconscious. Quite the contrary, a few scriptures show plainly that the redeemed in heaven are not only conscious but aware of events on earth, as in Rev 12. Consider Rev 19:10 where the heavenly messenger is a ‘brother’ from among John’s ‘fellow servants’. This is a term applied elsewhere to the prophets. So whether Daniel or some other of the prophets, this is not a description of an angel. It is one of John’s brethren.

The “spirits of just men made perfect” that are part of the ‘cloud of witnesses’ (Heb 12:1, 23) are not angels, but are ‘like’ the angels (Mt 12:25), only not yet united with the imperishable physical body that is fitted for the new creation, first for millennial rule, and then for that ultimate perfection of the new heavens and earth that will be free from the natural laws of entropy and decay. This will be no static existence, but like science’s discovery of an ever expanding universe, the scripture says of the kingdom of David’s greater son, “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end” (Isa 9:7)

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