Resurrections and Judgments in God’s Word
(Sixth in a Series of Seven titled “Are These Days the End Times?”)
Dr. Roger G. Ford, Ph.D., P.E.
Dr-Ford.net
2019
Introduction to Resurrections and Judgments
God’s Attributes are awesome and wonderful. He is the big three – Omnipresent (everywhere), Omniscient (all knowing), and Omnipotent (all powerful). He is also Merciful, Gracious, Loving, and Compassionate. He is Just and Holy, Righteous and Sovereign. We all must try to see that He is all of these all at once in infinite dimension. He cannot display one of His Attributes without all the rest at the same time. All His actions, His decisions, His Will incorporates every one of His Attributes in infinite quantity, undiminished in any way by use. So, when we consider His Justice, we must realize that He uses His infinite Love, Compassion, Mercy, and Grace all at the same time. In other words, God performs judgment because He wills it, for specific reasons, perfectly timed, perfectly apportioned, and wholly called for and just.
God uses resurrections to display His Will. He resurrects the dead to show His Power and also to demonstrate His approaches to Mercy, Grace, and Justice. There are different kinds of Justice and different kinds of resurrections. The Bible reveals that there will be many more than one resurrection and many more than one judgment. We need to organize in our minds and hearts the information on resurrections and judgments in order to understand why there are multiple resurrections and multiple judgments. All of these judgments and resurrections play an important role in our complete understanding of End Times events and coming prophecies, some good and exciting, but most being fearful and concerning.
God’s Judgments
A great deal of confusion exists with respect to the subject of God’s judgments and particularly regarding the final judgment. We will cover all the major judgments (past, present, and future) that we find in Scripture to help resolve this confusion. For instance, many do not understand that instead of one final judgment, the Bible teaches that there are a series of five to seven future judgments (depending on how they are categorized) that differ in respect to time, purpose, subjects, and circumstances. Understanding these various judgments will give insight into God’s program, but the goal here is not just information. God wants Christians to understand the truth of the judgments to both comfort and motivate them to godly living. He wants those who have not trusted in Christ to understand the judgments that this might motivate them to trust in Christ as their personal Lord and Savior because He bore the judgment for their sin in their place. The Christian will not face the final judgment because Christ was judged for us, but all believers will face a judgment called the Bema Judgment Seat of Christ, the nature of which will be covered in the material to follow. All unbelievers will face God’s judgment, but the nature of that judgment is severe yet completely deserved, the reason for the judgment resting on the unbelievers’ shoulders and not God’s!
The Certainty of Judgment
Resurrection will be followed by judgment, no exceptions. Solomon wrote, “Fear God and keep His commandments… For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). The apostle Paul emphasized the certainty of judgment. In Romans 2:16 he wrote, “God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.” And in Romans 14:10,12 he stated, “We shall all stand before the judgment seat of God… So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God.” The writer to the Hebrews summed it up succinctly: “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
We will look at past judgments that God has spoken to us about in the Scriptures, cover the present judgments that we face in our daily lives, believer or not, then the future judgments that are severe for the ungodly, yet merciful for the godly. We must remember, however, that God’s judgments are His Will and are done with His Love and His Holiness, but also with His Justice and Mercy at the same time.
The Past Judgments
The Judgment of Satan and the Fallen Angels
God’s judgment was used to cast Satan down from his position in Heaven as the anointed cherub with all those angels who followed him to this Earth and its atmosphere as the primary abode of their operations (Eph. 2:2, “the ruler of the kingdom of the air,” (“air” is the Greek, “aer”, the atmospheric Heavens). Evidently, immediately after Satan’s fall, God sentenced Satan and his angels condemning them to the Lake of Fire (Matt. 24:41). Though anticipated as certain and viewed as accomplished, this sentence against Satan and his evil host will not be carried out until after the Millennial reign of Christ (John 12:31 with Rev. 20:10). The basis of Satan’s judgment and final disposal is the finished work of Christ on the cross first anticipated in the “protevangelium” or “First Gospel” of Gen. 3:15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Then in anticipation of His death on the cross, the Lord spoke of Satan’s judgment and doom in John 12:31; 16:11, and Luke 10:18-19. Compare also Romans 16:20; Ephesians 1:20-21; Colossians 2:14-15; Hebrews 2:14-17.
The Edenic Judgments of Genesis 3
After the fall of Adam and Eve, and as a judgment for mankind’s disobedience regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17), certain curses or judgments were placed upon Satan (the promise of his final doom), upon Adam and Eve, and upon the Earth. Adam and Eve died spiritually because of their disobedience of God’s ONE RULE (The Second Death) and began to die physically when before they had perfect bodies and could have lived eternally (The First Death). Physical death became a certainty for their future because they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil against God’s command. Therefore, as the Scripture says, “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). The judgment of Genesis 3 included the loss of the perfect Edenic conditions and in its place, the curse of the Earth with its often extreme weather conditions, disease, thorns, and the warfare with Satan and his hosts (cf. Rom. 8:18-22; Eph. 6:10-12; 1 Pet. 5:8).
The Judicial Judgment – All Are Under Sin
All of mankind from conception without exception or distinction are under the curse of sin and judged as sinful and separated from God apart from the saving grace of God in Christ. All fall short of the glory of God, the immoral, moral, religious, irreligious (Rom. 1:18-3:9, 23). The only exception is the person and Incarnate God Jesus Christ who, through the virgin birth and conceived of the Holy Spirit, escaped the sin problem that is normally passed down from generation to generation.
Galatians 3:22, “But the Scripture has shut up all men under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”
Romans 3:19, “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God.”
Romans 5:12-15, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.”
The Judgment of Moral Degeneration
According to Romans 1:18-32, when men turn away from the knowledge of God revealed so vividly in Creation, God, as an expression of His holy wrath, turns men over to their own devices and foolish imaginations. This always results in moral devolution and degeneration. Paul teaches us that the varied forms of the awful sinfulness of man have their beginnings in the rejection of the revelation of God in Creation. Ungodliness is always the source of unrighteousness, ungodliness (turning away from God) leads to idolatry (man worshipping the products of his own mind and hands), and idolatry leads to unbridled sensuality.
As they refused to follow the light, they were brought to folly in their thoughts, “became vain in their [corrupt] reasonings, and their foolish [senseless] heart was darkened.” The intellectual revolt against what they knew to be right was attended by a darkening of the whole understanding. The refusal to accept the truth destroys the power to discriminate between truth and error.
But this happens as a judgment from God against man’s arrogant independence. This condition is the expression of God’s wrath (vs. 18) and twice we have the statement that this moral breakdown occurs because God “gave them over” (vs. 24 and 25). Compare also Ephesians 4:17-19, “This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.”
The Judgment of Christ for the Sin of the World
The Judgment of Christ for the Sin of the World takes on two aspects:
- Christ’s judgment for sin, dying in the place of the sinner, bearing his sin and judgment on the cross as the sinner’s substitute. Isaiah 53:4-6, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”
2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
1 Peter 2:24, “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”
Romans 3:24-26, “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Sin requires a penalty, the penalty of death, both physical and spiritual, as God’s holy judgment on sin. Jesus Christ, the sinless and perfect Son of God, the only one who could qualify as our substitute, died to satisfy the demands of God’s absolute holiness. Sin calls for judgment and the cross of Jesus Christ became that place of judgment. It was there Christ paid the penalty for the sin of the world (1 John 2:2).
(2) Christ’s Judgment Against Sin’s Reign; the Judgment of the Believer’s Sin Nature
Not only did Christ die for our sins as the Lamb of God (John 1:29), but He died to break the reign of sin in the lives of those who put their trust in Him as their Savior. This means that, through coidentification with Christ in His death on the cross, the believer’s sin nature was also judged, crucified with Christ in His death so that its power has been broken or neutralized. Though the death of Christ does not remove the presence of the sin nature and though it is still a powerful enemy (Rom. 7:15-24), the believer’s union with Christ in His death provides for divine forgiveness for the fact of the sin nature and for victory over its reigning power.
Romans 6:4-11, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
See also Colossians 2:10-13; Galatians 2:20; and Romans 8:1-2.
Though believers are saved and justified by faith in Christ as the crucified Savior, the Scriptures assume that Christians will battle with sin and will not always be victorious. There are at least four judgments for us today to be aware of and internalize. First, when we observe Communion, we must take care not to heap judgment on our heads by partaking unworthily with unconfessed sin or unresolved attitudes toward other believers. Second, it is necessary for believers to judge their own sins in the light of Scripture. Third, if we are somehow disrespectful or not fully truthful with God, we can suffer the ultimate punishment. And fourth, we have to observe and determine if we and our closest neighbors, companions, friends, associates are behaving either worldly or biblically.
God has a sequence for His major judgments and resurrections, but we must always keep in mind that He judges our lives as we live them. The New Testament clearly teaches us that one of the ministries of our Heavenly Father is the ministry of loving discipline which is a “now” judgment. God’s discipline is patterned after the principles of Proverbs 13:24 which reads, “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.” Discipline is an evidence of love.
We read in Hebrews12:4-11, “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.’ It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
From this passage in Hebrews and others like 1 Corinthians 11:27-32, God disciplines His children for the following reasons:
(1) To bring a wayward child who refuses to judge himself back into fellowship (1 Corinthians 11:31-32; Psalm 32:3-5).
(2) It is part of the training process by which God’s children are brought into the experience of God’s holiness (Hebrews 12:10).
(3) It is an expression and a proof of God’s love (Hebrews 12:6, 8).
(4) It is designed to produce obedience and to protect them against untimely physical death (Hebrews 12:9; Romans 8:13; 1 Corinthians 11:30).
(5) It yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11).
First, Proper Observance of Communion
Communion a serious matter with consequences both for time and eternity since the failure to do so leads not only to the loss of rewards, but the judgment of God’s discipline of His believing children as a loving Father and as the Vine Dresser who must prune the vine for production (Hebrews 12:4-11; John 15:1-7). A very interesting, enlightening, and important passage to this subject is 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 for in this passage we have a reference to both the self-judgment of the believer and the discipline judgment of God on believers.
1 Corinthians 11:27-32 says, “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason, many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord in order that we may not be condemned along with the world.”
Some of the Christians at Corinth were being only externally religious. They were assembling themselves with other believers and partaking of the Lord’s supper, but they were out of fellowship with the Lord and were controlled by the sinful nature, the flesh, rather than by the Holy Spirit. This is why earlier the Apostle called them “fleshly” (the Greek “sarkikos”, “adapted to, controlled by the flesh”) (3:3). Unfortunately, this condition had continued because some of these believers had failed to examine their hearts and judge their sin by honest confession followed by a commitment to deal with it in the power of the Spirit (11:28, 31). As a result, a number of things occurred: (1) they were making a mockery of the significance and meaning of the Lord’s supper (11:27); (2) they were experiencing personal discipline by the Lord which existed in three conditions, evidently progressively so (11:30, 32); and though not mentioned here, (3) they were producing wood, hay, and stubble – they were losing rewards (1 Corinthians 3:14-15).
As to the immediate consequences, some were weak (feeble, a loss of energy), some were sick (probably chronic disease), and some were asleep (physical death, sin unto death) (11:30). But these were not the only consequences of failing to judge sin in their lives. There were also divisions and factions and the focus on personalities rather than the Savior. They were showing favoritism and hurting other believers rather than showing love and concern as it should be among believers in Christ. In other words, when we fail to honestly judge sin in our lives it spills over in one area after another. As the loving Father that He is, God must break out His discipline in His loving commitment to bring us back to Himself.
Christians need to examine their hearts and actions for sin according to the Scripture and then judge the sin they find as sin and confess it to the Lord. Our tendency is to rationalize and excuse our sins, but God says we are to judge them as sin against God. Confession of sin restores us to fellowship and to the Spirit’s control. With the Spirit back in control and the believer in fellowship (in the state of abiding in the Vine) he or she can then produce fruit for which they will receive rewards at the Bema Judgment Seat of Christ.
Second, Believers Need to Judge Their Own Sins
Paul describes in the Book of Romans a much deeper frustration, one with which only Christians can identify, and one with which all Christians can identify. The Christian’s agony comes from realizing that our sinful flesh refuses to respond to the requirements of God’s Law. Those things which we as Christians despise, we find ourselves doing. Those things which we as Christians desire, we fail to accomplish. No matter how much we may wish to serve God in our minds, we find ourselves sinning in our bodies. As Paul describes his frustration in Romans 7, with his mind he desires to serve God. He agrees with the Law of God and rejoices in it. He wants to do what is right, but his body will not respond. He watches, almost as a third party, as sin sends a signal to his body, and as his body responds, “What would you like to do?” Paul finds, as we do, that while our fleshly bodies refuse to obey God and do that which we desire and which delights God, they quickly and eagerly respond to the impulses and desires aroused by sin.
Every Christian who reads Romans 7:14-25 should immediately identify with Paul’s expression of frustration and agony due to the weakness of his fleshly body, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24). We are confronted with a dilemma as we try to live righteously. If there were no answer for this question, we would hardly dare to press on. But there is an answer! Those of us willing to honestly identify with the agony of Romans 7 will be ready for the ecstasy of God’s gracious provision for living righteously in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Third, God Disciplines His Children
Scripture has a lot to say about discipline. There is God’s discipline, self-discipline, child discipline, etc. When we think of discipline we should always think about love because that is from where it derives. God disciplines His children when they start straying. He will not let them stray because they are His. But, often, God has to get our attention in order to shape us or to turn us away from our sin. Deuteronomy 8:5-6 says, “So obey the commands of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. Hebrews 12:5-7 says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?
But there is the possibility that sin can draw us away from God towards our own desires. We, of course, do not lose our salvation, but we could lose our lives just as Ananias and Saphira did in Acts Chapter 5. Both died as a result of not being fully truthful to their brothers, sisters, and to God. We must be obedient to God, fully disclose our inward thoughts, and hide nothing from Him. To do otherwise invites discipline, perhaps discipline we do not expect but may certainly deserve.
Fourth, Our Judgment of Our Fellow Believers and Non-Believers
There is the judgment that we must make on our fellow believers, the world, and the non-believers as well. Generally speaking, the principle is stated in Matthew 7:1-5, “Do not judge lest you be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
We are not to judge others in the sense of condemning them or passing judgment on the opinions of others on doubtful matters as discussed in Romans 14:1-5, “Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One man has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. Let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind.”
However, Scripture does call us to show what we might call critical discernment on certain matters, or, in other more familiar words, we MUST judge in our everyday lives. For instance, Matthew 7 which tells us not to judge, is immediately followed with the command, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces” (Matthew 7:6). How do we know who falls into the category of swine, those incapable of appreciating the truth, if we do not make certain judgments? Furthermore, we are called upon to make judgments in the sense of evaluations when it comes to selecting elders and deacons, or in dealing with those who have fallen into sin (1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:9-16; Galatians 6:1-5; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15). The message here is not to condemn others as if we were greater, less sinful, without need of judgment ourselves. But we all need to exercise discernment or judgment in our everyday lives, it goes without saying and is obvious.
The Judgment of the Bema (The Bema Judgment Seat of Christ)
The next prophetic event in God’s timetable will be the Rapture or the catching up of the body of Christ, the Church, as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, because it is imminent or unexpected without any precursor or predecessor. A number of things occur at this time. There is the resurrection of those believers who have died in the Lord transformed into in glorified bodies, the glorification of living believers into glorified bodies, and the translation of both to meet the Lord in the air. This will be followed by their examination before the Bema Judgment Seat of Christ. This is not the final judgment mentioned in Revelation 20:11-15 which is limited to only the unbelieving world of all time. Rather, the Bema Judgment Seat of Christ is for the body of Christ, the Church, and it occurs during the Tribulation and before the start of the Millennium. A similar judgment will occur for resurrected Old Testament and Tribulation saints, probably just before the start of the Millennium (Daniel 12:1-3 and Revelation 20:4).
The Bema Judgment Seat of Christ is not a place and time when the Lord will mete out punishment for sins committed by the child of God. We are forgiven of all of our sins if we confess them, so Christ Himself will not remember our sins when we are with Him after the Rapture. Rather, it is a place where rewards will be given or lost depending on how one has used his or her life for the Lord. Both Romans 14:10 and 2 Corinthians 5:9 speak of the “judgment seat.” This is a translation of one Greek word, the word “bema”. While bema is used in the Gospels and in Acts of the raised platform where a Roman magistrate or ruler sat to make decisions and pass sentence (Matt. 27:19; John 19:13), its use in the epistles by Paul, because of his many allusions to the Greek athletic contests, is more in keeping with its original use among the Greeks.
This word was taken from Isthmian games where the contestants would compete for the prize under the careful scrutiny of judges who would make sure that every rule of the contest was obeyed (2 Tim. 2:5). The victor of a given event, who had participated according to the rules, was led by the judge to the platform called the Bema. There the laurel wreath was placed on his head as a symbol of victory (1 Cor. 9:24-25).
In all of these passages, Paul was picturing the believer as a competitor in a spiritual contest. As the victorious Grecian athlete appeared before the Bema to receive his perishable award, so the Christian will appear before Christ’s Bema to receive his imperishable award. The judge at the Bema bestowed rewards to the victors. He did not whip the losers, neither did he sentence them to hard labor. In other words, it was a reward seat and portrayed a time of rewards or loss of rewards following examination. The Bema Seat is not a time of punishment where believers are judged for their sins. Such would be inconsistent with the finished work of Christ on the cross because He totally paid the penalty for our sins.
Though believers are under no condemnation in respect to their sins, having been justified by faith (John 3:18; 5:24; Romans 8:1, 13-17), they are subject to judgment at the Bema Judgment Seat of Christ in relation to their works done after salvation. At the Bema Judgment Seat of Christ believers’ works will be evaluated to demonstrate whether they are good or bad, for Christ or for themselves, and rewards will be conferred (2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:10-12; 1 Corinthians 3:9-14; 9:24-27). The goal of the Christian in his life is to be pleasing to God whether in time or eternity. The Bema Judgment Seat of Christ is not related to salvation but to the bestowal of rewards, and every Christian is assured that he will receive some reward (1 Corinthians 4:5; Ephesians 6:8; 2 Timothy 4:8; Revelation 22:12).4
The Judgments of the Tribulation
While the Bema is going on in Heaven (with the church in the Lord’s presence), a series of terrible judgments will begin to unfold on the Earth for a period of seven years to be culminated by the return and manifestation of Christ to Earth as the Great White Horse Rider of Revelation 19. With the beginning of the Tribulation period, Christ opens the scroll with its seven seals releasing the Antichrist to start his domination of the Earth. Six seals mark the start of God’s Wrath on the Earth. The seventh seal announces the seven trumpet judgments that will finish out the first half of the Tribulation and cause massive amounts of death and destruction on the entire Earth.
The seventh trumpet blasts the news of the coming seven vials or bowls of God’s Wrath, the most terrible actions against the planet and its inhabitants, human and animal, that has ever been, and against the Earth to the point that there will not be any square inch of the Earth’s surface that is not affected with ruin. The Earth’s human population will see two-thirds of its people die in horrible ways because of their sin and rebellion against God. All of these bowl judgments occur in the last half of the Tribulation, called the Great Tribulation, with God’s people, the Jews, divinely protected (that’s why it’s called the Great Tribulation because Jesus was speaking to the Jews when He called it that and they will not only suffer God’s Wrath but Satan’s trying to kill them all) and the saved by Jesus Christ assured of their eternal life but not necessarily saved from physical death.
The main point to see here is that this entire period is the expression of God’s Wrath in increasing degrees of judgment to be poured out on the world. The world seeks to find answers to its problems through efforts by mankind alone and the one world movement of the last days, apart from the true God as He has revealed Himself in Christ. So, much as we see in Romans 1, God turns the world over to the consequences of its own choices. The result is the one world system of the Beast as described in Revelation meaning the One-Worlders will finally get their way, but the outcome will definitely not be Paradise as they expect. It will begin with an apparent time of prosperity and peace created by this one world government under the deceptions of the man of lawlessness, the Antichrist. But even this will be God’s judgment and the expression of His Wrath. While people are saying peace and safety, then sudden destruction will come as birth pains upon a woman in travail. The judgments of this time will grow in intensity and conclude with an awesome display of God’s wrath against a Christ-rejecting world.
The Judgment and Reward of Resurrected Old Testament and Tribulation Saints
While many would place the resurrection and reward of Old Testament saints with that of the Church at the Rapture, a number of factors favor this happening at the conclusion of the Tribulation at the same time as the resurrection and reward of Tribulation Saints mentioned in Revelation 20:4. The most obvious reason for separating the Old Testament Saints out of the Rapture is that the Rapture is for the Church of Jesus Christ, but let’s look at these also:
(1) Daniel, who wrote concerning the termination of God’s program for Israel in chapter 9, places the resurrection of the righteous in Israel as occurring after “a time of distress such as never occurred …” Clearly this is the Tribulation, Daniel’s Seventieth Week, or “the time of Jacob’s Distress (Trouble)” mentioned by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 9:27).
(2) Resurrection is viewed in Scripture as an event that terminates one program and initiates another, and one would not expect Israel’s resurrection could come until God had finished the seventy years decreed for His people, the Jews, according to Daniel 9:24-27. Since the events mentioned in Daniel 9:26 (the cutting off of Messiah and the destruction of city and sanctuary) had to occur after the 69 weeks of years had run their course but before the seventieth week begins, there has to be a space of time, the parenthesis of the church age (the Dispensation of Grace or Church Age), between the conclusion of the sixty-ninth week and the beginning of the seventieth.
(3) The resurrection (Rapture) and Bema of the Church concludes this parenthesis, the Church Age or the Great Pause, but Old Testament Saints (the righteous dead) are not resurrected and rewarded until after the seventieth week when God concludes His program with Israel by completely fulfilling the yet unfulfilled seventieth week of the seventy weeks of Daniel. The Tribulation saints, both Jew and Gentile, are rewarded by being given their place as heirs in the Millennial Kingdom of Christ.
The order of God’s resurrection program which includes the judgment of rewards would then seem to be:
- the resurrection of Christ as the beginning of the resurrection sequence (1 Corinthians 15:23);
- the resurrection of the Church Age saints at the Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:16);
- the resurrection of Tribulation period Saints (Revelation 20:3-5), together with
- the resurrection of Old Testament Saints (Daniel 12:2; Isaiah 26:19; Revelation 20:4).
The Judgment of Living Israel (Sheep and Goat Judgment)
The Time of This Judgment
The Scripture teaches that before Messiah can begin to reign in His Millennial Kingdom, there must be a judgment to determine who will enter into Messiah’s kingdom since “they are not all Israel (spiritually regenerated believers who put their trust in Jesus Christ as their Messiah) who are Israel (physical descendants only)” (Romans 9:6). At the end of the Tribulation, after the Battle of Armageddon when there are still some humans left alive, the rebels of unbelief must be removed so that only believing Israel will enter into the kingdom (Ezekiel 20:34-38; Matthew 25:1-30). Part of this removal occurs through the Tribulation judgments themselves (Rev. 6-19; Zech. 13:8-9). But those who are not killed by these judgments will be gathered, judged, and the rebels removed with only believers rightly going into the Millennial Kingdom.
Matthew 24-25 set the chronology and thus the time. The order is:
- The Tribulation judgments (Matt. 24:4-26)
- The visible return of Jesus Christ called the Second Coming (Matt. 24:27-30)
- The regathering of those Israelites who were left after the Tribulation Judgments, both believing and unbelieving Jews (Matt. 24:31; Ezek. 20:34-35a)
- The judgment of the Nation of Israel (Sheep and Goat Judgment) (Matt. 25:1-30; Ezek. 20:35b-38)
The Place of This Judgment
At the end of the Tribulation, the Lord Jesus will return personally to Earth (Zech. 14:4), but Ezekiel 20:34-35 shows God brings Israel out from the nations where she has been scattered throughout the times of the Gentiles (gathers her to the last person, Ezek. 39:28). But Israel is first gathered at the borders, outside the land of Israel, called in Ezekiel 20:35 “the wilderness of the peoples,” for judgment, face to face, one by one as sheep pass under the shepherd’s rod to determine if they are believers in their hearts in the Shepherd or not.
The Basis of This Judgment
Revelation 7:14 shows us that salvation in the Tribulation (as in the Church Age) is through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. This is further confirmed by the message of the book of Romans where the Apostle shows Israel’s problem to be one of seeking to establish her own righteousness by keeping the Law rather than accept God’s righteousness by faith in Christ (Rom. 9-11). Matthew 25:1-30 shows that God will judge living Israel to separate the saved from the unsaved. In this passage and in Malachi 3:2-3, 5, and Ezekiel 20:37-38, the individual’s works will be brought into judgment, but not because they are saved by their works, but because their works demonstrate they are rebels who have failed to trust in Jesus.
The Judgment of Living Gentiles (Sheep and Goat Judgment)
Just as Christ will judge the Jews still alive at the end of the Tribulation (Sheep and Goat Judgment) when Christ personally returns to Earth, so He will also judge those Gentiles who remain (Matt. 25:31-46). At the judgment of the Gentiles Christ will separate the sheep, representing the saved, from the goats, representing the lost (Matt. 24:31-46). Though salvation is by grace and through faith, the saved who come out of the Great Tribulation will be identified by their acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord as today plus loving their Jewish brothers as we are to love one another.
The Final Judgment of Satan, the Fallen Angels, and Demons
Throughout the centuries as anticipated in the enmity mentioned in Genesis 3:15, there has been constant warfare between the holy angels who minister to God’s people and Satan and his unholy fallen angels and the demonic spirits that are the spirits of the Nephilim that cannot be saved because their DNA was corrupted by fallen angels who fathered them (Genesis 6). Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier concerning the judgment of Satan, God has manifested His power by defeating Satan and his hordes. While, for God’s own purposes, Satan has been allowed to continue his wicked and evil schemes, Scripture speaks of three sure events regarding the activity of Satan, the fallen angels, and his demonic forces: his binding during the Millennium, his short release, and his final incarceration in the Lake of Fire. Then all opposing powers against the Lord will be dealt with in judgment (Rev. 20:1-3, 7-10; 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6; 1 Cor. 15:24-26).
The Judgment of the Great White Throne
Revelation 20:11-15, “And I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence Earth and Heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
This vision of the Great White Throne describes the last and final judgment of history. It is an awesome and solemn scene and one which should cause everyone to stop and think about the eternal implications of this future event. For the non-Christian, the one who has never trusted in the person and work of Jesus Christ, it should cause him to want to search out the truth regarding Jesus Christ, to embrace Him in faith as the Savior from his sin and eternal doom and rely on Him as Lord of his life. For the Christian, the future reality of this event should cause deep concern because of the many (including some of our friends and relatives) who will face this throne of judgment because they never received the Savior by faith.
All who have scoffed at God, denied His being, rebelled at His rule, or rejected His sovereignty, and in the process, also rejected His Holy Spirit and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, must at this time stand before this throne to be condemned to eternal judgment. May the reality of this judgment cause us to carefully reflect on the serious consequences of this passage on a Christ-rejecting world.
The Time of This Judgment
Revelation 20:5 and 11-15 show this takes place after the conclusion of the Millennium following the doom of Satan and the destruction of Heaven and Earth, but before the eternal state of the new Heavens and Earth of Revelation 21:1.
The Place of This Judgment
Heaven and Earth are seen fleeing from the face of Him who sits on this throne (20:11). In other words, they are destroyed, dissolved (2 Pet. 3:7, 10-12). Colossians 1:17 says that Jesus “holds all things together” implying that the unknown inter-atomic forces that hold atoms, electrons, proton, and neutrons together is Jesus Christ, the Creator Himself! When the time comes for Jesus to destroy the Heaven and the Earth, all Jesus has to do is simply “let go”, and the destructive forces of nuclear fission will manifest itself to an infinite degree thus destroying everything in the universe except the spirits of the unbelieving dead and those of us in Jesus Christ in New Resurrection bodies. The point here is the Great White Throne Judgment does not occur on Earth or in Heaven as we know it, but somewhere beyond or outside. This indication is also clear that it does occur in the new Heavens and Earth which are not created until after this event (20:11 with 21:1).
In other words, God has removed Satan and his demons, the False Prophet and the Beast, and is about to judge the rest of the unbelieving dead. So, it is only fitting that He also judge the old Earth and Heavens that has been the arena of Satan’s activity and man’s sin and rebellion. This evidently takes place after the resurrection of the unbelieving dead from the grave and Hades. They are resurrected, gathered before the throne and actually behold the dissolution of Heaven and Earth as a foreboding preparation for their judgment. All their hopes and dreams had been placed in an Earth and system that was passing away (1 John 2:17), and now they see it dissolve before their very eyes.
“And no place was found for them,” for Heaven and Earth. In the eternal state there will be no place for that which reminds men of the rebellions of Satan and man with all its wickedness and sorrow (Revelation 22:3; 21:4; Isaiah 65:17).
The Character of This Judgment
It is called “great” because of the awesome intensity and the degree of its importance. Here each unbeliever’s eternal destiny is declared and determined with ample proof and reason. It is great because it is the final judgment and puts an end to all judgment for all time. It is great because all the unbelievers of all time, from Cain to the final revolt at the end of the Millennium, will be here assembled to face the bar of God’s holy justice.
It is called “white” because it will be the supreme and undimmed display of the perfect righteousness and justice of God to all mankind. Throughout history God has revealed Himself in creation (Romans 1:18-21), a revelation man has ignored. Through the Scriptures and the remnant of His people, He has taught man through the seven dispensations that he must have God’s righteousness, that God is of purer eyes than to approve evil or to accept or look upon wickedness (Hab. 1:13), that all have sinned and come short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), and that the penalty of sin is eternal death, separation from God (Genesis 2:17; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:2). Now these facts will become evident to each individual and proven without question.
It is called a “throne” because here the Lord Jesus Christ will sit in absolute majesty and sovereign authority to judge and disperse a Christ-rejecting world to the eternal Lake of Fire. In Revelation 4:2 John beheld a throne set in Heaven from which the Tribulation judgments proceeded. The word throne is used more than 30 times in Revelation, but this throne, the Great White one, is to be distinguished from all others as the most significant one of all.
The Participants of This Judgment
The judge is the Lord Jesus Christ (John 5:22-23, 27). All judgment has been placed into His hands as the perfect Son of man, Son of God, the one qualified to judge by virtue of his sinless humanity and defeat of Satan and sin through the cross (Revelation 5:1-14).
Those judged are “the dead, great and small,” those who had no part in the first resurrection (Revelation 20:5-6, the righteous Tribulation dead and the Old Testament righteous dead). Specifically, this is the dead of the second resurrection, the resurrection of the unjust, the resurrection unto the second death mentioned in Revelation 20:5-6, 12-14, and John 5:29b. “The dead, great and small” emphasizes that no one is exempt. All who have died without faith in Jesus Christ, regardless of their status in human history, religiously, politically, economically, or morally, must stand before this throne of judgment.
The Source of Their Resurrection
Revelation 20:13a shows they come from:
(1) “The sea,” a reference to all those who died at sea and were not buried in the Earth.
(2) “Death,” a reference to all those who were buried in graves in the ground, cremated, or destroyed in any other way on Earth.
(3) “Hades,” a reference to the place of torments, the compartment which contains the souls of all unbelievers (Luke 16:23). The sea and death (the ground) contain the bodies and Hades contains the souls. At this resurrection the soul and body are reunited, and the person is brought before the throne.
The Basis of This Judgment
The basis of the judgment is what is found in the two sets of books, the books which are opened, and the other book, the Book of Life (Revelation 20:12b, 13b, 15a). Note that the text says, “and the books (plural) were opened, and another book (singular) was opened, which is the Book of Life.” We have two sets, the books and the book which is mentioned again in verse 15a.
The Books: The identity of the books is not specifically revealed, and we can only speculate from a comparison of other passages of Scripture and from the nature of these verses:
(1) The first book opened will probably be the Scripture, the Word of God, which contains the revelation of God’s holy character, the moral law, the declaration of man’s sinfulness, and God’s plan of salvation through faith in Christ. This book also reveals that even when men do not have the written Word, they have the law of God written in their hearts (Romans 2:14-16), and the revelation of God-consciousness in creation so that they are without excuse (Romans 1:18-21; 2:12). Undoubtedly, then, the Scripture will be used to demonstrate the clearness of the plan of God and that man is without excuse. John 12:48 is very pertinent here, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.”
(2) The second book will be the book of works or deeds. Verses 13 and 14 state that the unbelieving dead will be judged according to their deeds (works). Undoubtedly then, one book is the book of works which contains a record of every person’s deeds as a witness of the true nature of their spiritual condition. “Deeds” is the Greek word “ergon” which refers to anything that is done, “a deed, action, or work.” It is used of good deeds (Matthew 26:10; Mark 14:6; Romans 2:7), of evil deeds (Colossians 1:21; 2 John 11), of dead works (Hebrews 6:1; 9:14), of unfruitful deeds (Ephesians 5:11), of ungodly deeds (Jude 15), of deeds of darkness (Romans 13:12; Ephesians 5:11), and of works of the Law (Romans 2:15).
The principle here is that Jesus Christ died for their sins no matter how evil, that He might forgive them and give them a righteousness from God, that they may have a perfect standing before God. As Paul declares in Romans 5:1-2: “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”
But when men reject the knowledge of God and His plan of salvation, they determine to stand on their own merit, or in their own righteousness. So, the book of works will contain a record of all the unbeliever’s deeds, good and bad, to demonstrate the truth of Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All fall short of God’s perfect righteousness and have therefore no basis upon which to stand accepted (justified) before a holy and just God. This judgment proves them sinners and in need of the righteousness which God freely gives through faith in Jesus Christ.
(3) The Book of Life: This book contains the names of all believers, of all who have put their faith in Christ and God’s plan of salvation or righteousness through the substitutionary death of Christ. Or, to put it another way, it is a record of those who have not rejected God’s plan of salvation and have responded to Christ in faith; for these their faith is reckoned for righteousness and their sins have not been imputed to them (Romans 4:4-6, 22).
At the Great White Throne Judgment, the Book of Life is produced to show that the participant’s name was not found written in the Book of Life because of their rejection of Jesus Christ. They, therefore, have no righteousness and cannot be accepted before God, but must be cast into the eternal Lake of Fire. The Book of Life contains the names of believers, those justified by faith and who have a righteousness from God imputed to their account. These and only these are accepted by God and will spend eternity with Him (cf. Romans 10:1-4; Philippians 3:9).
The Judgment or Punishment of the Second Death
Revelation 20:14 says, “And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire” (the both spiritual and physical death of eternal punishment). “Death” refers to the body now resurrected while “Hades” refers to the soul, the immaterial part of man. Both body and soul are eternally separated from God in the eternal Lake of Fire, a very real, literal, and eternal place according to Scripture.
It is so important to note the emphasis here. The real issue is whether one’s name is in the Book of Life, not one’s deeds. The deeds of the unbeliever are only examined to show that the person, no matter how much good they have done, falls short of God’s holy demands. Paul shows us in Romans that all categories of people, the good, the bad, and the ugly, are really in the same boat and on their way to eternal separation from God.
Obviously, most see that the immoral person deserves the wrath of God, as the Apostle describes in Romans 1:18-32. But he also shows us that the same applies to the good person and moral person as well as the religious person (Romans 2:1-3:23). In the face of the awesome holiness of God, they are sinners and cannot stand in the presence of God on their own merit. The awesome fact is that salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ. The loss of salvation, and ultimately the one sin that separates a person from God and confines him to the eternal Lake of Fire, is because of failure to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness and a perfect righteous standing before God.
Separation of Resurrections and Judgments
Daniel said in Daniel 12:2, “…And many of them that sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake (be resurrected), some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” John 5: 28 – 29 says, “Marvel not at this: for 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.”
This does not mean that the resurrections and judgments of the saved and unsaved will take place at the same time and place. Those in the Old Testament who have not believed in God through faith from Adam up to the time of Christ, the New Testament non-believers from Christ to the Rapture, the time of the Tribulation non-believers, and the non-believers during the Millennial Kingdom all have to be judged prior to their final destination of the Lake of Fire. All of these non-believers will face the Great White Throne Judgment just after their resurrection called the resurrection of the dead. The time of this judgment is just after the Millennium and just before the New Heaven and the New Earth.
The Old Testament believers, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Daniel, Isaiah, etc., will be resurrected near the end of the Tribulation. Revelation 20:4 says:
- The Judgment Seat of Christ (Revelation 4: 4): It will take place in Revelation chapter 4 after the Rapture happens (Revelation 4: 1). The resurrection will take place at the same time as the Rapture when the Christians receive their glorified bodies (Revelation 4: 1 – 4). Paul, in his second book to Timothy, tells us about a crown which all believers will receive at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Paul said, “…the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at (on) that day (the day of His appearing at the Judgment Seat of Christ): and not to me only, but unto all them also who love His (Jesus’) appearing.” (II Timothy 4: 6 – 8)
Shortly after entering Heaven the four and twenty elders (the Christians) will get their crowns. Remember, the New Testament Christians will all get their crowns (rewards) at the same time and event. They are wearing them on their heads in Revelation 4: 4. Peter, in his first letter, wrote about the same event. “And when the chief Shepherd (that’s Jesus) shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”
The New Testament Saints are the Bride of Christ. This body of believers will receive their crowns of rewards immediately after the Rapture occurs. Right before we return to Earth with Jesus, we will be wedded to Christ Himself (Revelation 19: 7 – 9). He will marry the Church, the Body of Christ, in some mysterious way. If we are going to participate in those two events (the wedding and marriage supper), which take place in Heaven, we have to go there first. Those Scriptures (II Timothy 4: 6 – 8 and II Peter 5: 4) are not referring to the Second Coming of Christ. They are referring to the Lord appearing in the Rapture.
2. The Old Testament Saints: These Saints and Prophets will be resurrected, judged, and given rewards in Revelation 11: 18. (Note: Jesus does not return to Earth in Revelation 11: 15 – 18. The tribulation saints will be resurrected in Revelation 7: 9-17 and will probably be judged in Revelation 11: 18 when the Old Testament saints and prophets are judged.
(Note: The unsaved people of the Old Testament will be resurrected and judged in Revelation 20: 11 – 15 along with the unsaved of the New Testament. The unsaved people who died during the tribulation period, those unsaved people who Matthew 25: 41 – 46 refer to, the lost of the millennial period, and those who died in Satan’s and man’s final rebellion, will be judged there as well.).
- The Judgment of the Nations: In Matthew 25: 31 – 46 we are told about another judgment. In this judgment the Lord is not judging the people for the things they did or did not do, nor is He judging them on the basis of the talents that God has given them and what they did with them. This judgment will involve two groups: the saved people (that would be the Tribulation Saints.), who are alive and enter the kingdom (Matthew 25: 31) and the unsaved people who are alive and thrown into Hades/Hell (Matthew 25: 41, 46). This judgment will happen shortly after Jesus returns to Earth in the Second Coming (Revelation 19: 11, Matthew 25: 31). There is no resurrection in this judgment. Saved people, in this case, tribulation saints, will have Earthly bodies and do not receive crowns of rewards. Only the people who died get rewards. Do remember that the angels will gather together all the human beings who are alive (having Earthly bodies) at the time of this judgment, after His (Jesus’) feet touch down on the Mount of Olives, when He is seated on the throne of His glory. They will stand before the Lord shortly after He returns to Earth in Revelation 19: 11, but only after the events of verse 21 and Zechariah 14: 4 – 5 have taken place. (Read Matthew 25: 31 – 33.). This is not a judgment of the dead in Christ. Nor is it referring to the lost of all Ages (the unsaved). There is no resurrection of the saved or unsaved when the Lord comes to Earth (Revelation 19: 11, Matthew 25: 31). Matthew 24: 31 is referring to the angels gathering together the living (Matthew 25: 32 – 33) not the dead. The saved Tribulation Saints and the unsaved Tribulation people who survived the Tribulation period will be gathered together before Jesus when He is seated on the throne of His glory (Matthew 25: 31 – 34, 41). Matthew 25: 31 – 46 refers to what will happen after Jesus returns to Earth. When in Matthew 25: 32 it says “…before Him (Jesus) shall be gathered all nations…” it is referring to the saved and the unsaved people who are alive. Zechariah 14: 16 is talking about the saved, the sheep of Matthew 25: 32 – 34. Obviously, Zechariah 14: 16 is not referring to the unsaved. Do realize that the entire group of enemy soldiers who fought against Jerusalem and the Jews will die according to Revelation 19: 21. So it is not talking about them either.
- The Millennial Saints: Part of this group is made up of the Tribulation Saints who did not die during the Tribulation period and were saved before the Lord returned to Earth (Revelation 19: 11). They will be judged of the Lord (Jesus) as to whether they have the right to enter the Kingdom (Matthew 25: 34). He will place them at His right hand (Matthew 25: 32 – 34). Another portion of this group is the 144,000 Israelites of Revelation 7. In Revelation 12: 17 there is another group who are called the remnant. A lot of these Jews will be killed by the Antichrist. Those who survive the Tribulation period will be a part of this group as well. They are the Jews/Israelites who escape the Antichrist and are alive at the time of Jesus’ return.
- The Lost of all Ages: This group of people are dead and in the heart of the Earth in Hades/Hell and will be judged in Revelation 20: 11 – 15 when the Heaven(s) and the Earth are destroyed (Revelation 20: 11, II Peter 3: 7). Those things will take place after Satan’s and man’s final rebellion and after the millennial reign of Christ.
Note carefully that the New Testament saints who are the dead in Christ and are saved will be resurrected and judged at the same time in Revelation 4: 1 – 4. The Old Testament saints will be resurrected and judged in Revelation 20:4. The Millennial Saints will most likely be resurrected and judged sometime after the Millennium reign of Christ and Satan’s and man’s final rebellion is over. The unsaved people of all ages who died without Christ and are lost will also be resurrected and judged at the Great White Throne. See Revelation 20: 11, 12 – 15.
So, not all resurrections will happen at the same time, nor do all judgments take place at the same time. The resurrection of the dead in Christ (the saved) (Revelation 4: 1), and the resurrection of the dead who are not in Christ (the unsaved) will happen at different times (Revelation 20: 11 – 15). The resurrection of the New Testament saints (at the time of the Rapture) and the Judgment Seat of Christ, will happen before the Second Coming of Christ and the 1000-year reign of Christ take place. However, the resurrection and judgment of the unsaved will happen after the Second Coming of Christ and after the 1000-year reign of Christ. Those resurrections and judgments have to be separate one from another. The saints (Christians) will go to Heaven in the Rapture with the Lord before the Second Coming happens; for we are wedded (married) to Jesus before we return to Earth with Him. (See Zechariah 14: 4 – 5, Revelation 19: 7 – 9, 11, 14.
Concerning resurrection, Jesus clearly taught that there would be more than one resurrection. In John 5:29 He refers to a “resurrection of life” and a “resurrection of judgment.” The apostle Paul confirmed this concept in his defense before Felix when he stated that he believed the teaching of the prophets “that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked” (Acts 24:15).
The Scriptures establish the fact that the resurrection of the righteous will occur in stages. In other words, the Bible does not teach one resurrection or even two resurrections in number. Rather, it teaches that there will be two resurrections in type which will be conducted in stages, resulting in several resurrections – at least four, to be specific.
That the resurrection of the righteous will occur in stages is clearly taught in 1 Corinthians 15:20-24. In fact, the first stage of the resurrection of the righteous has already happened, for verse 20 says that “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.” Verses 22 and 23 go on to explain that all who have died in Christ shall be made alive, “but each in his own order: Christ, the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming.” The imagery of the harvest that is used in these verses is a key to understanding the first resurrection, the resurrection of the righteous.
In Bible times the harvest was conducted in three stages. It began with the gathering of the first fruits which were offered as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. It proceeded with the general harvest. But not all was taken in this harvest. Some of the crop was left in the field to be gathered by the poor and the needy. This was called the gleanings (Leviticus 19:9-10).
Using this imagery, the Bible presents the resurrection of Jesus as the “first fruits” of the resurrection of the righteous. The gathering of the Church Age saints, living and dead, at the appearing of the Lord (the Rapture) is thus the general harvest stage of the resurrection of the righteous (John 14:1-3 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
But there is a third and final stage to this resurrection of the righteous. It is the gleanings, and it occurs at the end of the Tribulation when the Lord’s Second Coming takes place. At that time two final groups of the righteous will be resurrected: 1) the Tribulation martyrs (Revelation 20:4), and 2) the Old Testament saints (Dan 12:2).
Some people are startled by the thought that the Old Testament saints will not be resurrected until the end of the Tribulation. But keep in mind that the Rapture is a promise to the Church, and the Church only. Also, the book of Daniel makes it clear that the Old Testament saints will be resurrected at the END of the “time of distress” (Daniel 12:1-2) which is the Tribulation or the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble”. According to Jesus Christ, Israel’s patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be resurrected to enter and reign in their kingdom; obviously, their resurrection would have to be before the 1,000 years begin. Matthew 8:11: “And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of Heaven.”
In addition, understand that Israel’s 12 apostles also need to be resurrected before the Millennial Kingdom can begin, for they will sit on 12 thrones judging Israel’s 12 tribes in her kingdom. Matthew 19:27-30, “Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. [30] But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first”. Mark records similar statements in Mark 10:28-31.
Daniel 12:11-13 provides more information about the timeframe of the Old Testament saints’ resurrection, “And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.”
According Daniel 9:27, the tribulation begins with the signing of a peace treaty between the Antichrist and Israel, intended to be for one “seven,” that is, a set of seven years. But the “seven” is divided into halves: midway through the seven years, the Antichrist breaks the treaty and sets up in the temple a sacrilegious object (the “abomination that causes desolation”). The phrase “in the middle” indicates that the first half of the tribulation lasts for 3½ years (1,260 days, using a “prophetic year” of 360 days). Likewise, the second half of the tribulation lasts another 1,260 days (another 3½ years), for a total of seven years.
Revelation 11:3 specifically mentions 1,260 days, which corresponds exactly with Daniel’s prophecy of the abomination of desolation. In Revelation, we have an added detail: two divinely appointed witnesses will preach and perform miracles for half of the Tribulation, the first half, according to the chronology of Revelation. These two witnesses are killed at the midpoint of the tribulation; their bodies will lie in the streets for three and a half days as the world celebrates their demise; then they will be resurrected and taken up to Heaven (Revelation 11:7–13).
The 1,260 days of the second half of the Tribulation begins as the Antichrist breaks the treaty, occupies the third Jewish temple, and sets up a profane and sacrilegious object of worship. This 1,260-day period ends when the Antichrist is defeated at the battle of Armageddon upon Jesus’ return to Earth. At that time, the Tribulation will be at an end.
Daniel 12:11 mentions 1,290 days, however, which is 30 days more than the second half of the Tribulation. Different ideas have been put forward to explain what happens in those 30 extra days. One likely theory is that the land of Israel will be rebuilt in that month after the devastation it endured during the Tribulation. Then, according to Daniel 12:12, there will be an extra 45 days, on top of the extra 30 days, after which something else will happen. Daniel does not say explicitly what will happen, but he says those who remain until the end of that segment (1,335 days after the breaking of the treaty and 75 days after the end of the Tribulation) will be “blessed.” The blessing here is entry into the Millennial Kingdom. What will take place during those 45 days? Very likely, this is when the judgment of the Gentile nations (and of surviving Israel), described in Matthew 25:31–46, will take place. In this judgment, also called the judgment of the sheep and the goats, the Gentiles are judged for their treatment of Israel during the tribulation. Did they aid Jesus’ “brothers and sisters” (Matthew 25:40), or did they turn a blind eye to the Jews’ troubles or, worse yet, aid in their persecution?
So, those who survive the Tribulation and survive the sheep and goat judgment will enter the Millennium. This is a blessing, indeed. Also, Jesus fulfilled the four Hebrew Spring Feasts/Holy Days at His first coming. Likewise, I believe that He will fulfill the three Hebrew Fall Feasts/Holy Days at His second coming. As such, I believe a possible time for the Rapture is Rosh Hashanah or the Feast of Trumpets, the first of the three Fall Feasts (Of course, another possible time is Pentecost, but that is another approach). The next Fall Feast is Yom Kippur, the Feast of Atonement, which is a logical time for Jesus to return bodily for the atonement of the Jews from the Tribulation. Thus, by returning on a Yom Kippur for the Jews Atonement, Jesus will then tabernacle or abide on the Earth from then on thus fulfilling the third Fall Feast, the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths.
Interestingly, on a calendar, there are 75 days from Yom Kippur to the first or second day of Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication, which is a commemoration of the dedication of the rebuilt Jerusalem temple in ancient times which was a Fall Feast that Jesus, Himself, observed. Jesus’ second advent (bodily descent) back to Earth is when the Millennial Temple will be constructed in Jerusalem, presumably by Jesus (Zechariah 6:12,13). It seems likely, then, that on the 1,335th day following the setting up of the “abomination that causes desolation” during the 70th Week, 75 days after the end of the Tribulation, the 1,000-year Temple will be dedicated. This would fulfill Daniel 12:12.
In summary, here is the end of the Tribulation timeline:
• Sometime after the Rapture of the Church, could be up to 3 ½ years of the “In-Between” Times, the Antichrist enters a treaty with Israel (Daniel 9:27). This begins the seven-year Tribulation.
• At the midpoint of the Tribulation (1,260 days later), the Antichrist breaks the treaty, desecrates the Temple, and begins to persecute the Jews causing them to flee to the “wilderness”.
• At the end of the Tribulation (1,260 days after the desecration of the temple), Jesus Christ returns to Earth and defeats the forces of the Antichrist at the “Battle” of Armageddon.
• During the next 30 days (leading up to 1,290 days after the desecration of the temple – Daniel 12:11), Israel is rebuilt, and the Earth is restored.
• During the next 45 days, the Millennial Temple is completed and dedicated corresponding to Hanukah.
• The Dispensation of the Millennium begins, and it will last for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:3, 5–6).
So, the first resurrection, the resurrection of the righteous, occurs in three stages, beginning with Christ, continuing with the Church at the Rapture, and culminating with the Tribulation martyrs and the Old Testament saints at the return of Jesus.
The Resurrection of the Unjust
The second type of resurrection, “the resurrection of the wicked” (Acts 24:15), will take place all at one time at the end of the Millennial reign of Jesus. This is at the time of the Great White Throne Judgment, the judgment of the damned (Revelation 20:11-15). Every person who ever failed to relate to God in faith will be resurrected at this time, regardless of when he or she may have lived and died whether before or after the Cross. This resurrection will also include the unjust who died during the Tribulation and the Millennium.
The Transformation of the Millennial Saints
There will be no need for an additional resurrection of the righteous at the end of the Millennium, because all those born during that time who accept Jesus as their Savior will live to the end of the Lord’s reign (Isaiah 65:19-20). “‘As the lifetime of a tree, so shall be the days of My people,’… says the Lord” (Isaiah 65:22,25). In other words, life spans during the Millennium will be returned to what they were at the beginning of time, before the flood. Those Millennial saints who are still alive at the end of the Millennium will never die, just be transformed into immortal bodies just as they have been made immortal spiritually in order to inhabit the New Heaven and the New Earth.
The Redeemed are judged of their works to determine their degrees of reward, the lost are judged of their works to determine their eternal destiny. And since no one can be justified before God by their works (Isaiah 64:6 and Ephesians 2:8-10), all those lost will be condemned to Hell.
The unjust are also judged for another reason. There are going to be degrees of punishment (Luke 12:35-48; 20:45-47). There is a popular myth in Christendom that says, “All sin is equal in the eyes of God.” That is not true. The only way in which all sin is equal is that any sin, whether a white lie or murder, condemns us before God and necessitates a Savior. But all sin is not equal in the eyes of God. For example, Proverbs 6:16-19 lists seven sins that the Lord particularly hates, including “hands that shed innocent blood.” And the Bible makes it very clear that idolatry is a sin that is especially heinous in the eyes of God (Exodus 20:3-5). Because God considers some sins worse than others, there will be degrees of punishment (Revelation 22:12), and these degrees will be specified at the Great White Throne judgment.
So, where do you stand with respect to the inevitable judgment which you will face before the Lord? If you are a Christian, do you know what spiritual gifts you have been given? Are you using them to advance the Lord’s kingdom? Is your motivation a love of the Lord?
If you have never confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior, do you really want to participate in the Great White Throne Judgment – the judgment of the damned? Do you realize that the Bible says, “Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord”? That means Hitler and every vile person like him who has ever lived will one day make the confession of Jesus’ Lordship. You will too.
I urge you to make that confession now so that you can participate in the resurrection and judgment of the righteous. As you consider your decision, weigh carefully the following words from the book of Hebrews: “Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him” (Hebrews 9:28). Notice carefully that this verse promises that for those who are ready for Him, Jesus will come “without reference to sin.” That is a wonderful promise. And Jesus is coming soon meaning that hesitation could mean eternal separation from the Lord. So why not make the decision right now to spend eternity in the very presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and live forever in joy, peace, and righteousness? Even so, Come Lord Jesus!