The timing of the resurrection can be somewhat confusing, given the Bible’s various descriptors and the distinctive events surrounding its occurrence. It is also a reason why multiple beliefs exist surrounding the timing of certain end-time events. However, when we consider that the resurrection may not be a one-time event but rather occurs in stages—with its entirety referred to in Scripture as the “first resurrection”—it might eliminate some confusion on the subject and provide more clarity regarding other end-time occurrences. Therefore, let us consider the possibility outlined below. (Note: The term “resurrection” refers to a person’s physical body being raised from the dead and transformed while instantaneously reuniting with their eternal soul.)
The initial stage of the “first resurrection” is referred to as the Rapture of the Church, which immediately precedes the Tribulation. This supernatural event is unique to the subsequent stages because it involves the resurrection and transformation of the righteous dead, as well as the transformation of the righteous who are alive on Earth.
All believers who experience the Rapture will have their physical bodies transformed and glorified into ones equipped for eternity before they are taken (back) to Heaven to await Jesus’ second coming at the end of the Tribulation. (For more information on the Rapture, click here. For more Scripture verses on the Rapture, click here.)
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 says, “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.”
1 Corinthians 15:50-54 says, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’”
John 14:1-3 says, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
2 Thessalonians 2:1-8 says, “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.”
The second stage of the “first resurrection” occurs at the end of the seven-year Tribulation immediately before Jesus’ Second Coming. This resurrection will raise and glorify believers who died during the Tribulation so they can accompany Jesus to the Earth with all previously glorified saints from the Rapture to rule and reign with Him during the Millennium.
Although the righteous dead from the Tribulation will be resurrected and glorified at this time, all believers and children under the age of accountability who survived the Tribulation will not be raptured or glorified. Instead, they will be ushered into the Millennium to repopulate the Earth in their natural, physical bodies. (For more information on the Tribulation, click here. For more Scripture verses on the Tribulation, click here.)
Revelation 20:4-6 says, “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”
Revelation 19:11-14 says, “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.”
Jude 1:14-15 says, “Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
Zechariah 14:1-5 says, “Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south. Then you shall flee through My mountain valley, for the mountain valley shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Thus the Lord my God will come, and all the saints with You.”
Matthew 25:31-34 says, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’”
Mark 10:13-14 says, “Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God.’”
The third and final phase of the “first resurrection” is not explicitly stated in Scripture but would presumably occur at the end of the Millennium, before the creation of the New Heaven and Earth. The purpose of this resurrection is to raise and glorify all believers who died during the 1,000-year reign of Christ (assuming any Christians died at all) and to glorify every living believer’s body, equipping them for eternity in the New Heaven and Earth. (For more information on the Millennium, click here. For more Scripture verses on the Millennium, click here.)
1 Corinthians 15:50 says, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.”
1 Corinthians 15:53-54 says, “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’”
Aside from the various stages of the “first resurrection” reserved exclusively for Christians, one last resurrection remains for every unbeliever who died from Creation onward. This singular event will occur at the Great White Throne Judgment shortly after the Millennium ends. At this appointed time, God will raise every unbeliever’s physical body from the grave and reunite it with their soul from Hades while simultaneously transforming their bodies into ones equipped to withstand the eternal torment awaiting them in the Lake of Fire. This dreadful event is referred to in Scripture as “the second death.”
Revelation 20:5 says, “But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished.”
Revelation 20:11-15 says, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”
John 5:28-29 says, “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”
Daniel 12:2 says, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.”
Mark 9:43-48 says, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire— where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’”
Hebrews 10:26-31 says, “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Revelation 21:8 says, “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Revelation 2:11 says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”
Revelation 20:14 says, “Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”
I hope this information provides you with some thought-provoking considerations and leads you to study this fascinating topic further.
