Resurrection

What place in the resurrection do the Old Testament saints hold?

The Old Testament saints are Christ’s, as truly as are the New Testament saints, having been redeemed and saved through His prospective atonement, and as 1 Corinthians 15:28 tells us, “Afterward, they that are Christ’s at his coming” shall be there. The Old Testament saints come into no judgment for works, since no heavenly rewards were promised them. Their promises were earthly (see Deut. 28:1-14; Gen. 18:14-17, etce.). The tribulation saints, however, are probably rewarded, though this is not clear.

Is the same resurrection referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and Revelation 20:4?

Not precisely, though both together constitute “the first resurrection.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16 describes the resurrection of all who are Christ’s up to the moment of the rapture; Revelation 20:4, the resurrection of the tribulation saints, but both are included in Revelation 20:4-6, though the first sentence in verse 5 is a parenthesis, the last sentence belonging with verse 4.

Is the awakening to “everlasting life’? and ‘“‘contempt”? in Daniel 12:2 another phase of Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning the valley of dry bones in chapter 37?

These awakenings in Daniel are resurrections, grouped as in John 5:29, the millennium intervening. They who are “unto life’ will be in the first resurrection; they who are unto “‘shame,” etc., in the second.

That Ezekiel speaks of the regathering as a resurrection is true, but the context in Ezekiel 37 is Pi heege different from that of Daniel 12:2.

Does the resurrection in 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 include only the saved of this dispensation, and if so, is there any difference between those who are ‘“‘in Christ”? (1 Thessalonians 4:16) and they who “are Christ’s’”? (1 Corinthians 15:23)?

Yes, 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 teaches that all the saved of this dispensation will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air at His coming. 1 Corinthians 15:22, 23 is more general. It teaches (1) that all the dead will be raised; (2) that “they that are Christ’s’ will be raised at His coming. And this second statement includes all the saved of all dispensations, from Adam to Christ. The Thessalonian passage alone would prove only the resurrection of

the Church, “the dead in Christ.” “In Christ,” or “in

Christ Jesus’ is a different expression both in form and meaning, from “they that are Christ’s.” All of the redeemed are “Christ’s’’; only those who “by one Spirit” have been “baptized into one body” (1 Cor. 12:18) are “in Christ.” But all the saved at and since Pentecost are baptized into Christ.

Does Paul teach in 1 Corinthians 15:37-44 that the resurrection bodies have varying degrees of glory?

We do not understand it so. His argument is to establish the reasonableness of a vast distinction between the glory of the body that is “sown” and of that body as it will be raised. He appeals to nature. “All flesh is not the same flesh; but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts,” etc. So, too, of “bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial,” etc. What wonder then that a body which is sown in corruption, dishonor and weakness should be raised incorrupt, glorious and powerful?

When will the righteous dead of the ages before
Christ be raised?

Some of them have been raised already (Matt. 17:3; Jude 9; Matt. 27:52, 53), the rest will be raised when Christ comes into the air (1 Cor. 15:22, 23; 1 Thess. 4: 14-18).