It is the writer's point of view that most believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will not be raised from the dead in the first resurrection, at the time when the Lord returns to earth; or if they are raised at that time they will not be glorified in the manner that is true of the victorious saints.

First, let us think about the two different resurrections from the dead.

There will be two principal resurrections from the dead. The first resurrection will take place at the beginning of the thousand-year period commonly referred to as the Millennium. The second resurrection will occur at the end of the thousand-year period.

The second resurrection. We believe the second resurrection is the resurrection in which people either are saved or lost. It is at the second resurrection, the general resurrection of the dead, that the dead are brought from several areas of waiting in order that they may appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ and be judged according to their works.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. (Revelation 20:13)

The wording of the following verse gives the impression that a minority of those raised at the last judgment are cast into the Lake of Fire while the majority are found worthy to enter life:

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)

The expression "whosoever was not found written in the book of life" seems to imply it is the exception who are condemned to this most terrible of destinies. God looked through the book, and if someone was not found written there he or she was cast into the Lake of Fire.

If the majority were to be cast into the Lake of Fire it should read, "if anyone's name were found," as though only an individual here and there was found in the book. But since the expression is, "whosoever was not found," we are of the belief that ordinarily the person's name was found there.

Thank God for that! The Lake of Fire, the second death, indeed is a fate so frightful as to be incomprehensible.

Think of never knowing any love, any joy, any peace, any of the Presence of God for eternity! Can you grasp anything as terrible as that?

Yet those who refuse the deliverance from Satan offered by the Lord Jesus Christ indeed will be cast into the lake that burns with fire and sulfur.

The second resurrection, then, is the general resurrection of the dead. At that time all those whom God judges to be worthy of eternal life will be released from sin and death and brought into the new world. This is what it means to be "saved."

The lost are those whom their Creator does not judge worthy of eternal life. They will be cast in their flesh and bone bodies into the Lake of Fire, there to be looked on with horror by the saved of mankind (Isaiah 66:24).

To be continued.