The contemporary teaching is that every believer automatically will participate in the first resurrection, the resurrection that will take place when Jesus returns. When we read the third chapter of Philippians and observe the extraordinary statement of consecration the aged Apostle was making, and compare this with the relatively casual stance of today's believers, we are led to believe Paul was seeking something more than we are aware of.

I would suggest the first resurrection must be attained by total consecration, that a minority of believers are pressing to this level, that those who attain the first resurrection are a firstfruits to God and the Lamb and will rule with Jesus during the thousand-year Kingdom Age.

I cannot see from the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation, the description of the seven churches of Asia, that any except the victorious saints will rise from the dead and be caught up to meet the Lord when He appears.

I think those who reach Paul's mark consist of a holy remnant, the true saints of history. I do not observe in the Scriptures that the great majority of God's elect will participate in the first resurrection.

Jewish Israel and Christian Israel include multitudes of people who have lived or are living lives that come short of the glory of God, as we know from the Scriptures and from our experience. They do not appear to be prepared to govern the nations. Nor do I believe they will be cast into the Lake of Fire. The Lake of Fire is the home of the wicked whether they are Christians or non-Christians, not the future home of all but an elect few of mankind.

The division between the wheat and the tares is not between the Christians and the non-Christians, you may observe (in Matthew, Thirteen), but between the righteous and the wicked.

Since the above seems scriptural and reasonable, perhaps we need to think about the differences between the two resurrections and discover why the Apostle Paul was so intent on attaining the resurrection from the dead. Most of mankind will be resurrected in the general resurrection of the dead, at the end of the thousand-year Kingdom Age; but, as we have said the resurrection from the dead must be attained.

The First Resurrection Is Preferable

If you will study the two resurrections mentioned in the twentieth chapter of Revelation you will notice some remarkable differences. One of the more remarkable differences is that no judgment of the individual takes place at the first resurrection (we will have more to say about this later). In fact those who rise in the first resurrection are the judges. Yet the opening of the books of record are the conspicuous aspect of the second resurrection, the resurrection of the dead, the general resurrection of mankind.

Now, what will this mean to you and me?

Picture this. You have died and your body has been interred somewhere. Suddenly you hear the voice of the Lord Jesus.

To be continued