The Truth About the Second Resurrection

Have you ever wondered what will become of the billions who lived and died without ever hearing the name of Jesus or seeing a Bible? The miscarried and the stillborn? The young children who died of smallpox, starvation, or abuse? Eskimos, Chinese, Pacific islanders, Australian aborigines, Africans, and South American tribes who lived and died long before anyone could tell them about Jesus?

Acts 4:12 and John 3:16 show us that only by accepting Jesus Christ can we be saved; no one of any other belief will be in His Kingdom. So how could ancient Pacific islanders accept Jesus Christ when they had never heard of Him? How could the stillborn child of unbelieving parents accept Jesus Christ? This is a point that the Apostle Paul also made in Rom. 10:14.

First, let's consider that during the 6,000-odd years God has given man on this earth, few will be saved. Very few indeed. That doesn't mean the others are lost; more on that in a moment. But very few will be saved initially. The Apostle Paul reminded the Romans that "if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Rom. 8:9). Most people throughout history have not had God's Spirit. Only a handful of people in the Old Testament are said to have had God's Spirit. Jesus Himself told us that few will find the path to eternal life (Mat. 7:13-14).

These FEW whom God chooses (Mat. 22:14) will be in the first resurrection. "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" (1 Thes. 4:16-17).

"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.... Thus the LORD my God will come, and all the saints with You" (Zech. 14:4, 5). When Jesus Christ returns "in power and great glory" (Mat. 24:30), He will be accompanied by the saints clothed in white and riding on white horses (Rev. 14:1; 19:7-8, 11-16)! Can you imagine the feeling?!

These saints are those in the first resurrection, as we read above in 1 Thes. 4:16-17 and can also read in Rev. 20:4-6. Of those in the first resurrection, we read, "Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power..." (Rev. 20:6). In other words, those in the first resurrection have attained to eternal life; nothing can hurt them!

But again, these are very few people, only 144,000 according to Rev. 7:1-8 & 14:1 and "tens of thousands" according to Jude 1:14. Whether these are literal or symbolic numbers, it's a tiny fraction of the billions of people who have ever lived! The Apostle Peter told us that even the righteous would scarcely make it (1 Pet. 4:18). Is the rest of humanity doomed? Let's continue.

As covered previously, every human being who has ever lived will at some point be resurrected and come face to face with his or her Creator. Acts 24:15 tells us that God will resurrect both the just and the unjust. Rev. 20:11-15 describes a second resurrection about 1,000 years after the first, in which all the dead will be raised.

In John 5:28-29, Jesus told us, "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 [ordinary or base things], to the resurrection of condemnation [judgment or separation]." "Evil" is Strong's #5337, phaulos, and means not merely "evil," but also "ordinary or base." "Condemnation" is Strong's #2920, krisis, and means "judgment, separation, selection, trial."

In other words, those who have been ordinary (unholy) will be raised in the resurrection of judgment or separation. Here's where we get to the rest of humanity, everyone outside the first resurrection, nearly everyone who has ever lived.

Let's consider a few things:

• God does not desire the death of the wicked (Ezek. 18:23; 33:11); in fact, He desires that, if possible, no one would perish (2 Pet. 3:9).
• God never said He will destroy those who have never heard of Him, but instead that He will teach them (Isa. 66:19).
• Jesus Christ said those who are ignorant of His ways will receive less punishment than those who knew but disobeyed (Luke 12:47-48; John 15:22-24).
• God has blinded certain people to His truth (Rom. 11), not so that He can destroy them, but because it's part of His greater purpose.
• God will resurrect the Israelites of past generations and cause them to understand that He is their God (Ezek. 37).
• There will ultimately be many in God's Kingdom, not just the few chosen to be in the first resurrection (Mat. 8:10-12; Rev. 7:9-17; Heb. 2:10)
• The people of Nineveh who repented because of Jonah's preaching and the queen of Sheba who came to hear Solomon will rise in the same resurrection as those of Jesus' generation who rejected Him, that is, the second resurrection (Mat. 12:41-42).
• Remember that, though the people of Nineveh repented, they remained ignorant of God's ways, for, as the Apostle Paul wrote of a different people, they had no one to teach them (Rom. 10:14).
• God is a just God who despises changing weights and measures (Prov. 20:10). As such, He will not give eternal life to someone who has never heard of Him or His ways alongside someone like Abraham or Job who served Him faithfully; neither will He condemn the same ignorant person alongside one who knowingly and deliberately rejected Him!
• Jesus Christ, rebuking the people of Galilee, told them that Sodom and other sinful cities would have repented had they seen His mighty works (Mat. 11:21-24), yet we know that God destroyed them without giving them such an opportunity at that time.
• Speaking of Sodom, God told Judah that although He took Sodom away as seemed best to Him (Ezek. 16:50), He will one day restore it (Ezek. 16:55)!

Putting all these things together, what do we have? One obvious conclusion: everyone who has ever lived and died without knowing God will get a chance to know Him and choose Him! Those who have not known God's ways, He will teach them. All those who never had His Spirit will have a chance to have it.

How will He teach all these billions of people? With the help of His firstfruits, that is, those in the first resurrection! That's why He chooses only a select few to be part of His firstfruits. We are told that the firstfruits will be priests under their High Priest, Jesus Christ (Rev. 20:6; Heb. 4:14). What is the job of a priest? To teach people God's ways (Mal. 2:7). These will be the teachers who teach the resurrected Israelites and the rest of humanity, "This is the way, walk in it" (Isa. 30:21).

God doesn't have differing weights and measures. Everyone who's ever lived will have the same chance to choose Him and His ways. Everyone will be judged by the same standard. They will be "judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books" (Rev. 20:12). What books are these? The books of the Bible, God's Word!

As for those who still refuse to follow God's ways, "anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:15). This is why it is the resurrection of judgment or separation: when God has given all people their chance, the righteous and the wicked will be separated. The phrasing of this verse seems to indicate that relatively few will ultimately not be written in the Book of Life. At least we should hope it will be few, even as our Heavenly Father does (2 Pet. 3:9).

As for those who choose God and His way of life, they will receive the same reward as everyone else: eternal life. Jesus Christ made it clear that everyone who chooses Him and follows His way of life will get the same reward, no matter when they made that choice (Mat. 20:1-16).

Let us be thankful that we serve a just and merciful God who wants each of us to spend all eternity with Him!