The Final Resurrection

            Few people, including Christians, know much about the biblical doctrine of resurrection and judgment. It’s time we get in the know. We need to understand the times so we know what we ought to be doing. Let’s recap.

• We saw in the last blog why this world and its heavens (atmosphere) must pass away.
• We saw why the lineage of the first Adam must end.
• It’s the only way death can be defeated.
• Since Jesus, the last Adam, overcame death and brought life, all the people must die and receive some form of eternal resurrection life.
  

             Those truths may shock you at first glance. So consider these truths. First, this earth is groaning from the weight of sin in its midst and its physical contamination (Romans 8:22). Second, death is the only way to overcome the power of death, which is why Jesus had to die (Romans 5:10). Third, death is the last enemy to be destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26).
            As we learned in the last blog, every person alive on the earth at the end of the Day of the Lord must die. Then every person is resurrected. Believers receive the resurrection of the just. Unbelievers receive the resurrection of the unjust, also called the resurrection of condemnation. Either way, the resurrection is instantaneous and the person doesn’t feel it. And either way the person becomes immortal.
            This is how the separation of the sheep and goats happens. Matthew 25:32-46 explains that the sheep go to the right of His throne, while the goats go to the left. To the sheep Christ declares: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” 
            To the goats He declares: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”  Then Death and Hades/Hell are thrown into the Lake of Fire—eternal damnation. This is called the second death because it is eternal separation from God the Creator (Rev. 20:14).
            Ironic, isn’t it. Those who rejected God the Father and Jesus Christ are resurrected, only to die again. This doesn’t mean these people cease to exist. For every human is created with a spirit that does not die. Once we are conceived, we are an immortal spirit. Those who reject Christ “die” only in the sense that they must live eternally in the blackness of darkness apart from God's Kingdom of Light forever (Jude 1:13).
            Jesus summed it up this way. “And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matt. 25:46).