What about the Resurrection of the Dead?
According to ancient mythology and Satan (Gen 3:4-5) no one really dies. According to ancient mythology all souls are eternal and every person is judged instantly at the time of their death. The chosen ones ascend to the realm of the gods. The rejected souls descend to the fire and torment of the god Hades. Most of our modern Christian Churches teach this also.
But we have the problem of the Bible talking about the resurrection of the dead. And anyone who has listened to these wolves-in-sheep's-clothing preach is aware that they just do circles around this issue of the resurrection. They like to say it's a mystery.
Any reasonably intelligent person can see that it makes no sense for there to be a resurrection and another judgement if everyone is judged immediately when they die. So a common new teaching today says that after death a person gets a spiritual body and dwell in heaven, and then our physical bodies are remade/resurrected for the final judgement, and then our physical bodies become spiritual bodies that dwell in heaven. WHAT????? And where in scripture does it say that judgement is a daily occurrence?
Paul was telling the group in Corinth about the resurrection and explaining to them that there are many forms of life and the result of Adam's sin is that all mankind is now perishable like animals and plants. He is explaining how the flesh and blood body we have now is perishable. The body we will be raised with will never perish (1Cor 15). He continues in the next letter to them that the body we have now is not the body we want to have and our reborn soul desires the righteous body from heaven. The body we want is not made by hands from the dirt like Adam's but will be a body that cannot die. We want the body that can live with Jesus (2Cor 5). Nowhere does it say we become gods or spiritual beings that dwell in the spirit world.
We had a Bible study at our house for a couple of years until I started asking too many questions.
One question was: "Did Lazarus go to heaven when he died?". "Absolutely", said the pastor.
"Didn't Jesus say he was asleep?". "Jesus meant the body was asleep", said the pastor.
"So he wasn't really dead for 4 days?". "He was definitely dead", said the pastor.
"Ok, so when Jesus raised him up his soul had to come back from heaven?" "Yes", said the pastor.
"So what did Lazarus do wrong so he had to come back to this world, and why didn't he remember being in heaven?"
They cancelled Bible studies at our house.
The Bible makes it perfectly clear that no man, except Jesus, has ever gone to be at the Throne of the Creator, except in a dream or vision. No man has been promised a place to live other than this earth we live on now and the new earth that is being prepared for us.
There is only one reference about souls in heaven and that occurs in Rev 6:9-10 when the 5th seal is opened at the appointed time for Christ to return and rescue Judah and the living saints who have survived the great tribulation. These souls are under the sacrificial alter, not in a golden city. They are not happy campers. They are crying out for vengeance. The time for vindication has come... "Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord" is supported by the souls of those who suffered and died for their faith.
Daniel 7:9 describes a scene of many angels gathered at the Creator's throne for the 1st Judgement. There are a million angels, and 100 million people to be judged. In Rev 20:4-6 we see the same scene with all the people who were beheaded for their witness of Jesus and the word of Yahweh, and that did not worship the beast or take his mark. That includes those who survive the great tribulation and are harvested by the angels when Jesus returns (Mark 13:24-27).
The living will be changed in the twinkling of an eye to have perfect bodies that will join the resurrected who stand in the presence of Yahweh to be judged at this first resurrection.
What follows is described in Rev 15 and 16. The survivors are on the sea of glass with the saints of old and those who died in the great tribulation for their belief and testimony of Christ (the first resurrection). They have to wait until the bowls of wrath are poured out before they can return to earth and reign with Christ. These people who are redeemed return to earth and rule with Jesus for 1000 years while Satan is chained in the pit. These redeemed people will be physical beings that can walk, talk, eat, and cannot die.
Seven angels pour out four bowls of wrath on the earth. The fifth bowl of wrath is darkness over all the earth. The sixth bowl of wrath dries up the rivers, and armies come from all over the earth to support Satan and his hoard (beasts 6 &7) who control the Land of Israel in darkness. Then comes the return of Christ like a thief in the night with his angel army to destroy the armies of Satan.
That battle and wedding supper of the Lamb are described in Rev 19:6-21 where Christ and his angel army defeat Satan's armies at the battle called Armageddon, and the birds and animals feast.
It ends with the capture of Satan, the condemnation of the fallen angel Beast and the False Prophet to the Lake of Fire forever.
The seventh bowl of wrath upon the earth is the destruction of almost every man-made things on earth. It is so bad that almost no life remains "but for the sake of the elect". It also is the opening of the sixth seal in Rev 6:12 which is the appointed time for the reign of Christ on earth for 1000 years.
The final resurrection and judgement will not occur until until after the 1000 years is completed, Satan (Apollyon) is released one last time, the earth falls away again into total corruption, the Man of sin is revealed (Apollyon), the saints are raptured, and the earth is destroyed.
The Bible makes it perfectly clear that Adam was made from the earth, to care for the earth, and the earth was made to be his home. In the beginning it was very good and who can know if it would have lasted forever if Satan hadn't messed it up.
We know that first man was specially created from the ground, and then life was intentionally breathed into that body and it became alive for a very specific purpose...to care for and have dominion over the earth.
There were times in the Old Testament that people were raised from the dead. And later also in the New Testament. The difference here is that they were not raised to eternal life. Death still has power because sin still exists. For a sinful body and soul to be raised back to life takes the intervention of our Creator. Life is not a natural occurrence. But the day will come when the body and soul will be reunited to eternal life through Jesus Christ.
The reason that Jesus did not stay dead is not that the Creator intervened or that Christ manifested some kind of special power in his dead state. The reason that Christ arose was because death has no power where sin does not exist. He woke up. There was nothing to hold him down. The gates of hell (sheol, the place of the dead) could not shut him in.
Christ was the first true resurrection that conquered death, and when we get our new pure bodies we will never face that issue again.