The Dead Will Get Up at the Rapture or One of the Resurrections
When a person dies, he goes to Sheol (the grave; the state of death) and returns to dust. Therefore, the Bible rightly directs our attention to the Rapture or resurrection, which is when people will be raised to life.Job 19:25–27 (ESV)Job was excited about seeing God when he was in his new body, which would happen at the resurrection. He never spoke of being with God when he died.
(25) For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. (26) And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, (27) whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
Ezekiel 37:12–14 (ESV)Speaking of those Old Testament Jews who believed, these verses are loaded with truth. Chief among that truth is that the people would know the Lord was God when He opened their graves and raised them up. If people’s “immortal souls” went to heaven when they died, that would be the time they knew the Lord was God, not much later when their bodies were raised.
(12) Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. (13) And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. (14) And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”
Matthew 22:23–32 (ESV)This powerful section of Scripture is also recorded in Mark 12:18–27 and Luke 20:27–38. The Sadducees did not believe in any form of life after death. They rightly understood Jesus’ message that the dead would get up “in the resurrection” so they asked whose wife the woman would be at that time. If Jesus believed that after a person died his soul lived on, this was the perfect place to say that one’s soul or spirit did not marry in heaven. Instead, because he knew dead people are dead until the resurrection, he said “in the resurrection” people will not marry.
(23) The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, (24) saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.’ (25) Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother. (26) So too the second and third, down to the seventh. (27) After them all, the woman died. (28) In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.” (29) But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. (30) For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. (31) And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: (32) ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
Luke 14:14 (ESV)If people went right to heaven or “hell” when they died, they would be repaid for their actions immediately after death. We are repaid after we rise from the dead, which is what Jesus taught.
and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
John 11:21-26 (ESV)Even if Martha believed her brother was alive in a good place but still wanted him to be with her, she would have said she wanted him back from heaven. Instead, she clearly indicated she believed her brother was dead and would only live again “in the resurrection.”
(21) Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. (22) But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” (23) Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” (24) Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” (25) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, (26) and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
The Bible has many accounts of people being raised from the dead. At no time did Elisha, Jesus, Peter, or Paul pray to God before raising the person to see if they would be willing to leave heaven and return to this fallen world where they would only have to die again someday. Furthermore, if the people who had died were in heaven, it certainly seems that they would have had something to say about what heaven was like when they returned. Even if they promised God they would not talk about heaven, it seems that someone would have asked them about it.
John 14:3 (ESV)Jesus told his disciples they would be with him when he came again not when they died.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Acts 4:1 and 2 (ESV)The Apostles were not teaching that people went to be with Jesus when they died. If they had been, that is what the religious leaders would have been upset about. Instead, the Apostles were teaching the resurrection from the dead. Other verses confirm that the Apostles taught the resurrection (Acts 17:18 and 32, 24:15).
(1) And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, (2) greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
1 Corinthians 15:42, 51b and 52 (ESV)It is very important to note that every believer is “raised imperishable” at the same time: “the last trumpet.” We do not have an imperishable immortal soul that lives with Jesus after we die. We become “imperishable” only when we are raised from the dead.
(42) So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. (51b) …We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (52) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
1 Thessalonians 4:13–17 (ESV)If Paul wanted Christians not to grieve and knew that when people died their soul or spirit went to be with God, he would have said so here in order to help comfort people. Instead, he tells us that all the dead in Christ will rise at the Rapture when the Lord comes and comforts us by letting us know that even when a person dies he will rise again.
(13) But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. (14) For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. (15) For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. (16) For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. (17) Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
Titus 2:13 (ESV)Our hope is the coming of the Lord because that is when the dead are raised and can be with Jesus.
waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
Revelation 20:4 and 5 (ESV)These verses separate the people who come to life in the first resurrection from those who do not. The souls of the righteous, meaning righteous people, come to life after the Battle of Armageddon (Rev. 19:11–21) and reign with Christ.
(4) Then I saw…the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus…. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. (5) The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.
Revelation 20:11–13 (ESV)These verses depict the Resurrection of the Unjust (Acts 24:15 – ESV), also called the Resurrection of Judgment (John 5:29 – ESV), and the Judgment that follows immediately afterward. At this future time, all the unjust people will get up and be judged. The souls of the wicked are not judged and thrown into Gehenna when the person dies.
(11) Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. (12) And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. (13) And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades [the grave] gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
Acts 2:29–32 and 34 (ESV)If David was in heaven, Peter should have said so. Instead, Peter said just the opposite, that David “…did not ascend into the heavens….” His point was not that Jesus was in heaven with a body and David was in heaven without one. His point was that David was dead and Jesus was not.
(29) “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. (30) Being therefore a prophet… (31) he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. (32) This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. (34) For David did not ascend into the heavens…
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