Truthsongs
Revelation 21:4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
"What does the Bible say about life after death? Did anyone ever die and then actually experience a life after death – and who could PROVE IT and explain to us what that life was like? The answer is YES. Jesus Christ Himself died and was DEAD. But He rose from the dead and was seen by MANY – including His disciples, who had been with Him for three and a half years before He died, and forty days after His resurrection. And they went about loudly proclaiming that they were eyewitnesses of His LIFE AFTER DEATH.
In 1 Cor. 15:22-23, you will read: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive [after death]. But every man in his own order…”
The fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians is the “resurrection chapter” of the Bible. Its subject is the resurrection to LIFE, after death! But there is, in God’s Master Plan an order – or succession – of resurrections. Continue: “Christ the firstfruits” – this occurred more than 1900 years ago – “afterwards they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end…” (verses 23-24)...
The same ALL who die in Adam, it says, “in Christ shall… they be made alive” – by resurrection from the dead. Verse 23 says, ”…they that are Christ’s [shall be resurrected] at his [second] coming” – now imminent – in our present generation. “Then cometh the end” (verse 24) – but the details of the resurrection of others – the overwhelming majority of all who ever lived – are recorded elsewhere. In Rev. 20 we find described two more resurrections. First, verse 4, the saints who are Christ’s are to live and reign on the earth with Christ for one thousand years (the Millennium). Satan will be put away (verses 1-2) but the rest of those who have died will not live again until after that thousand years (verse 5).
Then, beginning verse 11: “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God” (the second resurrection); “and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged… according to their works.” This will be by far the GREATEST resurrection, in numbers resurrected. It will include the BILLIONS who have lived CUT OFF from God – who were not then judged.
The Bible is essentially the Book concerning the nation Israel. The resurrection of all of them, not previously called to spiritual salvation, is recorded in Ezek. 37. The prophet Ezekiel was taken in a vision and set down in a valley filled with very dry bones. In verse 11 it is recorded that God told him that these bones were the whole house of Israel. They – these dead skeletons – were pictured saying, ” Our bones are dried and our hope is lost.” But the prophet was told to say to these dry skeletons, “Thus saith the [Eternal] God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.”
In the vision, before God explained to the prophet the identity of the great valley of skeletons, the prophet was told to say to the dry bones, “Thus saith the [Eternal] God… Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live” (verses 5-6). Now back to verse 13: “And ye shall know that I am the Eternal, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves. And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Eternal have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Eternal.”
This prophecy is of a resurrection to mortal flesh-and-blood life – not a resurrection, like that of the saints at Christ’s Second Coming, to immortal Spirit-composed self-existent life. God had never offered Old Testament Israel His Spirit, or spiritual salvation. Only material and national promises – and even that for obedience which they refused to give. But now, in this Great White Throne resurrection, along with all other peoples who had been CUT OFF from God, these Israelites (including those who were uncalled even after Christ came), would be resurrected to mortal, breathing, flesh-and-blood life. They all, hopefully, are then to come to really KNOW that the Eternal is Lord, and He shall, upon their eventual conversion, put His Holy Spirit within them. They, too – along with all of every nation, who had not been specially called prior to the Millennium, shall live again physically in this resurrection. And after a period of growth and overcoming, then shall come their spiritual salvation – with no Satan around to deceive them!
Now back to Revelation 20. Verses 13 to 15 indicate that there will then be a last, final resurrection of the incorrigible who have rejected the eternal salvation offered them. They, with any such living at the end of the Millennium, will then die the second death – utter extinction – in the lake of fire, described by Peter (II Pet 3:10) as the face of the earth becoming a molten mass."
Herbert W. Armstrong, The INCREDIBLE Human Potential, Is There Life After Death? Chapter 12 https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/7e4368_4e5676bde54c4de49fc5b737ee6563e2.pdf
II Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.