Bible Readings — Bible Questions Answered

When the Dead Rise Again

What must take place before the dead can praise God? BR-ASI9 350.1

“Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for . . . the earth shall cast out the dead.” Isaiah 26:19. BR-ASI9 350.2

When did David say he would be satisfied? BR-ASI9 350.3

“As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.” Psalm 17:15. BR-ASI9 350.4

Were there to be no resurrection of the dead, what would be the condition of those fallen asleep in Christ? BR-ASI9 350.5

“For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. . . . Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” 1 Corinthians 15:16-18. BR-ASI9 350.6

When is the resurrection of the righteous to take place? BR-ASI9 350.7

“For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16. BR-ASI9 350.8

Note.—If, as stated in Ecclesiastes 9:5, the dead know not anything, then they have no knowledge of the lapse of time; it will seem to them when they awake that absolutely no time has elapsed. “Six thousand years in the grave to a dead man is no more than a wink of the eye to the living.” And herein lies a most comforting thought in the Bible doctrine of the sleep of the dead. To those who sleep in Jesus, their sleep, whether one year, one thousand years, or six thousand years, will be but as if the moment of sad parting were followed instantly by the glad reunion in the presence of Jesus at His glorious appearing and the resurrection of the just. BR-ASI9 350.9

It ought also to be a comforting thought to those whose lives have been filled with anxiety and grief for deceased loved ones who persisted in sin, to know that they are not now suffering in torments, but, with all the rest of the dead, are quietly sleeping in their graves. (Job 3:17.) BR-ASI9 350.10

God’s way is best—that all sentient life, animation, activity, thought, and consciousness should cease at death, and that all should wait till the resurrection for their future life and eternal reward. (See Hebrews 11:39, 40.) BR-ASI9 350.11