Bible Study Seattle

On any given Sunday, you may hear grace emphasized with many passages to support it.  On another Sunday, you may hear judgment pounded on with many passages to support it.  Sometimes Christians seem a bit schizophrenic that way.  Which is it?  The truth is both.  We have to realize that they don’t necessarily happen at the same time.  The problem is that churches teach that this (first) life is it – you either have faith and go to heaven, or you don’t and you burn in hell, or at least you have eternal separation from God.  That’s wrong.  The bible promises a resurrection for everyone, and it means everyone.

“Your dead will live;
Their corpses will rise.
You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy,
For your dew is as the dew of the dawn,
And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.”  Isaiah 26:19

“I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;
    I will redeem them from death.
Where, O death, are your plagues?
    Where, O grave, is your destruction?”  Hosea 13:14

“Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people.  I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land.  Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,” declares the Lord.”  Ezekiel 37:12-14

“Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”  Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”  “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”  Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.”  John 11:21-25

“Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, and they will rise again.”  John 5:28-29

“But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—even Moses proved this when he wrote about the burning bush. Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, he referred to the Lord as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’  So he is the God of the living, not the dead, for they are all alive to him.”  Luke 20:37-38

All will live again: that’s grace!  But what we have done will come back – to bless us or haunt us.  “Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.  I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.”  John 5:29-30

Here Jesus confirms that what we have done will have consequences.  We must repent and forgive lest we are prohibited from the kingdom of heaven.  Remember Jesus’ words: “On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’  But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.”  Matthew 7:22-23

We must conform to God’s ways or we will be excluded from the kingdom of Heaven.  However, this potential exclusion cannot happen unto our second life during the Millennial reign!