We shall now consider the final, closing phase of the resurrection. Paul indicates that this will be pre

ceded by the resurrection of true believers – “those who are Jesus’s at His coming” – and will coincide with the consummation of Jesus’s millennial kingdom.

  But each one in his own order: Jesus the first-fruits, afterward those who are Jesus’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He [Jesus] delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death (1 Cor. 15:23-26).

At the Close of the Millennium

  In verse 24 Paul moves on to the final phase of the resurrection. This he refers to in the phrase “Then comes the end.” He goes on to indicate the other main events that will be associated with this final phase of the resurrection.

  At this time Jesus will have completed His earthly reign of one thousand years, by the end of which God the Father will have brought all Jesus’s enemies into subjection to Him. The last of these enemies will be death.

  Thereafter, Jesus the Son will in turn offer up His kingdom to God the Father. In accordance with His position as the Son, He will voluntarily place Himself and His kingdom in subjection to His Father.

  This closing event of Jesus’s earthly reign is described by Paul two verses later.

  Now when all things are made subject to Him [Jesus], then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28).

  As we study this prophetic picture of the end, we notice the perfect harmony that exists within the Godhead between the Father and the Son. First God the Father will, during the millennium, establish Jesus the Son as His appointed representative and ruler over all things. By the close of this period the Father will have brought all Jesus’s enemies into subjection to Him – the last enemy being death. Thereafter Jesus the Son will in turn offer up in subjection to the authority of the Father both Himself and all that the Father has made subject to Him. In this way, Paul says, God the Father, through Jesus, will be “all in all.”

  This offering up of the completed kingdom by Jesus to the Father represents the climax and culmination of God’s plan for all the ages. Paul also describes this glorious culmination of God’s purpose.

  [God has] made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation [or administration] of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Jesus, both which are in heaven and which are on earth (Eph. 1:9-10).

  This gathering together of all things in Jesus by God the Father, Paul says, will usher in “the administration of the fullness of the times” – that is, the period which will mark the culmination and consummation of God’s plan that has been gradually maturing throughout all preceding ages.

  If we now turn to Revelation 20 we shall see just how the final resurrection of all the remaining dead will be related to the other parts of God’s plan for the consummation of Jesus’s millennial reign.

  John describes Satan’s last attempt to oppose the authority of God and of Jesus and to stir up rebellion against it. This occurs at the end of the millennium.

  Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever (Rev. 20:7-10).

  John uses the phrases “the camp of the saints” and “the beloved city” to describe the city of Jerusalem and the territory surrounding that. During the millennium Jerusalem will be the earthly centre of Jesus’s administration and rule over the nations of the earth.

  During this period Satan will be kept confined as a prisoner in the bottomless pit, but at its close he will be allowed to go free just long enough to stir up this final rebellion among the Gentile nations, which will culminate in an attempt to attack Jerusalem.

  God will intervene, however, with fire from heaven. The rebellion will be totally defeated. And Satan himself will be cast into the lake of eternal fire, there to be tormented forever together with the beast (the AntiJesus) and the false prophet. Both of these will already have been cast into the lake of fire at the time of Jesus’s return to earth and of the commencement of the millennium.

  The Final Resurrection

  After this John describes the final resurrection of all the remaining dead.

  Then I saw a great white throne and Him who 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, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11-15).

  In this account we notice that resurrection comes first, then judgement. This same principle is observed at every stage of resurrection. Since it is in their bodies that men have committed acts of good or evil, it is in their bodies also that they must appear before God to hear His judgement upon those acts.

  We have already seen that all those who have trusted Jesus for salvation will have been resurrected prior to the millennium. This will include both the saints of the old covenant and the saints of the new covenant. It would seem, therefore, that the majority of those to be resurrected at the close of the millennium will be people who have died in sin and unbelief.

  In this connection it is significant that John refers to those resurrected at the close of the millennium as “the dead.” He says, “I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God.” This is different from the language which he uses to describe the resurrection of the righteous dead at the beginning of the millennium. Concerning these he says, “And they lived and reigned with Jesus for a thousand years” (Rev. 20:4).

Thus, concerning the resurrected righteous, John says not only that they were resurrected, but also that “they lived” – they were in the fullest and truest sense alive. On the other hand, those whom John saw resurrected at the close of the millennium are still “the dead.” Although resurrected from the grave in their bodies, they are still spiritually dead – dead in trespasses and sins, alienated and cut off from the presence and fellowship of God. They are brought before God for the last time, only to hear His final sentence of condemnation upon them. Thereafter their destiny is the lake of fire, “the second death,” the place of final, eternal banishment from God’s presence, the place which offers henceforth no hope either of change or of return.

  Among all these, however, Scripture indicates that there will be at least two categories of people who will come forth to the resurrection of life and not of condemnation.

  One such category includes people such as the queen of the South (Sheba) and the men of Nineveh referred to by Jesus.

  The queen of the South will rise up in the judgement with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgement with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here (Luke 11:31-32).

  In each of these examples it is clear that the men of this generation (who rejected the mercy offered them through Jesus) will rise up (be resurrected) for the judgement of condemnation. Together with them, however, two groups will be resurrected who will receive mercy at the judgement: the queen of the South and the men of Nineveh.

  Unlike the saints of the old covenant, these two groups were not granted a revelation of Jesus’s atoning sacrifice – foreshadowed in type and in prophecy – in which they could trust for salvation. Consequently they will not be included in the resurrection of those who are Jesus’s at His coming. They did, however, respond in faith to the limited measure of light that came to them. At the close of the millennium, therefore, they will be delivered from condemnation and enter into the resurrection of life.

Will there be others in the same category as the queen of the South and the men of Nineveh? If so, who? And how many? The answers to these questions can come only from the omniscience of God Himself. One thing, however, is certain: Those who have heard and rejected the gospel of Jesus have forever shut themselves off from the mercy of God.

  A second category of people who will be delivered from condemnation at the final resurrection will be the righteous who have died during Jesus’s millennial reign on earth.

  Concerning this millennial period, we find the following prophetic account in Isaiah.

  No more shall an infant from there live but a few days,

  Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days;

  For the child shall die one hundred years old,

  But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed (65:20).

  The picture here given by Isaiah of life on earth during the millennium indicates that though the span of human life will be greatly extended, nevertheless both the righteous and the sinner will still be subject to death. From this we may conclude that the righteous who die during the millennium will be resurrected at its close but will not be subject to God’s judgement upon the unrighteous who are to be resurrected at the same time.

  If we now turn again to Revelation 20 we notice the completeness and the finality of the resurrection depicted by John.

  The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works (Rev. 20:13).

  To this final resurrection of the remaining dead there are no exceptions. It includes “each one.” None is omitted. Every realm of God’s created universe is called upon by divine authority to give up the dead which are in it. The three words which John uses in this connection are “the sea,” “Death” and “Hades.”

  The Greek word Hades corresponds to the Hebrew word Sheol used in the Old Testament. Hades or Sheol is a place of temporary confinement for departed spirits, prior to their final resurrection and judgement. After final resurrection and judgement, all the unrighteous are consigned to the lake of fire. The usual Hebrew word used in the Old Testament for this lake of fire is not Sheol but Gehenna.

  There is therefore a clear distinction between Sheol, or Hades, and Gehenna, or the lake of fire. Sheol is a place of temporary confinement to which are consigned the spirits, but not the bodies, of the departed. Gehenna is a place of final, unending punishment to which is consigned, after resurrection, the total personality of every unrighteous person – spirit, soul and body together.

  This distinction between Sheol and Gehenna is further brought out by the statement of John in Revelation 20:14:

  Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.

  Death and Hades Are Persons

  Just what is the true nature of Death and Hades as revealed in the New Testament? John’s famous vision of the four horsemen sheds light on this question. Concerning the fourth horseman, John says:

  And I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him (Rev. 6:8).

  It is obvious from this account that both Death and Hades were revealed to John as being persons. Only a person could sit on a horse, and only another person could follow along with this first one. This passage therefore casts light on the nature of Death and Hades as revealed in the Scriptures.

In one sense death is a state or condition. It is the cessation of life, the experience which results in the separation of the spirit from the body. However, Death is also a person. Death is the dark angel, the minister of Satan who claims the spirit of every unrighteous person that is separated from his body when he dies.

  A similar truth applies also to Hades. In one sense Hades is a place of confinement for departed spirits. In another sense, however, Hades is a person. Hades, like Death, is a dark angel, a minister of Satan, following close upon the heels of Death. Hades takes charge of the spirits of the unrighteous which have been claimed by Death and conducts them to the realm of departed spirits from which he receives his name – that is, Hades.

  Thus Death and Hades are both dark angels, ministers of Satan’s infernal kingdom. But the difference between them is this: Death first claims the departing spirits of all who die in unrighteousness; Hades receives them from Death and conducts them to their appointed place of imprisonment. For this reason John saw them moving among men in that order: first Death, claiming the departing spirits, then Hades, taking them to their prison in the lower world.

  This scene from Revelation casts light on the words of Jesus.

  Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death (John 8:51).

  Jesus does not say here that the believer will not experience physical death. He says that the believer will not “see death.” He is not referring to the physical condition of death which results from the separation of the spirit from the body. When He speaks of “seeing death,” He is referring to the person of the dark angel whose name is Death, and to the other dark angel, his companion, whose name is Hades.

  Jesus means that the spirit of the true believer, on departing from the body, will never come under the dominion of these two dark angels, Death and Hades. Rather, like the poor beggar Lazarus, the departing spirit of the true believer will be met by God’s angels – the angels of light – and by them be escorted to Paradise.

  With this in mind, too, we can understand Paul’s statement that “the last enemy that will be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:26); and also John’s statement that “then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire”
(Rev. 20:14).

  In each of these passages the primary reference is to Death and Hades as persons, as dark angels, ministers of Satan and enemies of God and the human race. The last of all God’s enemies to receive the judgement due him will be Death. Together with Hades he will be cast into the lake of fire, there to join their master, Satan, and all the rest of Satan’s servants and followers both angelic and human.

  By this final act of judgement, the last of God’s enemies will forever have been banished from His presence.