When we get the scriptural light on the premillennial coming of Jesus, we also get light on a whole family of kindred truths that go along with it, and it makes all other Bible doctrines to perfectly harmonize and fit into their right places. For instance, no one can get a true understanding of the Bible teaching of the resurrection of the dead, both for saints and for sinners, except in the light of the pre-millennial coming of the Lord.

The notion that all the dead, good or bad, are to be raised at the same time, and which is held by so many churches, is utterly contrary to the words of Scripture, and the expression of a "general resurrection,"� though it is in the Prayer Books of both Romish and Protestant churches, is not found in the Bible, and is contrary to Scripture.

The Bible does teach that all the dead will be raised, and the time is coming in the new earth when there will not be a dead body in all the earth, but it teaches a great difference both in time and in character between the resurrection of the righteous and of the wicked.

And many, without searching the Bible on the subject, simply suppose that the first resurrection is a term expressive of the new birth, or the raising of the human spirit from its death in sin to newness of spiritual life. It is true that the resurrection is a type and illustration of the new birth, as where the Apostle says, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."� But it is worthy of note that the word "resurrection"� is never applied to the new birth, or to the human soul, but the term "resurrection"� is applied always to a dead human body. And it is best for us to follow the exact words of Scripture.

Then there are so many people who are slipshod in their religious faith, and think it does not matter what one believes on this subject, if he only has what is called a good experience, not knowing that Satan can give fictitious experiences, and that no real, true Christian character can be had apart from a sound faith in Bible doctrine. True holiness is to be conformed to the image of Christ, and this image is a product of genuine faith in all the Word of God; and a false or partial faith can never bear the fruit of a full Christian life. Hence our true salvation and our faithfulness depend upon a true faith in Christ and in His words as given us in Scripture. To make this matter clear, note the following points:

1. In every place in Scripture where the resurrection is mentioned, that of the saints is always put before the resurrection of the wicked. Daniel says, "At the time of the end of the age, many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt but the more literal translation is, "these (that is, the righteous) shall awake to everlasting life, and those (that is, the wicked) to everlasting disgust, or loathsomeness,"� showing the difference between the character of the bodies of the saints and the bodies of the wicked; but you notice the resurrection of the righteous is put first. (Dan. 12;1, 2.)

David says, "The ungodly shall not stand (that is, stand up) in the Judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;"� that is, at the second coming of Jesus, and when the Judgment tribulation begins, the congregation of the righteous will rise from the dead, and stand up, but the ungodly will not stand up with them. (Ps. 1:5.) Job tells us that the wicked rich ones will lie down, but they will not be gathered with the righteous (that is, raised with the saints at the coming of Jesus).

Our Savior, in speaking of the resurrection, says, "There shall be a resurrection both of the just and of the unjust,"� but He always mentions the resurrection of the just first, and puts the unjust last. Paul says, "The dead in Christ shall rise first."� And thus the resurrection of the saints is always put first in every place in Scripture where the righteous and the wicked are mentioned together in this connection.

Now to prove that the first resurrection never applies to the new birth, it is expressly said that we must be holy in order to get into the first resurrection. "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years."� (Rev. 20:6.) Thus, instead of the new birth being the first resurrection, it is necessary that we be blessed, that is, justified; and holy, that is, sanctified, in order to meet the conditions of having a part in the first resurrection. Just as in all things Christ must have the preeminence, so in all the dealings of God the righteous come first, and not only so, but the most righteous always have precedence over the less righteous. For we read that when Jesus brings in the Judgment period. He judges His saints first, because judgment must begin at the house of God; and not only so, but He judges the ten-pound saint, the highest-rank saint, for his reward, first, and then the five-pound saint, and the one-pound, and then after that, those who are His enemies. Thus not only in the resurrection, but in God's dealings in His providence, in His judgment and rewards, the righteous always come first and the wicked after. If the Bible is worth believing, we should believe it accurately, and not in a jumbled-up way.

2. There is a little word which the Holy Spirit uses about the resurrection of Jesus and the saints which is never once used with regard to the wicked, and that is the little word ek, which means "out from."� In every passage where the resurrection of Christ is mentioned, it is said He was raised "from the dead,"� the Greek word being ek, that is. He was raised "out from among"� the other dead bodies. When the resurrection is applied simply as a mere doctrine, it is called the resurrection "of"� the dead, the Greek word being ton, as where Paul speaks of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead in Hebrews 6: 2. Thus you see the Holy Spirit by these two little words, ek and ton, puts a mark of difference between the righteous being raised out from among the other dead ones, and then the last resurrection, which is not spoken of as being out from the dead, but simply of the dead.

You will notice in the quotation from Daniel, that he does not speak of all the dead being raised at the second coming of Jesus in tribulation, but speaks of them as those righteous ones, who, as St. John says, are the blessed and holy which are to have part in the first resurrection.

3. We are told in Scripture that the length of time between the first and the last resurrection is a thousand years. The prophets, and even our Lord, do not tell us the length of time between the two resurrections, for it was left for St. John to give us the ultimate and finished statements of Bible truth, and in the Revelation we have the last and perfect statements of prophetic truth given by Christ through John.

If you stand behind a row of telegraph poles, and get them in range, you may only see one pole, but by looking a little to the right or left you will see a row of poles, one behind the other, stretching some distance away, without being able to see the space or distance between the poles; but when you pass them in review you can see the distance between them. This illustrates the way the prophets saw future events, and so wrote of them. They saw the first coming of Christ, and just behind that His second coming; and they saw the first resurrection, and beyond that the second resurrection, without seeing the space of time between them; but in Patmos the Holy Spirit caused all things pertaining to the last days and the second coming of Jesus to pass in review, section by section, before John's vision, so that he could see and was distinctly told the length of time between the first and the last resurrection. After saying this is the first resurrection, he then mentions the thousand-year reign of Christ and the saints on the earth, and then says that after this he saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and death and Hell (that is, the grave and Hades, where the souls of the wicked dead are now kept) delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged. (Rev. 20:5-13.) He also expressly says that after the saints were raised, the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This forever settles the truth of the first resurrection of the saints, and the last resurrection of the ungodly, to every one that will believe the Bible.

4. In the next place, as we search the passages bearing on the first resurrection, we find that it consists of various sections, somewhat similar to the way the modern railroads run their long trains. In making up the long trains that run out from the great cities, they divide them into sections; in the first section, the first-class passengers in Pullman cars, who pay extra fare; and then in the next section, the first-class passengers who take day coaches at ordinary fare; and then behind that are the immigrant trains, or second-class passengers.

This exactly illustrates the words of Scripture in connection with the different ranks in the resurrection of the righteous. The Apostle Paul compares the resurrection of the righteous to the gathering of the harvest in Palestine, which consisted of the firstfruits, gathered before all the harvest was ripe, and put in baskets and taken up to the tabernacle, to be presented to the Lord as an offering to Him; and then after that came the regular harvest, which was gathered in; and then a little later came the gleaning of the fruits that were not ripe at the harvest time.

"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order; Christ the firstfruits, afterwards they that are Christ's at His coming; then cometh the end."� (i Cor. 15:20-24.) We see in this passage that the resurrection of the righteous agrees exactly with the harvesting of grain and fruit in the land of Canaan.

Now notice the firstfruits, which are gathered before the ripened harvest, and which consist of the resurrection and ascension of Christ, and that company of saints which He raised from the dead and took up to Heaven with Him to be the firstfruits. Matthew tells of a company of saints who rose from the dead just after the resurrection of Christ, and surely they did not die again, for He tells us that when Christ died there was an earthquake, "and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints (not all, but many of the saints) which slept, arose, and came out of the graves after the resurrection of Jesus, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." (Matt. 27:51-53.)

Christ must rise first, for in all things He must have the pre-eminence; but very soon after He arose, this special company of saints also arose from the dead, and appeared to many people.

Now St. Paul gives us another statement concerning these risen saints, that when Christ ascended on high He led captivity captive, or, as the margin reads, "He led a multitude of captives up with Him,"� for Christ first descended into the lower parts of the earth, which does not mean the grave, but down into the heart of the earth, where all the souls of the dead, both good and bad, were kept, from Abel to the resurrection of Jesus; and then Christ ascended up far above all heavens, leading with Him into Paradise the disembodied spirits of the righteous dead, and also that cluster of resurrected saints spoken of by Matthew, which constituted the firstfruits, like a cluster of first-ripe grapes, who are now in Heaven waiting for the harvest.

In the next place, Paul says there will be the harvest of resurrected saints at His coming. And after that comes the gleaning of saints that will be slain in the great tribulation period, and resurrected to complete the full harvest-gathering of the first resurrection. This order is also described by St. John in Revelation, for we notice, in chapter four, there is a door opened in Heaven, and the first-rank saints were told to "come up hither,"� and that company included the living creatures and the gold-crowned elders, who were saved men. And then, in chapter seven, is another company, evidently raised in the tribulation judgment, and they stood before the throne. Then, in chapter twenty, we see a company of martyrs raised from the dead and put on thrones, and it is in connection with this last company that John says, "This is the first resurrection."� Hence it is clear that the saved of all the ages are raised from the dead in different sections "” Christ the firstfruits, then the harvest, then the gleaning.

5. There is another truth in connection with the first resurrection which has special reference to the degrees of righteousness, and the various ranks of rewards which the saints are to have in the coming kingdom. In that expression where Paul says, "Each believer will be raised in his own order,"� the word "order"� should be "rank,"� for the Greek word corresponds to cohort, or regiment, and also signifies the different ranks of officers in an army, such as general, colonel, major, etc. Scripture teaches that there will be multiplied degrees and ranks in the heavenly kingdom, and these ranks are not known in this life, for Jesus says many who rank as the last here will rank first in Heaven. But in the resurrection every saint will have in his resurrection body a mark, or something to distinguish his exact rank in the kingdom. Now it is this truth that Paul refers to in Philippians 3:10-15. He said that he wanted to be found at the coming of the Lord having the righteousness by faith, that he might know Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, and be conformed unto His death, in order that he might attain unto the front rank in the first resurrection. Our common English Bible does not give what Paul really means. It is literally, "That I might arrive to the out resurrection, which is out from the other dead ones,"� and implies not only a place in the first resurrection, but a first-rank place in that resurrection.

The Sadducees were soul sleepers, and supposed that if there was a resurrection, the same fleshly laws that obtain now would be perpetuated, and we see in Luke 20:27-37 Christ's answer to them, and in that answer Jesus says that they who shall be accounted worthy (literally, extra worthy) to obtain that age (for the word "world"� should be "age"�), and the resurrection out from among the dead "” that is, the first resurrection "” "they neither marry nor are given in marriage, neither can they die any more, but are equal unto the angels.'' Christ clearly intimates that there must be a fitness or extra worthiness acquired in this life for special places of glory in the resurrected state. It requires no grace to have a place in the resurrection, because every sinner will be raised again, but it does require that we be blessed and holy to have a place in the first resurrection; and then it requires that we be apostolic in our faith and love, and conformed to the death of Christ, to have a place in the front rank of the first resurrection.