Article XI

The Resurrection of the Dead

Isaiah 26:19 Your dead shall live; Together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; For your dew is like the dew of herbs, And the earth shall cast out the dead.

Ezekiel 37:12 "Therefore prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

1 Corinthians 15:20-23 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming.

Your life is not such that you live and die and then go on to live in heaven in some eternal spiritual way without a body. Your body is part of who you are and the Lamb has redeemed your body. Your body is important to the Lamb. All men will be resurrected. If you have received he mark of the Lamb, you will be resurrected and live in eternal bliss and communion with the Lamb. If you are an anti-Lamb and bear the mark of the Beast, you will be resurrected in a body that will experience eternal death and suffering.

You receive your body because the Lamb has accomplished your redemption, the Lamb has shed His blood for you. The Lamb has been resurrected for you. Because of your union with the Lamb, you too will be resurrected. If you are still living when the Lord returns He will transform your body, but it will still be your body. If you're reading this and you are already dead and the maggots have eaten your flesh and you have decomposed into the ground, do not fear. The Lamb created you out of the dust of the ground to begin with and He can certainly put you back together.

Perhaps the best place to be when Christ returns would be at a burial in a graveyard. The caskets would burst open and the dead would pop out of the ground. What a sight it will be to see! Praise to the Lamb for being the first-fruits, for conquering death and the devil, and for redeeming our bodies!