During the 1,000 year judgment, whom will be among those resurrected?
Jesus said there will be two groups -
those resurrected to life, and
those resurrected to judgment. John 5:29
The apostle Paul also says there will be two groups - the
righteous, and the
unrighteous. Acts 24:15
As stated in the previous post, the unrighteous are persons who do not know their right hand from their left - they never had the opportunity to learn about God's standards of right and wrong, and make a decision whether to live by them, or not.
They get the opportunity to do that in the resurrection of judgment.
The resurrection to life, then, would be for the righteous, who have learned God's ways and standards, and chose to live by them.
Such persons lived from the very beginning of the world of dying mankind.
Who was the first of the righteous?
The first righteous man was Abel.
Matthew 23:35
And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
Luke 11:50, 51
Hebrews 11:4
By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he was testified to be righteous, God bearing witness to his gifts; and through it, having died, he still speaks.
In the resurrection, then, Abel would be resurrected to life, and as Jesus said, "all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah".
That long list would include righteous Noah (Hebrews 11:7), Abraham (Hebrews 11:8-19), Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah), Samson, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah (Hebrews 11:20-38), and many many more.
All these will be resurrected during the 1,000 year resurrection to life.
Of course we have not left out those not mentioned, including John the Baptist. Matthew 11:7-15
The unrighteous that will be resurrected to judgment will be great. Only God knows all of them by name.
One thing we are certain of though, is that persons who died without having adequate opportunity to know God, and his standards, and make a choice to live by them, or not... these will be resurrected, and given a fair chance to do so.
Imagine that! This would include dear loved ones among your family and friends!
Imagine welcoming back a brother, sister, son, daughter, father, mother, who died tragically, not having made a commitment to serve God... but also, not getting to know God.
Can you imagine the joy of seeing your loved one return to life?
Think of Mary's and Martha's joy when they embraced once dead Lazarus.
Does this mean we don't have to worry about making the effort to get to know God now?
2 Thessalonians 1:6-10
6 since
it is a righteous thing with God to repay with [
a]tribulation those who trouble you, 7 and to
give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire
taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who [
b]believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
No. We had better make every effort to know God, and obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, if we do not want to face the coming judgment on this ungodly world. Zephaniah 1:14-2:3
