We have our part or portion in His "first resurrection" through salvation. That gives us victory over eternal punishment - "the second death."
In salvation we identify with Christ in His life, death and resurrection. We come into spiritual union with Him, and become joint-heirs to His eternal inheritance.
Yes.
Therefore we are raised with Him bodily when He returns for His elect, just as Paul said:
1 Thess 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
1Thess 4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
1Thess 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
1Thess 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
This is
still the first resurrection because it takes place by virtue of
His resurrection and the fact that those who died in Christ and are "asleep" in Christ will rise first, and those who are alive in Christ will be changed. The second death will have no power over us or them. You can't make the
bodily resurrection
to occur when Christ returns a "second" resurrection.
So you've just admitted that the
bodily resurrection
of the saints which will occur when Christ returns is still the first resurrection, which bodily resurrection results in the saints
reigning with Christ a thousand years - but it cannot be a "spiritual" thousand years since the saints will have now been
bodily resurrected in what is
still the
first resurrection.
It is a scriptural fact, for someone to move from death and the grave (in the natural or the spiritual) to life (of either type) requires of necessity resurrection.
It's not a scriptural fact at all, because it's not a "spiritual resurrection" that takes place it's a spiritual
birth that takes place - and this is what
JESUS said, it's not what I say. And if whatever we say is
not what Jesus said, our words do not count:
According to your theory and the church theology which produced it, JESUS said the following:
`Verily, verily, I say to thee, If any one may not be born of water,
and resurrected spiritually because he is dead spiritually, he is not able to enter into the reign of God;
that which hath been born of the flesh is flesh,
and that which hath been resurrected from spiritual death is spirit.
`Thou mayest not wonder that I said to thee, It behoveth you
to be resurrected spiritually
But that is NOT what Jesus said, no matter how much your theology changes His words and the meaning of His words. What He said was,
John 3:5-7 Jesus answered, `Verily, verily, I say to thee, If any one
may not be born (gennao) of water, and the Spirit, he is not able to enter into the reign of God;
that which hath been
born (gennao) of the flesh is flesh, and that which hath been
born (gennao) of the Spirit is spirit.
`Thou mayest not wonder that I said to thee, It behoveth you to be
born (gennao) from above;
Strongs: G1080
γεννάω gennaō ghen-nah'-o
From a variation of G1085; to procreate (properly of the father but by extension of the mother); figuratively to regenerate: - bear beget be born bring forth conceive be delivered of gender make spring.
It is only
figuratively to regenerate. You were only
figuratively "regenerated" - but as
JESUS stated, your spirit was only
born when the Spirit of Christ
breathed life into you (the way He had done with Adam when Adam became a
living soul). Due to the fall of Adam, death was brought to all men, and you were born physically alive with a soul, but you had no spirit because the spirit of Adam was
dead. God had to
breathe life into you so that you could become
a living soul:
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 1 Cor 15:45
It is not a regeneration of the old creation - it is a NEW creation:
for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation; Gal 6:15
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Cor 5:17
Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man
is the Lord from heaven. 1Cor 15:46-47
The word "quickened" and the word "regenerated" are not speaking of the same thing. The former relates to
spiritual birth when God
breathes life into you and you once again become
a living soul (like Adam was, before the fall, before he died spiritually). The latter relates to resurrection from death - which in all New Testament verses mentioning it,
is always bodily resurrection by virtue of the fact that you are alive spiritually because God breathed the Spirit of Christ into you when you heard the gospel, believed, repented, and turned and placed your faith in Christ.
It's also not
every son of Adam who was quickened when you were quickened. It was
every son of Adam who died spiritually when Adam died, and the last Adam quickens whomever
believes in Him.
ERROR IN RED:
By our very union with Christ and the victory He has already wrought for us over death we enter into the triumph of both spiritual and physical resurrection.
Truth of the above statement IN BLUE:
By our very union with Christ and the victory He has already wrought for us over death we enter into the triumph of
both spiritual and spiritual birth from above and physical resurrection.
The rest of the theological and doctrinal error is based on the above error:
Upon conversion we are immediately raised from spiritual death by way of spiritual resurrection
by being raised from the grave of sin and debauchery. It is the resurrection of the spirit that causes the new birth. When resurrected our spirits are brought from death to life, this causes a new spiritually birth within our being.
We are born again (or born from above).
Praise be to God for the fact that many Christians (not all, but many) believe what
Jesus said when they read what He said for themselves, and the manifold errors of "qualified" leaders make no difference to those who love Christ and His Word, and place God's Word above all things and reject doctrinal/theological errors like these:
TRUE PART:
When viewing this subject we must always remember, we are body, soul and spirit. The dead area within the human being prior to conversion is the spirit. The body is alive and the soul (the old man) is alive but the spiritual part of him – his spirit – is dead. It is therefore the dead spirit that is (1) quickened,
FALSE:
and (2) resurrected from its death that begets life
TRUE:
..and spiritual
birth from above by the Spirit of Christ that begets life when God breathes Christ's life into your soul and you become a living soul.
TRUE:
The work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification is then a process of bringing body and soul into subjection of that live spirit and therefore a new nature or a living spiritual man.
This mixture of truth/error is caused from reading into scripture what is not there (eisegesis), and this is what causes you to misinterpret many other parts of scripture, because you have to get the square peg of your eisegesis to fit into the perfectly round scriptural statements.
I refer you back to the OP of this thread and encourage you to read all the scriptures listed there and consider the questions which follow - because the scriptures themselves prove beyond the shadow of any doubt that regeneration/resurrection from death refers only to the regeneration of the creation (the creature) through Christ and to the bodily (physical) resurrection from death of the saints. The New Testament does not equate
spiritual birth from above with "resurrection". There is no such thing as a spiritual "regeneration". JESUS said you had to be
born from above by the Spirit of God in order to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
I've no doubt that most "A-millennialils" are born from above and have life - but I also have no doubt that they have inherited a mixed up interpretation of these things and of the millennium from the first "educated expert" who, in his attempts to make sense of what did not make sense to him, developed this theory. For all we know, many of the first authors of this theology had changed their minds by the time they died but their first works survived in manuscripts.