Scripture teaches that Jesus was the first to rise from the dead.
Acts 26:23 That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.
Obviously, He raised Lazarus from the dead before that, so the context in which Jesus was the first to be raised from the dead was in that He was the first to be raised with an immortal body. Lazarus was raised with the same mortal body he had when he died.
The order of resurrections unto bodily immortality is given here:
1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
Christ's resurrection was the first and then next in order is "they that are Christ's at His coming".
I never claimed Lazarus was given immortality. I would agree with you if that is what Acts was talking about.
The thing about Acts is that they did not broadcast that bodies had resurrected had ascended to Heaven. Paul, Peter, and those in Acts were still processing the events themselves. The gospels were written after the events in Acts. Of course they contain more detail and clearer definitions than would be declared in Acts while Peter and the other disciples, including Paul, were themselves processing the details.
Where is it recorded that a single person in Acts actually witnessed an ascension of OT believers that some later imply? They could not declare it as if they witnessed it. They did not witness that ascension. They did not declare bodies going back into the tombs and spiritually dying either. These OT saints, and Lazarus is an OT Saint, prior to the Cross, were taken to Paradise, because there was no other place to go. They obviously did not live forever on earth. It says it is appointed once to die. Where does it say, it is appointed twice to die, because of a bodily resurrection? Presupposition.
John does say in Revelation 20, bodies can be raised from death and given life (incorruptible bodies) that can never die, and not even spiritually, the second death.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, to be absent from one body is to be present with the Lord in a permanent incorruptible body. The first resurrection is physical. The second part is immortality, glorified body, the spiritual resurrection.
Paul says Christ will bring those at the Cross including Lazarus with Him. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
13 I would not brethren, have you ignorant concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus is dead, and is risen, even so them which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him.
They are with God in Paradise now. Just as Jesus is proof of a bodily resurrection and ascension, Acts 26:23 declares the same true for all alive. It is not denying that none have risen yet. Stephen proved he was changing bodies that day. His dead carcass was never going to Paradise. Acts 7:55-60
55 But he, full of the
Ruach HaKodesh, looked up to heaven and saw God’s
Sh’khinah, with Yeshua standing
at the right hand of God.
56 “Look!” he exclaimed, “I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing
at the right hand of God!”
59 As they were stoning him, Stephen called out to God, “Lord Yeshua! Receive my spirit!”
60 Then he kneeled down and shouted out, “Lord! Don’t hold this sin against them!” With that, he died;
His body did not go, nor will it ever go. His soul went to Heaven, and he received a permanent body like all those before him.
This is not immortality or glorification. That awaits us for the completion of the whole church body. That happens at the Second Coming. Without the Cross, Stephen would not have seen heaven opened. He would have like all OT believers seen Abraham in Abraham's bosom. The sting of death and the angel blocking access to Paradise was removed at the Cross. Jesus promised the repentant thief, who accepted that day Christ on the Cross, he would be that day in Paradise, upon death. He was the first to not experience the sting of death. Stephen was the first to declare the experience first hand.
Why is there doubt that those resurrected bodies, would ascend the same way Jesus did just after seeing Mary? They did not have bodies in Abraham's bosom. They were souls. Why would God give them temporary bodies? There is not a single promise of a temporary body resurrection found in Scripture. It is a permanent body, not made by physical means. Not of Adam's physical flesh. Does God only bring some at the Second Coming and resurrect the rest?
