How many Resurrections for believers?

[FreeGrace2]

Haven't there been cases in our day and time of ppl being pronounced clinically dead then being revived sometime later? And haven't some of these same ppl died yet again at an even later time and are still dead, as we speak? How does one explain something like that if it's appointed man to die one time?

Great point! And i forgot to address DaveM's point about Heb 9. Yes, all people are appointed ONCE to die. But that doesn't say or mean "only once". I would take that as "at least once". iow, the "appointment" doesn't preclude more deaths.

And given the 2 witnesses in Rev, since neither Enoch or Elijah died physically, many scholars believe they will be the 2 witnesses, who DO finally die physically. And even their being raised from the dead won't include a glorified body.

For one, the Bible doesn't say or even suggest they do.
Secondly, if they did, they would be out of the rest of the saved, all of which will get glorified bodies "when He comes" per 1 Cor 15:23.

When I was in my late teens I knew someone who was close to my age who had recently moved into the same town I lived. He had just gotten a job not too long before this that required him driving 50-100 miles each day, each way, to get to this job and back. One day he was telling me about something that tragically happened to him around a year earlier. This would have been before he moved to my town. He said that he got into a head-on collision with a semi truck and was pronounced dead at the the hospital when doctors were unsuccessful at saving his life. Yet, somehow he managed to come back to life eventually.

This is where it gets really bizarre, keeping in mind this job he has that he has to drive back and forth everyday. Not too long after he telling me these things involving the head-on with the semi, maybe a month a two later, here I am looking through the local newspaper, and while browsing the Obits I see his name listed. It seems that on his way back from work he fell asleep at the wheel and rear-ended a semi of all things, killing him instantly this time, and this time never coming back to life again. 2 different encounters with a semi truck. He eventually survives the head-on collision, where if I recall, he indicated he was going at least 60MPH when it happened, but he doesn't survive the rear end collision.

This at leaves proves to me that there is something to it, thus not anyone's imagination, when one is pronounced clinically dead and eventually revived then later dying permanently, as was the case above.

Very interesting account! Thanks. There is also an account of an evangelical pastor who attended a pastors conference and on the way home was pronounced dead at the scene of a head-on accident. His story was made into a movie called "90 minutes in heaven". He recounts all the relevant data and info he was aware of. One can probably get his testimony on you tube. Very interesting story.

Oh, I almost forgot. He was still in his totally wrecked car when he came back, about 90 minutes after the accident. All the first responders had written him off as dead, but a pastor from that same conference was in the traffic back-up, and he felt a strong sense or urge to go to the accident to "minister". He was allowed to go to the pastor's car, so he prayed for him. That's when the pastor came to. Talk about shock among the first responders!!

 

[DaveM]

Could death "die once" maybe mean something other than just a physical death? (like it seems you two are suggesting) Could the bible definition of dying be directly be related to judgment. meaning you have not really died until you come to judgment??

 

[FreeGrace2]

Could death "die once" maybe mean something other than just a physical death? (like it seems you two are suggesting) Could the bible definition of dying be directly be related to judgment. meaning you have not really died until you come to judgment??

I take "appointed once to die" to refer to physical death. The LoF is called the Second Death in Rev.

My view about death is informed by the literal translation of Gen 2:17. The traditional translation is "on the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die".

However, the literal Hebrew is "on the day that you eat of it, dying, you shall die".

Many scholars brush this off by calling it a Hebraism, the repetition of a verb for emphasis.

However, they sure didn't fall over death "on that day". But they did experience a spirirtual death. They became separated from God. Shown by the fact that when the Lord came a calling in the cool of the evening, they hid. They had no ability to approach the Lord.

So the Lord initiated communication, and they were able to respond.

When the Trinity said "let us make man is our image", I believe that meant Adam was created in the image of the Trinity; body, soul, and spirit. So when they rebelled and ate, they died spiritually. They went from being trichotomous to dichotomous.

When a person is "born again" (Jon 3:3) or "regenerated" (Titus 3:5) their dead human spirit is "made alive", (Eph 2:5) all biblical words. I believe they refer to the same thing.

So dichotomous man is changed (2 Cor 5:17) into a trichotomous man.

So, back to Gen 2:17. They died spiritually and "dying" refers to the process of physical death, which is over time.

 

[Davy]

On that basis, I don't see how anyone before Christ died could be given a glorified body, since 1 Cor 15:23 shows that Jesus is the "first fruits" of resurrection. And Acts 26:23 clarifies by saying "the first to rise from the dead". That leaves out all the ones who were raised before His resurrection, when He did receive His glorified body.

Since none of them did, it seems logical that anyone after Christ wouldn't receive a glorified body until the whole lot of saved do.

If this doesn't clarify, or enough, please ask.

Sorry, but you still seem to want to believe the Jew's old tradition that we are asleep literally in the ground when we die. The unbelieving Jews are not privy to understanding in The New Testament; they don't read it.

But in The New Testament are details of what happens after death of our flesh body, the Luke 16 example Lord Jesus gave is one of them, but what you are trying... to do is go against what He showed there about Lazarus and the rich man having died, and their being carried to Paradise, Lazarus on the side with Abraham, and the rich man on the side of hell.

Even in The Old Testament there are examples to prove our spirit-soul departs our flesh when our flesh body dies.

Thus it is evident that those who cannot understand this default to their fleshy thinking, and the Jew's old dead in the ground theory.

 

[FreeGrace2]

Sorry, but you still seem to want to believe the Jew's old tradition that we are asleep literally in the ground when we die.

No I don't. I reject the notion of soul sleep. The souls of all believers who have died are in heaven.

The unbelieving Jews are not privy to understanding in The New Testament; they don't read it.

Irrelevant to me.

But in The New Testament are details of what happens after death of our flesh body, the Luke 16 example Lord Jesus gave is one of them, but what you are trying... to do is go against what He showed there about Lazarus and the rich man having died, and their being carried to Paradise, Lazarus on the side with Abraham, and the rich man on the side of hell.

What??!! I fully accept that account as literal of what happened to all OT people who died. All went to Hades, the saved to Paradise and the unsaved to a place called Torments

Even in The Old Testament there are examples to prove our spirit-soul departs our flesh when our flesh body dies.

I certainly don't believe that.

 

[ViaCrucis]

The historic teaching of the Church is that when Christ returns in glory, the dead are raised. Those who belong to Christ are raised up in glory; the wicked are raised up for judgment.

So there's only one future resurrection of the body, and it's at Christ's return.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Davy]

No I don't. I reject the notion of soul sleep. The souls of all believers who have died are in heaven.


Irrelevant to me.


What??!! I fully accept that account as literal of what happened to all OT people who died. All went to Hades, the saved to Paradise and the unsaved to a place called Torments


I certainly don't believe that.

You certainly sound like you support soul sleep. Because it's true that those who had died before Christ's death and resurrection had already gone to the heavenly, even though none have received the rewards yet.

Your confusion about being raised from the dead leaves souls hanging in limbo, because if they are not raised to the "spiritual body" that Apostle Paul taught, even PRIOR to Christ's death and resurrection, ...

.... then what KIND of heavenly body did they have before Jesus was raised? What kind of raising from the dead was it before Jesus was born through woman's womb?

Careful how you answer that, because if you say they were not raised to the "spiritual body", even before Jesus' birth in the flesh, then that leaves you with the Jew's dead in the ground theory.