So you are saying there are two resurrections from the dead. First, everyone is resurrected, to judgment. Then, those not in the Book of Life are cast into the lake of fire, and destroyed. Then, all of them are resurrected a second time.
I completely agree with the first resurrection, that's clear from scripture. I also agree that the lake of fire is the second death, and I'd be comfortable if you stopped there and were simply teaching annihilationism.
But the second resurrection you speak of is pure conjecture. Because death is to be abolished, you assume that means that all must come back to life. I don't see any reason to think that. Surely if nobody dies any more, death has been abolished. There's no need for a whole new resurrection to make that true.
Is animal death to be abolished, along with human death? If so, does that mean that every animal that has ever lived must be resurrected (or recreated really) for death to be no more? This seems illogical to me.
Do you have any scripture to directly support that idea of a second resurrection?
I do.
There are multiple ressurrections that God effects.
To be quite exact, the first ressurrection was actually Christ Jesus. He was the Firstfruits, the firstborn from the dead.
Revelation 20 speaks of a
former/first ressurrection (more correctly rendered
former from the Greek: πρώτη (prōtē) as it is in the CLNT) I think we are all more than familiar with
mia being Greek for first. "Former" makes more sense considering Christ’s ressurrection has already occured.
Why mention a first or former resurrection if there is not a second (or third) or
latter? Why not just call it
The resurrection?
Here it is in context:
"Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.
They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the
first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the
first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:4-6
So there is a ressurrection of some, and then a thousand years goes by, and then this happens:
"And I saw the dead (this is a figure of speech referring to those who were collectively dead up until this point, notice how they are
standing and
being judged), great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:12-15
This is now the third ressurrection
1. Christ
2. Those at the beginning of the millennium
3. The great white throne
Notice a couple things from the Great White Throne passage. The dead are brought to life without the word ressurrection being used. I can't give you a verse that literally says "second/third/fourth ressurrection" but yet this one is clearly a thousand years seperated from the
former resurrection, which itself followed Christ's ressurrection. At this ressurrection some of the dead are in the book of life and are ressurrected beyond the power of death, i.e. vivified. Others are not in the book of life and die the second death.
A long long long time passes before the consummation of all of 1 Corinthians 15. Those who died the second death are dead and unconscious of this passage of time. To put in perspective how far off the consummation is, note that at this point Christ who has had all things subjected under himself will then
himself be subjected to God so that God may be All in all. (1 Cor 15:28)
Sometime before this occurs death is abolished. Before Christ is subjected to God all things are subjected to him:
"By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me
every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance.’"
Isaiah 45:23
The end state is that God is All in all.
Surely if nobody dies any more, death has been abolished. There's no need for a whole new resurrection to make that true.
Think about this. If you are dead, is death abolished for you? As long as you are dead, death still exists.
If death being abolished just means no one else dies and you are forgotten, what then of the Great Human Question posed by Job? "If a man dies, shall he live again?" Who did Christ die for? How many?
For even as, in Adam,
all are dying, thus also, in Christ, shall
all be vivified.
Yet each in his own class: 1. The Firstfruit, Christ; 2. thereupon those who are Christ's in His presence (I think these are those both before and after the millennium); 3. thereafter the consummation, whenever He may be giving up the kingdom to His God and Father.
1 Corinthians 15:22-24
“Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not. And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one. Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass, look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day. “For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant. But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he? As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up, so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep. Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come. You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands. For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin; my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity."
Job 14:1-17
