When Is The First Resurrection?
There is confusion concerning the timing of the first resurrection. Some christians believe that the first resurrection happens 7 years before the Lord returns to take over this planet, and some believe that the first resurrection happens at the Lord's return. I believe the latter. Now the reason why I believe that, is because the apostle Paul said in 1 Cor.15:52 that the dead would be raised incorruptible at the "LAST trump", and the 7th trumpet in the book of Revelation is the last trumpet, and that is when the Lord comes back to become King of kings and Lord of lords as it says in the book of Rev. Now, the reason why I believe the "last trump" in 1 Cor.15:52 is that 7th trumpet of Rev. is because verse 23 of this resurrection chapter of 1 Cor. 15 says, "But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits;afterward they that are Christ's at his coming" Now notice the first few words in the next verse {24} it says, "THEN cometh the end......" It doesn't say, 7 years later cometh the end, but it says the end comes THEN, at the Lord's coming, and there is only one end.
Another reason why I believe the "last trump" is the same trumpet of Rev.is because Rev. chapter 20 speaks of the first resurrection, and if you read the first 3 verses of Rev. chapter 20, it tells what happens to Satan, for he gets bound and sealed in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, now this so called rapture happens at the first resurrection, so if this rapture and resurrection happened before the tribulation, there would be no tribulation because Satan gets bound and sealed in the bottomless pit, and without Satan being free to give the anti-christ his power to rule the world, there would be no tribulation. There are only 2 resurrections, the second one happens 1000 years after the first one, so John was obviously seeing a vision of the judgment seat of Christ in verse 4 of Rev. 20, read verse 4 carefully for yourselves. Now, which resurrection does verses 5 and 6 speak of? It speaks of the FIRST resurrection. It is obvious to me that the first resurrection and rapture happen AFTER the tribulation, not 7 years before.
Another reason why I believe that the "last trump" is the same as the 7th in the book of Rev., is because people who believe in this pre-trib. rapture say that after the rapture and resurrection, there would be people left behind and there would be people getting saved and some of them getting martyred, BUT, in the same 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians about the first resurrection, it speaks of death being swallowed up in victory in verse 54, so that means no death anymore after the resurrection, so no martyredom, so the resurrection has to be AFTER the tribulation. Please read my message "Parousia", and you will see another reason why I believe that the "last trump" is the 7th trumpet in Revelation.
God Bless,
Christopher
