WHEN ?

 

There is a promise in scripture about life after death but the big question is when do we receive this life after we die.  Many believe it is instantly, that our last breath on earth results in our life either in heaven or hell.  Once a person has this mindset it is nearly impossible to change their mind.  This teaching has infiltrated almost all of modern Christianity and has its roots in paganism. Are there any scriptures that tell us plainly when this promise of life after death becomes reality ?  Yes there are and I will list some of them below.

John 6:54 “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my my blood has everlasting life and I will raise them up at the last day.”

John 11:24 “Martha replied, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Acts 24:15 “and I have the same hope in GOD that they themselves cherish, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.”

John 5:28-29 “Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

John 6:39 “And this is the will of HIM who sent me, that I shall lose none of all HE has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” 

John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the FATHER who sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day.”

2 Timothy 4:8 “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day and not to me only but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

The above scriptures tell us about resurrections, about the last day and the appearing of Jesus.  This gives us the time of when everyone will live again and it is in the future at the return of Jesus.  Until that day comes everyone who has died has no life at all.  Even though the scriptures I gave are plain and obvious many still will not believe.

There are many preachers that say Jesus could return at any moment.  In this they are ignorant of the words of Jesus himself on the date of his return.

Matthew 24:36 “But about the day and hour no one knows not the angels in heaven nor the son of man, but my FATHER ONLY.”

The time of the end is a set day, the day Jesus returns. It has been known by the FATHER IN eternity.  It is an appointment.

Daniel 8:19 “and said, behold I will make known to you what will happen in the latter time of wrath, because it concerns the appointed time of the end.”

Habakkuk 2:3 “For the vision awaits the appointed time; it testifies to the end and does not lie. Though it lingers wait for it since it will surely come and will not delay.”

Daniel 11:27 “And both of these kings hearts shall bent on evil and they will speak lies to each other at the same table but it will not succeed because the end is still to come at the appointed time.”

Jesus cannot return at any moment because there are other events that must happen first; the rise of the antichrist, the ten kings aligning in a covenant with him and the great tribulation.  We do know that Jesus returns to stop the extinction of humanity by cutting short the time of the great tribulation.  

This return of Jesus Christ will fulfill both whens in this article because his appointed return day is the when and not at any moment as false preachers say and is the when of the first resurrection, the time the promise of living again is fulfilled for the dead in Christ, the church, the elect.  The 1,000 years later another resurrection for all other people.