Preview

“This is the First Resurrection” Rev. 20:5 is a powerful literal presentation of biblical evidence concerning the order of end times events that lead up to the second coming of Jesus Christ. The title is a direct quote from the Bible that brings the first question to the reader’s mind—when is the first resurrection and the rapture of the Church?

1Thessalonians 4:13-17, “…concerning those who have fallen asleep…we who are alive…will by no means precede those who are asleep…the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them…” The “by no means precede” very strongly disallows reversing the order of the resurrection of the dead and the rapture of the living and yet “together” combines the two events in chronology to prohibit any separation of time. Since the preaching of John N Darby in 1830 of a pre-tribulation “secret” rapture, today this passage is strangely the most quoted proof text for his theory. Even though there is absolutely no hint of any tribulation content, the trick is to place the rapture before the tribulation and separate in time from the first resurrection. What we do with the resurrection is extremely important to truth as the apostle Paul warned the church in 2Timothy 2:17-18, “Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.” Against the immanency of a pre-tribulation gathering together, Paul very forcefully states in 2Thes. 2:1-4 that we should not be “troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means.” “First” is the apostasy, then the revealing of Antichrist, then Antichrist sitting in the temple (a temple must first be rebuilt) claiming to be God, and then our gathering together but we know the dead in Christ are resurrected before the rapture.

Consider that the word first is used 568 times in all of Scripture (NKJV) from Gen. 1:5, “evening and the morning were the first day” to Revelation 22:13, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” The literal meaning of the word first in any dictionary means: “Preceding all others in the order of numbering; Prior to all others in time; Before all others in order, time, place, rank, or earliest; At the beginning; The initial time,” and so on. Acts 24:15 records Paul’s first resurrection teaching, “there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.” The word both links two groups, no more and no less, and so we understand the simple mathematics that there is only one resurrection of the just plus one of the unjust, the first and the second. Jesus teaches four times of this last day resurrection in John 6:39,40,44,54 and Martha repeated Jesus’ truth in John 11:24, “I know that he [Lazarus] will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Revelation 20:5 clearly states, “This is the first resurrection” because there is no resurrection previous supported by (1) the Acts 24:15 scriptural precedent of only one, (2) the law of first mention, John 11:24, and first occurrence, Rev. 20:5, (3) the literal definition of the word first, (4) the context of the word first as found 568 times in the Bible, (5) time itself; being what separates the first from the second, whether birthdays, children, or resurrection. Further, the word first always conforms to the literal meaning of the Greek word protos and is never found to mean anything else but “preceding all others.”

Chronology is the framework upon which the whole Bible is ordered; the first day followed by the second day to the sixth day of creation. Since there is only one resurrection of the just, the dead in Christ who rise first are the first resurrection followed by the rapture of we who are alive and remain, a combined inseparable event. The secret rapture theorists realize that in order for the church to be raptured and glorified before the first resurrection and not violate Biblical anthropology, there must be more than one or a pre-first resurrection. Changing the definition of words is impossible and reversing the resurrection and rapture order is too conspicuous but the obscure way this theory attempts to eradicate the five proofs is to fabricate and annex new confusing terminology such as “phases” of the first resurrection. In fact, those of this position disagree even with each other as to whether there are two, three, or four phases of the first resurrection. We cannot imagine building a house with one brick however this is precisely how eschatological positions are often built and the one brick is multiplied like the loaves and fishes into multiple resurrections, two last trumpets, two last days, and a second “secret” rapture out of silence. The “second first resurrection” is an oxymoron of gargantuan absurdity challenging the literal word of God “as it is written.”

If there is only one resurrection of the righteous (Acts 24:15) and this first resurrection (Rev. 20:5) occurs after the beast, the image, and the mark (Rev. 20:4), and if “the” resurrection is at the last day (John 6:39,40,44,54 & 11:24), and if the dead will be raised incorruptible AND we shall all be changed in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet (1Cor. 15:52), then the last trumpet sounds on the last day, when the last enemy to be destroyed is death (1Cor. 15:26).

If “the dead in Christ rise (resurrection) first, then (rapture) we who are alive…[are] caught up together with them” (1Thes. 4:16-17), and if “our gathering together to Him” comes after the apostasy, after Antichrist, and after the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem (2Thes. 2:1-4), and if “they will see the Son of Man coming” “immediately after the tribulation” to “gather together His elect (Rom. 11:7)” with “a great sound of a trumpet” (Mat. 24:29-31), and if the last trumpet is after the seventh trumpet and not before the first tribulation trumpet, then the rapture is after the Rev. 20:5 first resurrection, after the tribulation.

Luke 21:12-18,36, “…before all these things…they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost…pray always…to escape all these things that will come to pass.” Compare hair, Daniel 3:26-27, “Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego came from the midst of the fire…and they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power; the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them.” Some will die under Satan’s wrath even as today but there is protection from God for the great multitude of believers. There is no secret rapture because Jesus said, “…I have told you all things beforehand” (Mark 13:23) and there is no mention of any pre-trib rapture in Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, 1Corinthians 15, first or second Thessalonians, or Revelation. Then we read, “…He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him…” (Rev. 1:7) Who shall we believe?