This week we’re continuing our revisit of the end starting with a continuation of last week’s look at death, what it is, and how it was talked about in scripture. Remember, last week we saw that death is really just separation. We also saw that there are two types of death: spiritual and physical. The spiritual was built into creation by YHWH and occurred as a result of sin, and the physical was a judgment imposed by YHWH as a consequence of sin.
If we also recall from last week, we found that Yeshua went to Sheol upon His death, but He was not imprisoned there like all the other dead. His sinlessness and authority gave Him the power to escape it, and when He did as a part of His resurrection, He brought other righteous dead with Him (Matthew 27:52-53). Now, as we look at other verses in scripture, we would like to find that after the events of Yeshua’s resurrection those who die physically now immediately go to heaven and are not subjected to a “waiting” period before being able to be conscious with YHWH and Yeshua. Unfortunately, that’s not what we find.
After Yeshua’s resurrection, as the gospel was spreading, Paul addressed death multiple times in his letters. He wrote that through Yeshua we are free from the law of sin requiring death (Romans 8:2). Through the lens of what we’ve figured out so far, and just knowing how things work by our experience in the world, it’s obvious that Paul is talking about spiritual death: A spiritual separation from YHWH due to committing sin. Physical death still occurs because YHWH hasn’t removed that as a consequence as of yet. Our spirit may be renewed, but our flesh is still sinful.
We also see however, that Paul describes death a certain way, even after the firstfruits resurrection. He calls it a sleep (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 1 Corinthians 15:6, 18, 20, 51). In fact, the use of this term for death was not limited to Paul. Peter also used the same word in that context (2 Peter 3:4). In all, out of the eighteen occurrences in the New Testament of this Greek word, 14 of them used the word this way. There are other Greek words for sleep used as a euphemism for death on occasion, but in scripture this one is used in that context the most.
To go along with this point and help us put the whole picture together, we need to understand that we’re in a period of time where there’s been a firstfruits resurrection, where certain righteous dead rose, but death has not yet been fully abolished. Paul makes this point in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:24-26). Obviously, as we well know, he wrote this after Yeshua’s resurrection, and he spoke of things as though he knew of some future time where Yeshua will hand everything over to YHWH. During His reign, more and more enemies will be defeated, with the last enemy being death itself. Well, if death had yet to be defeated in Paul’s time, has anything changed since then to make us think it was defeated? Any major events in history to suggest such a thing?
I don’t know of any, and really the only thing we have to go off of is the fact that people still physically die, just like in Paul’s day. We do know however, that in John’s vision he sees the souls of those martyred in heaven under the altar (Revelation 6:9-11). Now, this is certainly not Sheol, since it’s in heaven, and we have to try to make sense of it in the vision since it talks about them asking when they would be avenged. Even though they’re apparently speaking and also told to rest a little while, I believe this is a symbolic event to foreshadow YHWH’s plan for what was to come. Namely, that the events to follow in the vision would be representing the consequences imposed on those that martyred the saints, not that these souls were literally alive and speaking from under the altar.
To make this all make sense, with dead being in heaven vice Sheol and Yeshua’s resurrection including firstfruits of righteous dead, we have to figure an explanation that lines all that up. The only scenario that makes sense is that upon Yeshua’s resurrection a transition occurred where the righteous that die are no longer separated from YHWH in death but they are with Him under the altar in heaven. Prior to the firstfruits resurrection, everyone, righteous and unrighteous, were in Sheol and separated from YHWH (Luke 16:19-31). However, even though the righteous are in heaven after death currently, they’re still in a sleeping state and awaiting the final resurrection.
You can see this is the case in multiple letters written by Paul. Remember, he was writing in the time after the firstfruits resurrection but before the judgment on Jerusalem in 70AD, and during this time he was looking forward to a future resurrection of those saints that have died since the resurrection. Not only that, he is sure that the dead will rise right before anyone that’s still alive is transformed (1 Thessalonians 4:15, 17). Now, with the way he wrote that, clearly Paul had a belief that he would be alive and present when this transformation happened (1 Corinthians 15:51), and we’ll get to why in a bit, but the key takeaway here is that the righteous living are in a state of hope and anticipation in Paul’s time (and right now!) for a future resurrection event led by Yeshua, and the righteous dead are waiting in a sleep-like state for that same event.
How does this tie in to where we started, in Revelation 20? Well, when John describes the saints he sees living and reigning with Yeshua, there are some characteristics he uses. One of these is that they included those who were beheaded for the testimony of Yeshua (Revelation 20:4). If the events of these first few verses did occur at Yeshua’s death and resurrection as we saw last week, the only person that would fall into that category would be John the baptizer. Mass persecution of Christians didn’t happen until years after the resurrection.
There’s a couple options as to how this would fit into the timeline, one of which makes more sense than the other. The first option is that the saints John was seeing were there as a result of a second major resurrection that occurred after the firstfruits resurrection with Yeshua. John calls this second major resurrection the “first” (Revelation 20:5), but in the Greek, the word used could mean first in a sequence, primary, principal, or even most important. So, it doesn’t have to mean first, and in fact, the word could also mean before (which we’ll see in the second option for interpretation). In this first interpretation, this resurrection resulted in righteous, martyred dead being resurrected the same way as Yeshua and now are living with Him, conscious in heaven. We who live after that event are then waiting for the final resurrection described at the end of Revelation 20.
There are a couple problems with this interpretation. When we read Paul’s description of the resurrection he was anticipating, he describes it as a major event that happens to all believers at the same time, both living and dead (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 1 Corinthians 15:20-34). I would think that if this occurred someone would have recorded it just like the firstfruits resurrection was recorded in Matthew 27. Other major events in scripture, like the tower of Babel, the global flood, and the famine of Egypt, are also recorded in secular history, and people being transformed and raised from the dead are way more out of the ordinary than these things! But ok, let’s assume it was written on manuscripts or tablets that happened to be destroyed over time. The real problem is that Paul says this event is when Death is swallowed up and the perishable puts on imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:54), something that, with the way he wrote it, hadn’t happened yet (meaning this wasn’t fulfilled at Yeshua’s resurrection, before Paul wrote it). I don’t know about you, but I still see a lot of death and perishables walking around…
The second option for interpretation is that these saints John was talking about were people he knew had been martyred at the time he wrote it, but the vision he was seeing was set in the time starting at Yeshua’s resurrection. Let me explain: When Yeshua died and rose was the moment we were given the opportunity to be resurrected from being dead spiritually (meaning we no longer had to be spiritually separated from YHWH by allowing us to be able to receive His Holy Spirit). The receiving of the Holy Spirit happened just days after the resurrection, on Pentecost, and all over Acts you can read about many believers receiving the Holy Spirit, including the apostles. When John wrote Revelation, shortly before the events of 70AD, an inordinate number of believers had been martyred just the way he described in Revelation 20, including the majority of the apostles.
To help this option of interpretation make sense, let’s explain some of its ramifications. First, if this were true, the first resurrection described by John is a spiritual resurrection. And this started "before" John had his vision. We are now able to be with YHWH’s Holy Spirit while we were not able to previously, while we were dead spiritually. This also means that as believers who have received the Holy Spirit, we are spiritually living and reigning with Yeshua right now. You can see this in the spiritual authority we have over evil. Second, we still die physically, and once we do we enter the sleep-like spiritual state written of by Paul. Our soul is then awaiting (in heaven) the resurrection Paul describes occurring at the return of Yeshua. Third, the non-believers have not been resurrected spiritually and therefore they await the final resurrection in Sheol once they die. And finally, we the believers are not subject to the second death, which is the final, eternal, permanent separation from YHWH by a permanent destruction of both the body and the soul (Matthew 10:28, Revelation 20:6, 14). We have received the salvation of eternal life based on our belief in Yeshua.
So, it’s looking like the option two interpretation is the clear winner, but there is something we need to cover before we go further. It goes back to Paul’s eager anticipation and expectation of being present for the resurrection and transformation event. He lines it up with Yeshua’s coming, as we saw, but looking at other scripture related to that event, all the things associated with it seem to be a bit confusing.
First, the dead rise and the living are transformed (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 1 Corinthians 15:20-33) and death is swallowed up. Ok, we got that. Second, the great tribulation immediately precedes it (Matthew 24:26-31, Mark 13:24-27, Luke 12:20-28) but those events have already occurred. Third, no one knows when it will happen, not even Him (Matthew 24:36, Mark 13:32), but apparently you can figure it out when you see the figurative fig leaves sprout (Matthew 24:32-33, Mark 13:28-31, Luke 12:29-33). Fourth, He’s supposed to return physically (Acts 1:11), but there’s also a sign of Him coming on the clouds (which is a purely spiritual reference used in the Old Testament) (Matthew 24:30, Mark 13:26, Luke 12:27).
A lot of seemingly contradictory parts to the same event, don’t you think? By correlating the synoptic gospel accounts of Yeshua’s explanation for the end, we see that He was talking about the destruction of Jerusalem that occurred in 70AD. Luke holds the key to this interpretation since he specified certain aspects that Matthew and Mark kept vague. For instance, he lines up Jerusalem being surrounded by armies with the fulfillment of the abomination of desolation. However, we don't see that Yeshua returned yet, despite those events being prophesied as immediately succeeded by the signs of His coming.
It turns out when you look at the various descriptions of His coming and the language used, it seems there might be more than one and that those returns might fall into two categories…and surprisingly (or not!) they align with what we learned about death and its two types! At this point, we’re going to have to leave that for next week, so stay tuned! I hope you have a wonderful week! Shabbat shalom!
-Rob and Sara Gene
Comments