Did you know the Bible describes two resurrection events?
The First Resurrection
When a person dies, they enter into a state of unconscious existence. They have no thoughts, no emotions, and no dreams. Those who experience this sleep will be awoken in one of two resurrections.
Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.
Daniel 12:2 (NIV)
And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony of Jesus and for the word of God.. And they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years… This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection!
Revelation 20:4–6 (NIV)
The first resurrection is experience by those who have experienced the first death while in a loving relationship with God. They died that first death, but are then raised in the first resurrection. This is also referred to as the “resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14).
The first resurrection occurs at the return of Jesus to planet earth.
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope… For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
1 Thessalonians 4:13–16 (NIV)
Jesus returns to planet earth in great glory. He awakens–resurrects–those who have fallen asleep (experienced the first death). They get new, perfectly healthy, physical bodies. Those who are alive at this time and in a loving relationship with God will also receive new, perfectly healthy physical bodies. Together, everyone will return to heaven with Jesus to experience a thousand years of peace.
The Second Resurrection
The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years were complete.
Revelation 20:5 (NIV)
At the end of the thousand years, Jesus and all the righteous return to earth.
Those human beings who are sleeping and were not raised in the first resurrection will now be resurrected. They died that first death, and are now raised in this second resurrection.
They will, ultimately, judge God to be perfect and trustworthy.
It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.'”
Romans 14:11 (NIV)
However, they will reject God’s final offer to be saved, and will experience the second death.