Resurrection In Context #2
/by Oscar M. Baker
5. Matt 25:30. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is a servant, not an enemy. He belongs to his master. There is nothing here about death and resurrection. He Is living when the master returns. He is banished out into the nations of the earth, away from the inheritance (the land). Among the nations is the darkness mentioned. See Isaiah 60:2.
6. Matt. 25:46. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. This is a judgment of the living nations at the return of the Lord. Nothing here about death and resurrection. Nations, not individuals are judged. Some go on into the millennial kingdom as they are, retaining their identity and names. But others will be ruled with a rod of iron. (Rev. 2:26,27).
7. Acts 24:15. And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. Few ever read this passage carefully and get the context. They have one thing in mind, and that is all that unbelievers must be raised and pay a penalty, that Christ did not die for sinners, that He did not die for the ungodly, that He did not die for our sins, but only for good folks. But here is a hope which Paul says even his Jewish accusers will confess. It is that all believers, both just and unjust will be raised. The just and unjust are the two classes mentioned in David 12:2, and in John 5:28, 29. Again they are mentioned in Rev. 20:5. Here they are the overcomers and the non-overcomers of the 7 churches, but all believers. So in our reference above, the resurrection is connected with a hope, and can only be believers. Unbelievers have no hope.
8. Acts 24:25. Felix trembled. Read the context. Do you find anything about death and resurrection in this passage? Paul was speaking of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come in this life, not in another. Paul himself was expecting to live unto the coming of the Lord to judge His people and the nations. What was Felix thinking of when he trembled? Was it some future punishment after death, or the meeting of a judge here and now to answer for his conduct? His wife was a Jewess.
9. Rev. 20:12, 13. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God… and they were judged every man according to their works. Tradition and superstition have made these to be unbelievers (evidently those for whom Christ did not die) and that they are punished, even tho the Lamb of God took away the sin of the world. But the roll call is from the book of life. And they are judged according to works. If unbelievers, then they are judged already in this life because they have not believed. Truth For Today Reprints Bk 4, pg 46
