When was the Resurrection from the Dead?

 Who is in Heaven Now?

Hebrews 11: 39 "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect."

That was back then.

Daniel and Moses and Abraham BENEFITED from Jesus' Resurrection and the ushering of the New Covenant Age. Their status permanently changed. They received their full promise since the Old Covenant vanished.

These heroes of faith are not waiting on "us" in the 21st century. They were waiting on "the us back then in the 1st century", the 1st century believers who suffered great tribulation back then.... Remember we are reading someone's 2000 year old mail. They were in the last days of the Old Covenant, or Moses Law, not us.

Jesus said no one has ascended into heaven but he who descended. He told his disciples that they could not go to where He is going but He will come again and receive them into Himself.

So either He did that (when He came in the clouds) or they are still waiting in Sheol to gain their resurrected bodies to enter the Holy of Holies (which by the way according to Hebrews was only made open back in the 1st century by Christ).

If Christ did not come and receive them unto Himself, BACK THEN, then no one is in heaven now, and therefore Abraham and Daniel are still waiting.... Yet Daniel was told to rest until the time of the end when he will receive his promise.  What time of the end is this?

So if anyone truly managed to ascend into heaven, or are in heaven now (whether with a body of not), Christ Himself had to come and escort them there, just as He told His Disciples.  As we would see this occurred when He did come to receive them and destroy His enemies at the end of the OT age in AD 70.

Seated in Heavenly Places.

Note: I distinguish reluctantly  between a purely spiritual resurrection and a spiritual (yet physical) bodily one. My recreated spirit has already been resurrected, when the Holy Spirit quickened me.  It took place when I received Christ though the work that was done when He sat down at the Father's right hand. 

When Jesus said no one has ascended into heaven, but the Son of Man who is in heaven, that was before He went and opened up the New and Living Way that pave the way for all that saints are seated with Him in heavenly places. We are now partakers of the heavenlies and the "prepared place" is now granted full access. The paradise of God (some say was in Sheol) is now in the 3rd heaven and Paul experienced it in his walk on earth.  All the OT saints are part of the cloud of witnesses cheering us on!

Are saints in Heaven with no Bodies?

The only question is whether these OT saints have their spiritual non-natural (yet can be physical) resurrected bodies right now in heavenly places or whether they still await a further resurrection.....

Either they all rose and are in heaven disembodied, or without their resurrection bodies... or did the dead indeed rise, with their resurrected bodies, or they did not rise at all and are still in Sheol.

Since even in the predominant view the dead in Christ are not in Sheol/ Hades, then the dead in Christ have indeed risen (in a sense).

If the dead in Christ have indeed risen, then that is a (or the) resurrection. Either they rose or not...If you say that spiritually they resurrected and they still await a physical resurrection then they are in heaven disembodied....

I Don't think Paul Look Forward to being Disembodied.

I don't think that this was Paul's expectation.  Even though he was spiritually resurrected, he look forward to the dead rising in Christ, that is, the resurrection to receive their bodies. The phrase "Dead rising in Christ" is more than a purely spiritual resurrection, since Paul was already spiritual resurrected, seated in heavenly places and should have stopped using the phrase, as a looking forward expectation to the dead rising in Christ.

Paul's expectation is that he would NEVER be found NAKED, that is without a body. That as soon as "this tent" is destroyed, he would got go naked, not be unclothed, but be further clothed... It will happened he hoped as soon as he is absent from the body. In fact he had to wait a short time,and not centuries as he and others did rise from Sheol not as disembodied spirits, but with bodies.

This is my current view, evolving from waiting from a resurrection in the distant future.... Else they are all in Heaven now as clouds of witnesses as disembodied spirits, unclothed, still awaiting... and the process of resurrection started with Christ, and stopped with a gap of 2000 years.

2 Cor 5:1-8
For we know that if our earthly house, this tent , is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 
NKJV

The Popular View: Sheol/ Hades Began to be Emptied Upon the Resurrection, People waiting in Heaven for Bodies

So according to many, as soon as we die, we are in heaven in our disembodied spirits, awaiting the day of the bodily resurrection when we and the saints alive on earth all receive a new body. Some theologians refer to it as the intermediate state. However  Paul longed not just to "go to heaven," but to be clothed in his new body. 

We already established the fact that no saints are in Sheol or Hades. After Christ's resurrection many were seen on the streets of Jerusalem having now been raised from Sheol and on their way to heaven which was now open to them because of Christ's work.

Matt 27:51-53

Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, 52 and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 

Sheol was emptied of all the covenant men and women who walked faithfully before the Lord. It may mean that this firstfruits company also received a new body because it says "many bodies of the saints were raised," So, they, at least, received some type of  body. Whether we all do at death is not clearly stated to my knowledge. I know at least we go into the presence of the Lord. "To depart and be with Christ," Paul said.

I have heard and kept that view. But here is another possible view I am musing over....

Another POSSIBLE VIEW?

The process of resurrection started with Christ right?

Would everyone be resurrected? YES. Jesus said so. Some to Life and Some to condemnation.

Christ said, the hour is coming AND NOW IS when those who are in the grave who hear his voice will Live. That is one resurrection, the resurrection of the just. Think first fruits. This has nothing to do with doing good or evil.

Then he says explicitly that ALL in the graves will hear His voice and those who have done well to the resurrection of Life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. This is the resurrection of just and the unjust.

So EVERYONE will be resurrected right (all in the graves)? Some to life and some to condemnation.

So when is this? When was this hour?

Well in 1 Cor 15, the issue of everyone being resurrected is addressed. 

He said each in his own order which is a military term for each in his own rank or turn...

Made Alive, Each in His OWN ORDER
So again Christ started the ball rolling with His resurrection. I think everyone can agree with me there.  There is a sense that once He got the ball rolling there is no gap, no stopping of the process.

So As in Adam all did, in Christ all be made alive in the following Order ->

1. So First in Rank to be made alive - Christ
2. Next in rank/ turn are the first fruits
   
3. Next in rank/ turn are those who are Christ's at His Parousia/ Coming/ Judgment.  

Here comes the tricky part. He said "then comes the end". The word for end is teleo or the finish.  IT IS THE FINISH.

If you use scripture to interpret scripture you gotta find out where did Paul use the phrase "the end or the teleo". Then it is NOT open to any man's interpretation.

So When Was the End, the Hour associated with Resurrection?

Well he uses the exact phrase "the end or the teleo" in the following scripture ->

1 Thess 2:14b-16
"the Jews: 15Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: 16Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost [END/ TELEO]."

This is the exact phrase "comes [upon them] the END"

So when was the wrath to come to them to the END? It was AD 70

Peter said: 1 Pet 4:7 "The end or Finish [TELEO] of all things is near"

Jesus said: Matt 24:14 " then the END or Finish [TELEO] will come"

I cannot ignore this evidence that the END as is used in scripture refers to the WRATH to come on the Lord's enemies, OLD Jerusalem in AD 70, in context. I too had believed it was future, but seeing that Daniel was promised his rest until the time of the end, when the power of the holy people is broken evidence is stacked against my traditional thinking that this is future.

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Dan 12: "But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. 2Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. .....6One of them said...“How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?”
....... 7 “It will be for a time, times and half a time.b When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed.”
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So when was the power of the holy people broken?  AD 70 ate the fall of Jerusalem, at the end of the age.  When did wrath come upon the Jews to the end?  At AD 70.

So He did put all his enemies under His feet (especially the Old Jerusalem).

He Did Destroy Death, Emptied Hades

He did abolish Death, if he emptied out Hades, and no righteous person who believes dies anymore -> That is, they go straight to Him instead of going to Sheol/ Hades. In addition death and Hades cast into the Lake of Fire.

It means at that time, He did cause all the dead to come before Him and judged accordingly.  The wicked when they die, are judged (once to die, after the judgment), and are sent into the lake of fire.

It does not mean the Kingdom ends. It is still growing. But it means that perhaps resurrection started with Christ and continued each in his own turn unabated.  

Else we would be doing the same thing we accused dispensationalist of by putting a 2000 year old gap to the resurrection process.

Conclusion

1. So Christ had to come in some fashion to receive his disciples unto Himself in that generation that He spoke too, seeing that NO ONE Ascended to Heaven.
2. It is possible that the righteous ascended and are currently disembodied and await spiritual bodies in the future.
3. But this is increasingly unlikely since Paul says, if you destroyed this body, you would be clothed with another one, suggesting no gap or delay.
4. In addition Jesus also said He is the resurrection and the life, emphasizing that resurrection is not necessarily an event, but a reality because He lives, and anyone who believes in Him will NEVER die (they circumvent the process of going to Hades first upon physical death and they literally live with Him)
5. What does it mean to live or be made alive or resurrected?  All evidence point to receiving spiritual bodies as is the premise in 1 Cor 15, each in His own order.
6. There is evidence that massive changes occurred starting with Christ's own resurrection, and it continued until His coming/ Parousia where wrath was poured on His enemies, Jerusalem destroyed, judgment of the dead given, Death and Hades cast into the Lake of fire (no more need for Hades)... and since then, all those who are alive when physical death occurs, they go straight to Him, in their own order, are resurrected and live.

But I can be corrected. What do you think based on this evidence? I want to make sure I have an answer according to scripture and not based on interpretation.

Follow on Reading

• Sign of the Son of Man Part 3 - Harvest and Resurrection
• Did the Resurrection Process Start with Christ and Then Paused?
• Good Book: Laws of the Second coming