One God and Father of All
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- Apr 20, 2018
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Not sure I understand your question.It's true that in the only place where "1st resurrection" is mentioned, nothing is said about believers who are still alive--at least not directly. But how can you say that those "given authority to judge" do not include those who had still been alive and granted immortality?
Rev 20.4 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge.
This passage, in particular, focuses rightly on the deliverance of those who had been killed by the Beast. It is not ignoring those who survived, but rather, lauding those who had endured until death.
I also am a Futurist, but not of the Dispensationalist kind. I do not embrace the argument that in order for the glorified Church to return with Christ they must 1st have been "Raptured" 7 years earlier. This is how I often hear it described.
In my view, the Rapture of the Church, along with our glorification, is instantaneous. Therefore, we can immediately appear in heaven with Christ in the clouds as he begins his descent. This takes no time at all for God.
Rather than try to understand the mechanics of how God brings us from A to B, and then from B to A, why not just accept what Scripture teaches, that Christ is coming back to deliver the Church from the Beast and from Death?
As I've said many times now, all of this eschatology comes directly from Dan 7, where the Son of Man is portrayed as coming down from heaven, to establish God's Kingdom on the earth. There is no systematic break down in the process--it is just declared as something that will happen at some point in the future, all at once.
But you're welcome to form your own opinion. I will not respect you any less, since much of what you say is Bible.
I believe the raptured saints will come with Christ to execute God’s judgments. That is when the book of Revelation begins.
There will be mortal believers during the time judgment begins. They will have been beheaded because they refused to worship the beast and his image. They will take part in the first resurrection and reign with Christ for a thousand years.
Those who had killed the believers will be judged at the end of the thousand years. The second resurrection.
The ones who took part in the first resurrection are given authority to judge those wicked who take part in the second resurrection.
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