“The thought of some, that resurrection “change” has come to each individual at the moment of dying throughout the Gospel age – that resurrection has all along followed the dying of all, is abundantly contradicted again, when the Apostle definitely fixes the time of the First Resurrection of the Church, the body of Christ, to be “at the last trump” – when the seventh trumpet shall sound – then “the dead [in Christ, – his members] shall be raised incorruptible, and we [of them then living] shall be changed; for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” – there can be no doubt that the present bodies would be wholly out of place in, and not permissible, – impossible, to the (Spiritual phase of the) Kingdom.

After this change of the Church has been completed – after this First [or chief] Resurrection has been accomplished – “Then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” Here again the Apostle’s statement is generally misunderstood: most readers get the impression that he means that the victory over death and the grave is already accomplished; and a few nearer the truth infer that the “victory” will be fully accomplished in the “change” of the Church, the body of Christ, in the First Resurrection.

However, neither of these views meets the scope of the statement. On the contrary, the First Resurrection, the “change” of the Church, will be but the beginning of the great victory which Christ is to achieve over death and the grave. This will be merely the bringing forth of the “first-fruits,” as the Apostle declares: “A kind of first fruits unto God of his creatures.” (James 1:18.)

This is the force of the Apostle’s expression, “Then shall be brought to pass;” – that is to say, then this prophecy of victory over death will begin to have its fulfilment. It will require all of the Millennium to accomplish the victory over death; and Christ and the glorified Church will be the victors, as it is written (Verses 25,26), “He must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet; the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” To accomplish this complete victory over death and the grave will be the very object of the establishment of the Kingdom, and will require a thousand years; as it is written again, respecting the reign of those who have part in the First Resurrection, “They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” – Rev 20:4.

This First Resurrection glorifies the Kingdom class; and forthwith the Kingdom will be set up – “The mountain [Kingdom] of the Lord’s house” will be established in the earth. This agrees with the statement of the prophet, from which the Apostle quotes, “In this mountain [Millennial Kingdom] shall the Lord of hosts make unto the people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined; and he will destroy in this mountain [Kingdom] the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it.” (Isa 2:2; 25:6-8.) How much of the beauty and fulness of the divine Word has been hidden from our eyes by reason of the errors introduced into the creeds of Christendom by the great Adversary for this very purpose!

The Apostle, glancing down to the grand culmination at the close of the Millennium, exclaims with poetic fervor (Verse 55), “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” The thought is: Death has been stinging our race, blighting it for six thousand years, and sending it ignominiously to the tomb; but God, who justly condemned us as a race, has looked down in compassion, and beheld our impotence, and has provided a Savior and a great one – Jesus, the Head, his only begotten One, our Redeemer, and the Church, his body, whose Kingdom shall destroy, at one and the same time, death and the grave, and their power over all who will obey the requirements of the Kingdom – completely delivering such from their power. Adamic death is to be utterly destroyed – not a soul of Adam’s posterity is to be left therein (in the grave), – for those who will not accept the grace of God when offered to them will be destroyed UTTERLY, NOT for Adam’s transgression, but for their own transgression, – NOT, therefore, by Adamic death, but by Second Death. – Ezek 18:2-4,20.

This utter destruction on account of personal, willful sin is Scripturally known as the Second Death, which is nowhere denominated an enemy. On the contrary, it is the friend of God, – his servant, to “destroy those who [would] corrupt the earth.” It is the friend of all who love righteousness, and desire peace, joy, blessing, in harmony with the divine will. It is not even the enemy of those whom it will destroy – the wicked – because it is better that they should be destroyed than that they should be permitted to institute another reign of sin and death out of harmony with the Lord’s righteous arrangements. It is Adamic death that our Lord Jesus will destroy; and it is denominated an enemy, because it came upon Adam’s posterity contrary to their wills, and because some, at least, of the thousands of millions under its control, are disposed to be perfect and righteous, and are hindered by the weaknesses and restraints imposed by the great enemy in whose clutches they were born.

It will be the “last enemy” to be destroyed, because other evils will be brought into subjection early in the Millennium; but men will get the victory over death only in proportion as they obey the voice of the great Teacher, Priest and King, and gradually rise, inch by inch, through restitution processes, up, up, up, out of death, until finally, at the close of the Millennial age, they shall reach life in its full, perfect degree. When all shall have become thus released from death to life, or else transferred to the Second Death, – then this enemy, death, – Adamic death, – will have been vanquished; its victory over all who long for righteousness and life eternal will be at an end.”

Continued with next post.