Meditation

Meditation for 09/12/2019

“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake; some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Daniel 12:2)

This along with Isaiah 26:19, are perhaps the clearest expressions of personal resurrection in the Old Testament. While the resurrection of believers is a prominent part of biblical hope, references to unbelievers being resurrected are much more limited.

Here the matter is strongly asserted. Some shall awake to experiencing contempt, just as some to everlasting life. The full experiencing of eternal destiny calls for personal resurrection from the “dust of the earth.”

PRAYER FOR THE DAY:

Precious Abba, there is a very clear difference between eternal life in the kingdom of heaven and that of an unbelievers eternal life of contempt and suffering. We know this is all avoidable, if we will but just accept You through Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. We also know this does not make us perfect, for as human beings, we are fallible and have sinful natures. However, You have even considered this and allowed us to confess our sins and find forgiveness and mercy. We truly do serve an awesome God. This we pray in our Savior’s name. Amen

THOUGHT OF THE DAY:

“JESUS – No man has ever so comforted the distressed – or so distressed the comfortable!”

KNOWING GOD:

“And I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.” (Acts 24:15)

The resurrection of the wicked necessarily implies their bodily resurrection, even though it is not often, asserted as forthrightly as here. The biblical emphasis is upon the hope that believers have by virtue of a promised resurrection of the righteous. The fact that the same sentence asserts resurrection for both the righteous and the wicked does not require that both occur simultaneously. The fact can be declared, but the details omitted. Some interpreters believe that other passages suggest an interval between the two.

I AM:

Last Things, Unbelievers Resurrection: (Revelation20:11–15)

Interpreters believe Scripture teaches only one general judgment of all persons, while dispensationalists see evidence for separate judgments for the righteous and the unrighteous, with the passage referring to the second of these. One’s interpretation of this passage is based partly on whether Hades is seen to refer to the general realm of he dead or the realm of the wicked dead and whether the book of life is seen to imply the presence of believes, who alone would be found in it, or suggests a sort of double verification of the eternal punishment meted out to unbelievers, whose names are absent from it. All interpreters agree that all persons will be judged.

Second Thought of the Day:

“I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have live in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.” (John5:25–29)

Hearing the voice of the Son of God brings spiritual life to the spiritually dead. The hour for this possibility arrived in Jesus’ first coming. A future time is coming when those who are physically dead will be brought to life again, some to a bodily resurrection “to live,” others to a bodily resurrection “to be condemned.”

This is the clearest teachings concerning the future resurrection of unbelievers to the full, bodily experience of eternal condemnation. We have heard this for the last 2,000 years, beloved, and one day it will become true. Have you confessed your sins and sought forgiveness for your sins? We must do this with penitence (an attitude of sincere desire not to commit the sins again) in our hearts and with a desire to be forgiven by Your God’s grace and mercy, not for anything we may have done to “earn it.”