The Two Resurrections

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 3, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 21.

The Two Resurrections.

(Concluded.)

BUT in all this there is no reference to those who are living or sleeping out of Christ. What is the destiny of such? They surely have no part in this glorious resurrection. They are not once mentioned as being raised or changed, as will be the case with those who are in Christ. They are sharers in the common lot of mortals. "Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." They are sharers also in the resurrection wrought by Christ. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

"But every man in his own order." The divine system and order which is so beautifully described in the first epistle to the Thessalonians, is more fully explained in the twentieth chapter of Revelation. While Paul is silent respecting those who sleep out of Christ, the revelator is not. After speaking of the glory and authority of resurrection life, he says: "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." Is it possible for language to speak with greater clearness? "The dead in Christ shall rise first," "but the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Side by side they were buried, and side by side their ashes repose in the city of the dead. Husbands and wives, sons and daughters, friends and enemies. Here they have been gathered for their long repose. A common dissolution claims them all, a common sod covers their graves. They are all alike undisturbed by the solemn tramp of the multitude or the voice of mirth above them. But oh, how unlike are their destinies! When the glory of the Lord's coming shall penetrate even to the resting-place of the dead, it will be charged with no life-giving power for those who sleep out of Christ.

When the redeemed of God shall feel the thrill of divine life and rise in the beauty of immortal glory, "the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." The Lord's triumphant shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, do not arouse them from their deep, awful sleep. Though the earth is enswathed with millennial glory, and resounds with the triumphant shouts and songs of ten thousand times ten thousand ransomed ones; though the voices of many whom they loved and cherished in life join in those shouts and songs—"the rest of the dead lived not again." They refused to be awakened in life by the calls and offers of the gospel of Christ, and now they cannot be awakened though the Lord himself draws near, and though all earth and heaven are vocal with his praise. Oh, that awful sleep out of Christ! What language can portray the loss of those who have no part in "the first resurrection"? What folly and madness to deliberately and persistently go down to the grave, without any preparation for "the resurrection of life." Some of you who hear me to-day, some of you who join with us in these joyful Easter services, are even now pursuing that path of folly and madness. Soon the grave will claim you, and there your ashes will remain through all the period of millennial glory. And then to what a resurrection will you be awakened! "Some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." Which will be your lot, my dying fellow-man?

"Marvel not at this," says the blessed Saviour, "for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." John 5 : 28, 29. Or that day of glory may burst upon you while pursuing the path of sin, and the living in Christ may be caught up from your side to meet the Lord in the air.

Side by side you may mingle with them in the activities of life; side by side you may sit with them in the social or family circle, or in the house of God, but they will be taken and you will be left. Let me make this so plain and impressive that all these little ones will understand and be influenced by it. See these clippings of metal which I have placed upon this cardboard. Some are brass and some are iron. Let the iron represent those who are in Christ, and the brass those who are not. See how they are promiscuously intermingled as are the saved and the unsaved of the children of men, both in the activities of life and in the slumber of the grave. And now as I pass this magnet over these intermingled clippings of metal, see how these pieces of iron leap up and adhere to it, while not one clipping of brass is moved in the least by its attractive power. "Caught up" and clinging to this attractive magnet is every particle of iron, but unmoved is every particle of brass. The approach of the magnet seems to awaken the pieces of iron into resurrection life, and they rise up from their resting-places and cling to the magnet as with the grasp of joyful affection.

The same God by whose mysterious law this wonderful result is secured, solemnly assures us that when the Lord Jesus shall descend from heaven, the scattered ashes of all who sleep in him shall feel the impulse of his attractive power, and be thrilled by the life of his own Spirit, and rise to his presence in the strength and beauty and glory of his own divine nature and perfections. And all who are alive, and "love his appearing," will "be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" and "caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." But as the brass yields not to the attractive power of this magnet, so the unregenerate, whether sleeping or awake, will not be drawn to the skies by the mighty power of the Lord's appearing.

As all these pieces of brass lie unmoved where they were when the iron was mingled with them, so the living and the dead who are out of Christ will remain unmoved though the living and the dead in Christ have risen from their very presence and have ascended to the presence of the Lord.

Oh, my beloved hearers, which destiny shall be yours? Shall it be that of the iron caught up by and clinging to the magnet, or that of the brass, possessing no affinity for it?

Shall it be that of those who have been lifted up into newness of life by the attractive power of divine love, and who joyfully greet the returning Lord as he comes to claim his own? Or shall it be that of those who reject the invitation of the gospel, and so remain "dead in trespasses and sin," dead to the attractive power of divine love, and dead to the attractive power of the Lord's coming and glory? Which, oh which of these destinies shall be yours? Now is the time to decide this question. "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." Eccl. 9 : 10. "Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." Rev. 3 : 8. But "when once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door," it will be too late to heed the calls of divine wisdom and love. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."—From a sermon by Rev. E. S. Chapman, D. D. (Presbyterian).