Two Resurrections

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 17, 1864

Two Resurrections.

The following may help the Bible Class at La Porte, Iowa. It is from Litch's Prophetic Expositions, Vol. 1, pp. 46, 47.

Jesus Christ has said, (John v, 28, 29,) "The hour is coming when 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." There are in this text, two distinct resurrections recognized: "of life;" "of damnation." They that have done good will enjoy the former; they that have done evil, endure the latter. It is objected, the whole is said to take place in the same literal "hour." "The hour cometh." To this, it is replied, that the term "hour" merely signifies, the time will come when all will hear his voice, and live or come forth from the grave; but each in his own time. The word is manifestly used thus, in John v, 25, where it is said "The hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live."

Even while Christ was on earth, the time was coming, yea, had come, that the dead, Lazarus, the widow's son, &c., should, and did hear his voice, and those that heard, lived. Were all these instances in one literal hour, or at one time? Clearly not. But, says the objector, it does not mean the dead in a literal but spiritual sense. Very well, we will look at its meaning then. The hour is coming and now is when the dead in trespasses and sins shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Was this true, I ask, only that very hour to which he spoke; or is it true of all subsequent time to the end of the world? The latter is true, most clearly. Then the hour signifies, in verse 25, the whole gospel dispensation; why, then, may it not, by the same rule, signify, in the 28th verse, a thousand years? It must be understood, in the 25th verse, in some other than its literal acceptation; then why not in the 28th verse? It is not necessary to go beyond the 5th chapter of John to settle the controversy, on the import of the term hour, as used in reference to the time of the resurrection.