Bible Verses about Resurrection of the Dead.

 

This is an article that speaks about the Bible Verses about the Resurrection of the Dead. In the Gospel of Mark 12:18-27, the Sadducees came to Jesus with a question about the resurrection of the dead. Sadducees were a certain sect among Jewish religion who denied the resurrection of the dead and the existence of angels and spirits. The question goes like this:

“Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the wife, and raise up children for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no children; and the second took her, and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; and the seven left no children. Last of all the woman also died. In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”

Here, from their question it is clear that, they deliberately created this question put Jesus into trouble. He rebuked their position, however, and revealed that our existence in Heaven is no more or less than a relationship with God, transcending human relationships such as marriage.

Jesus said to them, “Is not this why you are wrong, that you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.”

Against the Sadducees, Jesus explains about the resurrection of the dead. From the moment of our death, we are no longer earthly beings. So, all our human relationships come to an end. There in heaven, the righteous will live like angels, who beget no offspring and worship God continually. 

We can find several passages in the Old Testament which speak about the resurrection of the dead. The following are few passages:

Isaiah 26:19 Your dead shall live; their bodies o shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!  For your dew is a dew of light, and on the land of the shades, you will let it fall.

Ezekiel 37:12-13 Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you home into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people.

Daniel 12:2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 

The New Testament also offers these verses about the resurrection from the dead:

1 Corinthians 15:23 “Each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”

1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 “This we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so, we shall always be with the Lord.” 

John 5:29 “Come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.”

Acts of the Apostles 24:15 “Having a hope in God which these themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.”

Philippians 3:21 “Who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

Revelation 20:11-15 “Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it; from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also, another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; and if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

The above passages helped us to understand the resurrection of the dead in the bible. In the Gospel, Jesus used the passage where God appeared to Moses in the burning bush. Jesus draws the conclusion from the text that, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still alive with God in their ongoing presence with God is the decisive precondition for their resurrection in the future.

This article recalls our mind to prepare ourselves to live in the presence of God eternally. Our lives here on earth are a preparation for that life. As we have heard, at the resurrection the righteous will become like angels in glory and immortality. So let us prepare ourselves with a life of holiness to live eternally in the presence of God.  

Bible Verses About Resurrection of the Dead.