Unlocking the Mystery of Resurrections: Embracing God’s Unwavering Love and Divine Judgement

What are the resurrections that will take place in the future? Which one will you and your loved ones be in? What are the underlying questions that many Believers have when they consider the future resurrections?

Considering The Future Resurrections With Godly Balance-

Most Christians believe in two resurrections to come in the future, while a few believe in three. The question might arise, does it truly matter whether it's two or three? At its core, the answer isn't crucial, as long as you can still affirm that God is good and His judgments are fair, righteous, and loving. Can you declare Him as good even if His judgments imply eternal non-existence or hell, as some believe?

Addressing this subject often treads on the toes of many Believers, and it's challenging to approach without causing offense. But let me be clear: Our beliefs about the number of resurrections and what comes after death should not divide us! If we all are humble enough to realize that we see in part and understand in part (1 Corinthians 13:9-12), even if we think we see a situation clearly, we end up keeping our priorities in order of what really matters. And what really matters is this: 

God gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.

That Son came in the flesh, lived a perfect life, died for the WHOLE WORLD (including you and everyone you've ever known), was resurrected on the third day, and now sits at the right hand of our Heavenly Father. This demonstrates God's power to resurrect anyone and His desire to do so.

We have a perfectly good God who loves ALL of His creation. He is The Creator who brought everything back to Himself through His Son. LOVE IS HIS MOTIVATION because love is who He is! Restoration of everything and everyone to Himself is His will and heart (1 John 4:8).

He commands us to love Him completely and to love our neighbors as ourselves because He loves us (1 John 4:19, I recommend reading the entire chapter).

Keeping these fundamental points in mind enables us to humbly discuss resurrections, accepting the possibility of being wrong, party right, or surprised by God's actions. Just as Christ's coming defied expectations, we should remain open to unexpected outcomes in these future prophecies. An open mind allows for surprises and corrections when these resurrections occur or are witnessed.

What Are The Real Questions Concerning The Resurrections?

Throughout the five decades I've lived as a Believer, I've learned that questions about the number of resurrections and how they work aren't the central concerns of those who wish to discuss this topic. These questions on the resurrections are often projected to avoid addressing the real, underlying inquiries:

• What does God have in store for me and my loved ones? Is God going to torment us or make us cease to exist? I'm scared we won't make it!
• Given my fears, can I genuinely view God as good now and trust Him fully with my life?
• I want God to punish those ‘evil doers’ who have hurt me and those I love! I want punishment for them, but I want those that I love to make it even if they have made mistakes. Is God righteous enough to judge the way I hope He will judge?

Many have confessed these genuine questions to me and Tim over the years, while others avoid acknowledging these questions and become overly focused on interpreting resurrection prophecies to ease their hidden concerns. Such individuals can appear strict and judgmental toward those who hold different beliefs. They either cling to what they believe will emotionally and eternally 'save' them, imposing their beliefs on others, or they remain in a state of panic, unsure if they or their loved ones are safe.

I admit that my words may seem bold. I do not intend to offend or belittle anyone. Strong reactions usually stem from unhealed fears and hurts. Healing those wounds takes time and is part of the ongoing sanctification process from the moment we commit to God and throughout our lives. I also plow through my own fears and hurts as they come up to be purified into love. We all have them so please don’t hear judgment from me. I am merely using compassionate discernment to directly reveal what is usually really going on so that we can get the healing we need. My heart is always towards everyone’s healing and restoration, my fellow humans. Somehow, we need to learn how to get love into ourselves so we can kick out that fear around eternal death, or hell, or even physical death. As 1 John 4:18 says-

'There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear is tormenting. He that fears is not make perfect in love.'

Before delving into the overarching question of future resurrections, I choose to confront the true questions beneath the surface. This approach promotes humility and less fear when considering the resurrections.

Tackling The Underlying Questions Step by Step

1. What does God have in store for me and my loved ones? Is God going to torment us or make us cease to exist? I'm scared we won't make it!

God's essence is love and restoration. His nature is to save, heal, and love. He desires a relationship with every individual.

This nature is evident through Jesus' actions, words, and His death and resurrection. He demonstrated love by preaching to the poor, healing the sick, releasing captives from demonic grip, raising the dead, and comforting the distressed. His sitting at the right hand of The Father is a testament to God's nature of resurrection and love.

Christ's actions show that God's initial response isn't rejection or punishment. They will use rejection and punishment at the veeery end (the last resurrection) only because a human has been given CLEAR understanding and yet chooses to reject God. God is merely acting according to their free will choice. Our free will is an awesome gift from God. It also comes with our responsibility to make choices.

I won't delve into the reason behind why we were created with free will, the allowance of suffering, and the choice to reject good, including God. This article would expand into a book. I've already written a book on these topics, which will be available as a free ebook. I aim to release it in October. Visit www.ownedbylove.com ^[1] for updates on the book's release.

In conclusion, understand that God's nature is love and restoration toward His creation, particularly humans made in His image.

2. Given my fears, can I genuinely view God as good now and trust Him fully with my life?

This usually is where many people have built on sand and where Satan attacks. He attacks this area at just the perfect times when we have already built other beliefs on top of this fear to try to soothe the fear that we might not be able to trust God. Then Satan yanks us when our world crumbles due to illness, loss, or harm befalling our loved ones. The truth of our hearts is suddenly ripped to the surface. Violently exposed to the world is the hardening of the heart that was crouching in the darkness coming from distrust in God, and bitterness towards Him and others.

The prediction that "the love of many will grow cold" (Matthew 24:12) comes to fruition.

If you feel ANY feeling of not being able to trust God because you are afraid of His judgments toward you or those you love, then it doesn't take end-time events to get your love to grow cold. Satan is just waiting to help you get really stuck in this trap of bitterness toward God because of your fear of His judgment!

This is why, my fellow humans, I am speaking directly to these 'hidden' questions underlying the question of future resurrections. You must face these real questions and get answers so that you will have the strength to make it to the end and stand before your Maker, seeing Him as merciful and not seeing Him as Satan sees Him (Luke 21:36)

If you are afraid that you or someone you care for won't make it, and therefore you have an area that cannot fully trust God, then DO NOT PUT THIS AREA OFF AND IGNORE IT ONE MORE SECOND! It is an open door to your whole emotional and spiritual world falling apart sooner or later. And Satan does not care if it's sooner or later as long as it does enough damage for you to hate God like he does.

I have yet to encounter a Bible believer who hasn't struggled with this issue to some degree. You are not alone. This is just an area that we all have to face and get some faith in.

"How do you get faith in this area to heal it?", you may be asking. Good question!...

The way I have found to help heal my own fears in this area is found in my other free ebook called Turning Fear Into Faith. ^[3] To add something on top of what this book shares, I had to come to a place of just deciding that God is good whether I could prove it or not. And therefore, I could trust Him. Yeah, you most likely heard me- believing that God is good to you and those you love WITHOUT being able to prove it with empirical evidence is the only way out I have found. You just decide it is true because it makes you happier to believe than what you have been thinking. The decision is made purely by you and purely by faith. Whether we like it or not, trusting in the unprovable is a strong tenet of our faith.

What I am saying sounds like craziness to most people. But I am telling you, by heavy personal experience, that forcing the self to decide to believe God is loving and trustable, even if it can't be logically or emotionally understood how it is true, was the only way for me to literally not lose my mind and die. I have not found another way to the breakthrough of not having the wrong kind of fear of God. I had to force myself to believe in the goodness of God no matter what I read in the Bible which sounded like the opposite. The areas that made me question God's goodness, I had to decide I just don't understand from my small human perspective yet. God will show me as I grow.

I'm giving you spiritual treasure here to help you navigate life, death, and resurrections. These things I am sharing with you will help you take hold of the comfort God has already given you through The Comforter!

3. I want God to punish those ‘evil doers’ who have hurt me and those I love! I want punishment for them, but I want those that I love to make it even if they have made mistakes. Is God righteous enough to judge the way I hope He will judge?

Every human of every age has struggled with this dilemma. We want mercy for those we love and we want justice done on those who hurt who we love. Do you see the hypocrisy in wanting this? Come on, my loved fellow human. Let's laugh together a bit at our humanness here!

Our desire to protect those we love but have those who abuse whom we love comes from our inability to see from where God can see. God sees everything from the perspective of eternity and knows everything. We tend to lean towards the perspective we have from our confined temporary human life and limited knowledge. God is not subject to death or permanent injury, whereas we are. It is soooooo hard to forcibly 'deny the fleshly perspective and put on the new man' which decides God's perspective, God's desire, and God's understanding is better than our own (Ephesians 4:17-24). Therefore, Christ came to help us see more clearly how God's perspective of love is superior to our limited perspective, even when we are human as He lived while on this earth. God wants each of us to have the ability to directly choose forgiveness that is always there to have, or reject it. He lets us choose. That is one of His precious gifts to humans- free will to choose. It is one of the highest ways He created us in His likeness and image which no other creature has been given the privilege to have!

Those people you hate, God loves. Who is wrong? Those people whom you reject, God desires to bring into His arms. For those people who have done heinous acts, God desires to forgive, heal, and restore. And the really good news is, He wants the same for YOU!

Make no mistake, God despises certain things. He abhors Lucifer's choices and those angels who follow him. He detests when we resemble Satan rather than His Son, Jesus, which is our true identity and inheritance! A time will come when every human's choice will be examined, and rewards or consequences based on their choices will follow. Raise your hand if you would like to spend eternity with individuals who knowingly, and intentionally choose manipulation, exploitation, control, and imprisonment of others over God's way of love and peace. Any takers out there? If you raised your hand, reconsider your choice. There is still time to change your mind. How many of us wrestle with these ungodly traits we're attempting to shed? Are you honest with yourself right now? Will you ask God for help in desiring to become peaceful and forgiving as God forgives? Can you entrust judgment to the only One capable of perfectly judging with love? Hatred and indifference blind us- let's be honest.

The Resurrections To Come

Now we turn our attention to the resurrections in our future since the proper foundation of humility has been laid. The resurrections are a time when human choices have been made whether they chose God's way of love and peace for eternity, or they want to be selfish and care only about themselves and their agendas just like Satan does.

• Resurrection One: Is for those who have chosen in this physical lifetime that God's way rocks (Revelation 20:4)! They are either raised from the dead or changed within a twinkling of an eye into their glorified bodies that endure for eternity (1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16). This glorified group of humans are known as The First Fruits.
• Resurrection Two: This occurs after the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth where The First Fruits of the first resurrection reign with Him. This resurrection is back to another physical life. The people who come back to a second physical life include 1. Everyone who died during the six thousand years of man and did not qualify to become a part of The First Fruits in the first resurrection 2. Those who lived during the thousand-year reign of Christ who were not ready to be changed into glorified beings, or 3. Those who were born during the thousand-year reign. There is no information on how long this period lasts where a ton of people are brought back to a second physical life (Revelation 20:5 and Ezekiel 37:1-14)
• Resurrection Three: Known as the Great White Throne judgment. All those not already glorified face final judgment- either achieving glorification as part of the 'Latter Harvest' (also known as the Great Harvest) or they face being put into The Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:11-15).

These are the three resurrections that I understand and Tim understood. Notice that everyone who was not glorified in the first resurrection will be brought back to another physical life in the second resurrection. This should bring comfort to all those who wonder if their loved ones will make it or not as they will have a chance to really know God and Christ and make a clear decision at that time. They will have a chance to be a part of the Latter Harvest/Great Harvest.

I am giving you an overview of these resurrections because many people have contacted me on this subject. It's puzzling that some find this topic confusing, considering Tim's comprehensive article on resurrections is clear and well-written. For those seeking further clarity and insights on these resurrections and the debates within The Body, I wholeheartedly recommend his article: Revelation's 3 Resurrections vs. Heaven/Hell At Death ^[4]

In Conclusion

• God loves everyone and everything He has created and has a plan through Christ to give it a way of redemption to perfection- minus Satan and his debased angelic followers.
• God loves your loved ones waaaaay more than you ever could! He desires them to be saved stronger than you ever could want it. That is His heart.
• Trusting that God is one hundred percent good is the only FOUNDATION of walking out of the prison of emotional or psychological torture.
• The resurrections exemplify God's perfect love and judgments.
• And a personal note- I love you and I hope this article has helped you to see God's love for you and your loved ones.