Eschatology
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The unjust will not rise again |
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There
are some people who claim to be Christians who believe and teach that the unjust
will not rise again. For instance, in the Dizionario
Biblico [Bible Dictionary] it is written: ‘On the contrary those who
belong only to the first Adam – that’s the inevitable conclusion – will not
rise again’ (Dizionario Biblico, by
G. Miegge. Second edition, revised and updated by B. Corsani, J. Alberto
Soggin, and Giorgio Tourn, Milano 1968, page 505). |
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They
support their doctrine through some biblical passages which are these: 1)
Psalm 1:5, “Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in judgement”, which words
are rendered in the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, ‘The wicked shall
not rise again in judgment,’ 2) Isaiah 26:14: “They are deceased, they will
not rise,” 3) Daniel 12:2: ‘And many of them that sleep in the dust of the
earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting contempt”. |
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Confutation |
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According
to the Holy Scripture, all men, that is, both the just and the unjust, will
rise again. |
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For
Jesus said: “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who
are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done
good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the
resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28-29 – NKJV), and Paul said “that
there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust”
(Acts 24:15 – NKJV). |
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To
confirm that the unjust also will rise again, I remind you of the following
words of Jesus: “The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with
the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than
Solomon is here. The men of |
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Let
me explain to you now the biblical verses which are quoted to deny the
resurrection of the wicked. |
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Psalm 1:5 – First of all, it must be said that these versions are not
agreeable to the Hebrew text. However, even if we grant for the sake of
argument that they are, that passage does not mean that the wicked will not
rise again from the dead, but it means that they will not rise again so as to
appear in the congregation of the righteous, that is to say, they will not
rise at the resurrection of the just which is the first resurrection. In
addition to this, the word used does not refer to the resurrection of the
wicked, but their standing before God in a judicial sense, when raised. In
other words, the meaning of that passage is this: the wicked will not stand
before Him with confidence, nor be able to justify themselves and vindicate
their cause, and thus they must fall and not stand in judgement. |
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Isaiah 26:14 – Here is how these words must be understood. Those masters who
had formerly dominion over the Israelites, but now are dead, will not rise
again and live on this earth to tyrannize over them. |
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Daniel 12:2 – The “many” should be understood universally, as in Romans 5:19:
“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one
Man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (NKJV). It is evident that when
Paul says that by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, he does not
mean that only some men were made sinners, but he means that all men were
made sinners, for he says also that “all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God” (Romans 3:23 – NKJV). That the ‘many’ of Daniel 12:2 cannot be
quoted to deny the resurrection of the unjust, is evident from the fact that the
prophet Daniel says that some will awake “to shame and everlasting contempt”
(Daniel 12:2 – NKJV), for according to the Scripture those who will awake to
be condemned to everlasting contempt are the wicked, so that the words of
Daniel are a proof of the resurrection of the unjust. |