By J. Vernon McGee
Flowers sleeping,
Women weeping,
Daylight trembling o'er the hills;
Morning breaking,
Sleepers waking -
Thoughts of life one's being thrills.
Christ is rising,
Death despising,
Stone and seal give way to power;
For One living
Light is giving
To this early, holy hour.
Christ immortal
Breaks the portal
Of the dark and chilly tomb;
By believing,
Him receiving
We are free from death and doom.
Give Him glory,
Tell His story,
How He died for sinners lost;
Fail Him never,
Love Him ever,
He is yours at awful cost.
- "Christ's Awaking" by Mabel Haldeman
The Rose Parade of Resurrection
But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive; but every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:2026)
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. (Philippians 3:10, 11)
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them who are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 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. (Revelation 20:4-6)
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hades delivered up the dead that were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11-15)
Thanks to television, more eyes are focused on the "Grand Canyon of Colorado Boulevard" in Pasadena, California, every first day of January than probably are focused on any other single spectacle in history. The Rose Parade in Pasadena is an annual attraction that has had over a million witnesses to wait along the line of march in recent years. Some spend most of the night before the parade along the line of march, holding a good spot to see the most colorful extravaganza of flowers that the twentieth century affords. Visitors come from afar - like a Queen of Sheba - to witness this polychrome parade and flower festival, and they leave duly impressed by the floats arrayed with a beauty that would surpass Solomon in all of his glory. They agree that the half has never yet been told (but really the Chamber of Commerce should be commended for doing so creditable a job).
Those who have been spectators for several years are thrilled not only with the flowers, but they are even more impressed with the order, precision, and timing of the parade. Not only is each flower in place by parade time, but also each participant knows his position, every float is in the correct niche, and each band is in its particular spot. The parade leaves on time and it marches on time. It is arranged according to divisions, and each item in all divisions is in place. With a program in hand, the spectator can anticipate seeing each part of the parade for the exact time that it should arrive at every important intersection. Such marvelous precision in programming is due to long experience and careful planning.
All that the casual visitor or long-time resident needs to do to enjoy the parade is to get on top of a seven-foot step ladder, purchase a morning paper with the printed line of march, and watch the parade go by. From this vantage point aloft a ladder, he can identify the grand marshal, the queen's float, the division captains, famous personalities, lovely floats, bands, and horses whose riders are decked out in full regalia.
The Resurrection of the Dead is a Parade
The resurrection of the dead is like a Rose Parade with each one properly placed in his own division. The accepted view is that the resurrection is more like a three-ring circus with Christ in the center ring, the just in one ring, and the unjust in the other - and that all are viewed at the same time. This is a rather naive conception, but it is the popular one. But the resurrection of the dead is a parade, and Scripture presents the program:
But every man in his own order [division]: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. (1 Corinthians 15:23)
The Greek word for "order" is tagma. Here is the only place that it occurs in the New Testament. In the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it occurs in the Book of Numbers:
Every man of the children of Israel shall encamp by his own standard, with the banner of their father's house: over against the tabernacle of the congregation shall they encamp. (Numbers 2:2)
This reference in Numbers is indeed remarkable, for it is in connection with the march of the children of Israel through the wilderness. (See the chart on page 15). Each tribe and each individual were given a definite place about the tabernacle. When the cloud lifted from the tabernacle, they packed their belongings in preparation to begin another trek across the wilderness waste. The silver trumpets were blown and the first section moved out; the silver trumpets sounded an alarm the second time and the second section moved out. This was repeated five more times and then the entire camp was on the march.
The trumpets were blown seven times to get Israel on the march to the land of promise. In Revelation we find seven trumpets blown, and these again are alarms which, through a series of judgments, bring Israel back to the land. These trumpets in Revelation accomplish the purpose of God in His strange work of judgment - whereby the petition in the "Lord's Prayer" of "Thy will be done in earth" (Matthew 6:10) is answered. Israel marched in precision along the wilderness trail by trumpets. Every tribe and individual were in place. Perhaps many a Bedouin tribesman or Midianite merchant stood on the sidelines and watched Israel march by - "every man in his own order" (1 Corinthians 15:23). When the children of Israel came into camp, each individual knew the exact position where he belonged, "Every man of the children of Israel shall encamp by his own standard, with the banner of their father's house" (Numbers 2:2).
I invite you to sit with me on the "ladder of Revelation,"and let us hold in our hands the Word of God - which also is the program that contains the line of march - and watch the parade of resurrection go by.
The Reality of the Resurrection
Is the resurrection of the dead a make-believe parade? Skepticism says yes. Secularism calls it a phantom parade. The scorner discounts it, if not actually dismisses it as of no value to modern man. Materialism ignores it. But in spite of the veneer of modern thought and the shellac of skepticism, the resurrection still refuses to remain an issue of no consequence. A still small voice speaks in the heart of the doubter, and the age-old question about survival after death will not accept the modern answer. As the poet writes,
One question, more than all others,
From thoughtful minds implores reply,
It is, as breathed from star and pall,
What fate awaits us when we die?
Job put the question succinctly:
If a man die, shall he live again? (Job 14:14)
Would God have placed this desire to live after death so deeply in the human heart if it were only a myth? Is it merely a passing fancy that finds no counterpart in reality? Is it only a figment of the imagination that haunts man like Banquo's ghost?
In nature, there is no such stroke of irony. The bird has a desire to fly - the wing is God's reply. The fish has a yen for swimming - the fin is the response in reality. Bees are absorbed in making honey - flowers and the ability to extract honey are the counterparts in the world of fact. The mockingbird must sing - a throat and the ability to sing are vocal evidences to match the instinct. For every impulse, there is a corresponding counterpart in the realm of reality. Is this law of nature revoked and replaced when the higher realm is reached?
The animal world has no impulse to live after death - a full stomach and a warm spot are the summum bonum of life. This strong desire to live again, and which is not shared by any other creature, has a corresponding expression in the world of reality. Job stated it in the fullness of faith: "I know that my redeemer liveth...and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God" (Job 19:25, 26). This desire moves like a seed from the realm of dampness and darkness, climbing into the realm of light and flower - faith moves to fact.
Infallible Proofs of the Resurrection
The Scriptures present creditable evidence of the resurrection:
...He showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen by them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)
Peter stated it candidly:
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables.... (2 Peter 1:16)
Paul produced reliable witnesses whose testimony would be accepted as evidence in our courts of law:
After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present time, but some are fallen asleep. (1 Corinthians 15:6)
Paul added his own personal testimony to the list of over five hundred witnesses:
And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. (1 Corinthians 15:8)
Many who go to law today would have their cases won if they could produce such an array of witnesses. Only the willful rebellion of the human heart against God and the natural tendency of the darkened mind of man to reject God's truth prevents man from openly embracing such indisputable proof.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
The Resurrection Refers to the Body
Liberal theologians profess to be Christians but attempt to bend, distort, and twist the resurrection of the dead into a non-Christian creed. They use the vocabulary of the Christian faith, but they have their own dictionary of distortion for the words. They use sound words, but they do not mean them the way that they sound. Resurrection to them is some sort of indefinite and incoherent heterogeneity, which means the continuance of the soul after death in some sort of ephemeral and ethereal existence. This is Buddhism - crass paganism - and it is not Christian. Buddhism teaches as much. Platonism will go this far:
And if there be no meeting past the grave,
If all is silence, darkness, yet 'tis rest.
Be not afraid ye waiting hearts that weep,
For God still giveth His beloved sleep;
And if an endless sleep He wills, so best.
- Epitaph on the tomb of the agnostic, Thomas Huxley
Resurrection in the New Testament refers to the body. The soul is immortal by its very nature; it never dies, so it is redundant to speak of the immortal soul. Listen to Paul:
But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not made alive, except it die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed its own body. (1 Corinthians 15:35-38)
This figure is of grain sowed in a field. You do not plant literal seed and harvest spiritual grain. There is a difference and a sameness. The seed is literal - the harvest is literal. The early church called the cemetery a field. The bodies of Christians were sown as seeds; the resurrection means that the seed will come up.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. (Psalm 126:5)
The time of sowing does have a sad side, but there is always the note of triumph and victory. The cemetery was a field where seeds were planted. How different is this from the modern mausoleum where there seems to be a pagan program to maintain and sustain the old body with its corruption and limitations! Let the old body fall into the ground. Why should it be placed in a casket that will preserve it for one thousand years and prevent dampness from entering the crypt? We shall receive a new body made for eternity and fit for heaven. If the body belongs to a child of God, then it will be raised in newness of life:
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:44)
The above passage is what the liberal has used to sustain the theory that the resurrection is spiritual. This has been his fort and forte. Let us see if the passage remotely suggests a spiritual resurrection. On the contrary, this verse is the undoing of the false hypothesis that the resurrection is only spiritual. A careful consideration of certain words will reveal this. The words natural and spiritual are adjectives - body is the noun, and it is used twice. Now, a noun is stronger than an adjective. Therefore, it is the body that is implicated in resurrection. It is sown one kind of body, it is raised another; nevertheless, it is still a body. The present body is a physiological (natural) body. The new body that will be raised is pneumatical (spiritual). Although at the resurrection the new body will be motivated and function differently from the present body, the fact remains that it is a body. The resurrection always refers to the body.
The Place of Believers in the Parade of Resurrection
When will the bodies of believers be raised? This is a vital question to every Christian. Come aloft with me to the top of the "ladder of Revelation" and let's watch the parade of resurrection go by.
But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. (1 Corinthians 15:20)
The first part of the parade has passed. The "Grand Marshal" of the parade has already been raised from the dead. We celebrate His resurrection every Lord's Day. He is called here the "first fruits." He alone has been raised in a resurrection body. There is a bare possibility that there was a small contingent of saints with Him, but it is not our purpose to discuss this aspect of the resurrection at this time. (See Matthew 27:50-53. They came out of the grave after His resurrection. They are the sheaf of first fruits and they are included in the first resurrection.)
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. (1 Corinthians 15:21)
Adam introduced death to his family; the parade of death started then. Christ reversed the parade, which has been moving in one direction from the beginning: "I go the way of all the earth..." (1 Kings 2:2). This has been a one-way parade up to the present.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22)
All "in Adam" die. This includes the entire race of mankind. All "in Christ" only includes believers; this second "all" is modified by those who are "in Christ." Unbelievers are to be raised, but not in Christ; they are raised for judgment after the millennial kingdom. It is not who you are that is primary, but it is where you are that is important. The finest epitaph for a Christian's tombstone are these words: "Asleep in Jesus."
There is a chronological order of the resurrection of those "in Christ" that is both logical and Scriptural. The resurrection is ad seraitem and not ad absurdum.
But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. (1 Corinthians 15:23)
The above verse takes us back again to Israel on the wilderness march. Her passage from Egypt to Canaan was not like the wild rushing of a mob to see who could arrive first. It was not like a traffic jam during rush hour in the late afternoon in any modern city. Probably it took a couple of hours in the morning to get Israel on the march, but it was done "decently and in order" (1 Corinthians 14:14), for the marching of the camp was by rank (tagma).
The first resurrection is also by rank (tagma). Christ, the first fruits, has already been raised. As we have suggested previously, perhaps a small company was raised after His resurrection - as it were a sheaf of first fruits. Christ, as the Ark of the tabernacle, has already left the camp of death in the wilderness of this world, and the parade of resurrection has begun.
We are waiting in breathless anticipation for the next portion of the parade. It is the resurrection of the church and the translation of the living saints. It will be ushered in by music greater than any band on earth or any instrument that man has heard. It is the heavenly solo, and it is identified on our program: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God" (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
When this heavenly solo has given forth the melody of heaven, the next section of the parade of resurrection then comes into view. This is the church, which includes the total company of believers from the Day of Pentecost to the moment of the Parousia; from the Upper Room to the upper air; from the tongues of fire to the clouds of glory; and from the rushing mighty wind to the meeting with the Lord in the air. Let us revert back to the figure of the Rose Parade again. The church will be like the "Queen's float" - "a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:27). The church will be presented as a bride to Christ, like a queen on a float she will be "all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework..." (Psalm 45:13, 14).
The resurrection of believers and the translation of the living members of the body of Christ will take place simultaneously, and this is the next portion of the parade of resurrection which is yet to pass.
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them who are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
This passage is given to the church as a comfort, a hope, the highest expectation, and a moment-by-moment anticipation. When the church loses sight of this high calling, then there ensues loose living, careless consecration, slight service, and an insipid indifference.
Paul again pinpointed this section of the parade:
Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51, 52)
In view of the fact that the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the translation of the believers is the glad goal of the church, it was not a subject of revelation in the old economy. Not until the church became an actuality on the Day of Pentecost did God reveal its destination. In this sense, it was a mystery, or - as one translator has it - a "sacred secret." A mystery in Scripture is a truth that is revealed for the first time; up to the moment of revelation, it was not known to man. The rapture of the church is a mystery. It was not the subject of revelation in the Old Testament. It is now no longer a secret, but it is the daring publication - in bold headline - of the church.
Paul separated this resurrection from all others by expressing an ambition to be a participant:
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. (Philippians 3:10, 11)
As an Israelite and as a Pharisee, he believed in the resurrection of the dead and knew that he would be raised from the dead, but it was his desire to be included in this resurrection which he called "an out resurrection from among the dead." The resurrection alluded to in this passage is the first resurrection.
What section of the parade follows the church in the parade of resurrection? Again we will need to consult our program:
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 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. (Revelation 20:4-6)
In this controversial passage we are told about a group who become martyrs because they bear a faithful witness for Christ in the time of the Great Tribulation and who are given such a wide place in the Book of Revelation. They are not members of the church, nor are they taken to heaven at the time the church is caught up before the Great Tribulation. The church is kept "from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth" (Revelation 3:10). These tribulation saints will not be kept from that time of tribula tion, but they will be put to death in it. They will seal their testimony to Christ by a martyr's death. Nevertheless, they will be included in the first resurrection, and they will conclude the first resurrection. They are raised at the end of the Great Tribulation.
The First Resurrection Completed
The first division of the parade of resurrection is now brought before us in its entirety. The redeemed of all ages are raised in the first resurrection, but each "in his own order" (1 Corinthians 15:23) is the method pursued. Christ, the first fruits, has already passed our reviewing stand. Two thousand years have already elapsed and the first resurrection is not yet over; only a small section has passed. Shortly, the saints of the past two thousand years will be raised.
After the resurrection of the church, the Great Tribulation breaks like a hurricane on the world. Multitudes of this brief interval, the tribulation martyrs, will be raised. Perhaps the Old Testament saints will be raised along with them. In view of the fact that the Old Testament saints are not seen in heaven with the church, and because their hope was an earthly one in the Old Testament, they probably are not raised until Christ comes to establish the millennial kingdom.
The Second Resurrection Includes the Lost of All Ages
The next resurrection, or the second resurrection, does not take place until the thousand years have run their course. This time element is specified: "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished" (Revelation 20:5). This is the resurrection of the lost. Yes, they are to be raised from the dead to be judged and then to die again, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power" (Revelation 20:6). This division in the parade of resurrection is the most serious and solemn one of all. The lofty language that describes this resurrection should solemnize the thinking of every man on top side of this earth. The agnostic may dismiss it as irrelevant and unworthy of serious consideration, but the frightful possibility that it might be true ought to cause him to give anxious concern to his own soul. If it is accurate (which we know it is), then the destiny of the lost is frightful. None of us should read this passage unmoved:
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. (Revelation 20:11, 12)
None are saved at this judgment. The lost are judged by their works, and the verdict is already in, "for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified [saved]" (Galatians 2:16). The Book of Life is opened at the Great White Throne, and the same condition for salvation prevails there that has existed from the Garden of Eden: namely, "we have redemption through his [Christ's] blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Ephesians 1:7). Since these who appear before the Great White Throne have trusted their own works and have rejected the redemption that is in
Christ, none are saved: "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:15). The second resurrection in the parade of resurrection contains this awe-inspiring float with a throne that is snow-white, suspended in space, before which every creature who has not trusted Christ must give an account.
After the second resurrection, the last portion of the parade comes into view. It is the float of death. "And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death" (Revelation 20:14). Death is chained to the chariot of the Great Conqueror of Death. The Lord Jesus Christ leads a parade of resurrection, which has at the end the foe of man: Death. Death will at last be defeated. The destroyer of man will himself be destroyed. Death will die.
For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:25, 26)
Never will another creature of God be touched by this foul fiend and hideous monster. Because Christ is raised, the Christian can say today with Paul, "O death, where is they sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:55).
Two Attitudes of Men Toward Death
Death today is still the enemy of man. He is a criminal at large, who lurks in the shadows to strike down the strongest as well as the weakest of mankind. Many brave men have lived in fear of him.
Death was the consuming horror of the man who, by his profession, has probably caused more deaths than any man living or dead. Alfred Krupp, the Prussian who founded Krupp's Works, with its enormous output of death-weapons, never forgave anyone who spoke to him of dying. Every employee throughout his vast works was strictly forbidden to refer to the subject of death in conversation. He fled from his own home when a relative of his wife suddenly died there, and when Mrs. Krupp remonstrated he became so enraged that a life-long separation ensued. At his illness he offered his physician a million dollars if he would prolong his life ten years. (Reference not cited.)
Another well-known figure in modern times is reported to have lived in constant fear of death. He was William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper tycoon, who through the printed page attacked many strong interests. He was fearless in his attack upon those who were his enemies. But this man lived in fear of death; he would not permit the discussion of it in his presence. Nevertheless, his chain of papers had at last to carry the headline that death had defeated him.
Many men have scoffed at death and have put up a bold front as long as they were in good health. But when on their deathbeds, they became cowardly and cried out in despair. Listen to the deathbed cries from the lips of some scoffers and skeptics:
"I am suffering the pangs of the damned."
- Talleyrand Perigord
"Give me laudanum that I may not think of eternity."
- Marabeau
"I am abandoned by God and man! I shall go to hell! Christ! Jesus Christ!"
- Voltaire
"I would give worlds, if I had them, if The Age of Reason had never been published. Lord, help me! Christ help me! Stay with me! It is hell to be left alone!"
- Thomas Paine
Death can never be such a terror to the child of God. He knows that Christ has taken the sting out of it. Christ not only died to redeem man, but He has also risen from the dead to justify him. By His resurrection He has "abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (1 Timothy 1:10). Listen to the triumphant note that has come from the deathbeds of believers:
"I die in the faith of Jesus Christ, and in the firm hope of a better life."
- Michelangelo
"I am going into eternity; and it is sweet to me to think of eternity; the endlessness of it makes it sweet. But O! what shall I say to the eternity of the wicked? The thought of it is too dreadful!"
- David Brainerd
"I throw myself on the mercy of God through the merits of Christ."
- William Pitt
"Doctor, I am dying, but I am not afraid to die."
- George Washington
"My affections are so much in Heaven that I can leave you all without regret; yet I do not love you less, but God more."
- William Wilberforce
"The consolations of God to such an unworthy wretch are so abundant that He leaves me nothing to pray for but a continuance of them. I enjoy Heaven already in my soul."
- Augustus Toplady
"I commit my soul into the hands of my Saviour, in full confidence that having redeemed it and washed it in His most precious Blood, He will present it faultless before the throne of my Heavenly Father, and I entreat my children to maintain and defend at all hazards and at any cost of personal sacrifice the blessed doctrine of the complete atonement for sin through the Blood of Jesus Christ, once offered, and through that alone."
- John Pierpont Morgan
A distinguished scientist, calling on Michael Faraday, put this question to him: "Have you conceived to yourself what will be your occupation in the next world?" Hesitating awhile, Faraday answered by quoting 1 Corinthians 2:9 - "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." And then he added in his own words, "I shall be with Christ, and that is enough."
What a sense of joy and triumph comes to the Christian to know that at the end of the parade of resurrection death is in chains and, like a condemned criminal, is on the way to execution! Death at last takes a holiday. The Rose Parade of Resurrection will be a victory parade. Here will be the triumphal march of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to the marching music of triumph and victory:
There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.... (Romans 8:1)
For I am in a strait between two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. (Philippians 1:23)
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8)
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. (Romans 8:38, 39)
Come aloft with me to the "ladder of Revelation" and look once more at the line of march in the Rose Parade of Resurrection
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