Believers—Living Changed or Dead Raised

The apostles were to "sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Yet Peter, whose question drew forth this announcement, was warned that he himself should suffer death. Believers are made joint-heirs with Christ; saints are told that they shall judge the world, and sufferers with Christ are promised that they shall reign with Him, irrespective of their being alive or in the grave at His return.
The promise to the saints at Thyatira—"He that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations"—could not be fulfilled to them unless the dead shared this hope with the living. Indeed, the passage so often referred to seems written to prove the absolute identity between the lot of believers, whether living or dead, when Christ comes for His saints. "Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." 1 Thess. 4:14. Bring where, and for what? Bring forth as the sharers of His glory, for which purpose He will first raise them from their sleep, and take them with the living believers to be with Him in heaven.
Our Lord names two kinds of resurrection, though He says nothing of their being separate in time. "The hour is coming, in the which 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 (judgment)." John 5:28, 29.
Does not the resurrection of life correspond exactly with the resurrection in which they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years? And is not the resurrection of judgment the same as that in which the dead are "judged out of those things which were written in the books"? If so, and surely it would be impossible to call it in question, they are not only distinct in character, but in time. The one is the resurrection of the dead in Christ when He comes for His saints; the other is the resurrection of the rest of the dead which takes place at the end of the world.
Paul, in his defense before Felix, declares "that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." Acts 24:15. Why speak of the two classes? If he had been disputing with one who admitted the resurrection of the just, but denied that of the unjust, it could easily have been explained, but this was not the case. The division of the two classes, therefore, cannot be readily accounted for, except that the Apostle was regarding their resurrection, not as parts of one event, but as two separate transactions.
Still less could we understand our Lord's declaration to the Pharisee that he should "be recompensed at the resurrection of the just" (Luke 14:14), if the just had not a distinct resurrection from the unjust. The expression "resurrection of the just" scarcely could have been used if the two rose together. But its force is at once recognized if we bow to the truth of "the first resurrection" so plainly taught in the book of Revelation.