29. 5. FUTURE EVENTS: THE RESURRECTIONS
the first time, made known in a special revelation "by the word of the Lord." This formula always denotes a special and specific prophetic announcement.¹ Moreover, it is not called a "Resurrection." The word is not a Noun, but a Verb. "The dead in Christ shall rise first." This word "first" has nothing to do with the "first resurrection" of Rev. xx. 5, 6; but only with the fact that it would be the former of the two there spoken of; their mention following closely one on the other. But in 1 Thess. iv., two events are spoken of, not two resurrections: first "the dead in Christ shall rise": and second, the living who remain shall be caught away in clouds together, with them, unto the meeting of the Lord, into the air; "and so (i.e., in this manner) we shall be ever with the Lord."
Thus, the rising revealed in 1 Thess. iv., though it is still future, at the moment of writing, will be the great closing event of this present Dispensation, and will usher in the succeeding Dispensation of Judgment.
There are some who believe that, in Phil. iii. 11-14, we have a later revelation² referring either to an earlier removal of the Saints; or to the hope of our "change" without dying; as the special hope of the "prize of our calling on high" (v. 14). This would then be either an expansion of, or addition to, what is revealed in 1 Thess. iv. concerning those who shall be alive and remain; or a fresh revelation of another and perhaps earlier "calling on high."
Certainly we do not seem to have grasped or exhausted all that that wonderful chapter (Phil. iii.) reveals. It seems to be connected specially with the glorious revelations made later in Ephesians and Colossians: and therefore with the Mystery of Christ and the Church in Eph. v.
It may be asked whether 1 Thess. iv. and 1 Cor. xv. completed all that God had then yet to reveal of the riches of His glory: and whether the "prize of our calling on high" may not refer to something special which God
¹ See Gen. xv. 1. 1 Sam. ix. 27. 2 Sam. vii. 4. 1 Kings xii. 22. 1 Chron. xvii. 3. 2 Chron. xi. 2; xii. 7. Rev. i. 2, 9; vi. 9; xix. 13; xx. 4.
² 1 Thessalonians having been written A.D. 52 and Philippians not till ten or more years afterwards.
had held out for Paul's encouragement when in prison in Rome.
The ἐξανάστασις (exanastasis) of Phil. iii. 11 certainly seems to be something beyond the resurrection revealed in the former and earlier Scriptures. It means, etymologically, out-resurrection, and followed as it is by the pronoun ἐκ (ek), out of, points to something quite different and special.
The word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It is used by Polybius¹ in the sense of remoral, and by Strabo² in the sense of migration. In any case it was something Paul hoped for and longed to arrive at.³
It may point to our remoral without dying, or to a more special, wondrous, and glorious change, corresponding more with 1 Tim. iii. 16, "received up in glory," referring only to those who shall be alive and remain.
Is not this, our remoral, something for us to arrive at? Is it not a great and glorious change to hope for?
In any case, if a special word of this kind is used later, in Phil. iii. 11., are we right in jumping to the conclusion that nothing different is meant, and there is no further truth for us to receive or to rightly divide?
We have certainly several resurrections revealed; and these resurrections being all future, and all in their own proper order, it is impossible for us to avoid confusion if we join them all together and make only one "general resurrection" instead of "rightly dividing" them according to the "order" which God has revealed.
(c) The Judgments.—The creeds of the churches know of but one judgment, which they speak of as the "general judgment," as they know and speak only of one "general resurrection." Yet, more than one is revealed in Scripture; and they are all still future. But, each will be "in its own order," place, and time (Eccles. iii. 1, 17):—
(1) 2 Cor. v. 10.—First, there is the appearance of the risen and changed saints before the Bema of Christ.
¹ Polybius, ii. 21, 9.
² Strabo, 172.
³ The word is κατενέω (katantoō), to arrive at (see all the occurrences: Acts xvi. 1; xviii. 19, 24; xx. 15; xxi. 7; xxv. 13; xxvi. 7; xxvii. 12; xxviii. 13. 1 Cor. x. 11; xiv. 36. Eph. iv. 13; and Phil. iii. 11). The word "attained" in verse 12 is καυδένω (lambanō), to receive.