:11); and this shows beyond all question that even at
that early date they had had part in this first resurrection that makes
men blessed and holy.

It is the trick of Beelzebub to deceive souls by causing them to
overlook the fact that this first resurrection that made men blessed and
holy is of a spiritual nature and to fix their hopes in two literal
resurrections at the end. There will be but one literal resurrection
then, as is clearly shown by the account given of the judgment in this
chapter, verses 11-15. The writer of the Revelation declared positively,
"Behold, he cometh with clouds: and _every eye_ shall see him, and they
also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because
of him." Chap. 1:7. If this does not prove that there is but one literal
resurrection when Christ comes, then I would not know how to state such
a fact if I desired. Furthermore, Jesus himself, in the same chapter in
which he described "the first resurrection," says most positively that
all the literal dead shall be resurrected at the same time. "Marvel not
at this," he says: "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." John 5:28, 29. This _hour_
certainly can not signify more than a short period of time. In their
efforts to prove two literal resurrections, millenarians always quote
with emphasis, "The dead in Christ shall rise first." 1 Thes. 4:16. In
doing so they, either ignorantly or wilfully, wrest the Scriptures to
their own destruction; for any one can see at a glance that no such
thing as two resurrections is even hinted at. Verses 15-17 simply teach
this, that the righteous who are living on the earth at the time Christ
appears will not ascend to heaven _before_ the righteous dead are
resurrected, but the dead will rise first, then they will all be caught
up together at one and the same time. The wicked are not mentioned in
this connection; for, as stated, Paul was writing this only for the
comfort and the edification of the church. In the following chapter,
however, their "sudden destruction" at the second coming of Christ is
mentioned as a warning to the church.

It is evident that the first resurrection as applied in this connection
specified particularly that phase of the church which, as symbolized by
the man-child, was cau