The word ‘souls’ often refers to ‘people’ in the Bible. When Jacob went down to Egypt with his family, they were seventy-five souls.1 Three thousand souls were converted in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.2 Eight souls were saved in the ark,3 and Paul was on board ship with two hundred and seventy-five souls.4 Souls are people, even when they are without a body, like the ‘souls under the altar’. Scripture nowhere teaches a non-physical resurrection of souls. Therefore, when we read that the souls who were beheaded come back to life, this means simply that they rise from the dead, with a new and immortal body, like the Lord Jesus Himself. Man is body, soul and spirit.5 The body can indeed be killed, but not the soul.6 The soul being what makes you to be you as a person. One can only ‘reign with Christ’ if one has ‘risen from the dead’ just like He did. It is when the chief Shepherd appears that the faithful will receive the ‘crown of glory’ that does not fade away.7 Paul does not expect that ‘crown’ when he dies but ‘on the day of the appearance of the righteous Judge’.8 Another reason why the 24 elders in chapter 4 cannot be ‘elders of the Church’ for they already have crowns! They must be the mighty ‘archangels’, the leaders of the ‘Heavenly hosts. The Lord Jesus said that He will settle His servants’ accounts, that He will pay them their reward, at His return.9 We read: “After a long time the master returned,” and that ‘long time’ cannot refer to receiving your reward after your dying and going to Heaven. Yes, you will be in the presence of God and of the Lamb and of the millions upon millions of Heavenly creatures, and the redeemed that went before you. Just like poor Lazarus10 and the ‘souls under the altar’,11 and as Paul expects will happen in his own case.12 That is not resurrection, however. Your reward, your ‘crown’ you will receive at the day of your bodily resurrection, body, soul and spirit. The servants—the prophets and saints, great and small—will soon receive their reward.13 He tells John: “I am coming soon! My reward is with Me.”14 Our lowly bodies will be transformed to be like His glorious body.15 We shall be raised imperishable.16
The Greek word for ‘resurrection’ is ‘anastasis’ and it is used forty times in the New Testament. It always refers to a physical resurrection. Jesus says that He died and came to life again.17 That is precisely the same expression as is used in verse 4. And Christ was not resurrected spiritually, but body, soul and spirit. The grave was empty on Easter Sunday morning. Here, in this verse, means that the first resurrection really will be a physical resurrection, just like the second resurrection will also be a real physical resurrection, albeit of different people. That resurrection takes place after the end of the Kingdom of Peace and Righteousness. We should violate Scripture if we were to believe otherwise. Those who ‘died in Christ’ will be raised first at the first resurrection and then the believers who are alive at that moment will simultaneously receive their immortal bodies, without dying first.18 “Where, O death, is your sting?”19 How wonderful it must be to be allowed to be part of that. God has so many good things in store for us. He gave us life when we were born. He gave us His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave us personal faith and confidence in Himself, by grace, through the Holy Spirit. He gave us Heavenly blessing and, finally, He gave us eternal, everlasting life with the resurrection body. He looks after us day by day. Praise be to the Father, and the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.
• When Christ appears in Glory, then you will also appear with Him in Glory with a body that is redeemed, resurrected, set free from all the consequences of ‘sin’, that have permeated our mortal body.
• You then will be as God intended you to be when He Created you as a person, with your body, unique, individual, personal, forever.
Bible References:
1.Genesis 46:1–27 2.Acts 2:41 3.1 Peter 3:20 4.Acts 27:37 (KJV) 5. Matthew 10:28 6.1 Peter 5:4 (KJV) 7.2 Timothy 4:8 (KJV) 8.Matthew 25:9 9.Luke 16:22 10.Revelation 6:9 11.Philippians 1:23 12.Revelation 11:18 13.Revelation 22:12 NIV 14.Philippians 3:20–21 15.1 Corinthians 15:42, Revelation 2:8, 1 Thessalonians 4:13–17 16.1 Corinthians 15:50–55, Colossians 3:4
