Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #37 of Revelation, chapter 11, and we are going to be reading Revelation 11:18:

And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

I will stop reading there.  We were discussing the wrath of God, the wrath which God had warned the world about throughout the history of the world and throughout the recorded history of the Bible.  God repeatedly sent His servants, the prophets, to declare that the day of wrath, the day of the Lord and the day of God’s anger would come.  That is why it was so important and urgent for man to somehow get right with God.  So the Lord encouraged mankind to come to Him and to seek Him and to seek His grace and mercy “before the decree come to pass.” 

This is what is being referred to here in Revelation 11:18.  It is referring to the decree of Judgment Day.  When it says, “thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged.”  There was an appointed time for Judgment Day and the Bible is very definite about this.  In the Book of Acts we read in Acts 17:31:

Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

God “appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world,” we learned from the information that God sealed up in the Bible regarding the Biblical calendar of history.   When He unsealed the Scriptures at the time of the end, which began at the beginning of the Great Tribulation, God began to bring forth information regarding the “times.”  We learned the time of the church age, the end of the church age, the time of the Great Tribulation, the time for the end of the Great Tribulation and the time for Judgment Day.  The appointed day was May 21, 2011, and that began the Day of Judgment.  Of course, the appointed day refers to Judgment Day as a whole, so from May 21, 2011, up until the present time and continuing (in all likelihood) until October 7, 2015, is Judgment Day.  It is a prolonged Day of Judgment that God appointed “in the which he will judge” mankind.  That is what “the time of the dead, that they should be judged,” is referring to here in Revelation 11:18.

But does this not present us with a problem?  If we understand that May 21, 2011, was Judgment Day, the appointed day that Acts 17 speaks of and the day when God’s wrath came, and, therefore, it was “the time of the dead” on that day and every day since then, does this present the problem that God is not judging the dead right now?  He did not raise the dead.  We know that on the very last day He is going to raise the elect dead and transform them to give them their new resurrected bodies.  According to the Bible, He will also raise up the dead bodies of all the unsaved, not to give them any kind of life or conscious existence, but just to raise them out of the ground to leave them upon the face of the earth before He finally destroys the entire world and creation.  So they would have been “raised”, in a sense, to be destroyed.  It says in John 5:28-29:

Marvel not at this: for 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.

This would be that final destruction and complete annihilation of whatever is left of the unsaved that died, perhaps, thousands of years ago or hundreds of years ago or decades ago.  They died unsaved and at the moment an unsaved individual dies, his spirit ceases to be and he never again knows anything.  He has no mind; his soul is gone from him.  God judges him at that point, but he or she must await the final judgment or complete destruction of whatever remains of their bodies – bones, or dust, or whatever remains there may be.  They must be obliterated or annihilated and be “utterly destroyed,” as God emphasizes the sorrowful truth that the Bible declares: the unsaved die and never will be brought to life again.  The destruction of whatever elements may remain of their body and the complete removal of them guarantees that they will never live again; that person is dead for ever.

When it says, “the time of the dead, that they should be judged,” we know that in the Day of Judgment on the very last day (when God destroys this world), He will complete the judgment on all the physically dead unsaved people by destroying whatever is left of their bodies, but May 21, 2011 is also the time of judgment for the “dead,” and I think we will see that.  Let us let the Bible guide us and define its own terms.  Here, God is saying that Judgment Day is a time when His wrath is come “and the time of the dead, that they should be judged,” and this is not referring to the physically dead, but to the spiritually dead that are very much alive and walking upon the earth right now – they are physically alive, but spiritually dead.  We are going to read a few verses in Matthew, starting in Matthew 8:22:

But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

This man had said to Jesus, “Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father,” so his father had physically died, and, yet, Jesus said, “Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.”  Of course, this would be impossible if the Lord were referring to the physically dead burying the physically dead; there is no way that something like that could happen.  But He is referring to the spiritually dead burying the physically dead: “Let the dead bury their dead.”  Here we see God drawing a comparison – someone who is physically dead is called “dead,” and someone who is spiritually dead is also called “dead,” or viewed by God to be “dead.”  That means that whenever we find the word “dead” in the Bible, we cannot just assume it refers to the physically dead.  We have to examine the context and see what else we can find in order to determine if it refers to the physically dead or the spiritually dead.

In Matthew, chapter 10, we read of Jesus giving instruction to the “twelve” as He is sending them forth.  It says in Matthew 10:5-8:

These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

Here, Christ is giving instruction to the apostles, but what complicates these statements is that there were certain miracles taking place, which God permitted some of the apostles to perform for a short period of time.  So when we read this, we might think this refers to the apostles being given the power to do exactly what Christ was doing, but when we talk about raising the dead, we see that Jesus raised the dead and Apostle Paul, in the Book of Acts, was granted power to raise up a man that had fallen from a loft.  But other than that, there was no miracle of “raising of dead,” unless I am missing something.  Even if there was another instance, this certainly is not what is in view in Christ’s statement to the twelve.  He spoke matter-of-factly that this was what all of them could expect as they went forth; he was empowering them to “heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils.”  We must understand that all of these things happen spiritually when the Lord saves a sinner: that person is healed of a sin-sick soul.  Leprosy represents sin in the Bible, so cleansing of a leper pictures a sinner being cleansed from his sins; “raising the dead” is a reference to the spiritually dead heart of man.  When the Gospel goes to one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel – one of God’s elect predestinated to salvation from the foundation of the world – then that person hears and God uses His Word to create a new heart and a new spirit in that individual who then becomes a new creature in the sight of God.  This is what this passage teaches.

It says in Matthew 23:27:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

A “whited sepulchre” is a tomb where there would be a dead body.  Christ is describing the scribes and Pharisees, the spiritual leaders of Israel and, yet, they were not saved men.  Therefore, inwardly, or spiritually, they were dead: “within full of dead men's bones.”  It is only salvation and only God that can resurrect the soul of a dead sinner.

In Luke 15, in the parable of the prodigal son, it says in Luke 15:24:

For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

This father does not mean that his son had a heart attack or died and was buried in the ground.  He does not mean that.  He means that his son went far into sin and took all his living and wasted it, but now he has returned and it is though he is now “alive.”  It is a beautiful picture of God the Father as He would see a sinner in the day of salvation.  As God drew a man to Him and granted him repentance to turn from his wicked way and return to God, then God could exclaim just as the father in this parable: “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”  So we see, again, God is referring to “spiritual death,” and not physical death.

It is also said plainly in Ephesians 2:1:

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

“Quickened” means “brought to life.”  Of course, it is in italics, but it is actually stated later.

Then it says in Ephesians 2:5:

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

God declares that we were “dead.”  Those of us that are truly born-again children of God had been “dead.”  We were dead spiritually; our souls were dead.  We have actually experienced the resurrection – the first resurrection, which is of our soul existence.  This is why God says this in Revelation 20:5-6:

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…

So there are two resurrections.  There is the resurrection of the soul and there is the resurrection of the body.  Everyone who is elect must experience the “first resurrection.”  This is what God accomplished when He sent the Gospel into the world, carried by His messengers.  That is what salvation was all about.  It was the resurrection of the dead soul, so we have “risen from the dead” in our soul existence to experience the “first resurrection.”  Therefore, the “second death” has no power over anyone that has become saved.  If you have experienced that “first resurrection,” it is guaranteed you will experience the “second resurrection” of the body.  This is why the God spoke of giving His Holy Spirit as an “earnest” or down payment of His promise of the salvation of our bodies.  He has already accomplished the resurrection of our souls, so why would we ever doubt that He will complete it and resurrect our bodies, as well?  In other words, God will not leave us “half done,” but He will complete His entire salvation program on the last day, the day of the second resurrection.

It can be said that all of God’s children have experienced the “first resurrection.”  There is no one that has yet to experience it of all that God intended to save, but we wait for the “second resurrection” of the body.

There are many other verses, but let us go to 1Timothy, chapter 5.  This is referring to a widow.  It says in 1Timothy 5:6:

But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.

Again, how can we understand this?  Someone that is living in pleasure is “dead” while she lives.  There is no way to understand this, as the world understands death.  It would make no sense, but as soon as we realize that God is looking at spiritual death, then we know that someone living in the pleasure of sin is walking “after the flesh” and she has no life in here.   It is an indicator that there has been no change in her heart and, therefore, she is spiritually dead while she physically lives. 

There are numerous Scripture where God uses the word “dead,” as we find in our verse in Revelation 11:18, to speak of the spiritually dead.  It says in 2Timothy 4:1:

I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;

It also says in 1Peter 4:5:

Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.

Now this is an interesting phrase God is using: “to judge the quick and the dead.”  The word “quick” is an Old English word that means “to live,” so God is saying that He will “judge the living and the dead.”  Previously, we had always thought that means God would judge the unsaved that were living at the time when He comes again and He will judge the unsaved dead as well. 

So this is just something to consider.  God has revealed to us that His people will “stand” before the judgment seat of Christ, as 2Corinthians 5 tells us.  We will remain alive upon the earth in the Day of Judgment and God uses that word “alive” in 1Thessalonians, chapter 4: “those that are alive and remain.”  We are living in the Day of Judgment.  So this is just something for us to consider when we come across this Scripture.  I am not going to say anything more about it, but it is something to think about.

Then it goes on to say in 1Peter 4:6:

For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

Now what could this possibly mean?  The Gospel is preached to those that are dead?  Do we go to the cemetery and preach to those that are underground and under the headstones?  Is that one particular church correct when they pray for the dead?  Can the Gospel be preached to them?  No, absolutely not.  It has nothing to do with that – once someone is dead, their eternal condition is sealed and can never be changed, regardless of how many people pray for them.  Likewise, bringing the Gospel to the dead means nothing. 

But God did preach the Gospel to a world that was spiritually dead, so in that sense, He preached to those that were dead.  Once we understand that, many verses begin to make sense and we realize it is not speaking of someone who has physically died, but someone that is dead in their soul existence.

Again, Revelation 11:18:

And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged…

May 21, 2011 was the appointed Day of Judgment when God began to judge the dead of the world – all those that are spiritually dead.  God has been judging them, in an ongoing manner, since May 21, 2011.