vile things” will be raised from the dead, to be judged according to the things they do thereafter. The evildoer who was put to death alongside Jesus will be included among such. (Luke 23:43) Not the incorrigibly wicked, but persons who, while they did bad things in ignorance, would readily respond to righteousness will be included among those resurrected and be given the opportunity to learn and conform to the divine will.

RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HAPPINESS

On the basis of this Scriptural information, we today can look forward joyfully to a “new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.” (2 Pet. 3:13) That righteous rule with its miraculous resurrection of all those in the memorial tombs will bring gladness to the heart of many who now mourn their dead.

Do you recall the happiness of the mother and father of the little girl that Jesus resurrected? “They were beside themselves with great ecstasy.” (Mark 5:42) That will be the thrill you may share at seeing the resurrection of men, women and children known to you personally or through the Bible. Just as you maintain your identity from youth to adulthood, although your appearance varies, so the personalities of resurrected ones will be recognized in whatever body God is pleased to give them.

Parents receiving a dead child back to life will be so happy that they will not regret that the resurrected child must grow up and lead its own life. Couples like Aquila and Prisca who gain the heavenly resurrection with its eternal joy as Christ’s “bride” will feel no regret that they are no longer man and wife. (Rom. 16:3) The joy at the raising up of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob, Leah and Rachel will not be diminished because, like the angels, they “neither marry nor are given in marriage.” Their supreme delight will be to live in God’s family circle “by being children of the resurrection.” (Luke 20:34-36) So anyone of us who sees a former child, wife, husband, father or mother come back from the dead will be beside himself with great ecstasy. That happiness will not be diminished because the heavenly Father does not reunite in marriage resurrected persons who were once man and wife. Their joy will overflow to be able to enjoy each other’s fellowship as heirs of life. Prayers of gratitude will go up to Jehovah God that a loved one has come back into God’s family circle to share the blessings of endless life in the righteous new world. Grateful children of God would ask no more.

Realization of that righteous world soon now will do full justice to Jehovah’s reputation as a God of love, wisdom, justice and power. To the question, “Will the dead live again?” we now have the authoritative answer: “The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out.”—John 5:28, 29.

Bible Destruction

✔ Modern-day Bible destruction by the Roman Catholic Church, such as took place in Colombia in May, 1960, had its counterpart in the Roman world under the Caesars. Regarding a police report written in the fourth century, Time of May 19, 1961, stated: “In A.D. 346, on a police blotter in Cirta, a suburb of Carthage, a Roman police captain entered his report: ‘Raided five homes. Discovered, confiscated and destroyed 38 Christian scrolls.’”