Members of this surviving group of “slaves” died off from time to time during the now more than fifty years that have elapsed, but, according to Bible promise, they had an instantaneous resurrection to life in the spirit in the invisible heavens. Since the parousia of the Lord had already begun, they did not need to sleep in death in waiting for his arrival. What Paul said applied to them:

⁹ “Flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Look! I tell you a sacred secret: We shall not all fall asleep [in death], but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, during the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised up incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

10. In what way are those “slaves” referred to in Revelation 14:13 “happy”?

¹⁰ To those anointed slaves who survived on earth until and into the parousia or presence of the Lord and who died thereafter in faithful union with the Lord, the promise of Revelation 14:13 applies: “Happy are the dead who die in union with the Lord from this time onward. Yes, says the spirit, let them rest from their labors, for the things they did go right with them.” They are “happy” because at their death in the flesh they experience that instantaneous change from corruption to incorruption, from mortality to immortality, from human to spirit, so that, without any sleep in death, they cease from their earthly labors and enter right into heavenly work with their Lord with whom they are joint heirs.