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ResurrectionAid to Bible Understanding
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were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you at one time walked according to the system of things of this world . . . But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, made us alive together with the Christ, even when we were dead in trespasses—by undeserved kindness you have been saved—and he raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenly places in union with Christ Jesus.”—Eph. 2:1, 2, 4-6.
Thus, because of their no longer walking in trespasses and sins against God, he lifted his condemnation from them, because of their faith in Christ. He raised them up out of spiritual death and gave them hope of everlasting life. (1 Pet. 4:3-6) The apostle John describes this transfer from deadness in trespasses and sins to spiritual life in these words: “Do not marvel, brothers, that the world hates you. We know we have passed over from death to life, because we love the brothers.”—1 John 3:13, 14.
AN UNDESERVED KINDNESS OF GOD
The provision of a resurrection for humankind is indeed an undeserved kindness of Jehovah God, for he was not obligated to provide a resurrection. Love for the world of mankind moved him to give his only-begotten Son so that millions, yes, even thousands of millions who have died without a real knowledge of God might have opportunity to know and love him, and so that those who love and serve him can have this hope and encouragement to faithful endurance, even as far as death. (John 3:16) The apostle comforts fellow Christians with the resurrection hope, writing to the congregation at Thessalonica about those of the congregation who had died, and who had hope of a heavenly resurrection: “Moreover, brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant concerning those who are sleeping in death; that you may not sorrow just as the rest also do who have no hope. For if our faith is that Jesus died and rose again, so, too, those who have fallen asleep in death through Jesus God will bring with him.”—1 Thess. 4:13, 14.
Likewise, for those faithful to God who died with hope of life on earth under God’s Messianic kingdom, and also for others who have not come to know God, Christians should not sorrow as the rest do who have no hope. When Sheol (Hades) is opened, those in there will come out. The Bible mentions many who have gone there, including the people of ancient Egypt, Assyria, Elam, Meshech, Tubal, Edom and Sidon. (Ezek. 32:18-31) Jesus himself said that the people of Tyre, Sidon and Sodom would be on hand for Judgment Day, some of the pagans being more likely to repent than many to whom Jesus himself preached in Bethsaida, Chorazin and Capernaum.—Matt. 11:20-24; Luke 10:11-15.
Ransom applied to all for whom it was given
The greatness and expansiveness of God’s love and undeserved kindness in giving his Son that ‘whoever should believe in him might have life’ would not limit the application of the ransom only to those whom God chooses for the heavenly calling. (John 3:16) In fact, the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ would not be completely applied if it left off with those who become members of the Kingdom of heaven. It would fall short of accomplishing the full purpose for which God provided it, because God purposed for the Kingdom to have earthly subjects. Jesus Christ is High Priest, not only over the underpriests with him, but also for the world of mankind who will live when his associates also rule as kings and priests with him. (Rev. 20:4, 6) He has “been tested in all respects like ourselves [his spiritual brothers], but without sin.” Therefore he can sympathize with the weaknesses of persons who are conscientiously trying to serve God; and his associate kings and priests have been tested in the same way. (Heb. 4:15, 16; 1 Pet. 4:12, 13) On behalf of whom could they be priests if not on behalf of mankind, including those resurrected, during the thousand-year reign and judgment period?
Servants of God have anxiously looked forward to the day when the resurrection will complete its work. In the outworking of his purposes God has set exactly the proper time for it, in which his wisdom and long-suffering will be fully vindicated. (Eccl. 3:1-8) He and his Son, being both able and willing to perform the resurrection, will complete it in that set time.
Jehovah and Jesus joyfully anticipate the resurrection
Jehovah and his Son must anticipate the full carrying out of that work with great joy. Jesus showed this willingness and desire when a leper besought him: “‘If you just want to, you can make me clean.’ At that [Jesus] was moved with pity, and he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him: ‘I want to. Be made clean.’ And immediately the leprosy vanished from him, and he became clean.” This touching incident demonstrating Christ’s loving-kindness for mankind was recorded by three of the Gospel writers. (Mark 1:40-42; Matt. 8:2, 3; Luke 5:12, 13) And of Jehovah’s love and willingness to help mankind, we call again to mind the words of faithful Job: “If an able-bodied man dies can he live again? . . . You will call, and I myself shall answer you. For the work of your hands you will have a yearning.”—Job 14:14, 15.
SOME NOT RESURRECTED
While it is true that Christ’s ransom sacrifice was given for mankind in general, Jesus indicated that its actual application nevertheless would be limited when he said: “Just as the Son of man came, not to be ministered to, but to minister and to give his soul a ransom in exchange for many.” (Matt. 20:28) Jehovah God has the right to refuse to accept a ransom for anyone he deems unworthy. Christ’s ransom covers the sins an individual has due to being a child of sinful Adam, but a person can add to that by his own deliberate, willful course of sin, and thus die for such sin that is beyond coverage by the ransom.
Sin against the holy spirit
Jesus Christ said that one who sinned against the holy spirit would not be forgiven in the present system of things nor in that to come. (Matt. 12:31, 32) One whom God judged as having sinned against the holy spirit in the present system of things would therefore not profit by a resurrection, seeing that his sins would never be forgiven, making resurrection useless for him. Jesus uttered judgment against Judas Iscariot in calling him “the son of destruction.” The ransom would not apply to him and, his destruction already being a judicially established judgment, he would not receive a resurrection.—John 17:12.
To his opposers, the Jewish religious leaders, Jesus said: “How are you to flee from the judgment of Gehenna [a symbol of everlasting destruction]?” (Matt. 23:33; see GEHENNA.) His words indicate that these persons, if they did not take action to turn to God before their death, would have a final adverse judgment entered against them. If so, a resurrection would accomplish nothing for them. This would also appear to be true of the “man of lawlessness.” (2 Thess. 2:3, 8; see MAN OF LAWLESSNESS.) Paul speaks of those who have known the truth, have been partakers of holy spirit, and then have fallen away, as falling into a condition in which it is impossible “to revive them again to repentance, because they impale the Son of God afresh for themselves and expose him to public shame.” The ransom could no longer help them; hence they would receive no resurrection. The apostle goes on to liken such ones to a field that produces only thorns and thistles and is rejected, ending up with being burned. This illustrates the future before them: complete annihilation.—Heb. 6:4-8.
Again, Paul says of those who “practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, [that] there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left, but there is a certain fearful expectation of judgment and there is a fiery jealousy that is going to consume those in opposition.” He then illustrates: “Any man that has disregarded the law of Moses dies without compassion, upon the testimony of two or three. Of how much more severe a punishment, do you think, will the man be counted worthy who has trampled upon the Son of God and who has esteemed as of ordinary value the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has outraged the spirit of undeserved kindness with contempt? . . . It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” The judgment is more severe in that such ones are not merely killed and buried in Sheol, as were violators of the law of Moses. These go into Gehenna, from which there is no resurrection.—Heb. 10:26-31.
The apostle also tells of some who will “undergo the judicial punishment of everlasting destruction from before the Lord and from the glory of his strength, at the time he comes to be glorified in connection with his holy ones.” (2 Thess. 1:9, 10) These would therefore not survive into the thousand-year reign of Christ, and, since their destruction is “everlasting,” they would receive no resurrection. Peter writes to his brothers pointing out that they, as the “house of God,” are under judgment, and then quotes from Proverbs 11:31 (LXX) warning them of the danger of disobedience. He here implies that their present judgment could end with a judgment of everlasting destruction for them, just as Paul had written.—1 Pet. 4:17, 18.
EARTHLY RESURRECTION AND JUDGMENT ACCOMPLISHED DURING 1,000 YEARS
A very liberal estimate of the number of persons that have ever lived on earth is twenty billion (20,000,000,000). Many students of the subject calculate that not nearly so many have lived. Not all of these, as it has been shown in the foregoing discussion, will receive a resurrection, but even assuming that they did, there would be no problem as to living space and food for them. The land surface of the earth at present is about 57,000,000 square miles (147,630,000 square kilometers), or more than 36,000,000,000 acres (14,568,732,000 hectares). Even allowing half of that to be set aside for other uses, there would be more than half an acre (c. .2 hectare) for each person. As to earth’s potential food production, one-half acre (c. .2 hectare) will actually provide much more than enough food for one person, especially when, as God has demonstrated in the case of the nation of Israel, there is abundance of food due to God’s blessing.—1 Ki. 4:20; Ezek. 34:27.
On the question of the earth’s food-producing power, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization maintains that the world’s agricultural potential is great enough to feed 157 billion (157,000,000,000) persons.—Time magazine, July 13, 1970, p. 24.
How, though, could the thousands of millions be adequately cared for, in view of the fact that most of them did not in the past know God, and must learn to conform to his laws for them? First, the Bible states that the kingdom of the world becomes “the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he [rules] as king forever and ever.” (Rev. 11:15) And the Bible principle is that “when there are judgments from you [Jehovah] for the earth, righteousness is what the inhabitants of the productive land will certainly learn.” (Isa. 26:9) Just how God purposes to take care of this work he will reveal in his due time, when it is necessary to make it known to his servants.—Amos 3:7.
A practical illustration
Nevertheless, an illustration reveals what a simple, practical thing Jehovah has in mind for mankind. Not to prophesy, but merely for the purpose of illustration, let us assume that those who compose the “great crowd” of righteous persons who “come out of the great tribulation” on this system of things alive (Rev. 7:9, 14) number one million (about 1/3,500 [one thirty-five hundredth] of earth’s present population). Then if, after allowing, say, one hundred years spent in their training and ‘subduing’ a portion of the earth (Gen. 1:28), God purposes to bring back three percent of this number, this would mean that each newly arrived person would be looked after by thirty-three trained ones. Since a yearly increase of three percent, compounded, doubles the number about every twenty-four years, the entire twenty billion (20,000,000,000) could be resurrected before five hundred years of Christ’s thousand-year reign had elapsed, giving ample time for training and judging the resurrected ones without disrupting harmony and order on earth. Thus God, with his almighty power and wisdom, is able to bring his purpose to a glorious conclusion fully within the framework of the laws and arrangements he has made for mankind from the beginning, with the added undeserved kindness of the resurrection.—Rom. 11:33-36.
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RetirementAid to Bible Understanding
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RETIREMENT
In assigning the Levites (not of the priestly family of Aaron) to serve at the tent of meeting under the direction of the priests, Jehovah made loving provisions for their welfare. He commanded Moses: “This is what applies to the Levites: From twenty-five years old upward he will come to enter into the company in the service of the tent of meeting. But after the age of fifty years he will retire from the service company and serve no longer. And he must minister to his brothers in the tent of meeting in taking care of the obligation, but he must render no service.”—Num. 8:23-26; 1 Chron. 23:3.
At Numbers chapter 4 the service organization of the Levites is described. There it is stated that they were to be registered from the ages of thirty to fifty.
It was heavy manual labor to set up, take down and transport the tent of meeting. The ninety-six socket pedestals of silver for the panel frames weighed a talent each (c. 75 pounds or 34 kilograms), plus four more pedestals for the pillars between the Holy and Most Holy compartments, of probably the same weight, and five copper pedestals for the pillars at the tabernacle entrance. (Ex. 26:19, 21, 25, 32, 37; 38:27) The forty-eight panel frames (c. 14.6 feet or 4.5 meters long and c. 26 inches or 67 centimeters wide) were made of acacia, a fine-grained, heavy wood, gold plated. (Ex. 26:15-25, 29) There were gold-plated bars running lengthwise on each side and across the back of the tabernacle. (Ex. 26:26-29) All these items would be heavy. Additionally, there was the considerable weight of the sealskin, ram-skin, goat-hair and linen coverings, the linen screen around the courtyard, with its poles, socket pedestals, tent pins, and so forth. So the handling of the tabernacle involved real muscular work. (Ex. 26:1-14; 27:9-19) Six wagons were provided for hauling these items, but the table of showbread, the golden lampstand and the copper-covered altar of sacrifice were carried. (The priests, not the nonpriestly Levites, carried the ark of the covenant.)—Num. 7:7-9; Ex. 25:10-40; 27:1-8; Num. 4:9, 10; Josh. 3:15.
Evidently there was a five-year period from the ages of twenty-five to thirty years wherein the Levite was serving in “training.” It may have been that these younger ones were not used for the heavy duties, which were reserved for those thirty years and older—full-grown men. (See AGE.) Later, after the Ark was permanently located on Mount Zion (and especially with the temple construction just ahead), the heavy work of carrying the sanctuary would no longer exist. David therefore arranged for the Levites to begin serving at the age of twenty. Doubtless this was done because at the temple more would be needed to care for the greatly enlarged services there.—1 Chron. 23:24-27.
The Levites who retired at the age of fifty did not retire from all service. They could still serve voluntarily and “minister to [their] brothers in the tent of meeting in taking care of the obligation.” (Num. 8:26) Probably they served as counselors and assisted in caring for some of the lighter work included in the obligation of the Levites, but were spared the heavier work. And they were still teachers of the Law to the people. (Deut. 33:8-10; 2 Chron. 35:3) Those of their
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