The King’s Return, the Resurrection, and the Judgment

Restoring the Foundations · Article 13 of 14

A young assembly at Thessalonica was waiting for the Lord, and some of its members died. Paul wrote to them, “But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Many still ask what happens to those we have lost.

Scripture answers in three short lines. The same Jesus who was taken up “will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky” (Acts 1:11). At his voice “all who are in the tombs” (John 5:28) will come out. And God “will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained” (Acts 17:31).

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), current eBible.org edition, checked word for word. The WEB prints God’s name as Yahweh. Notes on the Hebrew and Greek are at the end. Each claim is marked as what the text says explicitly, a canonical connection Scripture itself makes, or our conclusion. Please check every verse for yourself.

A Fair Question

What does Scripture say will happen when Jesus comes back? Inside it sit four more: Where does Jesus sit now, and when does he take David’s throne? How will he come? What happens to the dead? Who judges, and with what end?

Some readers were taught to fear these words, and some were taught a date. We give each warning in full, inside Paul’s frame: “Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:18).

Part 1: Where the King Sits Now, and Where He Will Sit

The texts side by side

God swore to David, “I will set the fruit of your body on your throne.” (Psalm 132:11). Here are the texts about the two seats.

Now, at the right hand:

  • “Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”” (Psalm 110:1).
  • He “sat down on the right hand of God, from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet.” (Hebrews 10:12-13).
  • He is the one “whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21).

At his coming, his own throne:

  • “He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.” (Revelation 3:21).
  • “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.” (Matthew 25:31).
  • “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom.” (Luke 1:32-33).
  • “Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He answered, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority.” (Acts 1:6-7).

What the text says explicitly. Jesus now sits at the Father’s right hand, and Hebrews says he is waiting. Heaven must receive him until the restoration. In Revelation 3:21 Jesus speaks of two thrones: my throne, which overcomers will share, and the Father’s, where he has already sat down. Matthew 25:31 gives a time word: when the Son of Man comes, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. Jesus did not deny the apostles’ hope for Israel; he left its timing with the Father.

Our conclusion. Jesus reigns now from the Father’s right hand, with real authority (Matthew 28:18). He takes his own throne, the throne of his father David promised in Luke 1:32, at his return. We label this our conclusion, because no single verse says in so many words that he sits on David’s throne at his return; it is how we hold Revelation 3:21 and Matthew 25:31 together with Psalm 110:1.

The case for “now”: Acts 2:30-31

Many careful readers say Jesus is on David’s throne now. Their best text:

Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he foreseeing this, spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul wasn’t left in Hades, and his flesh didn’t see decay.

(Acts 2:30-31)

At full strength: Peter names the oath about David’s throne, then says David spoke of the resurrection, moves to the exaltation (Acts 2:32-33), and closes, “God has made him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). On this reading the resurrection and ascension are the seating on David’s throne. Paul says God made him “to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name that is named” (Ephesians 1:20-21). In Revelation great voices say, “The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.” (Revelation 11:15).

Our answer, from the text. Peter says what David foresaw: he “spoke about the resurrection of the Christ” (Acts 2:31). The oath was that God would raise one from David’s body “to sit on his throne” (Acts 2:30). The raising has happened. But when Peter says where Jesus sits now, he does not say David’s throne. He quotes Psalm 110: “Sit by my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” (Acts 2:34-35). That psalm has an until. In his next sermon Peter says heaven must receive Jesus “until the times of restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21). Revelation 11:15 is heard when the seventh angel sounds, and Paul places the raising of the dead “at the last trumpet” (1 Corinthians 15:52); linking the two is our conclusion. Our conclusion: Acts 2:30-31 shows that the resurrection secures the throne; it does not say Jesus sits on David’s throne now. His present authority is real and over everything (Ephesians 1:20-21). The right hand and his own throne are both his, in the order Revelation 3:21 gives.

Paul states the goal of the waiting: “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” (1 Corinthians 15:25). Then he delivers the Kingdom to the Father, “that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).

Part 2: The Same Jesus, in the Same Way

What the text says

After a cloud took Jesus from their sight (Acts 1:9), two men in white said:

You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky, will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky.

(Acts 1:11)

Asked for “the sign of your coming” (Matthew 24:3), Jesus warned against reports of a hidden Christ:

If therefore they tell you, ‘Behold, he is in the wilderness,’ don’t go out; or ‘Behold, he is in the inner rooms,’ don’t believe it. For as the lightning flashes from the east, and is seen even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

(Matthew 24:26-27)

People “will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky” (Matthew 24:30), and John writes, “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him.” (Revelation 1:7). And no date is given: “But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” (Matthew 24:36). Jesus answered when with watch (Matthew 24:42).

The 1914 teaching, tested by the text

Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught, in our own words, that Christ’s parousia is best translated presence, that his presence as King began invisibly in heaven in 1914, and that the signs of Matthew 24 mark that unseen presence. They rightly take Jesus’ kingship seriously and rightly watch.

Their strongest points, at full strength. First, the word. Parousia really can mean presence. Paul uses it that way: “not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence” (Philippians 2:12). Thayer’s lexicon gives presence as the first meaning (see Notes). That is true of the word. Second, a cloud received him out of their sight (Acts 1:9), so, it is argued, in the same way means unseen by the world.

What the text adds. Thayer’s second meaning is the coming, arrival, and Paul uses it so as well: God “comforted us by the coming of Titus” (2 Corinthians 7:6). In Matthew 24:27 the parousia is like lightning that “is seen even to the west” (Matthew 24:27), and the verse before warns against a Christ “in the inner rooms” (Matthew 24:26), out of public view. The disciples saw a bodily Jesus go, “as they were looking” (Acts 1:9). Revelation 1:7 says every eye, and in Matthew 24:30 the tribes of the earth see him. Paul ties the parousia to the raising of the dead: “those who are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Corinthians 15:23). Our conclusion: whether one says coming or presence, the texts describe one that every eye sees and that raises the dead. We find no verse that names 1914 or any year. The date is reached by a calculation from Daniel 4 and Luke 21:24 that no biblical writer makes, and Jesus said the day is known to the Father only.

Part 3: All Who Are in the Tombs

Asleep, and raised

Jesus said Lazarus “has fallen asleep” (John 11:11). Martha said, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” (John 11:24). Jesus answered, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.” (John 11:25). Then he called Lazarus out.

Daniel was told: “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Daniel 12:2). Jesus said all:

Don’t marvel at this, for the hour comes in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.

(John 5:28-29)

Paul confessed “that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust” (Acts 24:15).

The order Paul gives

To the grieving Thessalonians Paul wrote:

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever.

(1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

Many read caught up as a removal of believers to heaven. The word for meet is apantesis, the same word Luke uses when “the brothers… came to meet us as far as The Market of Appius and The Three Taverns” (Acts 28:15): they went out to meet Paul and came back with him. That the risen and the living meet the Lord to come back with him to the earth is our conclusion; Paul says only, “So we will be with the Lord forever.” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

A real body

“How are the dead raised?” (1 Corinthians 15:35). “The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable.” (1 Corinthians 15:42). “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” (1 Corinthians 15:44). The pattern is Jesus’ own body: “a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.” (Luke 24:39).

Our conclusion: spiritual body is still a body. Immortality is something the dead in Christ “put on” at the resurrection: “this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53).

Part 4: What About the Dead Now?

What the text says: the dead are asleep, and know nothing

Scripture plainly calls the dead asleep. Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awake him out of sleep.” (John 11:11). John explains, “Now Jesus had spoken of his death” (John 11:13), and Jesus then said plainly, “Lazarus is dead.” (John 11:14). Paul calls the Thessalonian dead “those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thessalonians 4:13), and says those who sleep will rise when “the Lord himself will descend from heaven” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). If Christ were not raised, “they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished.” (1 Corinthians 15:18). Daniel speaks of “those who sleep in the dust of the earth” who “will awake” (Daniel 12:2). Job, in his lament, uses the same picture: “so man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.” (Job 14:12), and of the dead man, “His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it.” (Job 14:21). He asks God to “appoint me a set time and remember me!” (Job 14:13), and asks, “If a man dies, will he live again? I would wait all the days of my warfare, until my release should come.” (Job 14:14).

Scripture also says what the dead know: “the dead don’t know anything” (Ecclesiastes 9:5), and “there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). “His spirit departs, and he returns to the earth. In that very day, his thoughts perish.” (Psalm 146:4). “For in death there is no memory of you. In Sheol, who shall give you thanks?” (Psalm 6:5). “The dead don’t praise Yah, nor any who go down into silence” (Psalm 115:17). Peter said, “David didn’t ascend into the heavens” (Acts 2:34), and Paul said David “fell asleep, was laid with his fathers, and saw decay” (Acts 13:36). The faithful dead “didn’t receive the promise” (Hebrews 11:39), “so that apart from us they should not be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:40).

The other reading, answered

Many believers read Scripture to say the dead in Christ are consciously with him now, awaiting the body. Here are their texts, each with what Scripture says beside it.

  • Luke 16. In Jesus’ story, “In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom.” (Luke 16:23). Luke does not call it a parable. But Luke 16:1 opens Jesus’ story of the manager the same way, “There was a certain rich man” (Luke 16:1), and Jesus tells both to hearers who include the Pharisees, who “scoffed at him” (Luke 16:14). The story states its own point in its last line: “If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.” (Luke 16:31). Our conclusion: the story is aimed at those who would not hear Moses and the prophets, and it is not given to map the state of the dead.
  • Luke 23:43. “Assuredly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43). Some move the comma, I tell you today, you will be. The Greek has no commas, and Moses can say “I declare to you today” (Deuteronomy 30:18); in Luke, Jesus’ today elsewhere marks what happens that day (Luke 19:9). Our answer does not rest on the comma. The man asked, “Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” (Luke 23:42), and Jesus answered him. Scripture places Paradise with God: Paul speaks of one “caught up into the third heaven” and “caught up into Paradise” (2 Corinthians 12:2-4), and the overcomer eats “from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of my God” (Revelation 2:7). Yet on the third day Jesus himself said, “I haven’t yet ascended to my Father” (John 20:17). Our conclusion: Jesus was not in the Paradise of God that day, so Luke 23:43 is the King’s answer to “remember me when you come into your Kingdom” (Luke 23:42), and it does not describe what the dead experience before the resurrection. Article 11 weighs the same verse as a case of salvation with no baptism recorded.
  • Philippians 1:23. Paul has “the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.” (Philippians 1:23). Paul places depart and be with Christ side by side. The same letter says where Paul’s hope lies: “if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:11), and the Savior “who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory” (Philippians 3:21). Paul names when believers are with the Lord: at his coming, “So we will be with the Lord forever.” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Our conclusion: far better is fulfilled, on Paul’s own account, at the resurrection; since the dead “don’t know anything” (Ecclesiastes 9:5), the next thing Paul will know after he departs is being with Christ.
  • 2 Corinthians 5:8. Paul is “willing rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8). In the same passage he says what he longs for: “not that we desire to be unclothed, but that we desire to be clothed” (2 Corinthians 5:4), with “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1). Paul uses the same picture of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:53). Our conclusion: being at home with the Lord is what Paul longs for, and the clothing he longs for is the resurrection body, not a bodiless state.
  • Revelation 6:9-11. John sees “the souls of those who had been killed” crying “How long” (Revelation 6:9-10), and told to “rest yet for a while” (Revelation 6:11). It is a vision, and in Scripture blood also cries out: “The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:10). Of Abel, Hebrews says, “he, being dead, still speaks” (Hebrews 11:4), and it sets beside it “the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel” (Hebrews 12:24). At the altar the priest was to “pour out the rest of the blood … at the base of the altar of burnt offering” (Leviticus 4:7). Our conclusion: the souls under the altar picture the martyrs’ cause crying for justice, and they are told to wait for the day of judgment.
  • Matthew 10:28 and Luke 20:38. Men cannot “kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28), and “all are alive to him” (Luke 20:38), though Jesus gives the latter as proof “that the dead are raised” (Luke 20:37). Matthew 10:28 goes on: God “is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Matthew 10:28). Our conclusion: men can end this life but cannot take away the life God will raise, and the dead are alive to him because he will raise them, not because they are conscious now.
  • Acts 7:59-60. Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” (Acts 7:59), then “he fell asleep” (Acts 7:60). Luke’s own word for what followed is sleep, and “the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7), which Article 3 reads as the breath of life returning to its Giver. Our conclusion: Stephen entrusted his life to the Lord, to be given back at the resurrection.
  • Matthew 17:3. “Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him.” (Matthew 17:3). Jesus himself names what they saw: “Don’t tell anyone what you saw, until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.” (Matthew 17:9); the Greek word is horama, a vision (see Notes). Our conclusion: the disciples were shown the coming Kingdom in a vision, as Jesus had promised some would “see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom” (Matthew 16:28), not the present state of the dead.
  • 1 Samuel 28. At Endor the woman says, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.” (1 Samuel 28:13), and Samuel asks, “Why have you disturbed me, to bring me up?” (1 Samuel 28:15). He does not come down from heaven, and he says to the disobedient king, “tomorrow you and your sons will be with me” (1 Samuel 28:19). Scripture judges the whole act: “Saul died for his trespass … because he asked counsel of one who had a familiar spirit” (1 Chronicles 10:13), and “Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?” (Isaiah 8:19). Our conclusion: Saul and Samuel were to share one place, the grave, and a forbidden séance is no window on the dead.

What we hold

What the text says explicitly: the dead in Christ are “asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20); the dead “don’t know anything” (Ecclesiastes 9:5); to depart is to be “with Christ” and is “far better” (Philippians 1:23); and the dead in Christ “will rise first” at the Lord’s descent (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Where Scripture is silent. In the 66 books the WEB never prints hell, immortal soul or highest heavens. No text says in so many words that a disembodied soul enjoys final reward at death.

Our conclusion: the dead are unconscious until the resurrection. Scripture’s own word for the dead is sleep, and it says “the dead don’t know anything” (Ecclesiastes 9:5), with no knowledge, memory or praise in Sheol (Ecclesiastes 9:10; Psalm 6:5; 115:17). The dead in Christ wait, unaware, for the Lord’s descent, when “The dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16), and the hope Scripture fixes our eyes on is that resurrection, not a life without a body. The one who believes “will still live, even if he dies” (John 11:25).

Part 5: The Judge Is the Man God Raised

What the text says

Paul told Athens that God “will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31). Jesus said, “For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22), and “He also gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man.” (John 5:27).

The measure is works. God “will pay back to everyone according to their works” (Romans 2:6). Believers stand there too:

For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

(2 Corinthians 5:10)

John sees the great white throne: “The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.” (Revelation 20:12).

How John 5:24 and 2 Corinthians 5:10 stand together

Jesus also said:

Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

(John 5:24)

“He who believes in him is not judged.” (John 3:18). Yet believers are revealed before Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10), and a believer whose work burns “will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:15).

Our conclusion: both texts stand as written. The one who believes does not come into the judgment that condemns, and believers are still revealed before their Lord. We take the works revealed to be the fruit God prepared, not a price paid for life (Ephesians 2:10). Love is made perfect “that we may have boldness in the day of judgment” (1 John 4:17). “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).

Part 6: The Warnings Come With Their Own Hope

Hebrews carries a sober warning, and we will not soften it. The writer has told his readers they have become “dull of hearing” (Hebrews 5:11) and urged, “let’s press on to perfection” (Hebrews 6:1). Then he writes:

For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify the Son of God for themselves again, and put him to open shame.

(Hebrews 6:4-6)

After an image of land that bears a crop or thorns (Hebrews 6:7-8), he turns at once:

But, beloved, we are persuaded of better things for you, and things that accompany salvation, even though we speak like this. For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name

(Hebrews 6:9-10)

God “interposed with an oath” (Hebrews 6:17), giving “two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18). “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast” (Hebrews 6:19). Hebrews 10:26-39 and Romans 11:22 warn and turn the same way. Jesus said of his sheep, “They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:28).

Our conclusion: the warnings are real words to real believers, given so that they will not drift. Each passage goes straight on to what God does: he does not forget their love, and he has sworn an oath. Assurance rests there, not on a date, a loyalty test or a feeling.

Part 7: The Second Death

What the text says

Jesus said:

Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

(Matthew 10:28)

The texts give the end of the wicked its own names. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23). The broad way “leads to destruction” (Matthew 7:13). The penalty is “eternal destruction from the face of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). Sodom suffers “the punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 1:7), and God turned the cities “into ashes” (2 Peter 2:6). Then Revelation:

Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.

(Revelation 20:14-15)

The case for endless conscious torment, at full strength

Many were taught that the lost suffer consciously without end. Its holders share with the text an appointed day and judgment by Jesus Christ, and their texts are strong.

  • Matthew 25:46. “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:46). The same Greek adjective, aionios, stands on both sides (see Notes). If the life lasts, they say, the punishment lasts. It does: the punishment is eternal. Scripture names what that punishment is: “eternal destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9) and “the second death” (Revelation 20:14). Hebrews uses the same adjective, aionios, for “eternal judgment” (Hebrews 6:2) and for the “eternal redemption” Christ obtained when he “entered in once for all” (Hebrews 9:12). Our conclusion: there an act done once has a result that stands forever. Our conclusion: the punishment of Matthew 25:46 is eternal because its result is never reversed, as Sodom’s “eternal fire” (Jude 1:7) left the cities “ashes” (2 Peter 2:6).
  • Revelation 14:10-11. Of whoever worships the beast and receives his mark, “He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.” (Revelation 14:10), and “The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night” (Revelation 14:11). This speaks of people, and of torment, in a vision. The smoke borrows Isaiah’s words over Edom’s ruined land: “Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste.” (Isaiah 34:10). Our conclusion: in Isaiah the smoke rising forever marks a judgment that is never undone, over a land that lies waste, and John uses the same picture.
  • Revelation 20:10. “They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” (Revelation 20:10), said of the devil, the beast and the false prophet; John does not repeat it of the people in Revelation 20:15.
  • Matthew 25:41 and Mark 9:48. The cursed go “into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). Jesus speaks of Gehenna “where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9:48). Isaiah’s words behind it are said over “the dead bodies” (Isaiah 66:24).
  • Daniel 12:2. Some awake “to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). Daniel does not say how long the shamed are aware of it. The Hebrew word for contempt occurs only here and in Isaiah 66:24, over dead bodies (see Notes).

Where Scripture is silent. In the 66 books the WEB never says eternal torment, and it never calls the wicked immortal; immortality is put on at the resurrection, in the passage about those who are Christ’s (1 Corinthians 15:23, 53).

Our conclusion: the end Scripture names for people is death, destruction, perishing and ashes, in a lake John calls the second death, under a punishment that is eternal. We hold it to be a real and final end, eternal in its result; our conclusion is that this is how Matthew 25:46 and Revelation 14:10-11 are rightly read. What is plain on every reading: the Lord is “not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). And “He who overcomes won’t be harmed by the second death.” (Revelation 2:11).

The Last Enemy

“The last enemy that will be abolished is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:26). Isaiah said it first: “He has swallowed up death forever!” (Isaiah 25:8). When the mortal puts on immortality, Paul says, “then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”” (1 Corinthians 15:54).

What Scripture Leaves Open

  • Whom Hebrews 6:4-6 describes. Neither it nor Romans 11:22 says whether a true believer can finally fall away (compare John 10:28).
  • What the dead experience before the resurrection. See Part 4.
  • The order of the end. Revelation 20 sets a first resurrection a thousand years before the rest (Revelation 20:5). John 5:28 speaks of one hour. No text sets the judgment seat, the sheep and goats and the great white throne in one sequence.
  • When and how Israel’s promises at his coming are kept. Jesus told Jerusalem it would not see him until it said, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 23:39), and Paul says “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26). The times are the Father’s (Acts 1:7). What Acts 3:21’s restoration includes is Article 14’s.
  • How Revelation 14:10-11 relates to the second death, and what Gehenna is. John does not say, and Jesus joins Gehenna to Isaiah 66:24 without defining it (Mark 9:43-48).

“The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Where We Stand

What the text says explicitly: Jesus sits now at the right hand, waiting (Hebrews 10:12-13); when he comes in his glory he will sit on the throne of his glory (Matthew 25:31), my throne beside the Father’s (Revelation 3:21). The same Jesus will come back in the same way (Acts 1:11), seen like lightning and by every eye (Matthew 24:27; Revelation 1:7), on a day known to the Father only (Matthew 24:36). All in the tombs will come out (John 5:28-29). The dead in Christ rise first, imperishable and bodily (1 Thessalonians 4:16; 1 Corinthians 15:42-44). God will judge the world by the man he raised (Acts 17:31), according to works (Romans 2:6; 2 Corinthians 5:10), and the one who believes does not come into judgment (John 5:24). The lake of fire is the second death (Revelation 20:14). Death will be abolished, and God will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:26, 28).

Canonical connections Scripture itself makes: Psalm 110:1 in Acts 2:34-35 and Hebrews 10:12-13; Psalm 132:11 in Acts 2:30; Isaiah 25:8 in 1 Corinthians 15:54; Isaiah 66:24 in Mark 9:48.

Our conclusions: Jesus reigns now from the right hand and takes David’s throne at his return. His parousia is a public, bodily coming, not an unseen presence since 1914. The final hope is bodily resurrection, not a life without a body. The second death is a real and final end. The warnings of Hebrews are real and come with God’s oath.

Counter-texts, answered:

  • Acts 2:30-31, David’s throne now: David foresaw the resurrection; Peter seats Jesus at the right hand until (Acts 2:34-35; 3:21).
  • Parousia as presence: a coming seen like lightning and by every eye (Matthew 24:27; Revelation 1:7), that raises the dead (1 Corinthians 15:23).
  • Luke 16:19-31: the story’s own point is Moses, the prophets and one who rises from the dead (Luke 16:31). Our conclusion.
  • Luke 23:43: the answer to “remember me when you come into your Kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Our conclusion.
  • Philippians 1:23 and 2 Corinthians 5:8: Paul’s hope is the resurrection (Philippians 3:11, 21) and being clothed (2 Corinthians 5:4); “So we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Our conclusion.
  • Revelation 6:9-11: a vision of a cause crying out, like Abel’s blood (Genesis 4:10). Our conclusion.
  • Matthew 17:3, Moses and Elijah: Jesus’ word is horama, a vision (“what you saw,” Matthew 17:9), of the coming Kingdom (Matthew 16:28). Our conclusion.
  • 1 Samuel 28, Samuel at Endor: brought up, not down, and a séance Scripture condemns (1 Chronicles 10:13; Isaiah 8:19). Our conclusion.
  • Matthew 25:46, aionios on both sides: eternal punishment named as eternal destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:9), eternal in result (Hebrews 6:2; Jude 1:7). Our conclusion.
  • Revelation 14:10-11 and Mark 9:48: Isaiah’s pictures of a judgment never undone (Isaiah 34:10; 66:24).
  • Ephesians 1:20-21, Revelation 11:15 and Hebrews 6:4-6: answered in Parts 1 and 6 (Revelation 3:21; Hebrews 6:17-19).

What Scripture does not say: any year for his coming; that he comes unseen; that the dead are raised without bodies; that the soul is immortal; that a believer’s assurance rests on a date or a loyalty test.

Living It Out

These are our applications, offered as invitations.

  • Grieve with hope. You might read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 with someone who is grieving.
  • Leave the day with the Father. You might set down any countdown you were given, and keep the watching Jesus asked for (Matthew 24:42).
  • Read John 5:24 beside 2 Corinthians 5:10, then 1 John 4:17-18, if fear of judgment is heavy.
  • Hold the warnings and the oath together by reading Hebrews 6:4-20 in one sitting.

Notes

  • Matthew 17:9: SBLGNT reads to horama, the vision (printed edition).
  • Aionios: aionios in SBLGNT at Matthew 25:46, 2 Thessalonians 1:9, Hebrews 6:2, Hebrews 9:12 and Jude 7 (printed editions).
  • Acts 2:30: kathisai epi ton thronon autou, to sit on his throne. The infinitive names what was sworn; it does not itself say when.
  • Revelation 3:21: en to throno mou, on my throne, beside meta tou patros mou en to throno autou, with my Father on his throne.
  • Matthew 25:31: Hotan de elthe ... tote kathisei, when he comes ... then he will sit.
  • 1 Thessalonians 4:17; Acts 28:15: eis apantesin (SBLGNT).
  • Parousia (Strong’s 3952): Thayer gives (1) presence (1 Corinthians 16:17; 2 Corinthians 10:10; Philippians 2:12) and (2) the presence of one coming, hence the coming, arrival (2 Corinthians 7:6). It is the word in Matthew 24:3, 27, 37; 1 Corinthians 15:23; 1 Thessalonians 4:15.
  • Luke 23:43: Amen soi lego semeron met’ emou ese en to paradeiso. Punctuation is an editor’s choice; the words alone allow either division.
  • Philippians 1:23: eis to analysai kai syn Christo einai, one article governing both infinitives, to depart and be with Christ.
  • Matthew 25:46: eis kolasin aionion ... eis zoen aionion, the same adjective in both clauses.
  • Revelation 14:11: eis aionas aionon; 20:10: eis tous aionas ton aionon. Isaiah 34:10 Hebrew le‘olam, forever, of Edom’s smoke.
  • Daniel 12:2: lechayye ‘olam and ledir’on ‘olam. Dera’on, contempt / loathsome, occurs only here and in Isaiah 66:24 (OSHB).

Looking Ahead

After the dead are judged, “Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14), and then John sees a new heaven and a new earth. The last article, The New Creation, asks: Where will God’s people live forever, and with whom?

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© 2026 Elvis Lucas, Open the Text. Original: https://openthetext.com/series/restoring-the-foundations/13-the-kings-return-the-resurrection-and-the-judgment/
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