Guys,

I absolutely love Is, Was and Will Be. Thank you so much for teaching God’s truths! I found out about the website through another website. I’ve been reading the Essential reading articles and going over the FAQ’s and had a question, you probably have encountered this question before, but I’m not seeing it anywhere in the FAQ’s page. Here is the question/ dilemma….
This other website teaches that the resurrection of the wicked will be a resurrection into fleshy/ earthy bodies to go through the great white throne judgment (the second death). Once they have learned, trained, been corrected because judgment brings righteousness they will “in an instant” (twinkling of an eye) be changed into having their spiritual bodies.
From the readings on your website, it seems like it teaches that at the resurrection, the wicked will be resurrected into immortal, incorruptible spiritual bodies. I have not read everything on iswasandwillbe. com, but it seems like the teaching is slanted this way.
I’ve pasted parts of this article below:

“… The major prophecy concerning the resurrection is found in Ezek. 37. Here we are shown a valley of “dry bones” which God says represents “the WHOLE House of Israel” — “And He said unto me, ` Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; lo, they are saying: Dried up have our bones, And perished has our hope, We have been cut off by ourselves” (Ezek. 37:11).

Eze 37:8 And I beheld, and lo, on them [ are] sinews [ tendons, strength, muscular power], and flesh [ muscles, fat, etc.] has come up, and cover them does skin [ the outer covering of a physical body] over above– and spirit there is none in them.

I know of no “spiritual” tendons, muscles, fat or skin, that are put on physical “bones”” to remake a “spiritual” man. This is a PHYSICAL resurrection of the dead, Eze 37:10 And I have prophesied as He commanded me, and the Spirit comes into them, and they live, and stand on their feet– a very very great force (Ezek. 37:10).
Are we told what the “other” grain might be that sprouts like “wheat”? Yes, as a matter of fact, we are:

Mat 13:25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

” And are these “tares” also gathered into the barns (brought into the Kingdom of God)? NO, Mat 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest [ resurrection] I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles [ different ‘groups’ at different ‘burnings’?] to burn them [ in the Lake of Fire]: but gather the wheat into my barn [ My KINGDOM].
NO, in the day of harvest, not all will come up immortal and incorruptible….
What else do we learn about the resurrection of God’s Elect? What are some of the features of their newly resurrected bodies?
… but the glory of the celestial [ high, above, heavenly] is one, and the glory of the terrestrial [ worldly, EARTHLY] is another” (Verse 40).
Which category do the Elect come in? Now pay attention:

1Co 15:48-49 As is the earthy, such ARE they also that ARE earthy: and as is the heavenly, such ARE they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, WE SHALL also bear the image of the heavenly.

Notice that ONLY “we” [ God’s Elect], not “they”, “shall bear the image of the heavenly”. Paul is speaking that “THEY, the earthy”, and “WE, the heavenly”, and only the “we” will “bear the image of the heavenly”, not “they”, the wicked who will be raised as tares to be burned in the Lake of Fire.
Now we can understand verse 50 in proper context:

1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption [ corrupt men like Mao Tse Tung, Adolph Hitler, and Saddam Hussein] inherit incorruption.

The ONLY ones who inherit incorruption are those “WE [ who] have borne the image of the earthly [ and] shall bear the image of the heavenly.” And this happens at a specific time…1Co 15.
… Now let’s foolishly assume that the wicked are going to be resurrected with “spiritual” bodies. The only place in Scripture that anyone is said to be resurrected with a “spiritual body”, is in these many references in 1Co 15. So if a resurrected “spiritual body” applies to the unjust and the wicked and the unbelievers, then these attributes which constitute a “spiritual body” resurrection MUST APPLY TO THEM ALSO.
… Is there anywhere a Scripture that presents the resurrection of the wicked in such a glorious, and holy, divine light? I think not. Rather we are presented with this as the characterization of the resurrected wicked to eonian judgment:

Dan 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting [ eonian] life, and some to shame [ rebuke, reproach, disgrace] and everlasting [ eonian] contempt [ repulsion, aversion, abhorrence].

… those who are spared death at the conclusion of this eon and will live on into the reign of Jesus Christ with their physical bodies, will not be outdone by the wicked who are raised from their graves. There will not be two communities of non- believers being judged – one in physical bodies, and those among the worst of humanity that have ever lived, being in beautiful, glorious, powerful, incorruptible, SPIRITUAL bodies.”

I’m only wanting to seek out the truth of this matter and know what the Word really says concerning this issue. Do the wicked get resurrected into earthly bodies or spiritual bodies at the great white throne age? Thanks for all you do, guys! I sincerely appreciate all the hard work and study it takes into seeking out God’s truths! I LOVE IT!!!
Thanks again!

N____

Hi N____,

We are all what God is working in us, but it is disappointing to see a man claiming to be godly believing in a resurrection to flesh when the bible says otherwise:

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

I am asked about the doctrines of many people who are very articulate teachers, and who know and understand much about the salvation of all. Some are Episcopal, some are Baptist, some are Pentecostal, etc. I have nothing personal against anyone. I simply point out what the scriptures teach as opposed to what the teachers teach.
Here is one paragraph which makes this man’s doctrine concerning the resurrection of the wicked dead clear:

I know of no “spiritual” tendons, muscles, fat or skin, that are put on physical “bones” to remake a “spiritual” man. This is a PHYSICAL resurrection of the dead, Eze 37:10 And I have prophesied as He commanded me, and the Spirit comes into them, and they live, and stand on their feet– a very very great force (Ezek. 37:10).

His statement here demonstrates that he does not understand this statement of our Lord Himself:

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Every word of scripture has both a physical and a spiritual application to it. One is not exclusive of the other, and to say “I know of no spiritual tendons, muscles, fat or skin, that are put on physical bones to remake a spiritual man”, is the same as saying ‘I know of no spiritual “heart of flesh” that can be put into a spiritual body to replace a spiritual “heart of stone”, and yet that is the very explanation we are given in the preceding chapter, of how mankind receives a spiritual body:

Eze 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Neither the “heart of stone” nor “the heart of flesh” is intended to be understood in a physical, literal sense. This is chapter 36, which sets the stage for the fact that this is all speaking of the resurrection of chapter 37. What is the time- line for this resurrection of “the whole house of Israel”? Here is when all of this will take place:

Eze 16:55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

So this is speaking of the second resurrection because Sodom and Samaria are to come back to God at the same time physical Israel is resurrected and brought back to God. What does this all prove? It proves that “heart of stone” is not a phrase which is concerned with literal physical ‘stone’, and a “heart of flesh” is not concerned with literal, physical flesh. Both are instead spiritual words which are used by the holy spirit to contrast a hardened carnal heart with an easily entreated, teachable spirit, which can receive the truths of the Word of God.
Now here is another paragraph which I have copied out of this same article which demonstrates the inability to see “the things of the spirit” (1Co 2:13-14).

And are these “tares” also gathered into the barns (brought into the Kingdom of God)? NO, Mat 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest [ resurrection] I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles [ different ‘groups’ at different ‘burnings’?] to burn them [ in the Lake of Fire]: but gather the wheat into my barn [ My KINGDOM].”

Asking if these are “different groups at different burning” demonstrates that the writer does not realize the depth of the Truth of these words of our Lord:

Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

The fact that this fire burning these tares applies to every man is made clear in these verses of scripture:

1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

So these tares are burned out of the life of “every man”, and it is only those who think they are somehow different from the men whose blood Pilate mingled with the blood of their offerings, and the men on whom the tower of Siloam fell, who will be in that second resurrection, and will then know that “every man” will “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”, will suffer the loss of the “wood, hay, and stubble” and “the tares”, which grow in the lives of “every man… until the harvest”, which is the day of judgment which comes to every man “each in his own order”.

Luk 13:1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
Luk 13:2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
Luk 13:3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Luk 13:4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

“Ye” here in this verses is the same as “every man” in 1Co 3. It is speaking of “man[ kind]” who is to “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. It is speaking of me and you and “every man” who is raised up from among the dead in both the resurrection that takes place before the millennium, as well as the resurrection which takes place after the millennium.
This false teaching here is claiming that those in the first resurrection do not have “tares [ which] grow together until the harvest” in their lives. He is teaching that this is a “separate burning”, as if the burning of these tares has no place in the experience of those who are God’s elect who are in the first resurrection. Such a teaching is not true because Christ tells us right here in the same 24th chapter of Matthew:

Mat 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Christ and His words are applicable now, in this generation, they were applicable to His disciples 2,000 years ago when they were first penned, and they are applicable to every person who has ever read them since that day until this very day. That is the unknown character of the Word of God, and that is why I have named this web site iswasandwillbe. com
Here is what the is, was and will be scriptures teach concerning either of the two resurrections of the dead:

1Co 15:35 But someone will say, How are the dead [ of either resurrection] raised up, and with what body do they come?
1Co 15:40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
1Co 15:41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
1Co 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

While all men experience these bodies of flesh, which have “terrestrial glory”, no one in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection” will be raised with a resurrected body which has only “terrestrial glory”, but that is exactly how most men of all the ages of mankind will be raised up, and yet, just as the angels of the spirit realm, they will be in need of being cleansed with the fire of the words of God, which are the same fires which cleansed those who were given to be in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection”. They will through that fiery judgment have their “heart of stone” replaced with a “heart of flesh”, neither of which are to be understood in literal, physical terms, any more than the bones, flesh and sinews of Ezekiel 37 are to be understood in literal, physical terms. The bones, flesh, and sinews of Ezekiel 37 are symbols of life being given to a people who could no more understand what was being said to them, than did the Jews who “went back and walked no more with Him” when Christ told them that they had to “drink [ His] blood, and eat [ His] flesh”. The Truth is that “the words that [ Christ] speaks to us are spirit… [ and] the holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual”, not with physical things, as some take those words in Ezekiel 37.

1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

All these verses of scripture are to be received in the spiritual sense with which the holy spirit teaches, and I pray that you are given to understand that Satan and His angels themselves must be brought to be at one with God, and they all have spiritual bodies which will also be purified just as will the unclean spiritual bodies with which the wicked dead will be raised according to this verse of scripture which answers this question:

1Co 15:35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

“A spiritual body” with “terrestrial glory” must be purified and cleansed even if it is raised incorruptible.
Paul concludes his comments with this statement:

1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Does that statement by the apostle deny this truth which our Lord revealed to us about where the kingdom of God is at this time?:

Luk 17:20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

No, of course it does not. The kingdom of God is within each of His elect, even as they are yet in “sinful flesh”, still in the process of being purified by dying daily and being crucified with Christ, and presenting their bodies a living sacrifice daily.
That is how “Satan and his angels”, including all the wicked dead who will be raised up at the white throne judgment will find themselves. They will be in spiritual bodies which are yet “enmity against God”, and are still filled with all the lies of the adversary. It was Christ Himself who told us that the lake of fire, which “is the second death”, was “prepared for the devil and His angels”. At that resurrection all those wicked dead will be “raised [ with] spiritual bod[ ies], to be cleansed right there along with their spiritual “father, the devil”.

Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

There is one more verse of scripture which gives the lie to a doctrine which teaches that some men are given a body of flesh and blood at the resurrection while others are given spiritual bodies. If indeed that doctrine were true, then this verse of scripture would be a lie:

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

That website you reference teaches that this verse refers only to death, and not to “all things”. But once again, the lack of spiritual “eyes that see” prevents him from seeing the truth in these verses also. We have referred to Mat 4:4 above, but I will place it here with a few more which give the lie to this false doctrine of the wicked dead being raised up with physical bodies to be purified and then changed into spiritual bodies:

Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

“All things come alike to all” because all men are first born in bodies of sinful flesh. All men are then purified by the fire of the word of God whether that fire is now in physical bodies, which all men experience, or in spiritual bodies, which all men must also bear via a resurrection from the dead.

1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

I hope you are given to see that “the holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spirit”, and you are not led astray by failing to see that the bones, sinews, and flesh of Eze 37 are no exception to that verse of scripture, but are nothing more than types and shadows of spiritual bodies, which are given life and are used by the spirit for the very purpose of keeping a carnal mind from seeing the things of the spirit.

1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

Mike,

Thank you so much for that explanation! It didn’t seem to settle with me that at the great white throne age, the second resurrection of the dead would be in physical bodies. I saw a contradiction and I know God’s Word does not contradict.
Just to clarify… as different types of flesh have different glories (birds, beavers, humans) so will the spiritual bodies differ in glory. Just as Satan has a spiritual immortal (Grk: deathlessness) body, he still will be purged and purified in the second death along with all the other spiritual body (but carnal minded) humans. First the physical…. then the spiritual. It’s part of the process for all of mankind, into making humanity into His image. (I hope I’m understanding this correctly now?)
Further comment/ question…
With a carnal mind in a spiritual body… do you think these carnal- minded people in spiritual bodies will still have the same lusts and desires they had while in the flesh?… Even though there is no flesh to cause them to have “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”. (am I seeing this correctly?)
I think I just answered my own question…
It’s a heart issue…. “Oh, that my people would have such a heart in them, that they would obey me.” “the flesh profits nothing”.
The flesh is not the concern or the matter. It’s the heart/ mind that needs to change and put on the mind of Christ.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, are all internal matters of the heart. Mike, once again, thank God for you and the iswasandwillbe team. Thank you so much for teaching the Truth of God! I appreciate you!

N____

Hi N____,

I am pleased to see that the holy spirit has given you eyes to see the things of the spirit, and yes, you are exactly right about what “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” mean. They are really nothing more than “things that are made [ which help us to] understand… the things of the spirit”.

Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

It is foolishness to a natural man to talk about flesh and sinews as types of a spiritual body simply because that natural minded man cannot see how “the invisible things… are understood by the thing that are made”.
Your brother and fellow servant,

Mike