When after death the body will have returned unto dust, and the soul will have been preserved in her designated place until the last day, then all particles will return to their original substance to constitute the very same body with which the soul will be reunited. These will constitute the very same human being who previously existed. To arise from the dead or from the grave occasionally signifies:
(1) to be delivered from great oppression: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel” (Ezek 37:12);
(2) regeneration: “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together” (Eph 2:5-6); “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead” (Eph 5:14).
However, it generally refers to the actual resurrection of the deceased. This specifically refers to those who, in both the Old and New Testaments, have been resurrected by way of a miracle, and have subsequently died again—as well as to the general resurrection of all men when the Lord Jesus will come to execute judgment at the end of the world. It is the latter we shall now discuss.
This doctrine, which cannot be deduced from nature, is ridiculed by pagans and rejected by heretics. However, the Holy Scriptures reveal it so clearly—to the terror of the ungodly and the comfort of the godly—that it is amazing that men dare to deny it in like fashion as those during the time of the apostles who began to contradict it. “How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?” (1 Cor 15:12).
The Nature of This Resurrection
This resurrection will not have a natural cause—as if those bodies could again be brought to life after a period of time by certain motions, changes, and transformations. This can neither be accomplished by an angel nor any other creature. Rather, this is a work of omnipotence and will therefore be performed by God, the Creator of heaven and earth, “Who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Rom 4:17); “For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them” (John 5:21).
Just as there neither were nor could have been secondary causes in creation, it will be likewise at the resurrection of the dead, for it is a work of omnipotence in which no finite powers are involved. The angels will not be instrumental in the resurrection itself. However, God will use them to gather those before the judgment seat who have been resurrected: “And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matt 24:31). Just as Jesus generally made use of external signs when performing miracles to make the miracle all the more obvious, so the Lord will also add an external sign at the general resurrection of the dead: a very great sound that will resound throughout the world. “The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible” (1 Cor 15:52); “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thess 4:16).
Enoch and Elijah will not be resurrected, for they did not die. Neither will those who have arisen from the graves at the resurrection of Christ, nor all those who will be alive at the last day, be resurrected, for they will not die but be changed in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor 15:51-52). However, with the exception of all such persons, all who have died from the beginning of the world unto the end (either prior to or after their birth) will arise—be they small or great, be they godly or ungodly. The very same bodies which were either burned, drowned in the sea, eaten by beasts or men, or died a common death and thus returned to dust—those same bodies will be reunited with their very own souls which neither died nor were able to die, and thus they will be the same persons they were prior to their death. However, their physical characteristics will have been changed. This change will render the ungodly immortal and capable of eternally bearing all punishments and the suffering of pain. The godly, who according to the soul will have the image of God perfectly, and who will be bodily conformed to Christ Phil 3:21, will put on incorruption, immortality, glory, power, and spirituality 1 Cor 15:42,44,53-54.
All men will be resurrected simultaneously on the last day. Prior to that time there will not be a physical resurrection of martyrs who would reign with Christ for a thousand years, as chiliasts or millennialists fabricate from Rev 20. Rather, when Christ will come to execute judgment, all men will be resurrected simultaneously. “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:24); “… at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible” (1 Cor 15:52); “I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40). How astonishing it will be when all particles will return to their original substance and every bone will return to its skeleton—when the dead will become alive and stand together upon the earth!
Two matters must be proven more specifically: 1) that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and 2) that the identical bodies will be resurrected.