Why Raise Up The Wicked From The Dead?

I [also] saw the dead, great and small; they stood before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is [the Book] of Life. And the dead were judged (sentenced) by what they had done [their whole way of feeling and acting, their aims and endeavors] in accordance with what was recorded in the books. And the sea delivered up the dead who were in it, death and Hades (the state of death or disembodied existence) surrendered the dead in them, and all were tried and their cases determined by what they had done [according to their motives, aims, and works]. Revelation 20:12-13

The way that these verses were always preached to me went something like this. Our Father sent these wicked people’s souls to Hades to be tormented and suffer for their disobedience. Hades does nothing to change them, it only is a place of torment and suffering for them. Then when our Father returns to the earth, after the Millennial Reign of Christ, He raises these souls up and reunites them with their physical bodies. They will stand before our Father, they will be judged guilty, and then their bodies and souls will be thrown into the Lake of Fire to suffer for all of eternity.

Let me ask you a couple of questions, is our Father really this mean? Is He that cruel? Is that how He deals with you? Is this how He tells us to deal with the wicked now? The Truth is that our Father is the same yesterday, today, and forever, He never changes, Hebrews 13:8. Do we ever read in the Bible where our Father tortured people for vast periods of time or where He tells us to? We are shown that He does show wrath, but His punishment was always quick, just look at Sodom and Gomorra. Even the plagues on Egypt happened quickly, our Father didn’t torment the people of Egypt for years and years. We are shown that the Great Tribulation will only last for 3 1/2 years, Revelation 12:6. Yet we are so often told to believe that simply because people don’t believe our Father, that He is going to cause them, body and soul, to be tormented and suffer for all of eternity. That goes against everything that the Bible actually shows us about our Father and it sure goes against the way that He has always treated me. Do we ever see Jesus, who is our Father in the flesh, tormenting the wicked? What we do see is Him healing them, feeding them, teaching them, and loving them. He knew that they were going to kill Him, yet He still served them. Why would He change?

Doesn’t this better fit our Father’s personality? He loves everyone even those who don’t believe Him, John 3:16. Hades is a place of correction, not just a place of suffering. Jesus tells us in Luke 16:27-3 that Hades actually changes peoples hearts. The ruler in Jesus’ parable began to think of others and actually wanted Lazarus to be raised up from the dead to become a prophet. Doesn’t it make more sense that when these souls are raised up out of Hades and reunited with their bodies, that they are allowed to be forgiven and then allowed to stay as guests for the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, because Hades actually accomplished something in changing them?

The Wedding Banquet of the Lamb is going to be filled with people, both with good people and with those who were bad, Matthew 22:10. The only ones not permitted to stay is going to be those who committed blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. The Bible even teaches us that these people will just consume away as smoke, Psalm 37:20, they are not tormented forever.

This is a short blog entry. Be as the people of Berea were with Paul and search the scriptures and you will see that the Word points towards far more people being able to be with Jesus for all of eternity. Some as His Bride and some as His guests.