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Chapter III: What of the Resurrection—In the Old

Testament?

The resurrection of the body has been a comforting and dominating hope of

believers in all generations. It was a hope professed and expressed by orthodox Jewry,
and it was the denial of this great and expected event, that lent the malodor of
heterodoxy to the sect of the Sadducees. Paul the Apostle drew the line of

disagreement between the Pharisees and Sadducees on this point, in his speech before
the council as recorded in Acts 23:6-9.
The faith that the Pharisees had in the resurrection rested on more than mere
tradition. There must be authoritative statements found in the scriptures to establish
them in this conviction, and we find on examination that there are. The very clearest

statement on resurrection to be found in the old testament is in Daniel12:2: ―And
many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life
and some to shame and everlasting contempt.‖

*For the fullest discussion of this whole matter, we can not recommend too heartily
the book by Dr. Alexander Reese entitled: ―The Approaching Advent of Christ‖
published by Marshall, Morgan and Scott, London, Eng.
This text alone is sufficient to prove the fact of the resurrection in the O.T., but it is
not our purpose in this discussion to prove the fact of the resurrection, but to ascertain

from the circumstances and events accompanying it, its time-relation to the end of this
age and the beginning of the next. Then having determined the point at which it will
occur we will at the same time nail down the time of the rapture, which is declared to

be simultaneous with the time of the resurrection of the ―dead in Christ.‖ This point
must be clearly understood—that the rapture occurs exactly at the time of the
resurrection of the just, for it is declared that the ―living and surviving‖ will be
―caught up together with them‖ (the saints who have been sleeping) to meet the Lord.
As Brother Alexander Reese has said：―Where the resurrection is, there will the

rapture be also.‖
With this point established, let us proceed to examine some of the scriptures of both
the Old and New Testament to see if they afford any light on the time of the

resurrection in relation to other events.
First let us note that there are two distinct resurrections spoken of in both the
Testaments—one is the ―resurrection unto life,‖ the other ―the resurrection unto shame
and everlasting contempt,‖ (Dan. 12:2) the one of those ―that have done good, unto
the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of
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