We will leave the book of Daniel and move on to the advent of Christ; and we will look at St. John, chapter 5, first. Jesus really opened up the subject of the resurrection, as He spoke here in this setting. As we read, please notice who is doing the talking. Jesus has been talking about resurrection and so forth; and says this, (verse 20) "For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth: and He will show Him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. (be surprised) For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; (makes them alive) even so the Son quickeneth whom He will." Now in this phrase of speech, He is talking about things, we will say, that pertain to the dead being made alive again. "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent Him." This would be a good place to go right off into a thought on the Godhead; but we will forego that at this time. This lets us know what Jesus said, there, concerning Himself and the Father. The Father is one object of thought. The Son is another object of thought. Yet as Jesus is speaking this, we must believe that the Father, the first and foremost, who is the Creator, the life giver, the life supplier, is in the Son, in the fullness of all His expressed attributes, to show lost mankind His mercy and grace and ability and willingness to save those that are lost. We do not mean to be bypassing the Son; for all things have to be brought through the Son. Therefore He that honoureth the Son, and seeth the Son in the true picture, cannot help but see the Father also; but he that wants to honour the Father and say, We see no need for the Son, is missing the whole picture. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." He is talking about a spiritual death in that sense of the word. Notice this, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." That was right then, and now, they that hear the word and understand it in its right way, can immediately have resurrected, or eternal life in their soul, and He was not yet talking about a physical resurrection. "For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself; And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man." He is talking about judging sin for what it is, because it is the unbelief that rules and dominates man's unwillingness to hear or see what Jesus is talking about. Now He leaves that frame of thought and notice what He says. "Marvel not at this: (What did He mean by that? Do not be surprised. Do not become confused. Do not let this statement shake you up.) for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice. (Now what is He talking about? Is He talking about the same thing as in these other verses? No. He has left that frame of thought. He is now turning to a physical death situation.) And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." That is exactly why the Jewish society today, having only the Law and the prophets coming up through Daniel, they look for a general resurrection, because that is the way they interpret Daniel, chapter 12. If we just take what Jesus said here, once again it almost sounds like Jesus is talking about a general resurrection, both of the good and bad, all at the same time; but we already know this, as we go on in this message which we are titling "The First Resurrection," that this is not how it is going to come about at all. It is important that we understand the order of these things we are looking at, so we will go into it from a little different standpoint shortly; and ask, When does the rapture take place? and where is it applied. The rapture does not take place in Revelation 20:4-5, where we read a while ago. Absolutely not. The rapture has already taken place long before Revelation 20, verse 4. While we are looking at this particular point, let us go to Matthew, chapter 27, and we will notice what happened when Jesus' earthly ministry was finished. The words Jesus spoke in St. John 5, were spoken in the early days of His ministry, without any further explanation to the disciples, and without giving them anything to look to for the revelation. He just left them with that promise, "The hour is coming when all that are in the graves shall come forth. They that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation." That did not put it in any order of fulfillment or anything. It was the truth; but the revelation of when and how would have to come later. Now we will look at what is recorded in Matthew 27; and this is not the words of Jesus; this is the writing of the apostle Matthew, as he recorded what happened after Christ rose from the dead. If Christ rose from the dead, and we know He did, what was He fulfilling as pertaining to the Law? Well the apostle Paul wrote in 1 corinthians 15:20, "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept." He was not the first fruits, unless there was a plurality that came up with Him. Will you not agree? I must say it that way, because, If He was the first fruits, then it is because others came out of the graves with Him, or at the same interval of time. If others did not come with Him, then He was the first fruit from among the dead. Well nevertheless the Law of Moses contained an observance that pointed exactly to that. We are in Matthew 27. Jesus has been crucified. We know there was a great earthquake and the veil of the temple was rent; but do we really see anything in that? Verse 51 says, "And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain." This veil was that inner partition that separated the sanctuary part of the temple, or the front part of the temple from the little room, or that area which was called the Holy of Holies. This veil separated the two areas and only one priest, once each year, went behind, or beyond that veil. However out there in the sanctuary part where the table of shewbread sat, and the Menorah, (the seven golden candlesticks) and all those other things, other priests would come in there and burn incense, and offer prayer at certain times of the day. Of course all those things were types. Only one priest, once each year, on the day of atonement, took the blood of that atonement sacrifice that had been offered upon the altar, and went beyond the veil into the very presence of the ark of the covenant where the Shekinah glory was. (This priest typed Christ.) He went right into the very presence of the Shekinah glory, which typed the deityship of God invested in the person of Jesus, who is the Christ. As that priest went into that setting on the day of atonement, we know this, his prayer, and his presenting himself there, only pushed the sins of the believers ahead. It did not eradicate the sins. It pushed them ahead for one more year of time. It was just like a bank renewing a bank note for another year; God renewed the note by making them feel guiltless, they were forgiven. However when Jesus died on the cross, He who was the fulfilling of all that which was types, oh brothers and sisters, as He died and the earth was rocked with that earthquake, God was saying, This is the end of the types and shadows, because the veil was rent. Never again will that veil mean anything. Well Bro. Jackson, will the Jews build a temple. They absolutely will; but that has nothing at all to do with changing the structure of the Old Testament types. Keep in mind, the Jews were blinded to this, in part. God knew this. It was all a part of His plan. The fact they were blinded to it, was so God could eventually turn to the Gentiles, this bunch of filthy Gentiles that had always worshipped pagan gods; and give us the hope and promise of eternal life. Then as He turns back to the Jew, sure He will pick right up where He left off; but they will not crucify the Savior again. When that veil was rent, that was God's way of saying to the old covenant, it is finished. That is why it is written, Christ is the end of the Law to everyone that believeth. Let us just watch. "And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." There was definitely a resurrection; so I ask you, At that time, who could they be that were resurrected? Only righteous, saintly people that had died, all the way back from the beginning of time. That would take you right back to Abel; and come right on down through the various centuries of time, to the time of Christ's first advent. I will say this, We have to realize that some of those bodies had been lying there for hundreds of years. I am sure of this one thing also, Abel was not buried in Jerusalem. Abel was buried somewhere else. We are talking about before the flood. How many understand what I am saying? It was at Jerusalem, the focal point, where this great event of a resurrection is going to first be set in order. There at Jerusalem will sin be atoned for. There at Jerusalem will the Redeemer appear. At Jerusalem will the resurrection start. Now it does not tell us whether there were other saintly people resurrected anywhere else in the Middle East areas of the world. Furthermore since it does not tell us that, we do not have to let our mind's even drift into such a trend of thinking. The main thing is, God took out of the ground, and out of paradise, righteous spirits of those that had died before that time. One thing is sure, When Jesus rose from the dead, and later went into heaven itself, this destroyed this part of hell. Whether all the righteous bodies were taken out at that time is immaterial. It did take all the righteous spirits of those that had been held in that portion of hell. That is where Paul, years later, could write in the Ephesian letter and say what he did. That is where we will pick up now; and go into greater detail.

I am asking the Lord to help me put the rest of this message together in a way to make it an enjoyable thing for us to know. If I had time to relate some of the confusion that is going on right now in the religious world, over the very thing that we are on, this resurrection and the rapture, you would better understand why I say, It is important that we get the picture straight in our thinking. You have never seen the like of controversy there is in the world today, among the religious realm of humanity, about anything else in the Bible, like it is about the resurrection, the rapture, and a secret translation before the tribulation period, or whether it takes place after the tribulation has started, or after it is ended. The one article I read, tries to lay the blame all on a Jesuit priest back in 1800's, a priest from Chili, saying that he is the one that concocted this idea. They try to tell in this article that there was no such thing as the secret rapture, taught by the first age Christians. Well I will have to say, Any mind that talks like that, left the track before reaching their destination. You would have to be blind, not to see it here in the Bible. We have touched many of these things already, on paradise, hell, and the place of torment. We are trying to bring this all in, What does redemption in Christ accomplish in the fact there is to be a resurrection, when we know according to Daniel chapter 12 and St. John chapter 5, both of those scriptures would leave us with the thought that there is going to be a general resurrection wherein some are raised to life and some to eternal damnation. However when we go further in the New Testament, after the advent of Christ, it is then that we begin to feel like the revelation began to drop upon the Church. Later in that first age, the Church began to deal with the subject, and to divide the events that all constitute this thing of the first resurrection. We want to say this, The resurrection of the body you and I have lived in, in this life, is as much a part of redemption as the redemption of the soul and spirit of mankind. That is why we read in Romans 8, where the apostle Paul is speaking of the redemption of the purchased possession, that the manifestation of the sons of God can not and will not be until after the body has been changed from mortal to immortality. Therefore they would have to be a resurrection of those that are dead in Christ and those that are alive in Christ at His coming. Then and then alone will there be an era of that time taught by Paul in Romans 8, that there will be a manifestation. Now the word manifestation or manifest, means to put on display, to reveal, or to make known. Therefore in that sense we can see the Millennium age coming up, which covers one thousand years of time. It is a dispensation. That is when the manifestation of the sons of God will be a reality. They will be revealed, made known to the whole creation the world over, simply because redemption has constituted that. Therefore the Millennium is a furtherance of redeeming the earth, restoring back to the earth, regenerating the earth, as we taught in the other subject. When the Millennium is over and we see the second resurrection, we will see in closing out this subject, that the second resurrection is a resurrection of everything that has death attributed to it. No matter whether it goes from the beginning of time to the end, everything that is laying in the ground will be considered lifeless, and have no eternal life attributed to it at all. We are going to go back and pick up the scriptures in Matthew 27 and deal with the 51st verse, to lay down the thought of what took place at the resurrection of Christ. As we said earlier, In the heart of the earth, up until the advent of Christ, there were two realms in which the spirit of all that died on the earth due to the penalty of death imputed to mankind because of Adam's sin, went. The righteous went into a place called paradise and the wicked went to a place called Hades. The whole thing was hell, which simply means, a place of imprisonment. Even the righteous were in hell, in that sense of the scriptural term.. We have a lot of church going people today, their mouths drop wide open when you say something like that; because they automatically think hell is a bad place. They do not realize that hell meant a place of the imprisonment of the soul and spirit of the inner person. Therefore as we read here, God's redemption through Christ has come. He has been crucified, and hung on the cross, died for the sins of the whole human race, past, present, and future. Death has taken His life. His body is taken and laid in a tomb in the earth's surface. But we know according to the Psalm, the inner life of Jesus did not go to the tomb. It descended into hell. Since it descended into hell, we quoted this earlier, from the 16th Psalm, verses 8-10, where David was inspired to write this Psalm, and he had a revelation. That revelation inspired him to speak these words in the Psalm, prophetic words, where he said he foresaw the Lord always before his face, meaning he kept the Lord constantly before him in everything he endeavored to do, The Lord was his means of existence and strength and such like. Because of that, then God gave him the assurance of his glory, or that his flesh would rest in hope, having a promise and assurance that though death one day would take him, and he would go to hell, God would not leave his soul in hell, that place of imprisoned spirits. Because of that, he could see that neither would God, the great eternal spirit, allow His holy One, His means of redemption to see corruption. That means His physical body would not go beyond the hours of decomposition and breakdown. As we read here, we want to take this verse of scripture, and see what it actually points us to. We have to realize, Matthew was writing the account years after the event was all over. Therefore he was squeezing developments together. He tells in the 51st verse, the very hour that Christ died on the cross, "And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, (It literally shook. That is what is signified here. The earth's cracks open here.) and the rocks rent; (busted apart) And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose." Notice that it does say saints, plural; and nothing at all is said about the wicked and unregenerate element of mankind. It is speaking of saints, people who believed and trusted in God. We do know that as the children of Israel eventually came out of Egyptian bondage and settled in the land of Palestine, later as God chose the city of Jerusalem, the place to reveal His name, this would lead many Jewish people who were trusting fully in God, to want to be buried near or around the Jerusalem area. Somehow they had a glimmer of insight, that one day there would be a great event take place there. We can go back to Job and see how related to that. However before the event actually took place, no one knew exactly where, when, nor how this great event would begin to unfold.many. I would never attempt to be dogmatic about some of these things we have so little written about; but what is written clearly, I believe it is alright to teach. I just do not believe we should try to get so technical about some things. People will say, Bro. Jackson: When the graves were opened at the time Jesus arose and many of the saints came forth, did that include all of those who believed in God, all the way back to Abel? I will not go so far as to say that. I will say this, We need to let God do a few things the way He has purposed to, without us having to have all the details. Some people are forever trying to learn something new about the scriptures, and they devote very little time to trying to live their lives according to what they know already. He took out of the ground every major patriarch and saint that He saw fit to take, those who would bear an infallible testimony for His glory and honor. I am persuaded of that. Remember this, In heaven, when the apostle John was taken up, and saw the four and twenty elders sitting around that throne, we have said this before, they were all earthly men. There would be twelve from the Old Testament, twelve from the New Testament. Therefore if there is twelve from the Old Testament, we are not saying who they are. But they are definitely going to be patriarchs, one's that have stood out in time. That has to come into the mind and plan of God. Concerning those bodies that arose, the question can be asked, Were they raised in a mortal state, like they had previously been in, before they were buried, or were they raised in an immortal state? If we look at this picture in a sensible way, we are going to have to come to the conclusion, that they were raised in an immortal status. Think of it. If God would have went to the trouble of raising a saint that has been in the ground, six or seven hundred years, you know the body would have been completely decomposed. There is no problem with God raising it from the dead and restoring all the atoms and molecules back to the original status; but you would have to ask, What would that accomplish? Those who believed the word of God already knew He could raise dead people back to mortal life; and that they would die again in due time; but this resurrection that took place at the time Jesus was raised, I am persuaded, had a much higher purpose. It says they appeared in the city; so if they were in the city, they were no longer hanging around the cemetery. They were not ghosts. They were real flesh and bones people; and they were raised up for a purpose. The scripture says they appeared in the city and were made known to many. That is not going into great detail and becoming too technical, to say that, nor to say this, If they were not raised in a glorified body, then how do we explain what happened to them after being raised up, back to a mortal state of flesh? Did they live on for several more years and die like Lazarus did? Remember Jesus raised people from the dead during the time of His ministry; but He never did raise anyone into immortality. It was not time. He raised Lazarus from the dead, when he had been dead for days; and was already stinking; but He did not raise him to immortality. He was raised in the mortal state; therefore he died again later, and was buried just like any other mortal person. On the other hand, none of these saints it speaks of here, were ever identified again as such. Nowhere is it written, what happened to them after they were resurrected. Where did they go to? Well we have to put the picture together in our mind, that this was the beginning of God fulfilling His type which is written in Leviticus 23:10-16. We will read the whole 7 verses. "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Lord. And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin. And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord." I have already brought this in, how that once the children of Israel were in the land of promise, when the spring of the year would come and their crops were ripe and ready for harvest, the owner of the land, before the reapers come and cut the crop, would go into the field. I do not see him going in to a shallow, poor ground. I see him going where it stands out so vigorous, right to the best he has. He cuts a bundle, a sheaf of this grain. He ties it in a bundle. What is this for? In the natural, it is the first fruits of his total harvest. He takes that to the priest at the temple, or at the tabernacle, whatever the case might have been. We know it was a tabernacle at first, later it became a temple. The priest was to pile that up, and on the morning after the Sabbath, (All of this typed the beginning of God's resurrection plan.) this bundle was to be brought by the priest and waved before the Lord as the first fruits of the harvest. As the priest, on resurrection morning, went and did that in the natural, with those bundles of grain, that is why it is written in Mark's gospel, St. John's gospel, Matthew's account, that early in the morning, dawning toward the first day of the week, just before the rising of the sun, came Mary Magdalene and those other women, with spices. They wanted to see if they could prepare the body of Jesus for proper burial and future entombment. However when they got there, He was no longer in the tomb. They were met by an angel of the Lord, which said, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen. We know this, Jesus is the first fruits of those that were dead. Therefore if these graves were literally opened, and fulfilled at the resurrection of Jesus what I believe they did, as Jesus was on earth about the space of forty days after His resurrection, personally giving vindication to His existence and resurrection, I believe those other resurrected saints did likewise. I believe they also appeared from time to time, to give testimony to some of those living Jewish people, that something had happened that vindicated the hope they held dear to their heart's. They could see, and they could recognize who those old saints were. That left a sure testimony for them, of the fact that what they had been believing was coming to pass. Those first age Christians had sure testimony of what God was doing; and it is by their word that we also can be sure of what God is doing; and of what He will do, as time closes out. At this time, the time of that phase of the first resurrection when Jesus and those Old Testament saints arose, those saints came out of paradise. That is where their spirits came from. Their spirits did not come from heaven, like we would expect today. Their spirits came out of paradise, which at that time was still in the heart of the earth. Let us go to Luke's account, to show you what I mean. Luke wrote concerning when Jesus hung on the cross and the one thief looked over and began to criticize and try to humiliate Jesus, the other thief just merely said, (Luke 23:42) "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." For that, Jesus made him a promise. Let me just read it to you; so you can get the whole picture together. (Luke 23:39-43) "And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Where would that be? In the heart of the earth of course. One criminal recognized who Jesus was; and the other one saw nothing to distinguish Him from any other man that might be hung from one of those old crosses. That is how it is. The gospel is preached to all, some believe it and receive a revelation; and the rest just hear words that mean nothing to them. Therefore this one said, We deserve to die; but this man has done nothing. What did Jesus say to the one that defended Him and said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom? "This day thou shalt be with me in paradise." Jesus knew the minute His life would separate from the body that was going through this terrible ordeal of suffering for man's chastisement and sin offering, where He would be. He was going to hell. As He went to hell, He knew this man that had been defending Him, would be going with Him. In other words, The spirit of that thief was going to go with Him.

We will go to the Epistle of 1st Peter. Peter, the apostle to the Jewish circumcision, just as Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, gave his own expression of what the death of Jesus accomplished in the plan of God. Neither one of these men, even though they had different revelations at a certain juncture of time concerning this event, said anything that would contradict what the other one said, or would say. Peter brings in a thing about Christ Jesus after the death on the cross that no one else expressed exactly the same way. Peter brings it out like this, 1st Peter 3:18. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, (That means the sins of the whole world.) the just (He was the just one) for the unjust, (The unjust is people like you and me.) that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, (the flesh He lived in) but quickened (made alive) by the Spirit: (that which was of God that dwelled in Him. It is that Spirit that would quicken and make Him alive again.) By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison." That is why we can say that at that time, this whole realm was hell, a place of the imprisoned soul's of mankind. He went and preached unto the spirits in prison, in hell. "Which sometime were disobedient, when once (meaning during that period) the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water." This sets the type for water baptism, because the water, the flood water covered the earth in that realm where mankind was. Wherever man was, he had corrupted his surroundings and sinned against God upon the earth. That is why God, in that judgment, covered the earth with water, to get rid of the traces of sin that man had given over to. He (God) purposed just to wash it all away; because He wanted to look upon a clean earth. It set a type. As we go on with this, let us watch some things. We know that Noah preached for at least a hundred and some odd years; so just think for a minute. He is referred to in the New Testament as a preacher of righteousness. Well if he was a preacher of righteousness, then there were no doubt times when these unrighteous mobs would come around to humiliate him; and belittle him because of this thing he was working on; for every year it was getting larger, as Noah continued to build on it. This no doubt is what would give God an opportunity to anoint Noah, to preach to this multitude of critics and rejectors of God. Think for a moment though, of the fact that some no doubt died during that long period of time; and were placed in the ground. I believe it would be reasonable to assume that there were people dying by natural causes during that time. Why do I make this point? Simply to say this, It is very possible that there were a few of those old ones scattered through that hundred and some odd years that died believing what Noah was preaching. They were not the ones that were going to perish in the flood. They died by natural causes because they believed what that old man said. All those critics that somehow or other were young enough, and God would leave alive long enough to taste the very means of this terrible catastrophic judgment, they heard the same things these others that had died by natural causes heard; but they went to the torment part of hell. They heard the same thing and they just kept on laughing, making fun and so forth. They continued right straight on through to that terrible hour of judgment. What about those others, the ones that died by natural causes? They had nothing to compare Noah's preaching to. There was no law in existence then, Thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not. That was the first time there had ever been a man talking, or preaching like that; but they believed what he was saying. When Jesus went down into hell and began to preach to those spirits, we can say this, the righteous ones that had died in the period of time this terrible evil was going on, it cleared up the picture for them. Jesus did not have to preach to righteous Abel. How many understand what I am saying? There was no need to preach to Abel because Abel did not live when sin had multiplied and come to such an ungodly state. For quite a long period there were others of Abel's category; but once that terrible ordeal of evil set in, others who walked with God, had to do so in the midst of the whole rotten mess. Just think of Enoch; and the time he lived in. He gave his son a name Methuselah, which meant, When he is gone, it (judgment) will come. That man lived 969 years though; so just think of all the sons and daughters that were born in those years before the flood finally came. From then on to the flood you had thousands upon thousands born and lived in this terrible period. Some turned away from the evil and died by natural causes. Others, and I would have to believe there were multitudes of them, were just like so many are today, Everyone else is doing it, so I see nothing wrong in doing what everyone else is doing. That is what you hear from a lot of children today, when you attempt to correct them. The great difference between then and now, is the fact that there was no law written. They had nothing to go by. Nevertheless they were without excuse; because God had Noah on the scene, preaching righteousness. Nevertheless to clear up the picture, Jesus went right down into hell and preached to all of them. I hope this gives all of you a little better picture of why it was necessary for Jesus to go preach to those imprisoned spirits. He certainly did not have to preach to Abel nor any of his kind. There was no need for. It was those spirits that had lived during the time of this terrible evil environment, without anything they could look to, that would tell them it was wrong to do as the general trend were doing. That is why Peter wrote what he did in this Epistle. Jesus preached to them. "By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited (tarried) in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. (It set a type of baptism there.) The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." So when we accept Christ as our Savior we know it is His blood that was shed to make an atonement for our fallen nature. Nevertheless because I have lived in this mortal flesh on this earth, in this evil environment, then the evil things I have done living in this flesh that causes this flesh to carry out the works of the flesh, the fruits of unrighteousness and so forth, then the baptism of our body in water, is that in the eyes of God we stand as though we had never sinned. The remembrance of my smoking, my drinking, my cursing and all that is put out of His mind, when I obey from the heart the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the blood that atones for the inner man of course; but it is that water that washes away the things that I have done in this body of flesh. That is why Jesus says in St. John's writing, "Whosesoever sins ye remit, to Him they are remitted." That is what remission of those things is tied to.

As we continue on, Peter was speaking here in the 4th chapter, after saying in the last verse of chapter 3, concerning Jesus, "Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him," which lets us know He is now high priest, interceding for all who believe,"Arm yourselves." Why would he say that? Let us read the whole thing, and you will see. Look at chapter 4, verse 1, to begin. (1) "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; (2) That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. (3) For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: (4) Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: (5) Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. (6) For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." In verse 4, Peter is bringing out how the world looks upon the believer today, just like you are some kind of queer, odd ball, misfit that just does not fit in with their crowd. In verse 5, he makes it clear that all will have to give account of their actions and deeds before that righteous Judge of all ages. Notice, "Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. Therefore for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, (Where were they? They were in hell.) that they might be judged according to men in the flesh." He was preaching to those people that had perished, or that had died during that period of time when such a terrible evil was in existence on the face of this earth. We can ask this, Was the Holy Spirit around? Yes; but they did not know how to recognize Him. You would just have to say this, When that old man began to say some of the things he did, somehow or other there was a feeling come over those people, a feeling they did not understand. It was just a strange feeling they got ever time they heard that old man speak. It was not associated to a law or writing of any kind of commandment. This is why Jesus preached to them. "That they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." You and I know those that were in torment in hell, He was not going to preach a salvation message to them. He was there to plainly tell them, The man you heard, and ridiculed, blasphemed, and humiliated was a servant of God, giving you a chance to repent; and because you counted his words as words of a mad man, and rejected sound council, you are in this place of torment. Surely you remember that strange feeling you had, yet you ignored it. It was Jesus who now stood there in person telling them, That was the Spirit of Almighty God warning you; giving you a chance; but it is too late now. Was there redemption for those in hell, and Hades? No sir. Only those that were in the righteous realm in paradise. That is how we have to understand this. He is not giving these in Hades any salvation message; He was just simply informing them of why they had to be where they were. He was only reminding them, you are here because you refused your opportunity, when you were still alive on earth. When Cain himself died, the one who slew Abel, (the Bible does not tell us when Cain died) he went right there; and was hearing the words of Jesus, as He preached to all of them. Furthermore Cain is still there. Judas is there. We could name a lot of them; simply because the Bible has identified a lot of them who refused the counsel of God. This is not theology. It is the only scriptural, spiritual way we can get the picture of why Jesus went to hell, and why was it necessary for Him to say anything to anyone. It was not to give anyone a second chance. It was just like the apostle Peter wrote, "That they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." Only those that are here are the ones that are going to fall in that category. This is Peter's description of what went on down in hell during the interval of time while Jesus' body was in the tomb, and His Spirit was down there. We will now go back to that account in Matthew 27, and read only one verse. A verse that lets us know where those other saints that were raised, established their testimony. Verse 53, says, "And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. There is only one city scripturally, that can be referred to as the holy city; and we all know that city is Jerusalem. These bodies came out, and made their appearance. We can say this, for the sake of the message as we go on with it, We do not say how many thousands or anything, but the question has been asked, Bro. Jackson, If righteous saints of the Old Testament period were resurrected, is it possible that this reached back in time, where they were buried in other places? Absolutely. It was only those that were buried in the Jerusalem area that it was necessary for them to rise and make their appearance in the city; because it was in the city of Jerusalem where this great event of redemption was being perfected. This was typed when Melchizedek and Abraham met that day; and Melchizedek gave Abraham bread and wine. The Bible refers to this Melchizedek as the priest of the most high God; and it was this very city where that event took place; only it was not known as Jerusalem then. It was known as Salem, a Jebusite city. When Abraham was coming back after the slaughtering of the kings that had captured his nephew lot, and the delivery of Lot and so forth, this type was instituted. Melchizedek typed the manifestation of God that would be represented in the person of His Son; who came first as a prophet, died at Jerusalem, and ascended into heaven as High Priest, a position He still holds today. He comes back to Jerusalem and takes His third office work as King of kings, and Lord of lords, to be King over all the earth in the glorious Millennium, that is not very far in the future now. Therefore since that was typed by Melchizedek, then it had to be fulfilled in and through the person of Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son; because the typed event is now transpiring. What we are saying also, is that not only were there righteous bodies in the cemeteries of Jerusalem brought forth when Jesus arose from the dead; that could also have been the picture all the way back through time in the various other areas where saintly people in the other periods of time have lived. Where you do not have scripture to establish a thing for sure, if you say anything at all about it, you just have to use common sense, scriptural reasoning, without saying, Thus saith the Lord.

After reading what the apostle Peter wrote, explaining Jesus' purpose for going into hell to preach, we need to go to Ephesians 4; where the apostle Paul finished the story, so to speak. Remember now, Just as David said in the 16th Psalm, God would not let his soul in hell, neither would He leave any other righteous soul in hell, the place of imprisonment, after the way was made for them to be set free. Naturally if his (David's) soul would not remain in hell, he meant that part of it which is paradise. The other part of what is referred to as hell, remained right there. What would God do with those who came forth from hell? That is the question to be answered; and we go to an Epistle written by the apostle to the Gentiles. Naturally Paul also was a Jew; but he was known as the apostle to the Gentiles; even though Peter was the first to preach to Gentiles, when he went to the house of Cornelius, a Roman Centurion that believed in God, but needed to be enlightened as to what faith in God really meant in the light of the New Testament covenant. Let us go to Ephesians 4:7, and continue with our thought. As the apostle Paul relates what God has revealed to him in explanation of the purpose for the Lord Jesus going into hell, he referred to it as one descending into the lower parts of the earth. He did not refer to it as hell, just as the lower parts of the earth. That meant going into the bowels of the interior realm of the planet Earth. We find it here in the 4th chapter, and we are aware of the fact that he was speaking to Gentiles, who years later, after the resurrection of Christ, have been brought into the faith. They are to understand the resurrection of Christ and what was constituted in the fact that he went down into the bowels of the earth. Notice how he brings it out. Verse 7, "But unto every one of us is given grace (God's imparted favor) according to the measure of the gift of Christ." The word Christ, in this singular usage, would mean according to that measure of the Spirit of Christ, which in reality is the Spirit of God, that God has allocated to each one of His redeemed, born again children. Now he begins to explain. "Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, (That points us to the person of Jesus the Christ, who has ascended into heaven.) He (meaning Jesus) led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." What is Paul actually saying here in this verse? That Jesus, in order to give gifts unto men, first did this. He has gone into hell just as Peter said, he has preached to the imprisoned spirits, both the righteous and the unrighteous; but He has taken out of hell, out of the heart of the earth, or the lower parts of the earth, all of those righteous ones Satan had held captive; and in so doing, He has literally conquered death, hell, and the grave. That is what hell was, a place of captivity. He had been holding those righteous spirits in captivity. When Jesus took them captive, He led them out of there. Now that He has taken them captive, we can understand why redemption had to unfold in this fashion. He had to conquer hell first before the grave could be conquered. Do you understand that? Hell itself had to be conquered. He had to do here on the earth's surface, by suffering and dying like a man, what no other man could do. Then He had to go lower, further in this thing than any other mortal being could go. He descended into the very bowels of hell and preached to those spirits, both to the wicked, showing them why they will suffer such a terrible judgment at the great white throne, as well as to the righteous that are heirs of eternal life. There had to be a spirit going along with the words of Noah that made them feel funny, and made some go away, rejecting his message. He (Jesus) overcame hell first; then He came forth out of the grave, or tomb. His own testimony as He appeared to John was, "I am He which liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." He overcame hell. As He came forth from that experience, it was the early morning hours of the first day of the week. Do you realize what else there was for us to think about? Lying there at the temple was those piles of earthly grain, those bundles of the first fruits of the farmers' harvest. Just imagine all the farmers that brought those bundles there to fulfill a ritual, that in their minds they understood little about its true significance. What a ritual. It served its purpose until that which it pointed to was manifested. A lot of people would love to be able to find salvation by doing things like that. They would rather work their head's off for it, than to exercise faith to receive it as a free gift. Well we will go down to the temple for a look. The priest was getting up early; because he had a big job to do on this first day of the week, which was the morrow after the weekly Sabbath that falls within that Passover period. The priest had awakened; and was waking up his helpers, the lay priests. Get up Boys, we have a big job ahead of us this morning. While they were getting up and getting ready to fulfill the festivity and the ceremonial ritual of what all that typed, an angel came down from heaven; and as his feet touched the earth, he was standing right before this tomb that Joseph of Arimathaea has dug out of the side of a hill. Never had any man lain in it before. There had been a huge rock rolled over the entrance to make sure no one tampered with the corpse inside. Well when that angel appeared on the scene, the old stone covering the opening lost its significance. Notice what Matthew wrote about that. (Matthew 28:1-7 "In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that He is risen from the dead; and, behold, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him: lo, I have told you." Let me just say something here. Those who like to criticize Bro. Branham for talking about the angel that accompanied his ministry, ought to criticize Jesus also. Every place He went, angels were present to minister to Him. They ministered to Him in the wilderness. They ministered to Him in Gethsemane; and here was one ministering to Him by coming down to roll the stone away from the door of the tomb. How did he do that? By causing an earthquake that did the job for him. This was another earthquake, different from the one that rent the veil of the temple. You might say this, Since it was just a few hours later, God just timed that last tremor to serve that purpose. The first one split the veil of the temple; and this last tremor brought Jesus from the tomb. It was probably a process of the same development going on down in the bowels of the earth; but it was according to the plan of God. Naturally the angel of the Lord was right on schedule; because as he rolled the stone away, Jesus was on His way out of hell; and who did He have with Him? All those righteous saints, the spirits of them, from all ages of past time. He was bringing them forth from their imprisoned state as He came out. To say that they are all coming up in their glorified bodies, I am not telling you that. I am not giving anyone the idea that I know all about that. I am looking at this strictly from the finished picture. I do know this, there were enough of those Old Testament saints appeared in their glorified bodies, to establish an infallible testimony that God had started the first resurrection. While those priests were down there at the temple still projecting the type, Jesus was fulfilling it. He was no longer dead. Furthermore He had brought others from the dead with Him. This testifies that Christ was the first fruits, not the singular fruit. I will finish reading this portion of scripture here in Ephesians 4. (4:8) "Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Yes He only took those that were in Paradise; He took nothing out of Hades. Now notice verse 9.) Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?" That was Paul's way of referring to Hell. The man that died on the cross with Him, was with Him when He came forth from hell also. He took those imprisoned souls captive. Then He took them away from the devil." When did Jesus give gifts unto men? After He reached His position in heaven; for it was only after the Holy Spirit descended upon the believers, that the gift distribution started. In verse 9, Paul began to rephrase what he had just written. Why would he do that? Because he was writing to Gentiles that did not have the understanding of the resurrection, that the Jews had. To talk about resurrection to Gentiles, was like talking about mysticism. That is exactly what the point is. The Jews had seen prophets of old raise men from the dead; so they knew what was meant by the term resurrection. They expected that there would one day be a resurrection; they just did not know in what fashion, nor when. On the other hand, the Gentiles had nothing to relate the term resurrection to. They had no books. They had no dealings with God. They just lived in myths and all sorts of superstitions. That is exactly why Paul went into so much detail to explain it to them. Verse 10. "He that descended (He that went down into the lower parts of the earth) is the same also that ascended." I cannot help but wonder how we would have reacted to words like this, if we had been back there in Ephesus almost two thousand years ago, having been pagan Gentiles that had grown up in life worshipping all kinds of deities? Then here comes a man preaching about a man named Jesus, a man that bore the sins of all mankind in His own body, and offered Himself as a sacrifice to the only true God, the Creator of everything that man knew anything about, to set man free from the bondage of sin and estrangement from his Creator. What do you suppose you would have thought? To hear someone preaching about Christ being man's Saviour, Deliverer, and soon coming King; and in Him one day we have the hope to be resurrected, I believe we would have needed a little extra explanation also. Would you not agree? I am sure we would have had a lot of questions. Well that is why Paul felt that he needed to deal with the subject in the manner he did. He wanted those Ephesians to know, that the same One that went up, was the One that first went down. Then to turn it around, the same One that went down, is the One that ascended up above all things. In other words, We do not have one god for death, another for life and so forth. "He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things." In other words, everything would focus on Him, because He was, and is God's means of redemption. Now that Jesus sits in heaven, at the right hand of God the Father, then we know this, redemption has destroyed this realm of hell. Being the very sinless Son of God, it was not possible that death could hold Him captive. King David knew his flesh could rest in that hope and promise; and so did Job. There is no such thing as paradise in the heart of the earth any more. It is destroyed forever. The place called Paradise, is in heaven now. As we follow this through, this will help us understand why it is correct to say there is no such thing as an eternal hell. That place where the spirit of man began to be imprisoned, whether in paradise or torment, had a beginning; and it has an end also. Why did God leave them there? Because it was on the earth that sin was first committed by man. Therefore because of sin, the flesh of no man could come into the actual presence of God, as long as that sin was not atoned for. That is why sin, death, and all that was contrary to God's righteous plan, had to be dealt with on the planet you and I live on. Therefore, Jesus had to die for our sins on this planet where sin came into the picture. The life that was in Him came from God; but He was just as much a man, as anyone else you know. Though He was the Son of God, He was in the likeness of man, lived as a man, walked on earth as a man, was tempted in every way any other man is tempted, died as a man would die, then going further than any other man ever could, in overcoming death, hell, and the grave, He perfected forever a plan whereby lost mankind could be reconciled to his Creator. When He rose from the grave, he arose victorious over Satan, never to die any more. Therefore Paradise is all wrapped up in Him, because He took all those righteous spirits with Him. All those bodies that did come forth, came forth in immortality, never to die any more. They are in glory with Jesus today, and have been all down through this dispensation of what we call the Grace Age.

Let us take a look at to 1st Corinthians. We will read a verse of scripture; then we will follow Paul's reasoning. He was at Ephesus, having just finished that great revival there; and was thinking about where he would go next. During that time he received a report from Corinth that made it necessary for him to write this letter which we know as 1st Corinthians. In the 15th chapter, verse 12, we find these words, "Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, (This is how the apostle Paul opened up the subject of the resurrection to the Corinthians, by giving them this ominous thought. He was the one that had taught them that Jesus had been raised from the dead; so we know what he believed about it. This was just his way of approaching their questions and doubts.) how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?" Anyhow that lets us know what those Corinthians were being affected by. They were Gentiles. They had been pagan deity worshipers of just about every description; and the Christian teachings were still not as plain to them as they are to us today. That is not saying every one in that Corinthian church believed like these who had the questions. No doubt there were some that could see what Paul had presented to them, but there were others saying, That is impossible, there is no way a person can come back from the dead. They believed the spirit lived on somewhere else; but not that it could ever come back into the same body; and certainly not that the body could be given immortality. Nevertheless notice how Paul approached the subject with them. "How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: (He was really building a story for them to consider.) And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." Let me just read a few more verses, so you can see the complete reasoning he laid out before those who had questions about the resurrection of the dead. (Verse 15) "Yea, and we are found false witnsses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ: whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins." If you caught what Paul was getting at there, you know yourselves, that if the resurrection of Christ Jesus did not take place, there is nothing for us to place our faith in. All of our hope, rests completely upon the fact that Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, conquered death, hell, and the grave; so if that is not true, what are we doing here? We have no hope. In verse 18, he said this, (based upon the negative side of the argument he has just related) "Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." There was no doubt in Paul's mind about whether Jesus Christ arose from the dead. After his experience on the Damascus road, he never doubted anything preached by those other apostles who walked with Jesus. Anyhow when he got through laying this whole thing out before those Corinthians, he just the same as said to them, Go on back to your pagan temples and worship your pagan gods, if you cannot accept the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Besides that, you are calling us false witnesses of God; because we have testified to you, that God raised up Christ. The problem those Corinthian people were having, is the same problem so many people have yet today, they try to figure it all out with their mind, before they will accept it. Let me tell you saints, you will never be able to figure out how and why God does things; you first have to accept by faith those things that God does, and has done; and then, in due time, He will give you a revelation of what you need to know for your spiritual growth in the stature of Christ. This Epistle to the Corinthians was written in 59 A.D. When you compare that to the book of Acts, where it tells about the time the Corinthian church was started, some of those saintly people of Corinth had died already, when Paul wrote this. Therefore that is what Paul was implying when he said, "Then they which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." In other words you have been believing and going through all this rigmarole and it is worthless, utterly useless, if there is no resurrection of the dead. Then he summed it up by saying this, "If in this life only we have hope (this is how the Gentiles lived) in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. (What a miserable state to exist in.) But now is Christ risen from the dead, (Now he is laying out the emphatic fact to them.) and become (notice the word) the first fruits (plural) of them that slept." That is what happened; and we read of in in verses 51 and 52, of chapter 27, of the Gospel of St. Matthew. Right out of hell, (that portion of hell called paradise) came all those righteous spirits with Jesus. Not only did Jesus raise from the dead, He Himself was with those disciples off and on for 40 days, bearing witness to the fact that He was alive. He did not leave the witnessing totally up to someone else. Then after going in and out among them for 40 days, He ascended into heaven, and took all those others that had risen, with Him. That fulfills what Paul wrote in Ephesians 4, concerning God's first fruits from among the dead. Not only was that portion of the earth's graves emptied out, that portion of hell was done away with. It will never be needed again. Redemption was really in progress. That fulfilled the first phase of the first resurrection. There is still two more phases of the first resurrection yet to be fulfilled before the Millennium starts. As you can see, there is still much to be said on this subject; but we will have to continue it later. May the Lord bless you. We are getting very close to the closing of this dispensation of grace. Time is running out. I am thankful to God to be a child of His.1st Resurrection-Continued