The reader will notice that the twenty-fifth verse reads "the dead," and may only apply to the righteous as coming forth at His resurrection, while the twenty-eighth verse says, "All that are in the graves," which would make it universal and apply to the just and the unjust, the evil and the good. This resurrection of the wicked doubtless applies to the same event that is recorded in the book of Revelations John first saw the resurrection of the righteous, and then says: "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." (Rev. xx:4.) Glorious thought! The righteous rewarded for all their trials and tribulations! "Who are these arrayed in white, brighter than the noon-day sun?" "These are they which have come up through great tribulation, washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." This reward is well worth all the hardships incidental to preaching the Gospel and living the life of a Saint. "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection."
"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books; * * * and they were judged every man according to their works." (Rev. xx:12, 13.)
Nothing could be more literal, more tangible, more real than this; nothing more just. The righteous were to come forth and enjoy a thousand years of absolute peace and freedom from the tribulations heaped upon them by the wicked, untrammeled with trials brought upon them by Lucifer; free from sickness, sin and sorrow; living in the personal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, in full enjoyment of the earth in all its paradisic glory; justice meted out to the wicked, who will be denied the opportunity to revel in the lusts of the flesh or to persecute those who "live godly in Christ Jesus."
No wonder that Job rejoiced in all his affliction, because his soul was enlightened with the visions of the future. Notwithstanding his bodily pains and the annoyance of friends who attributed his afflictons to his own failings, he exclaimed from the depths of his soul: "Oh, that my words were now written! Oh, that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." (Job xix:23-26.) Undoubtedly this great and good man was resurrected when the Messiah was, and received a partial fulfillment of this glorious vision, but whatever was lacking in the full realities of this prophecy will be complete when the Son of Man shall come, in His glory, to reign on the earth.
Paul said to the Thessalonians: "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. * * * 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." (I. Thess iv:14-16.) This agrees with the testimonies already quoted from the Savior and the apostle John in reference to the resurrection at two different periods; one for the just and one for the unjust.
This great subject is also portrayed by the prophet Daniel. In the seventh chapter of his prophecy, ninth and twenty-second verses, he speaks of the coming of the "Ancient of Days." The most ancient man of days associated with this earth is our father Adam, and it is plain that he has a great part to perform in placing judgment in the hands of the Saints and subduing the wicked. It would appear by the mission to be performed by Michael, as described in the first verse of the twelfth chapter of Daniel, and in the twelfth chapter of Revelations, that Michael and the Ancient of Days are the same person, and that he will be upon the earth at the opening of the millennium and will dwell in the midst of the people of God.
In modern revelation the Lord has said to the Prophet Joseph Smith, "And the Lord appeared unto them, and they rose up and blessed Adam, and called him Michael, the prince, the archangel." (Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 107, verse 54.) In connection with the coming of Michael in the last days, Daniel says: "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." (Daniel xii:2.)
In Paul's address before Felix he refers to the resurrection in the following language: "And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." (Acts xxiv:15.) Again "Him God raised up the third day and showed Him openly; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is He which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead." This was the testimony of the chief apostle, Peter, when the Gospel was first delivered to the Gentiles.
It is evident that the burden of the teachings and testimonies of the apostles was to establish the divinity of the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ. This necessarily included His atonement and resurrection. The fall of our first parents brought not only a banishment from the presence of the Lord, which may be termed a spiritual death, but it caused the death of the physical body. When an atonement was wrought out as a redemption from that fall, it would be incomplete unless it brought to pass immortality and eternal life to the body.
"The spirit and the body is the soul of man." The body is resurrected from the grave, independent of whether the individual in this life was good or bad, as shown by the declarations of Scripture. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (I. Cor. xv:22.) Paul describes in a very definite way the different degrees of glory in the resurrection, which vindicates the justice of God in rewarding every man according to his works, and establishing the free agency of man by holding him personally accountable for every act of his life. "There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 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. So also is the resurrection of the dead." (I. Cor. xv:40-42.) Jesus said to the apostles: "In my Father's house are many mansions: If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you * * * that where I am there ye may be also." (St. John xiv:2, 3.) These assertions all agree that there has been a resurrection (so far as they refer to the resurrection of Jesus and those who came forth from their graves at the same time) and that there will yet be two more resurrections, one of the just, one of the unjust. The only reasonable conclusion to be reached by reading these testimonies is, that the resurrection will be an actual reunion of the spirit and the body.