There is no such thing in Scripture as a resurrection of all men together. Of all things resurrection separates most distinctly. Till then there may be more or less a mixture of the evil with the good, though it be a dishonor to the Lord and an injury to His people. But appearances deceive, and absolute separateness is not found, and God uses the trial produced by it for blessing to those whose eye is single. But at His coming the severance will be complete; at His appearing it will be manifest. Hence, the resurrection of the sleeping saints is called a resurrection out of, or from among, the dead, which could not be said of the resurrection of the wicked, for they leave no more to be raised. Thus, both classes are raised separately, and the traditional idea of one general resurrection of the dead is fictitious.
But the moral consequence of the error is as positively bad as the truth sanctifies, for the action of a general resurrection connects itself with a general judgment, and thus vagueness is brought in on the spirit of the believer, who loses thereby the truth of salvation as a present thing and the consciousness of possessing eternal life in Christ, in contrast with coming into judgment.
The first resurrection of the saints, severed by at least a thousand years from that of the rest of the dead, the wicked who rise for judgment and the lake of fire, is the strongest possible disproof of the prevalent confusion, an immensely grave appeal to the conscience of the unbeliever, and a most cheering solace to those who are content to suffer with Christ meanwhile. [15]