Let me go back and ask you something as a little background. How many of you know that the resurrection is a destiny? That is, you are destined to have a resurrection whether you want it or not. You don’t do anything about making the fact of the resurrec­tion a reality. Are you sold on that?

How many know that everybody who has ever lived has to have a resurrection, whether he wants it or not, sinners and saints and all? How many know the resurrection is a part of the economy for everybody? How many know that a resurrection is due to every living soul? He says that everyone shall have a resurrection, both the good and the evil, the good and the bad. Now how many are sold that far, that the resurrection is something that is going to befall everyone of us, whether we like it or not? And we don’t have to say, “Oh Lord, don’t forget to get me up when the resurrection comes!” No, we are all going to have a resurrection. How many know there will be a resurrection of the righteous and a resurrection of the wicked? That’s scrip­tural. Am I scriptural so far? “Yes,” they reply.

Well, listen! Which resurrection will Paul evidently come up in? The first, the first resurrection which is of the righteous, won’t he? He is not going to wait and come up with the sinners. Now are you all sold that far? “Yes.” So now we are all settled that Paul is a Christian and that he is “doomed” to a resurrection, and the resurrection will be of the just, and he is one of the just who will come up. All right. Then I want to ask you this: Why does he say that he is aiming and desiring and doing everything in his power in order to attain a resurrection? Well, listen! All these people that the Lord is going to take up in the first resurrection, they are all dead, aren’t they? They are all dead; they are to come up. Now in your Greek he uses a little preposition in there that is not put in our English. Paul really said:

“I try by every means to see if it is possible to attain an out-resurrection from among the rest of those dead people.”

Well, that’s a strange thing, isn’t it? Now that’s where I am going to get you caught. Now when you do that, you see you are lean­ing toward the teaching of a progressive resurrection. Just as soon as you take this Scripture like that, it backs you up in the teaching of a progressive resurrection. There is the old teaching, of course, which you have all had years ago: the trumpet sounds and we shall all rise … and bang! the whole business goes up, those who are worthy or not! Well, Paul says, “I am praying that I will be among those to get the out-resurrection from the rest of those who are left.” It enters into your first resurrection. But there are going to be some evidently who are going to have the privilege of an out - (“ecc-ecc” is a preposition, “ecc”-“out”) “and I pray to be among those who have the out-resurrection from among the dead.” That indicates then that there must be some who preceed. Someone at the Retreat says:

“Paul said in I Corinthians 15, ' that we shall not all sleep but we shall all be raised ‘.”

“All will, but he doesn’t say the time element … we shall all be raised in the first resurrection …”

Another says:

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump..” “Yes, that’s the teaching.

If that’s the case, why does it say he prayed to be among the group that will come out of that?” Now to help you with that, I will give you a little more Scrip­ ture to read. I am not committing myself as to my own belief. But now to help you, I want you to look at another picture that Paul gives of this resurrection. He calls it the resurrection, but because he says it is the resurrection, he doesn’t say that everything that happens in that resurrection happens to all at the same time, in a moment. Now how do I know that? Because in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians on the resurrection, he gives the resurrection under the picture of two very familiar items. What are they?:

1. The triumphant entry of a Conqueror who comes home in conquest.
2. And the other is of the harvest, or the harvest field. When he gives the story of those who come home from the con­ quest with the Conqueror, the picture is of a General or Captain who has gone down into some foreign country and has made a great conquest. He has brought back with him to the home country captives, and they put a great big arch up there (I saw the one in Rome, the Triumphal Arch) and it was erected so that these military leaders could come home and march through, bringing their captives captive. That was a display, a picture of the return of the Captain who had made conquest and won the battle and won the victory. He comes home leading captivity captive, he brings it all home. Now that is the picture that Paul uses for the resurrection. He says it is just like that in the resur­ rection: we shall all come marching in, BUT every man in his own “togma.” What is that? Each man will be in his order or seg­ ment of the procession where he belongs. And that “togma,” that section, was earned either by valor or by some power, or something that has given him this position in that parade when it comes back. When they passed through the arch, how many know the whole parade didn’t go through the arch in a moment? Can you see that that great parade was made up of companies? And Paul says in the resurrection we shall all move in triumph with the Captain. Who is the Captain? The Lord Jesus, He is the Firstfruit. He is the first One Who has made an entrance at all, and He leads all of us under the power of His resurrection, but he says, “every man in his own order.” (I Cor. 15:23) Well now, when they pass the judge’s seat, how many can see there are some that are near the Captain, then there are others like we have in a parade: there is a band, then there is this, then there is this, but it is all in segments, and each one has his own position which he has merited. Well now we will drop that for a minute. Now what is this other picture? He says it is like a harvest. Did you ever look at the picture of a harvest in the Old Testament? What did they do? Did they say: ‘‘The harvest is ready!" and they all went in and cut the wheat down?! No, they did not! Do you remember, the priest went in and there was the gathering first of the wave offering­ its sheaf. And then they would wait. And then they would have a mowing. Then they had the gleaning. And then after the real harvest was over, how many know they had gleanings?­ they were called gleanings. (Leviticus 23). It was all part of the harvest. But the harvest wasn’t a great big bang: “the harvest is over!” The harvest is all in a pattern. So now I leave you with that, I am not going to discuss it because it is too late, I am going to leave that for your study.