But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
The rest of the dead. Now this resurrection regards not the body, but the soul. For souls, too, have a death of their own in wickedness and sins, whereby they are the dead of whom the same lips say, Let the dead to bury their dead, Matthew 8:22— that is, let those who are dead in soul bury them that are dead in body. It is of these dead, then— the dead in ungodliness and wickedness— that He says, 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. They that hear, that is, they who obey, believe, and persevere to the end. Here no difference is made between the good and the bad. For it is good for all men to hear His voice and live, by passing to the life of godliness from the death of ungodliness. Of this death the Apostle Paul says, Therefore all are dead, and He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 Thus all, w...
the rest: Whosoever have not heard the voice of the Son of God, and passed to life from death, during all that time in which the first resurrection takes place, that is, the resurrection of souls, in the second resurrection, which is the resurrection of the flesh, will assuredly pass with the flesh itself into the second death, that is, into eternal torments.
first resurrection: That certainly is the first resurrection in which we rise again through baptism, as the Apostle says, "If ye have risen with Christ, seek the things which are above." For as the first death in this life is through sins, since "the soul that sinneth, it shall die," so also the first resurrection is in this life through remission of sins. <a
first resurrection. That certainly is the first resurrection in which we rise again through baptism, as the Apostle says, "If you have risen with Christ, seek the things which are above." Col 3:1 For as the first death in this life is through sins, since "the soul that sins, it shall die," Ez 18:20 so also the first resurrection is in this life through remission of sins.
until the thousand years were finished. That is, the time of Christ; for they will rise with others at the end of the world to be punished simultaneously in body and spirit.
he call ‘dead’ those who have persisted in unbelief, about whom the Lord also said, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.(Mt. 8:22)” So the unbelievers did not ‘come’ to the spiritual life until the time of the incarnation had ended, which is the ‘1000 year’; for they came to life only after this. How? By the coming and presence of the Holy Spirit. For by then most of the Jews had come to faith in Christ, who did not believe in him when he was physically dwelling and moving among them.
Those who are not faithful and who do not guard against their desires and against the craving to commit sin with passion and without fear will die two deaths; one is natural death and the second death is when they are separated from God and from His saints. They will be separated from eternal life and will be taken to eternal torment.
