Page 44 - Gods Plan of the Ages

Crossing the Jordan

ost Christians have a very fuzzy understanding of the resurrections of man. Many
Mbelievers imagine that there will be only one resurrection of the dead. The types and
shadows of the Old Testament that Yahweh ordained to show forth truth pertaining
to the resurrections are largely neglected by the church today. It is the rare minister who
spends time instructing the body about these things, demonstrating to them what the
shadows of an earlier epoch are pointing to.
Yahweh has revealed in the Old Testament, through types and shadows, that there will
be three resurrections, three ingatherings of men from the earth. As different groups are
brought to maturity, they will be gathered to God, each in his own order. The three
resurrections are not only revealed through types in the Old Testament, they are shown
forth in plain speech in the New Testament. The following Scripture reveals that there will
be more than one resurrection.

Revelation 20:6
Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second
death has no power...

There will be a total of three resurrections. Yahweh does all things with great order
and design. The number three is a very significant in the Scriptures. E.W. Bullinger, in his
book Number in Scripture, shares the following about the importance of the number three.

THREE
In this number we have quite a new set of phenomena. We come to the first geometrical
figure. Two straight lines cannot possibly enclose any space, or form a plane figure;
neither can two plane surfaces form a solid. Three lines are necessary to form a plane
figure; and three dimensions of length, breadth, and height, are necessary to form a solid.
Hence three is the symbol of the cube - the simplest form of solid figure. As two is the
symbol of the square, or plane contents (x2), so three is the symbol of the cube, or solid
contents (x3).
Three, therefore, stands for that which is solid, real, substantial, complete, and entire.
All things that are specially complete are stamped with this number three.

God's attributes are three: omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence.

There are three great divisions completing time - past, present, and future.

Three persons, in grammar, express and include all the relationships of mankind.

Thought, word, and deed, complete the sum of human capability...

Three kingdoms embrace our ideas of matter - mineral, vegetable, and animal.

When we turn to the Scriptures, this completion becomes Divine, and marks Divine
completeness or perfection. Three is the first of four perfect numbers.
*Three denotes divine perfection;
*Seven denotes spiritual perfection;
*Ten denotes ordinal perfection; and