Resurrection of the dead

The resurrection of the dead is the biblical teaching that at the end of the age the bodies of the dead will be raised to face judgment and to enter their eternal state. The clearest Old Testament statement is Daniel 12:2: "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." Job expressed confident hope of bodily resurrection (Job 19:25–27), and Isaiah 26:19 speaks of dead bodies rising. Jesus declared that "the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation" (John 5:28–29).

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation and guarantee of the general resurrection: "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Corinthians 15:20). Paul argues at length in 1 Corinthians 15 that to deny the resurrection of the dead is to deny Christ's resurrection and to make faith empty. The resurrection body is described as transformed — incorruptible, glorious, powerful, and spiritual — suited to the eschatological existence it will inhabit (1 Corinthians 15:42–44). Revelation 20:11–15 depicts the final resurrection and judgment, and Revelation 21–22 portrays the redeemed in their resurrection bodies dwelling in the new creation.