Resurrection of the Body

Read Isaiah 26
 
Isaiah 26:14 They are now dead, they live no more; those departed spirits do not rise. You punished them and brought them to ruin; you wiped out all memory of them.
 
Isaiah 26:19 But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.
 
WE often consider God’s promise of the resurrection of the body for those who have died in faith to be entirely a New Testament teaching. After all, we must believe Jesus is our “Lord and Savior” to gain eternal life.
    In truth, resurrection of the body is prophesied and taught throughout the Bible. See the difference in these two verses. The first is the penalty of death for the unbeliever. The second is the promise of life for God’s own. Knowing Isaiah 24-29 is a prophecy of God’s final judgment and salvation in the new heaven and earth, we can certainly expect resurrection of the dead to be proclaimed.
    There are more Old Testament prophecies of this great truth: one of the earliest scriptures written is Job 19:26-27 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; 27 I myself will see him with my own eyes — I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! Another is Psalms 16:10 because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay. Third is Daniel 12:2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.
    These compare with
1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. And Revelation 11:12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on. 
    The Old Testament, too, speaks of Enoch (Genesis 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 11-12) passing directly into heaven. And the apostle Paul writes of his experiences caught up into heaven in 2 Corinthians 12.
    The resurrection promise began in Eden when mankind died due to sin. The eternal God’s salvation plan also began in Eden when God promised a Savior to destroy Satan. This is God’s promise expressed throughout time and will be completed at time’s end.
 
John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”