What is the resurrection of the dead?
The “blessed hope” of Christians is “the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Tit 2:13; see Q093, Q145), which coincides with the blessed hope of the resurrection of the dead: “Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep… the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words” (1Th 4:14–18; see the Study: The “Rapture,” on the true meaning of this passage).
Christians rejoice in this living hope, as the chief Apostle encourages: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that does not fade away. It is reserved in heaven for you” (1Pe 1:3–5; see Q386).
In accordance with the teaching of the Lord and his Apostles, Orthodox Christians therefore confess in the Creed: “I look for the resurrection of the dead.”
The general resurrection will take place at the threshold of the age to come, after the Second Coming of the Lord: by a creative and regenerating act of the almighty power of God, the souls of those who have fallen asleep will be united with their bodies, either unto eternal life or unto condemnation (Joh 5:28–29; see Q227, Q235). As the Apostle teaches concerning those who are in Christ: “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body… For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1Co 15:44, 53).
