In order to answer your question fully, I need to tell you more about the wonderful plan of God.

God's Plan for Man

The scriptures tell us,

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this." ( Isaiah 9:6-7).

There will never be an end to the increase of this Child's government. But it starts as a very small government. Jesus told this parable:

"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches" ( Matthew 13:31-32).

When we look around today, it's very difficult to see anything that looks like the all-encompassing Kingdom of God the Bible talks about. Yet, some day in the future,

"No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest" ( Hebrews 8:11).

We long for that day, but it is not here yet. In fact, we wait patiently for God to work out His plan for the universe. We're part of that plan, but we must patiently wait.

"The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved" ( Romans 8:19-24).

We are waiting for the kingdom that was prepared for us since the creation of the world ( Matthew 25:34).

A Chance at Salvation

The Bible shows that God intends to raise up everyone in one of the resurrections, in His good time, and in their proper order. Briefly, in Revelation chapter 20 we find a description of the 1,000 year period we often call "the Millennium." At the beginning of the Millennium, Satan is bound and locked in a deep pit, to be released briefly following the Millennium ( Revelation 20:1-3). At this same time, the time of Christ's return at the beginning of the Millennium, the faithful who have died come back to life.

"Then I saw thrones, and the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus, for proclaiming the word of God. And I saw the souls of those who had not worshiped the beast or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. This is the first resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.) Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. For them the second death holds no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him a thousand years" ( Revelation 20:4-6, New Living Translation).

This is the time of the resurrection of the saints to immortality, spoken of by so many scriptures. Following the Millennium, Satan is loosed from his prison. He immediately gathers an army together to march against God's people, but ends up in the lake of fire, while his armies are destroyed ( verses 7-10).

Following this is the time of the second resurrection and a time of judgment for the rest of the dead:

"And I saw a great white throne, and I saw the one who was sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God's throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to the things written in the books, according to what they had done. The sea gave up the dead in it, and death and the grave gave up the dead in them. They were all judged according to their deeds. And death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death -- the lake of fire. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire." ( verses 11-15, NLT).

The resurrected dead -- including the Jews who rejected Jesus without realizing who He really was -- have the books of the Bible opened to them, at long last. Some time after that, the Book of Life is opened, and a search is made for the names of these people. If they lived their lives in the resurrection according to the things written in the books, there's every reason to believe their names will be found in the Book of Life. There is real hope for the billions of people who lived and died without ever hearing about God, Jesus, salvation, or living forever as children of God. That includes your friends and family members who may have died but who were not at all religious during their lifetimes. There's hope for them in the second resurrection. Isn't that wonderful?

Most people will be in the second resurrection. Those relatively few people God has called into the faith in this life, today, are often called the Body of Christ, but are also referred to in the Bible as "firstfruits."

"He [God] chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created" ( James 1:18).

True Christians today are the firstfruits, while the greater general harvest of all mankind comes later in God's plan.

Regarding the first resurrection at Christ's return, notice what Paul says:

"But we don't want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep [those who have died], so that you don't grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so those who have fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left to the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with God's trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore comfort one another with these words" ( 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Yes, there is much comfort in these words.

These scriptures, like the verses in Revelation 20, talk about the exciting fate of truly repentant, called Christians who dedicated their lives to Christ, many of whom lost their lives to the cause of Christ.

But as a whole, humans are cut off from God. Why? Isaiah answers,

"Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things" ( Isaiah 59:1-3).

A growing number of people are becoming aware that this is the pattern in the world throughout history. The world loves to sin -- sometimes in the supposed name of God! God sees the rejection, and like a gentleman, He doesn't poke His nose in where He is not welcome. He leaves people pretty much alone to go their own way, make their own decisions and mistakes, and reap the rewards for their incredible misbehavior and disobedience.

However, God has reserved the right to raise up a body of firstfruits and call whoever He wishes into it, while the rest of humankind remains temporarily blinded. As noted earlier, Jesus said,

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up in the last day" ( John 6:44).

This is part of God's plan. The plan of God is to leave the majority of mankind uncalled and in the dark until the time is right for them to be called. When is the time right? When God says it is -- it's God's timetable! God is working out His plan of salvation, involving the calling out of what the Bible terms the firstfruits now, in this age, and then calling the rest of mankind later, in the general resurrection following the Millennium. Ultimately, all humans will be given the opportunity to be saved. But it must happen according to God's timetable.

Knowing this can help us understand why the majority of people throughout history and today haven't shown any interest in Jesus Christ at all. We know it's God's will for people to be blinded and not be able to understand the message, even when Jesus Himself was standing there, in the flesh, telling them! The responsibility is God's. He chooses whom He will call, and when He will call them.

We can see that the Jewish leaders of Jesus' day often reviled Him, and the Jewish people often followed Him only because they wanted to be fed with physical food ( John 6:26-27) or to be healed of physical infirmities ( Matthew 14:35-36). But most of them were not ready to follow Christ the way we understand following Christ – a total commitment of our lives to living His way of life. They simply hadn't been invited yet. Once again, it's God's responsibility.

God is working out a plan of salvation among the human race. As part of that plan, God brings some people to repentance now, and others He'll call later. The firstfruits are called ahead of the rest, not instead of the rest. There's nothing special about the firstfruits, except that God chose them before the rest of the world, and they had enough sense to listen to God and respond to His invitation.

We find references in the Bible that the heart is evil above all things, and desperately wicked ( Jeremiah 17:9). We find that the carnal mind is antagonistic toward God, and can't even be subject to the laws of God ( Romans 8:7). We find that it's not in the heart of man to direct his own steps ( Jeremiah 10:23). But we also see that the devil has deceived the whole world ( Revelation 12:9), that he's the god of this world ( 2 Corinthians 4:4), and that we need to put on the armor of God to stand up against the devil ( Ephesians 6:11).

Series of Resurrections

Many people are not aware that the Bible teaches a series of resurrections of the dead in the future. But notice what Paul wrote regarding the first resurrection, at Christ's return:

"Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can't inherit the Kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible will have put on incorruption, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory'" ( 1 Corinthians 15:50-54).

The second resurrection, following the Millennium, will be when the vast hordes of humankind who have died over the thousands of years of human history come back to life in a physical resurrection. This incredible scene, almost too astounding to grasp, is described in vision by the prophet Ezekiel, in his famous "dry bones" vision ( Ezekiel 37:1-14).

Ezekiel was told that this remarkable prophecy was in reference to the nation of Israel, but the picture it paints in our minds can serve to help us understand the magnificent, awe-inspiring day when all of humankind, including the Jews who rejected Christ, comes to life, raised from their graves, to be given another chance at life, this time knowing God's way of life and being encouraged to follow it. What a remarkable day that will be! This is part of the gospel message, the good news of the kingdom of God!

These resurrected mortals will be given the opportunity to understand God's way and follow Him – the same opportunity that Christians in this life currently have, but with one important difference: Satan will not be there to deceive them or tempt them! In that future time, those who choose to pursue the goal of being sons in the family of God will be changed into immortal spirit sons of God, just as those in the first resurrection had been either resurrected or changed to immortal spirit when Christ returned at the beginning of the Millennium. And so the world will be filled with happy, peaceful, loving sons of God.

You know, the good news is that the Jews who rejected Jesus didn't know what they were doing. They were not willfully, knowingly rejecting their Savior and Messiah. They just didn't recognize Him, ( John 1:10-11)! Jesus assured us,

"And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men [including the sins that nailed Jesus to the tree!], but the blasphemy against the Spirit [rejecting Christ with full knowledge of what they are doing] will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven [and there have been a lot of people doing that throughout history], but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come" ( Matthew 12:31-32).

In Jesus' day, the eyes of the Jews were blinded. Even when Jesus was going around preaching and teaching, He often hid His meanings by telling stories and speaking in riddles. For instance, Jesus' disciples once came to Him and demanded an explanation:

"The disciples came, and said to him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?' He answered them, ‘To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them. For whoever has, to him will be given, and he will have abundance, but whoever doesn't have, from him will be taken away even that which he has. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don't see, and hearing, they don't hear, neither do they understand. In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, "By hearing you will hear, And will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, And will in no way perceive: For this people's heart has grown callous, Their ears are dull of hearing, They have closed their eyes; Or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their heart, And should turn again; And I would heal them." But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For most assuredly I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and didn't see them; and to hear the things which you hear, and didn't hear them'" ( Matthew 13:10-17).

A lot of the responsibility for this blindness and deafness falls right on the people themselves – or should I say "ourselves." We hardly hear with our ears; we have closed our eyes. We have all participated in our own ignorance, as a volitional act! I can only hope we who do see and hear and understand always keep in mind that we are being judged now.

"For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, if it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" ( 1 Peter 4:17-18).

More important than knowing what is to become of the Jews, or any other group of people, is the knowledge that we have the power to influence what becomes of us, in our daily lives, in our committed walk with God. May God bless you as you continue to walk with Him in your daily life.

Other Recommended Bible Study Materials:

• After the Resurrection: What will you be like in the resurrection?
• A Second Chance...at Salvation?
• What are the three signs of a sick church or sick religion?

Answer Given By: Jack Lane