The First Resurrection
About this sermon
Dean Odle teaches that Scripture presents two resurrections separated by the thousand-year reign of Christ and that the first resurrection occurs after the great tribulation. He argues that pre-tribulation imminence conflicts with 2 Thessalonians 2, Daniel 12, Matthew 24, Revelation 6–7, and Revelation 20, all of which place identifiable events—including the Antichrist’s revelation and persecution of the saints—before the gathering of believers.
Chronological teaching outline
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Worship and prayer call believers to lay down sin, pride, unbelief, and every stronghold at Jesus’ feet. Odle asks for the cleansing power of Christ’s blood and resurrection to produce real freedom before turning to the prophetic teaching.
A claim that present technologies cannot relate to the mark because the church has not yet been raptured illustrates the sermon’s practical concern. Odle warns that one false doctrine can shelter another deception, since Revelation 14 presents receiving the mark as an irreversible act of worship and judgment.
Second Thessalonians 2 explicitly joins Christ’s coming with the gathering of believers and warns against deception about its timing. Odle emphasizes that the falling away and revelation of the man of sin in a temple must occur first, rejecting an any-moment coming before those signs.
Daniel 12’s unparalleled time of trouble is linked to Jesus’ language in Matthew 24 and to a resurrection of “many” who sleep in the dust. Odle explains “many” rather than all by distinguishing the first resurrection of the righteous from the wicked dead raised after the millennium.
The martyrs who refuse the beast and its mark live and reign with Christ for a thousand years, while the rest of the dead remain dead until that period ends. Odle argues that calling this the first resurrection decisively places it after the beast’s persecution, not before a seven-year tribulation.
Revelation’s lake of fire is identified as the second death for the fearful, unbelieving, murderous, sexually immoral, idolatrous, sorcerous, and lying. Odle defends preaching these warnings as part of the whole counsel of Scripture rather than selecting only comforting promises.
Jesus places the abomination of desolation in the holy place before the flight from Judea and the beginning of great tribulation. Odle stresses that the chapter has not mentioned a prior gathering and that the elect remain present during a crisis so severe that Christ must shorten the days.
The darkened sun, bloodlike moon, falling stars, and shaking heavens at the sixth seal are connected with Jesus’ return language in Matthew 24. Revelation 7’s innumerable white-robed multitude appears afterward and is identified as those who came out of great tribulation, which Odle understands as the resurrected and gathered saints.
Revelation’s beheaded saints and the pressure to receive the beast’s mark are applied to a coming systematic campaign against believers. Odle shares an unverified story about guillotines at a military facility as a warning that Christians should expect costly endurance rather than assume exemption.
The final portion alleges that pandemic controls, censorship, population-reduction agendas, and emerging technologies are conditioning society for Antichrist rule. Odle closes in prayer for believers to remain strong, refuse the mark, hate sin, love righteousness, and endure faithfully to the end.
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- 0:00:01
worship him give him praise the Lord hallelujah thank you Jesus whoo thank you God thank you father we love you lay it all down lay it all down your cares have buried you and there's nothing left to do it all down at the feet should the word lay it all damn your God lay it all down lay it all down lay it all memories we
- 0:03:24
lay it all come to fear but we can't there's nothing here that can ease the fading lay it all down lay it all down at the feet to do just that Lord to lay down every sin God to lay down every weight every hindrance every idol Lord we pray God that every stronghold would be broken out of people's lives Lord if we would just confess our sins and repent turn away from them Lord you said that you shed your blood you've given us the power and authority in the name of Jesus to break free from every sin from every temptation
- 0:06:25
from every demon from every force of darkness Lord we ask you to help us lay it all down our pride our rebellion our stubbornness our doubt and unbelief lay it all down walk away and let the blood of Jesus wash it away and let the power of his resurrection come in and change us Lord I pray that would happen for each of us in here today and those watching listening Lord we pray freedom will come deliverance will come we pray this in Jesus name amen hallelujah you may be seated this morning hallelujah good stuff good songs hallelujah good morning everyone good to have everyone here at fire and grace church this morning those of you out there watching listening of course we're not on YouTube this morning because of censorship strike I got last week man let me tell you artificial intelligence took that sermon down the fastest of any thing I've ever seen within an hour it was gone from from YouTube and we had our first strike so but we are broadcasting to Facebook and we will be loading everything on bit shoot and rumble and soon to bridey on as well and then we're waiting on other hopefully Trump puts out a social media site that will be have live streaming in it as well so we're gonna keep going no matter what they do amen you know they're gonna do stuff because that's what they do the devil's a faithful devil right he's consistent with what he does all right but we serve the Almighty amen the Creator the name that is above every name the Lord Jesus amen now I want everybody to turn with me this morning we're going to cover some familiar ground for some of you but you have to remember that we have new people here today we have new people watching all the time and there's things that I have to cover because deception and error abounds in the world and particularly in the church world so everybody to turn with me to first Thessalonians chapter 4 going to cover some familiar passage of scripture this morning I really saw the Lord I just he just kept taking me right back to this right back to this passage of course it's the the famous patch we're gonna start at verse 13 so we're gonna talk about the church calls it the rapture but the Bible calls it the resurrection the first resurrection and somebody say it's the first resurrection let me hear you all right now when we talk about the first resurrection was that well Jesus
- 0:09:26
rose from the dead after he was crucified on the third day he rose from the dead absolutely Lazarus was raised from the dead of course but Lazarus died again right there's some people died twice people that Jesus raised from the dead had to die again but we are there's only two resurrections and this is something you got to get a hold of because there are people out there right now teaching stuff like and I'm just gonna say it the pre tribulation rapture doctrine you know we probably you know the church world this is what people used to say all the time see I've been in this thing for 34 years so here's what you hear right well I just believe in the pan tribulation view it's just gonna pan out and I'm sit there going hmm and then you know we'll just agree to disagree no we're not agreeing to disagree I just disagree but this is an important issue now we could we probably could have gone along is fine all these years of just going well I hold this view and you hold that view and that's okay but just this past week I saw a you know and I've been talking about the last two weeks the B system part one and two and I've talked about the mark of the beast and I've said we're not exactly there yet but we're getting there and it's coming and it's coming soon upon us all right and somebody posted I think one of my part of the message or whatever somebody posted a comment and underneath it somebody said you know talking about the vaccines and where this is going with the vaccine passport and the micro dot implants of luciferase and all that they said oh that's not the mark of the beast because the mark of the beast comes after the rapture of the church and the church is still here there hadn't been a rapture a resurrection and catching away of the church so this can't be the mark of the beast and I've said this for years that one deception will lead to another now I showed you last week we were in Revelation 14 verses 9 starting there versus if any man takes the mark of the beast the smoke of his torment is going to send up day and night forever he will have no rest day and night he would be tormented with fire and brimstone the presence of the holy angels there's no coming back from that you take the mark of the beast there's no forgiveness there's no repentance it is one of the unpardonable sins all right so this is a serious matter so any doctrine that would make you go oh that's not important oh and by the way I had a debate with a fella who's a preterist how many of you know what preterism is that's about the biggest bunch of nonsense I ever heard yet there's people believe that they believe that everything in the book that all the prophecies of the end time Bible prophecies took place in 70 AD that Jesus came spiritually in 70 AD and the resurrection of the rapture took place and all that happened when Jesus they talk about the resurrection when Jesus you know the people that got up out of their graves when when he got
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