This is another in a series of excerpts from The Book of Life: What the Bible Says about God’s Registry of the Redeemed from High Street Press and available at Amazon. This except comes from Chapter 10: All Found Written in the Book Will Escape: Daniel 12:1-3.

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In the previous post, we began to examine Daniel 12:1-3, breaking down the elements of these verses so we can better understand “the book” to which Daniel refers. We continue our observations here.

There will be a time of distress such as never has occurred since nations came into being until that time.

The focus of this “time of distress” is the nation of Israel, although the raging conflicts that mark this unparalleled period in history spill over her borders. This is a time many premillennialists refer to as “the great tribulation,” the final three and a half years of a seven-year tribulation that precedes the return of Christ (Dan. 12:7, 11-12; Rev. 12:6, 14). Others see this series of events as a natural descent into wickedness in the days leading up to the return of Jesus, but they don’t limit it to a specific period of time.

In any case, before this terrible time is revealed, the angel assures Daniel that Michael the archangel is dispatched to help God’s people. Michael’s aid is essential because Satan energizes the antichrist, resulting in the death of perhaps two thirds of the Israelites (Zech. 13:8; cf. 2 Thess. 2:9; Rev. 13:2). 

This horrible chapter in human history ends only with the return of Jesus, as the Lord himself makes clear: 

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. He will send out his angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other (Matt. 24:30-31).

But at that time all your people who are found written in the book will escape.

This is good news. The believing Jewish remnant that trusts in the Lord is delivered from the antichrist’s oppression. This doesn’t equate to a free pass, however. Many saints are going to suffer. They did in the days of Antiochus and Titus, though God faithfully preserved a believing remnant. 

Satan and his minions have persecuted the righteous ever since the days of Cain and Abel. Christians are cautioned that godly living invites the world’s hatred, leading to hardship and sometimes death (2 Tim. 3:12; Rev. 7:14; 20:4). Yet, the returning Christ vindicates his people and rescues even martyred saints from the “second death” (Rev. 21:8). 

Michael and his angels engage Satan in a fierce battle in the unseen realm. And Christ returns to defeat the antichrist, his followers, and the antichrist’s god (Satan). 

The “book” here appears to be the book of life. Old Testament scholars Victor Matthews, Mark Chavalas, and John Walton assert that this book is “a ledger that contains a list of the living…. It is not yet conceived of as a book of eternal life.”⁴ However, the context of Daniel 12:1-3, with its reference to future resurrection and judgment, suggests a longer view, one in which the book of life records the names of the redeemed. In either case, those written in the book “escape.” 

But what do they escape? They don’t escape suffering, sorrow, persecution, or death, for these have characterized the treatment of God’s people from the beginning. Neither is the reference to exile, hardship, or opposition at the hands of Persian, Greek, and Roman conquerors.

They escape God’s wrath, which consumes rebel kings, the antichrist, the false prophet, Satan, and the wicked of all time. God destroys “the man of lawlessness … with the breath of his mouth” (2 Thess. 2:3, 8) and casts him into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20). A thousand years later, the antichrist is still there, and Satan joins him, along with the wicked. Their common destiny is banishment to outer darkness forever (Rev. 20:10-15).

So, those whose names are written in the book are saved. Some are saved alive at the return of Jesus. The rest are saved at the resurrection of the just. But all whose names are in “the book” escape wrath, condemnation, and hell. As John Goldingay notes, the book to which Daniel refers is none other than “the citizen list of the true Jerusalem.”

Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake …

Jesus has told us a time is coming when “all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come out” (John 5:28, emphasis added). So, who are the “many” in Daniel’s vision, as opposed to the “all” in Jesus’s teaching? And what does their “sleep” mean?

We should begin by noting that physical death is not the end of our existence. When people die, their bodies go into the grave, but their spirits live on in the unseen realm. In the Old Testament, this place is called sheol, which many commentators believe features two vast compartments, one for the unbelieving dead, and one for the deceased righteous. 

The Greek term hades is roughly equivalent. In his story of Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus alludes to two separate states of existence beyond the grave: “torment” for the rich man, and “Abraham’s side” for Lazarus. A “great chasm” separates the two locations (see Luke 16:19-31). 

Some New Testament commentators believe Jesus escorted the Old Testament saints, like Lazarus, from Abraham’s side in hades to heaven during the days between his death and resurrection, citing Ephesians 4:8-9 and 1 Peter 3:18-22. Others dispute this, arguing that saints under the Old Covenant entered heaven immediately after death. They note that Enoch and Elijah are taken directly into heaven without experiencing death (Gen. 5:24; 2 Kings 2:1, 11; Heb. 11:5). So, why shouldn’t deceased Old Testament saints join them?

In any case, the New Testament describes believers who die after Christ’s resurrection as entering heaven directly upon death (Phil. 1:23). There, they are present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:6-8), worshiping with the angelic hosts of heaven and other redeemed people at the altar of God (Heb. 12:22-23; Rev. 6:9-11).

Meanwhile, the spirits of deceased unbelievers continue to populate sheol, or hades, awaiting resurrection and final judgment, at which time they stand before the great white throne and are cast into gehenna, or hell (Rev. 20:11-15). 

Now, about Daniel’s reference to “many.” The Hebrew word rab (or rabbim) in Scripture often is translated “many,” “great,” or “much.” The NIV renders it “multitudes” in Daniel 12:2. It refers to abundance in quantity, size, age, number, rank, or quality. Some scholars, like J. G. Baldwin, contend that rabbim sometimes carries the force of “all.” 

Joyce Baldwin, a 20^th century biblical scholar, says the use of “many” in Hebrew is not quite parallel with its use in English. She says the Hebrew rabbim tends to mean “all,” and she cites several Old Testament passages where the meaning carries this inclusive significance (for example, Deut. 7:1; Isa. 2:2; 52:14, 15; 53:11, 12). She further points out that the Hebrew word kol, or “all,” means either “totality” or “sum.” There is no word for “all” as a plural. For this reason, rabbim is used to mean “the great multitude,” or “all.” So, in Daniel 12:2, the emphasis is not upon many as opposed to all, but rather notes the vast numbers involved.

This understanding of “many” fits the teaching of Jesus, who makes it clear that all people are resurrected and judged one day (Matt. 25:46; John 5:28-29). 

Although Daniel 12:2 is the most explicit Old Testament reference to our future resurrection, other passages from the Hebrew Scriptures teach this truth as well. For example, Job declares, “Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet I will see God in my flesh” (Job 19:26). King David prays, “But I will see your face in righteousness; when I awake, I will be satisfied with your presence” (Ps. 17:15). And Isaiah prophesies, “Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For you will be covered with the morning dew, and the earth will bring out the departed spirits” (Isa. 26:19). 

As Leon Wood notes in his commentary on Daniel, “There probably was no time when the faith of God’s people did not include belief in immortality and resurrection.” 

The phrase “dust of the earth” also reminds us of Genesis 2:7, in which God creates Adam from the ground and breathes life into him. When Adam falls after rebelling against the Lord, he returns, in physical death, to the dust from which he was formed. In pronouncing the curse, the Lord tells Adam, “For you are dust, and you will return to dust” (Gen. 3:19).

With all these Old and New Testament passages in mind, should we conclude that Daniel is referring to a final resurrection that involves every person who has died? Or is he foretelling a partial resurrection, involving only some people? We might read Daniel’s words and conclude that they refer to a future general resurrection, in which all people are resurrected, and then judged, simultaneously. This is possible, and those who hold amillennial and post-millennial views embrace this interpretation. 

However, Old Testament prophecies sometimes compress their perspectives of future events, so that fulfillment plays out over time. A good example of this is the messianic prophecy of Isaiah 61, which Jesus reads in the synagogue at Nazareth.

While reading Isaiah’s description of Messiah’s ministry to “preach good news to the poor … proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,” Jesus stops in mid-sentence rather than continue with, “and the day of our God’s vengeance” (Isa. 61:1-2; Luke 4:18-19).

Instead, Jesus rolls up the scroll and says, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled” (Luke 4:21). Here, Jesus affirms his first campaign to earth as the Suffering Servant. His ministry of vengeance is reserved for another time, when he returns in a blood-stained robe, with a metaphorical sword protruding from his mouth – the conquering King of kings (Rev. 19:11-16). At least two thousand years separate the complete fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy regarding Messiah’s two-part mission to earth.

In like manner, Daniel’s vision may portend two or more resurrections, separated by many years, until all are risen from the grave and stand before Jesus as judge. This view harmonizes with pretribulationalism, which holds that many believers are resurrected prior to a time of tribulation on earth, while other believers are resurrected afterward, and the wicked are raised and judged last of all. This view also agrees with historic premillennialism, in which the church is resurrected after the tribulation but before the thousand-year reign of Christ known as the millennium, while others are raised later.

It’s important to note that all these interpretations of future resurrection and judgment – pre-, post-, and amillennialism – agree that every person is raised from the dead to stand before Christ in final judgment. Proponents of these views differ primarily with respect to whether the millennium should be understood literally or figuratively, and the order of resurrection.⁹

In any case, the resurrected ones are those who “sleep in the dust of the earth” (Dan. 12:2). The word “sleep” is a figure of speech used often in Scripture to designate physical death. For example, Jesus tells his disciples he’s on his way to Bethany to awaken his friend, Lazarus, who has “fallen asleep.” The disciples think Lazarus is merely resting, but Jesus tells them plainly, “Lazarus has died” (John 11:11-14).

Luke describes Stephen’s death by stoning as falling asleep (Acts 7:60). And in his teaching on future resurrection and glorification, Paul assures Christians, “We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51; see also 1 Thess. 4:13-18).

Daniel lends no credence to the theories that persons who die either are annihilated or experience “soul sleep.” The reason Daniel uses “sleep” here as a metaphor for physical death is that sleep is a temporary state from which people normally awake. This prepares the reader for the idea of resurrection, which, like sleep, affects only the physical body.

A fully developed biblical doctrine of resurrection features at least six elements: (1) it is individual, not national; (2) it is material, not spiritual; (3) it is universal, not isolated; (4) it takes place outside the netherworld; (5) it leads to permanent immortality; and (6) it involves distinctions between the righteous and the wicked. 

So, Daniel sees that people are resurrected one day. But what then?

Next: Some to eternal life, and some to disgrace and eternal contempt