THE FIRST RESURRECTION 

God is Almighty God because of his own free will and counsel. In order for God to grant freewill to all of his created beings, he gave them the capacity to choose between obedience and disobedience. God gave freewill to each conscious being so that they could choose Godly love and service or to pursue their own way.

The Plan of Salvation for mankind is the lifetime process of eliminating sin in order to overcome the world and defeat Satan. God made this possible through the empowerment of the Holy Ghost and the application of the Word of God. The reward for these accomplishments is eternal life.

Eternal life is given either in the First or Second Resurrection. After the resurrection of Jesus Christ for those who achieve the status of an overcomer there is no specific time for eternal life to be given. Prior to any other resurrection, God determined the First Resurrection for those who became measurably like Christ during their lifetime. God determined that the first humans to achieve this measurement would be part of a group containing one hundred and forty-four thousand saints.  

Revelation 14:1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. 

God has reserved this group for his son Jesus as his wife, naming them the Bride of Christ. The First Resurrection was only for the Bride of Christ. 

Revelation 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 

There are people who have attained eternal salvation and have been caught up in heaven during the early reign of the Church. This group was also the manchild of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 12:5 KJV And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. 

The manchild is a metaphor for the Bride of Christ. The bride was not a complete manchild or bride of Jesus. Manchild is the term used to describe a human child without gender at the time of the close of the early reign church. The man child designation is a nomenclature for the saints of the Bride and not a gender specification because all in Christ are the same.

Galatians 3:27 KJV For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 

Galatians 3:28 KJV There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 

These saints were the only members of the Bride until the latter reign church came out of the wilderness in our day and age. The First Resurrection has specific fundamental rules that are orderly and absolute. The starting point for the First Resurrection is a dispensational act of God concerning time and chance.  

Ecclesiastes 9:11-12 teaches mankind about the basics of God's plan for salvation and is explained in a counterpoise term for action and reaction.  

Ecclesiastes 9:11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. 

Ecclesiastes 9:12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them. 

This understanding of the scriptures is based on the fact that humans cannot predict their own time of death, for time and chance are inherent to us all. They are caught in whatever dispensation they are born into, and death inevitably falls upon them all. The same way God did not create evil, God also did not create chance or chaos; they are His results. However, he allows chance/chaos to affect godly and ungodly mankind. Chance results from the passage of time. The purpose of allowing chance or chaos would be to eliminate the gainsayer who unfairly and unjustly claims that God has favorites and treats mankind with biases.

God created time and in doing so, he allowed the result or counterpoise of chance to occur. Time and chance are the fields of battle on which creation and mankind are tested. Throughout nature, God uses time to oversee human-initiated events that affect his plan. God uses time to create and ensure his predestined plan for human salvation. God provides people with the opportunity to prove themselves through free-will choice.

Mankind is now 6000 years old and has been through many dispensations under God's authority. God doesn't choose who or when the general populace of mankind is born. He allows the rain to fall on the just and unjust.

Matthew 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 

An exception would be if God needed a specific person to be born for a specific task in God's Plan for Salvation. God predestined certain people such as Jeremiah, John the Baptist and Jesus. However, God does not predestinate any individual to be saved from sin. Salvation is never given. Salvation is earned. The harsh reality of time and chance is...to be in the First Resurrection... a member must be born during the dispensation of Jesus and alive AFTER the resurrection of Jesus Christ. A member must first hear the word of God about Jesus and believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. A member must receive Water and Holy Ghost Baptism. A member must pass through Fire Baptism becoming just and an overcomer BEFORE they lay down their mortal body.

There are no exceptions to the fundamental truths of the First Resurrection and attaining the Bride of Christ. If a disciple fails to become an overcomer, God in his mercy, has provided his disciples with a second chance to redeem themselves by a Second Resurrection.