The First Resurrection

A general resurrection of the dead is promised repeatedly in the Old Testament, with the fates afterward only being specified as eternal life for the righteous and being the objects of contempt for the wicked (Daniel 12:2).  Job and David speak of this.  The former says that his physical form will be reinstated after death at an indeterminate time for him to experience conscious existence confined to his body yet again (Job 14:11-15, 19:25-27), saying that he will see God in his own flesh and live again, remembered by his creator.  Until then, Job expected to either not exist whatsoever as a mind or to exist in an unconscious state, which he longed for as an escape from his many troubles (Job 3:1-19).  The latter speaks of how he will eventually be rescued from Sheol, the grave, rather than be eternally abandoned in the coming unconsciousness (Psalm 6:5 and 16:10 together clarify this).

Though he raised a handful of people from the dead ahead of this grand, eschatological resurrection, Jesus is of course rightfully the most renowned out of all those who speak of or receive resurrection in the Bible.  His own resurrection (John 20) is a foretaste of what resurrection will be like for all those who submit to Yahweh and Christ according to Paul (1 Corinthians 15:20-26).  Jesus was resurrected, and Christians will follow.  Paul elsewhere describes how the dead who are "asleep" in Christ will be restored to both consciousness and bodily life--at the coming of God, there will be a last trumpet (1 Corinthians 15:51-55, 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18), and those who are dead in Christ will be restored from the unconsciousness of Sheol (Ecclesiastes 9:5-10, Psalm 88:10-12) to their eternal life.  Twice, the New Testament mentions a trumpet that marks this resurrection, and Paul adds in 1 Thessalonians 4 that this occurs at the coming of God, which coincides with the Second Coming of Christ (Yahweh and Jesus are very blatantly not the same metaphysical beings in Christian theology, and if they were, the Bible would be teaching logically impossible things about them!).

The aforementioned passages from Paul actually do not specify if the return of Jesus is at this same point, but Revelation 20 does when it talks of Jesus ruling with Christians after his descent from heaven to defeat the beast (Revelation 19:11-21).  "Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection.  The second death has no power over them," the text states in verse six.  If this resurrection for the righteous or redeemed only includes those who were beheaded by the beast or his supporters for not worshipping him or taking his mark, then the recipients would still be blessed because they get the privilege of reigning with Jesus for a thousand years (20:5).  If it is a resurrection for all of the righteous or saved across all of history, and Paul's resurrection could not happen earlier or else this would not be the first resurrection, then the recipients are blessed because all of them get paradise, or something closer to Edenic bliss, for a millennium and then eternity in New Jerusalem.  They do not in any case have to fear the extinction of consciousness and bodily life in hell that awaits the wicked and unrepentant (Revelation 20:15).

Again, since this is the first resurrection, there could not have been a prior resurrection of the righteous at the last trumpet, meaning Revelation 20:4-6 would very likely refer to the same resurrection as Paul.  It is only after the thousand years have passed that Revelation says the resurrection of the remaining dead takes place (Revelation 20:5, 11-13).  Job does say the heavens would be no more at his resurrection (Job 14:11-12), which somewhat parallels how John says "Earth and sky fled" from God's presence at the next resurrection (Revelation 20:11).  For these dead, or at least many of them, there is a resurrection to judgment, and they are thrown into hell with their consciousness reinstated and their bodies returned to life (Revelation 20:13-15, Matthew 18:8).

Theirs is the second death, which is the truest form of death: they are again reduced to unconsciousness like before, but if the unconsciousness between death and the resurrection is one of a soul that exists and sleeps dreamlessly, then this is not their fate all over.  They perish, totally and permanently dying on both the level of mind and body (Ezekiel 18:4, Matthew 10:28).  The first resurrection is the revival to eternal life, those without it perishing once and for all as God abandons them to nonexistence for their sins and lack of repentance (John 3:16).  This is the second death that John had already said the recipients of the first resurrection are exempt from.  When the final opponent of God is killed in hell, then the last enemy, death, is finally destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26).  Death itself is no more when there is no one left to die.