Question and Answer 16

Some have said that the Kingdom is only for those men who have served as ministers now and that women and members do not have any part of it until the second resurrection. Could this be true?

The Sadducees came to Yahshua in Luke 20 and asked Him whose husband a woman would be if she remarried seven times with seven brothers after each had died. He answered in verse 35: "They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of Elohim, being the children of the resurrection."

His answer tells us these truths: He raised the point of marriage, which occurs only between a man and woman. The woman (any righteous woman) was therefore included in the first resurrection. This is clearly the first resurrection because those in it will not die any more, while those in the second resurrection, which is a resurrection to physical life, can be killed in the lake of fire if they prove unworthy, Revelation 20:15. Indeed, 1Thessalonians 4:16-17 makes no distinction between sexes in the first resurrection.

We further read in Galatians 3:28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Messiah Yahshua." If righteous women are considered one in Messiah along with righteous men — and in fact those of any race who have been called — how can any one of them be excluded from the first resurrection?