The Coming of the Lord

¹³ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died,^[a] so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

² Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth^[a] shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.^(A)

¹⁰ who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.^(A)

¹⁵ For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died.^[a]

¹⁸ Then those also who have died^[a] in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

¹² remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.^(A)

⁴ and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died,^[a] all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!”^(A)

⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.^[a]

⁶⁰ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.^[a](A)

¹¹ Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’^(A)