Many will rise from the dead and live forever

A selection of verses showing that God’s plan is to raise people from the dead.

The prophet Daniel speaks of a time when the dead will rise from the grave:

Daniel 12 verse 2

2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

The prophet Hosea says that God will raise people from Sheol (the place of the dead):

Hosea 13 verse 14

14 I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. 
I will redeem them from death! 
Death, where are your plagues? 
Sheol, where is your destruction? 
  
“Compassion will be hidden from my eyes. 
 

Martha, one of Jesus' followers, expresses her belief that her dead brother will rise from the dead. Jesus then tells her that it is through belief in him that we can be raised:

John 11 verses 24 - 25

24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. 

The apostle Paul, when he is on trial, makes it clear that he believes in the resurrection of the dead:

Acts 24 verses 14 - 15

14 having hope towards God, which these also themselves look for, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. 15 In this I also practise always having a conscience void of offence towards God and men.

The apostle Paul tells the believers at Philippi that being raised from the dead is the most important thing to him:

Philippians 3 verses 10 - 11

10 that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death, 11 if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Paul tells the believers in Thessalonica that the resurrection will take place at the return of Jesus Christ:

1 Thessalonians 4 verse 16

16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first,