Paul's words "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" ring mysteriously. About what changing speaks the apostle? And how is it connected to death? Taking into consideration the mention of "the last trump", announcing, as it is not difficult to guess, the dreaded Judgment, one can think that it is about this transformation, which awaits each of us in the end of time. Usually the sentence "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" is understood in this sense that the apostle supposed the fast...
Paul's words "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" ring mysteriously. About what changing speaks the apostle? And how is it connected to death? Taking into consideration the mention of "the last trump", announcing, as it is not difficult to guess, the dreaded Judgment, one can think that it is about this transformation, which awaits each of us in the end of time. Usually the sentence "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" is understood in this sense that the apostle supposed the fast return of the Savior in the glory, before which, as thought Paul, could completely live some of his contemporaries. But is it only what wants to say the apostle? And how death is connected to the last Judgment? The simplest answer: on the day of the Judgment, at the sound of the "last trump", the deaths resuscitate, appearing before God with those, who will live in those days. Everything is so; but when thus began the resurrection? Paul himself calls the Savior " the first of the deaths ", meaning that in particular He is the first to be resuscitated, beginning with Himself this process, which will end in the end of time.
And how do people participate in this process? One of the four evangelists, Matthew, mentions that the day of the death on the cross of the Savior, in Judea opened graves, from where came out people resuscitated from death, who saw several of those who lived at that time in the country. Who then resuscitated first? And in what sense Paul calls Jesus "the first of the deaths", that is the first of the resuscitated? Maybe, the problem here is not at all in the chronology? Indeed, the resurrection of the Savior was nothing else, than the visible triumph of the Kingdom over the power of evil and death, over this Sheol, which formerly sooner or later possessed everyone, and possessed irrevocably. Now the spiritual vector of our world has changed: the Sheol stepped back, stepping the Kingdom. And the first testimony of this was the resuscitated on the day of the death on the cross of the Savior.
His own resurrection confirmed: the promised Messiah came, the Kingdom is here, death is overcome, and the definitive triumph of the Kingdom is only a question of time. And what about people? They participate as we see, in the process of becoming of the Kingdom in our world being transformed, but not yet transformed till the end. On such background, the words " we shall not all sleep" can completely relate not only to those, who will be alive in the last days of the existence of the old world, but also to those who joined in some way to the life of the Kingdom throughout its history in our world being transformed.
As we see, everyone, having a relation with the Kingdom, already does not belong any more to death, he does not die, but he cannot also obtain the fullness of the life of the Kingdom until the full moment of its, this Kingdom, triumph. But there are in our world being still transformed just partially only people, not taking at all part in the kingdom. It is quite possible that their fate will be the same, as was the fate of all the people who lived before the coming into the world of the Savior: the sheol which retreated, but not yet totally disappeared, and later, in the last day, resuscitated so that, having appeared before God, they can also say their "yes" or their "no" to Him and the One, Who brought the Kingdom to the world.
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15:51 A mystery - A truth hitherto unknown; and not yet fully known to any of the sons of men. We - Christians. The Apostle considers them all as one, in their succeeding generations. Shall not all die - Suffer a separation of soul and body. But we shall all - Who do not die, be changed - So that this animal body shall become spiritual.
15:52 In a moment - Amazing work of omnipotence! And cannot the same power now change us into saints in a moment? The trumpet shall sound - To awaken all that sleep in the dust of the earth.