Will There Be Two Bodily Resurrections Separated By A Thousand Years?
No.
Advocates of the doctrine of premillennialism cite this passage (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18) as evidence for their theory of two literal bodily resurrections of the dead where the dead in Christ rise first, followed by a literal thousand years, in which the wicked will then be raised bodily from the dead.
With an examination of this passage closely, this erroneous view vanishes from sight. The two epistles to the Christians in Thessalonica were for the purpose of correcting a view in the church that only the righteous living would be allowed to participate in the blessings and benefits of the second coming of Jesus. The Christians thought that their brethren who had died in the Lord before the second coming would be left out of the blessings and benefits. The apostle writes to show that the righteous dead in Christ will be resurrected before the righteous living are caught up so that they both together would meet the Lord in the air. They were to comfort one another with these words henceforth being assured that their dead would not be excluded from the blessings and benefits attending the Lord's return.
Inasmuch as the wicked will not be included in the "catching up," no mention is made of them in this passage. They will, however, rise at the same time the righteous dead do because Jesus stated on the day of judgment: "Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth-those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation" (John 5:28-29).
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