But pause, now, and consider the matter. If the dead are really not dead, but quite alive in another sphere, why would they need to be resurrected? If the dead soul has been consigned to a “hot hell” forever, how could the person be resurrected? Yet the Bible says that both “the righteous and the unrighteous” will be resurrected. (Acts 24:15) And if the dead soul has gone to heaven, there would be less reason for restoring it in the resurrection. One who is in heaven would surely want to stay there!

“O that in Sheol [Hebrew for “the grave”] you would conceal me, that you would keep me secret until your anger turns back, that you would set a time limit for me and remember me! If an able-bodied man dies can he live again? All the days of my compulsory service I shall wait, until my relief comes. You will call, and I myself shall answer you.”​—Job 14:13-15.

Those words of Job are in full agreement with the prophecy uttered by Christ Jesus, namely: “The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear [my] voice and come out.” (John 5:28, 29) All the human dead whom God through Christ mercifully raises to life on earth again, just as Lazarus was raised to life, will have no recollection of their sleep in death, whether its duration was four days or four thousand years. (John 11:11-17, 43, 44) Those resurrected ones, however, will come back to life under an entirely different state of affairs.

THE DEAD RETURN TO LIFE​—IN PARADISE!

Christ’s thousand-year reign will then have commenced, he having crushed all enemies of peace and righteousness. Under his heavenly government marvelous things will be accomplished on earth. For example, earth is to be transformed into a Paradise, a place of beauty, peace and fruitfulness. All the debris resulting from the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” will be cleared away. The soil, with God’s blessing, will become productive. Its fruitage will help mankind to grow to perfect health.​—Rev. 16:14; 20:4; 21:1-4; 1 Cor. 15:25.

Now perhaps you can understand why Jesus answered the way he did when an evildoer being executed alongside him requested: “Jesus, remember me when you get into your kingdom.” Note that Jesus did not promise him that he would be in the heavenly kingdom or a part of it​—a privilege accorded only to a few select ones from among humankind. No, but Jesus promised that evildoer that he would be in Paradise. He said nothing whatever about a “hot hell” or purgatory. His promise is in full accord with the fact that even unrighteous persons will be resurrected from the grave and offered the opportunity, under paradisaic conditions, to prove their worthiness of everlasting life.​—Luke 23:39-43; 12:32; Acts 24:15.

Is not that a wonderful expectation? Imagine your beloved dead restored to life on earth under those grand conditions! A whole new future thus opens up for vast multitudes who have gone into the sleep of death. That there will be a vast crowd of unrighteous ones, as well as righteous ones, resurrected from the grave is also borne out by the words at Revelation 20:13: “And the sea gave up those dead in it, and death and Hades [Greek for “the grave”] gave up those dead in them, and they were judged individually according to their deeds.”