Supplement to Chapter 10:

Questions About the Resurrection

There are many questions about how the dead will be brought back. The Bible does not answer most of them; we will just have to be there to see. Here we will comment on a few, and give answers based more on reason and principles rather than clear scripture. We will not complain at all if it turns out to be somewhat different.

In Paul's time, some doubted there would even be a resurrection. (1 Cor 15:12) He pointed out that Christ was raised up; surely that proves others would be also. Then they asked, thinking this would prove Paul wrong, (vs 35) “How are the dead to be raised up? Yes, with what sort of body are they coming?” His answer focused primarily on those chosen to be raised up to the spirit realm, not to the new earth, but part of it applies to them also: “God gives it a body just as it has pleased him... So it is with the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised up in incorruption.” How does this apply to the resurrection to the earth?

Most who have died have no remains. Their body is long gone. In the new earth, God will give them a new body, made from the dust just as he made the first man Adam. And just as Adam was not created "corrupt," that is, headed inexorably to deterioration and death, those raised will not be made "corrupt," but in "incorruption." Simply put, they will be healthy, youthful in body, clear of mind, and no longer growing old. Some believe that "incorruption" means being godlike, self-sustaining, needing nothing external to keep them alive, unable to die. They think this because that is their definition of "immortal," which Paul parallels with incorruption in the context. But as mentioned earlier, and more later in chapter 14, "immortal" just means "not mortal." And "mortal" does not mean merely able to die, it means dying, subject to death. When God raises the dead, whether to heaven or to earth, he does not raise them condemned to die again. That is past, they will then be aimed for eternal life, growing stronger, not weaker. Although it will be possible for these on the earth to fail again and earn condemnation anew, the point is, they are not raised failing.

So God will not recreate defects. Even if a person had been deformed their whole life, they will not be raised up deformed. The one limitation all will retain from their previous life will be their memories, attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge, including ignorant and false ideas. They will not have an reformed personality; they will recognise themselves, because they will truly be who they were. But they will no longer have the burden of the broken body they had before. If they had had traumatic stress due to horrible experiences, or a mental illness or defect, that will be gone. They will still remember their past life—all of it—but the emotional burden will no longer afflict them; it will feel as if it were long ago, almost as if it were to another person.

Some ask, "Will we recognise each other?" Well, although we will look younger and healthy from the first day of returning from the dead, we will still look like ourselves. So yes, there may be a brief hesitation, a "I can't believe it, you actually look good!" moment, but that won't last long. We'll get used to looking great. You think?

Because Jehovah is a 'God of order,' (1 Cor 14:33) we can reasonably assume that the resurrection will proceed in an orderly manner; hundreds of millions of the dead will not come bursting up out of the ground on a single day. "Judgment Day" is a millennium; we do not know how long it will take to get all the dead back, but we could apply a little math and a few assumptions to make an approximate guess.

Who Will Come Back First?

First assumption: God will raise up the "righteous" before the "unrighteous." They were promised it, they were expecting it, they were ready for it. They will wake up eager to get to work. In contrast, most of the unrighteous will be very surprised at being in a new world, and will have much to learn before they can fit in. The righteous ones, both those who survived through the end and those raised afterward, will be ready for their arrival.

How many righteous have there been since Abel? Only God knows, but it was certainly a small number compared to all that have ever lived. The Bible names only very few before Israel's exodus from Egypt, and it seems most of those who left Egypt did not do so well as to faithfulness. The Israelites' failings over the following centuries makes us wonder if only a minority of them, despite being God's chosen people, ended their lives approved by God. What was that nation's total population from the exodus to the time of Christ? Not hundreds of millions, likely at most a few tens of millions. Outside of Israel, few if any would be counted as "righteous," no matter how decent and conscientious they were, because they did not know Jehovah; they worshiped false gods and lived without his instruction. Then from Christ's time forward, the selection of the "144,000" for the heavenly resurrection proceeded. Did every Christian receive that anointing, or was God selecting from among them? Scripture seems to imply, by not saying otherwise, that all Christians from that period were chosen for heaven, not the earth. If that is so, that limits the number of "righteous" from the first century to the 20th century to a mere 144,000 (if that number is literal), and not one person from that entire period will come back as a righteous one to the earth. We will see if that is so, when the earthly resurrection begins.

Now during the last days, by far the majority of those responding to the good news have learned to anticipate living in the new earth. Most of these are still alive, and hope to get there without being raised from the dead. How many of this group have died, so that they will need to be resurrected? Less than one million, if our count over the past century is correct*. So we can conclude, roughly, that all the "righteous" that will be raised in the new earth may be less than 30 million, maybe less than 20 million, and most of those will be Israelites.

A second assumption: people will be brought back reasonably close to where they lived before, surely not on the other side of the planet. It would be a kindness to bring them back to land they would recognise, other than the changes wrought by the passing of centuries. So faithful Jews will return to that part of the world; in fact, all the faithful ones prior to Christ will return to the middle east area. That means not many at all, comparatively, will be raised up elsewhere.

How long would it take to raise so few? Not long. The primary limitation would be ready housing. If Armageddon leaves many houses empty but intact, that won't be a problem. The rate of population growth in today's world is between 1 and 2% per year. We might estimate the number of survivors of Armageddon to be between 20 and 100 million; for this speculative discussion, let us just use 50 million, and assume that a manageable population growth by resurrection (new births excluded) to be about 5% per year (it could easily be 20% or more, but we are just calculating to see what comes out.) Plugging those numbers into the formula for growth (see this calculator), from 50 million at 5% per year, we reach 81 million in 10 years, an increase of 31 million, close to our estimate of all the righteous that have ever lived. In other words, that stage of the resurrection could be complete in a mere decade. (At 20% growth, it's less than 3 years.)

Obviously the starting number has a major influence on the time; for example, if only 10 million survive the end, reaching 40 million (30 million raised) would take about 30 years at that 5% rate (at 10%, about 15 years.) None of this is prediction, just an attempt to get a ballpark idea.

The unrighteous group, however, will take much longer, both because the rate may be less (more work involved integrating them into the new world) and the numbers thousands of times greater. Some have estimated that all the people that have ever lived has been about 20 billion*, of which 8 billion are alive now, so 12 billion are dead. If every last one of them were resurrected, which is not likely, at a 3% rate of growth it could be done in 170 years, assuming a starting base of 80 million righteous. But the growth rate is contingent on the living population being prepared to accommodate and teach the new arrivals. Using the lowest likely numbers, a 1.5% rate and a starting population of 30 million, we reach 12 billion in 400 years. Remember, we assume no one is dying, so there is no attrition. In any case, it seems that the resurrection will be finished within the first half of the millennium. That leaves more than 500 years for everyone to prepare for the test at the end. If you fail that, you ain't studying.

A third assumption: people will be raised up near people they knew, rather than coming back amid strangers. This would apply within the righteous group, but even more so to the unrighteous. So when the unrighteous begin to return, first may be those who were related to or familiar to the righteous ones. Then their relatives and friends, then theirs, and so on, sweeping back through history, each new resurrectee being welcomed back by familiar (albeit young-looking) faces.

Will All the Dead be Raised?

We have always understood that everyone who dies in the coming destruction of this world is forever gone. And it makes sense that if God himself destroys you, he has no intention of giving you life again. But the coming end has two phases: a "great tribulation," which while terrible, is not directly from God, but is man against man. God's people get through it by his protection, and they will be the nucleus of the new world. That tribulation climaxes with the "war of the great day of God Almighty," or Armageddon (see chapter 8 of this book.) Those who die attacking God's people will never be seen again. We do not know how many will die in the tribulation before Armageddon, or whether God will account any of them as ignorant in their sins and give them a better opportunity to learn in the new world. We shall see. We do know that Jehovah leans toward mercy if there is any justification for it at all. —see Jeremiah 17:10, 2 Peter 3:9 and Luke 13:23-28.

This applies also to times in the past when God destroyed wicked men. Some were warned, others not so much. For example, the archaeological evidence is strong that people had migrated almost planetwide before the Flood. Noah could not have preached to all of them, so some might never have heard of the coming judgment at all, and others would have only heard through scoffers and nay-sayers. Is that a fair warning? No, but it has to be said, some wickedness is so extreme that the lack of a verbal warning is not an injustice. On the other hand, it would be odd if every last person, including abused women, children, and beaten-down slaves, were all so wicked that they could fairly be destroyed forever without any warning. And not everyone who did hear may have been free to get into the ark even if they had desperately wanted to.

The Bible sometimes uses absolute language, as if no exceptions were possible, when it is clear that there are exceptions. For example, Revelation 13:8 says "all those who dwell on the earth will worship" the wild beast, and have its "mark." Only in the context do we see that not really everyone does that; a faithful few do not. Those who are fervently trusting liars are worshipping the beast. Blind patriots so proud of their country that they ignore, excuse and defend its failings and misdeeds, have that fatal mark. But we also see many people disgusted and angry at the corruption and cruelty of the political system. They are not "worshipping" it at all, but are confused and do not know who or what to trust. Those who earnestly sigh and sorrow over all the evil they see in the world are getting a different mark. Ezekiel 9 says that God 'marks,' or takes note of, such ones, and will show them mercy. Until recently we believed that we were marking them by visiting them personally, and the mark consisted of their complete and thorough response to our visit. They were not marked until they were active baptized Christians. Ezekiel 9 does not describe the mark that way, and we now realize that the marking agents are Jesus and his angels; only they know for sure who will live or die.

So allow room in your heart to believe that God judges individually, as he himself repeatedly says he does, and not assume he sweeps whole populations away as if everyone is alike. We just might see some of those people again. But if not, God is righteous in all his judgments, and we will accept whatever he decides. —see Ezekiel 18:20-30.

Further on God's mercy, Matthew 25:31-46 gives us a clue how Jesus will decide who makes it through into the new world. It begins, “When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will put the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left.” The goats don't make it, but the sheep are blessed and “inherit the kingdom.” Why do the sheep pass? He says to them: “I became hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you received me hospitably; naked and you clothed me. I fell sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you visited me.” They were kind and helpful to Jesus. Their response is interesting: “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and receive you hospitably, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” They appear to be unaware they had been doing anything that merited such a blessing. Jesus explains: “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

Most people think they will be put on the "sheep" side if they are helpful to anyone who is needy, and indeed God does notice such kindness. But Jesus said that the sheep helped his brothers—in scripture, these are first those anointed to serve as kings with him, and secondarily, anyone closely associated with them. The "goats" are those who see the hardships true Christians experience, and 'go by on the other side of the road.' (Luke 10:29-37) They may even be the cause of the hardship. But just choosing not to give them relief is sufficient to condemn them.

The sheep, then, are those who have the courage to assist Christ's "brothers" in the face of their unpopularity in the world. But why did Jesus say that the sheep would say they did not know who they were helping? All who are dedicated Christians now near the end are fully aware whose side they are on, so they would never ask that question. Was this just a rhetorical device, to illustrate their humility? Or could it mean that the number allowed through into the new world will be somewhat greater than we presently know? Does Matthew 10:40-42 connect? Will we be surprised at who survives? We shall see.

Will There Be Room?

“Ob-jec-tion!” you may say. “Where will all these people live? We have 8 billion here now and we are wrecking the environment with overpopulation. The planet can't hold that many and have wild places with animals! Will we live cheek-to-jowl with the elephants?” Actually, it's the economic system that is wrecking the environment. Do things God's way, and you would not believe how much better it can be. And look at an earth globe: notice how vast the areas are that are now uninhabited or have extremely low population density. The Sahara, the Sinai, Saudi Arabia, the Tibetan plateau, Siberia, most of Canada, the Amazon, central Australia. And that's just naming the bigger areas. Science dreamers dream of terraforming Mars so we can move there. What about terraforming Terra so we can live here? Which sounds easier to you?

On this we need not dream; God has explicitly promised it: At Isaiah 35:1, 2 we read, “The wilderness and the parched land will exult, and the desert plain will be joyful and blossom as the saffron. Without fail it will blossom; it will rejoice and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and of Sharon. They will see the glory of Jehovah, the splendor of our God.” Look back at chapter 9 of this book for a little more.

It is true, however, that the planet is only so big. So eventually population growth will have to be limited, not as it is today, by continual death, but by ending reproduction. The only other option is that favorite of science fiction novels, "onward and outward." Once the millenium has done its work and mankind is fully recovered and established here, maybe the sky will no longer be the limit. Would you like to live long enough to find out?

Will They Forever Be Single?

A much knottier question about the resurrection is indeed in the Bible: at Matthew 22:23-30, adherents of a Jewish sect called the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, asked this: “Suppose a woman goes through seven husbands, each one dying an untimely death. Which one gets to be her husband in the resurrection?” I'm surprised Jesus didn't say, “What makes you think any of them would want her? What caused all these men to die after marrying her? At the very least, I would question her cooking.” But then, I'm not Jesus. He gave a more measured answer: “You know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God; for in the resurrection neither do men marry nor are women given in marriage, but they are as angels in heaven.” Whatever could he have meant by that?

As far as we know, angels have no gender, do not have marriage relationships and do not bear children.* And, those who are raised up to live in heaven will be "like the angels" in the same way. Well and good, easy to accept. But for a long time we assumed that Jesus was talking about the resurrection to the new earth, not to heaven. Why did we think that? Because his audience knew nothing of the heavenly calling, and their question was about the resurrection they knew about, to the earth. But that raises more questions than it answers. Will those raised to the earth be genderless, with no interest in marriage? If one mate lives through the end, longing to see his dear wife again, will God say, "Too bad, she doesn't want you anymore"? If a family died together and the children return with the parents, do they raise the kids as a family, and just not call it a marriage? And counter questions: if a man had two wives over a long life, with children by both, but both wives and children died young, what will their relationships be when they come back? We could go on and on. By not answering now, God is in effect saying, “Trust me. Wait and see, you will be happy with what I do.” It is not wrong to wonder, but we should not be like those Sadducees and think God cannot handle it. (They were sad, you see, because they thought death ended it all.)

A fourth assumption: those raised up will be intact, complete humans, not modified genderless creatures. Those natural desires are part of who we are, and also have been a major test of our self-control in obedience to God, who has always told us to limit them to a marriage relationship. If people are raised without any interest in having a mate, they would have a distinct advantage over those who survived the end with that desire. It would create two classes of people in the new world, unless God removes the desire from us all. As noted above, that may eventually be true, but that final test at millennium's end should involve mankind as it was originally tested. Adam chose Eve over God for a reason, and it was not to be like God.

Is there any way that Jesus' words could apply to the earthly resurrection? Yes, this way: none of those husbands would have any claim to the woman. Death ends the present marriage bond, as 1 Corinthians 7:39 says: “A wife is bound as long as her husband is alive. But if her husband should fall asleep in death, she is free to be married to whomever she wants, only in the Lord.” So Jesus could have been saying, “Those marriages you are so worried about? Forget them, all will start fresh in the new world.” So if a couple raised up want to be reunited, they surely CAN be, but they would not be obligated to do so. We may be adding to it if we assume he meant “marriage will not even exist then.”

Luke's account of this conversation (Luke 20:34-36) differs in an interesting way: Luke quotes Jesus as saying “In fact, neither can they die anymore, for they are like the angels.” But angels CAN die, just not naturally. God will destroy "the Devil and his angels" with "everlasting fire." (Matthew 25:41) But, angels are never referred to as "mortal" in scripture, for a simple reason: they are not subject to death. They are able to die, but that alone does not make them mortal. In the same way, those raised up in the new earth, even though they are not perfected yet, are no longer under condemnation. So when Jesus said "neither can they die anymore," he would have been alluding to their new standing before God: aimed for life, not death.

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1 Cor 15:12, 35-42
12 Now if it is being preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how is it that some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

35-42 Nevertheless, someone will say: How are the dead to be raised up? Yes, with what sort of body are they coming? You unreasonable person! What you sow is not made alive unless first it dies. And as for what you sow, you sow, not the body that will develop, but just a bare grain, whether of wheat or of some other kind of seed; 38 but God gives it a body just as it has pleased him, and gives to each of the seeds its own body. Not all flesh is the same flesh, but there is one of mankind, there is another flesh of cattle, another flesh of birds, and another of fish. And there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; but the glory of the heavenly bodies is one sort, and that of the earthly bodies is a different sort. The glory of the sun is one sort, and the glory of the moon is another, and the glory of the stars is another; in fact, one star differs from another star in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised up in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised up in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised up in power.

Jeremiah 17:10
I, Jehovah, am searching the heart, examining the innermost thoughts, to give to each one according to his ways, according to the fruitage of his works.

Every one of us would be condemned if we were judged by our worst act, but here he says he looks at our intentions, our desire to be honorable, and our general pattern of behavior. Not that those save us, not at all, but they may give him cause to offer us further opportunity to learn and improve.

2 Peter 3:9
Jehovah is not slow concerning his promise, as some people consider slowness, but he is patient with you because he does not desire anyone to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance.

Because Jehovah wants people to repent, he will not be slack about doing everything his loving justice permits to make it so. He certainly would not limit his success to the puny abilities of his human assistants. Nor will he judge by a stopwatch: "You ran your best but you got here a second late, you're dead." He will be praised, not for how many he has to destroy, but for how many he is able to rescue. On the other hand,

Luke 13:23-28
Now a man said to him: “Lord, are those being saved few?” He said to them: “Exert yourselves vigorously to get in through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will seek to get in but will not be able. When the householder gets up and locks the door, you will stand outside knocking at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us.’ But in answer he will say to you: ‘I do not know where you are from.’ Then you will start saying, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our main streets.’ But he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from. Get away from me, all you workers of unrighteousness!’ There is where your weeping and the gnashing of your teeth will be, when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown outside.”

It is possible to be too late. As merciful as Jehovah yearns to be, he cannot have sympathy for those who deliberately waste every fine opportunity they are offered. But he is the judge of who has had enough opportunity, not us. Our assignment is to provide as many opportunities as we can, and leave the rest to him.

Ezekiel 9:1-11
He then called out in my ears with a loud voice, saying: “Summon those who will bring punishment on the city, each one with his weapon for destruction in his hand!” I saw six men coming from the direction of the upper gate that faces north, each with his weapon for smashing in his hand; and there was one man among them clothed in linen, with a secretary's inkhorn at his waist, and they came in and stood beside the copper altar. Then the glory of the God of Israel rose from where it had rested above the cherubs and moved to the threshold of the doorway of the house, and he began calling out to the man who was clothed in linen, at whose waist was the secretary's inkhorn. Jehovah said to him: “Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who are sighing and groaning over all the detestable things that are being done in the city.” And to the others he said in my hearing: “Go through the city after him and strike. Do not let your eye feel sorry, and do not feel any compassion. Old man, young man, virgin, little child, and women you should kill off completely. But do not go near to any man on whom there is the mark. You should start from my sanctuary.” So they started with the elders who were in front of the house. Then he said to them: “Defile the house and fill the courtyards with the slain. Go!” So they went out and struck down people in the city. While they were striking them down, I alone was left, and I fell facedown and cried out: “Alas, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah! Are you going to destroy all the remaining ones of Israel while you pour out your rage on Jerusalem?” So he said to me: “The error of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great. The land is filled with bloodshed, and the city is full of corruption. For they say, ‘Jehovah has left the land, and Jehovah is not seeing.’ But as for me, my eye will not feel sorry; nor will I show compassion. The consequences of their way I will bring down on their own head.” Then I saw the man clothed in linen with the inkhorn at his waist bringing back word, saying: “I have done just as you have commanded me.”

Note that this is judgment on a people who had every reason to know God but chose to turn away from him. Jehovah is more merciful toward those who labor under heavier disadvantage, as shown by his correction of Jonah's judgmental attitude about the Ninevites: “Should I not also feel sorry for Nineveh the great city, in which there are more than 120,000 men who do not even know right from wrong, as well as their many animals?” —Jonah 4:11.

Ezekiel 18:20-30
The soul who sins is the one who will die. A son will bear no guilt because of the error of his father, and a father will bear no guilt because of the error of his son. The righteousness of the righteous one will be accounted to him alone, and the wickedness of the wicked one will be accounted to him alone. Now if someone wicked turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps my statutes and does what is just and righteous, he will surely keep living. He will not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed will be held against him. He will keep living for doing what is righteous. Do I take any pleasure at all in the death of a wicked person? declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. Do I not prefer that he turn away from his ways and keep living? But when someone righteous abandons his righteousness and does what is wrong, doing all the detestable things the wicked do, will he live? None of the righteous acts that he did will be remembered. For his unfaithfulness and the sin he has committed, he will die. But you will say: “The way of Jehovah is unjust.” Please listen, O house of Israel! Is it my way that is unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust? When someone righteous abandons his righteousness and does what is wrong and dies because of it, he will die for his own wrongdoing. And when someone wicked turns away from the wickedness that he has committed and begins to do what is just and righteous, he will preserve his own life. When he realizes and turns away from all the transgressions that he has committed, he will surely keep living. He will not die. But the house of Israel will say: “The way of Jehovah is unjust.” Is it really my ways that are unjust, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust? Therefore, I will judge each one of you according to his ways, O house of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.

Matthew 25:31-46
When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will put the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right: “Come, you who have been blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world. For I became hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you received me hospitably; naked and you clothed me. I fell sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous ones will answer him with the words: “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and receive you hospitably, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” In reply the King will say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Then he will say to those on his left: “Go away from me, you who have been cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. For I became hungry, but you gave me nothing to eat; and I was thirsty, but you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, but you did not receive me hospitably; naked, but you did not clothe me; sick and in prison, but you did not look after me.” Then they too will answer with the words: “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?” Then he will answer them, saying: “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of these least ones, you did not do it to me.” These will depart into everlasting cutting-off, but the righteous ones into everlasting life.

Luke 10:29-37
Wanting to prove himself righteous, the man said to Jesus: “Who really is my neighbor?” In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell victim to robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went off, leaving him half-dead. Now by coincidence a priest was going down on that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the opposite side. But a certain Samaritan traveling the road came upon him, and at seeing him, he was moved with pity. So he approached him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. Then he mounted him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said: ‘Take care of him, and whatever you spend besides this, I will repay you when I return.’ Who of these three seems to you to have made himself neighbor to the man who fell victim to the robbers?” He said: “The one who acted mercifully toward him.” Jesus then said to him: “Go and do the same yourself.”

Matthew 10:40-42
Whoever receives you receives me also, and whoever receives me receives also the One who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will get a prophet's reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will get a righteous man's reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water to drink because he is a disciple, I tell you truly, he will by no means lose his reward.

Matthew 22:23-30
On that day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came and asked him: “Teacher, Moses said: ‘If any man dies without having children, his brother must marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers with us. The first married and died, and having no offspring, he left his wife for his brother. The same thing happened with the second and the third, through all seven. Last of all, the woman died. So in the resurrection, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her as a wife.”
In reply Jesus said to them: “You are mistaken, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God; for in the resurrection neither do men marry nor are women given in marriage, but they are as angels in heaven.”

Luke 20:34-36
Jesus said to them: “The children of this system of things marry and are given in marriage, but those who have been counted worthy of gaining that system of things and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. In fact, neither can they die anymore, for they are like the angels, and they are God's children by being children of the resurrection.”

Matthew 25:41
Then he will say to those on his left: “Go away from me, you who have been cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.”
(see earlier discussion about Gehenna; these angels do not continue alive in horrific torture, but are destroyed.)