The dead unrighteous souls, like the righteous, were disembodied spirits after their death. They were never promised resurrection to life, nor a glorified body. They were consigned to a state of misery and separation from the face of God. While there is evidence that they will be resurrected, with what body is not so clear. God has prepared bodies that are conducive to their environment. He did for Adam and Eve and Jesus Christ as he does those in the heavenly realm. That he may do so for this class is not so difficult to accept. However, it is possible that those resurrected to damnation (John 5:28-29) will not receive anything from the Lord, including a body. After all, receiving a body may give the appearance of a reward for disembodied spirits. Again, a body could be prepared for the purpose in which it was given but this would make sense only if we viewed this condition to be an eternal infliction of pain upon their bodies. Otherwise, we see no real purpose for being given a body.
According to Jesus, some of the dead would come forth unto the resurrection of damnation (John 5:28-29). This accords with the promise of John, the Immerser. He had promised that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit (first) and with fire (second, John 3:11). The fire does not refer to the Holy Spirit’s coming on the day of Pentecost in which they saw “cloven tongues like as of fire.” The baptism of fire is not a welcomed event for those experiencing it. It is a “resurrection of damnation.” The rich man of Luke 16 lifted up his eyes in torment, confessing that he was in “anguish in these flames.” This is where all chaff is cast.
Another mystery regards the nature of resurrected bodies that will be given. God has given all manner of bodies, whether they be heavenly or earthly (1 Cor. 15:40). The bodies that inhabit planet earth are best suited to the environment in which they were designed to live but in the resurrection of the righteous, the saints are promised a “glorified body” (Phil. 3:21). What is buried is not what will be raised (1 Cor. 15:37, 42-29). However, a new body is never promised the unrighteous. Accordingly, we can expect that they will be cast away from the presence of the Lord. It is difficult to go beyond this with any certainty.
However, now that he has bound Satan, the strong man, and taken from him the keys of death, Satan could no longer keep those consigned souls from being raised at His coming. As a side note to this marvelous message of hope, it is not so remarkable that Peter refers to Jesus preaching to the spirits in prison because that is where He went after His death. Peter writes,
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah (1 Peter 3:18-20). NASB
To imagine that the spirits who once lived in Noah’s day are given a second chance to repent from the preaching of Jesus is farfetched. No other supporting Scripture exists that provides a second chance after death (cf. Heb. 9:27). The translators of the New American Standard have added the word “now” to the “spirits in prison to give the sense of Jesus preaching to these people, who are now spirits in hades, during their lifetime on earth in Noah’s day. In other words, Christ came in the spirit through Noah, a “preacher of righteousness” (1 Peter 2:5), to those who were living on the earth in his day to warn and preach to them to repent. This view is not shared by this author as it does not flow from the grammar of the text. Of that day, Peter describes it as the first “heavens and earth” (2 Peter 3) in the sense of the first world order or age (“ancient world”, 1 Peter 2:5). The Jewish world was about to end at the time of Peter’s writing. Peter refers to it as “the heavens that now are.” The first refers to Noah’s time described as the “ancient world” (1 Peter 2:5) and the end of that age was marked by a time of warning and preaching just like Peter’s Day. Peter is making a connection between the first two world orders or ages. During the last days of the Jewish age at the time of Peter’s writing, all who were in the graves from Abel to the time of Christ’s coming were going to come forth. The threshing floor was going to be purged clean. Since Jesus went there after His death, it is reasonable that Christ would communicate to the Spirits in prison. What proclamation could he possibly give the dead of that era? It may be that they were told that they would soon be freed from death’s bondage at His return? This proclamation is not necessarily “good news” as we might not expect anyone in Noah’s day, except the eight who were in the Ark, to be raised “unto the resurrection of life” (John 5:27-28). Yet, there were many generations prior to the flood that would have had some righteous souls. For them, the resurrection was wonderful news. The proclamation of God’s righteous judgment that is unto life or condemnation corresponds to each individual’s acceptance or rejection of truth.
To summarize, we have found in 1 Corinthians 12-14 that the result of those possessed with gifts was the confirmation that the promise of the Holy Spirit would continue until the end (not the end of time, but the completion of the age). As long as men and women had spiritual gifts, the end may be near but not completed. They would possess the gifts until Christ appeared. At that time of completion, the Holy Spirit would no longer be present to work wonders. The end or purpose for his coming would have been accomplished.