We are born into this world spiritually ignorant. In the same way that many of you feel that you were trapped by circumstances in this religion by being a "born in" likewise many other people experience the same feelings whether it is a religion or a political system. I think it is our mission in this world to become aware of the falsehoods that we are brought into by birth because it develops our conscience. Many of the things we are taught to do through religious dictates, or culture, customs and traditions, we may eventually find to be conflicting with our "gut feelings" or intuition. When we recognize these conflicts we begin to develop our "spiritual awareness". The choices we make at this point will determine whether we conquer by asserting our true spiritual nature and moral values or whether we acquiesce to the lies and deception of the system we are born into. There is always an allegiance at stake.
The first death is spiritual death and we are all born into it. For those who overcome, the second death has no power. The second death is the physical death. If Jesus literally exemplified this concept through resurrection three days after death, then could it be possible that there are some people on this earth who are hundreds of years old?
Of course, if this were true, I would imagine that these would be "gathered together" as they would really be no part of our world and no part of our societies. Perhaps they have a slight interlude with us occassionally and perhaps this is why the scriptures say that some of us have "entertained angels unaware." Angels are just 'messengers': they are 'heavenly' because they have allegiance to the Creator and the 'heavenly government' of righteousness. Even in the old testament there are scriptures that imply that those who turn from evil and align themselves with doing what is righteous and truthful, that they will have the years restored to them that the cankerworm had eaten. Resurrection could be older than Jesus.