The
American
Wisdom Series
Presents
Pamphlet #5142 KC1Thes7
While
we are down here "walking under the sun" in these flesh tabernacles we
know we are only temporarily absent from the Lord.
We began our last study with the
question "Where are our Christian friends and relatives who have been released
from the bondage of the flesh body?"
The answer is that they are now
absent (Gone!) from their flesh bodies and they have already been raised-up,
i.e. resurrected in their spiritual bodies, and they are alive and well
and present with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is that not the hope of all Christians?
It was certainly the hope of this
same Paul who wrote 1st and 2nd Thessalonians and later wrote to the Corinthians:
2 Cor.
5:6
Therefore we
are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body,
we are absent from the Lord:
[7] (For
we walk by faith, not by sight:)
While we are down here "walking
under the sun" in these flesh tabernacles we know we are only temporarily
absent from the Lord.
We therefore have great confidence
and boldness to teach the truth and labor fearlessly because we know where
we are going when we die!
You see, we know we don't die (cease
to exist) at all!
Only our flesh bodies die and we
then go to be with Him!
[8]
We
are confident, I say, and willing rather to
be absent from the body, and to be present with the
Lord.
What is your hope?
Where would you rather be?
Well, we all look forward to being
with Him and in our spiffy spiritual bodies, but there is work
to
be done here to help our brothers and sisters find their way back to
loving
and obeying their Father, who loves them so much that He gave His only
begotten
Son, Jesus, who was God, Himself, born into a terrestrial body just
like ours, to live with us for a short while, then sacrificing His
flesh and blood life on that Roman cross, shedding His sin free blood
to cover the sins of mankind, to pay the price for their sins if they
will just have a change of
heart and repent, and, by their own free will, invite Him to come live in their heart to cleanse it, which is His desire for all His children.
2 Peter 3:9
"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness;
but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but
that all should come to repentance."
[9]
Wherefore
we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of
him.
Do you think that those who
have gone before us are just sitting on Cloud Nine playing harps?
No, our fellowservants who have
passed on before us have not ceased from serving Him!
They continue to labor day and night
(Rev. 7:15).
Here is one of the former prophets
seen working on the job.
He was sent out of the office to
go call upon the apostle John, who was banished on the Isle of Patmos,
to "show His servants the things which must shortly be done." (Rev. 22:6)
Here is what happened:
Rev.
22:8
And I John saw
these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I
fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these
things.
The word angel simply means
messenger and we are never bow down to, nor worship, angels (see next verse).
We are to only worship God! (See
also Rev. 19:10)
[9] Then
saith he unto me, See
thou do it not: for I
am thy fellowservant, and of
thy brethren the prophets, and of
them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
You can see that our fellowservants
who have returned home to be with the Lord are not "sleeping" at all, are
they?
And remember, Paul already told
the Thessalonians back in chapter 3 that all those saints are coming back
with the Lord Jesus Christ when He returns.
1 Thes.
3:13
To the end he
may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father,
at
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.
So by now you should be able
to answer the question, "Where
are the dead?", especially concerning those
who have "died believing in Jesus Christ"
which is what the expression Paul uses, "the
dead in Christ", means!
Let us now complete the 4th chapter
of 1 Thessalonians beginning in verse 13 where the subject will now be
"where
are the dead?"
Paul doesn't want us to be ignorant
about this!
1 Thes.
4:13
But I would
not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,
that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
Who were these "others" who
had "no hope"?
They were those influenced by the
Sadducees, who were running around telling people that "when you're dead,
you're dead" and that "there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit
(that goeth upward as Eccl. 12:7)".
Acts 23:8
"For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor
spirit: but the Pharisees confess both." They should be called "Saddu-don't-sees".
We Christians on the other hand
DO BELIEVE in the resurrection from the dead for we believe that Christ
was resurrected from His dead body, do we not?
And we already learned in the last
study how the dead are raised up!
Paul completely answered that question:
1 Cor.
15:35
But some man
will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
Remember the two bodies, etc?
We bloom from our flesh bodies into
our spiritual bodies when we die!
Hallelu-Yah!
1 Thes.
4:14
For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep* in Jesus
will God bring with him.
That certainly makes sense.
If we believe that Jesus died and
rose again then we must also believe that our loved ones who have died,
knowing Jesus, rose also (were raised into
their spiritual bodies) to be with Him, and
so they ARE with Him.
What we now know is that when Jesus
comes back He will bring them with Him just like Paul said He would here
in verse 14 and in chapter 3 verse 13.
*sleep = koimao, koy-mah'-o, Greek 2837;
from Greek 2749 (keimai); to put to sleep, i.e. (passive or reflexive)
to slumber; figurative to decease :- (be a-, fall a-, fall on) sleep,
be
dead.
The contrast to "sleeping",
i.e. having died, will be "remaining alive" in the next verse.
So far we have been told TWICE by
Paul that when Jesus returns He will be bringing "all the saints with Him"!
What happens though to those of
us who have not died but are still in the flesh when the 7th Trump sounds?
(Hint: It happens in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye!")
[15]
(KJV) For this we say unto you by the word
of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the
Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
The Greek word "prevent" is
a little vaguely translated in the King James.
Here is Strong's definition:
prevent = phthano,
fthan'-o, Greek 5348; apparently a primary verb; to be beforehand,
i.e. anticipate or precede; by extension to have arrivedat
:- (already) attain, come, prevent.
Those saints who are with the
Lord have already preceded us and attained something we haven't!
Here is how Dr. Moffat translates
it:
[15]
(Moffat) For we tell you, as the Lord has
told us, that we the living, who survive till the Lord comes, are
by no means to take precedence of those who have fallen asleep.
Take Precedence in WHAT?
Precedence in being resurrected
to our spiritual bodies!!
Hello, come in!
The saints who have died are ALREADY
in their spiritual bodies!
They have already PRECEDED us in
the resurrection to their spiritual bodies and Paul has explained twice
that they are coming back with Jesus Christ (obviously in their spiritual
bodies)!
This is so simple!
Note: The subject here IS
NOT "eternal life" and it IS
NOT "escape from tribulation"!
Remember, the Thessalonians were
expecting Christ to return and they were concerned about their deceased
friends and relatives and what would happen to them since they died and
Christ hadn't returned!
Again, the answer is so simple:
When
they died, they were resurrected, i.e. raised into their spiritual bodies,
and went to be present with the Lord.
And when He returns, they are coming
back with Him.
AND, we are now going to discover,
that we are going have a Big Happy Reunion together with them (as
soon as we GET CHANGED at the LAST TRUMP into OUR SPIRITUAL BODIES too!
Let's see how this happens:
[16]
For
the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall
rise first:
Question?
What Trump of God is Paul talking about?
It is the VERY LAST ONE! Remember "eschatao"
in 1 Cor. 15?
The 7th Trump occurs AFTER antichrist appears
at the 6th Trump and has completed his reign on earth as the false Messiah!
Even so, some are not going to quite "get it"
when this event happens (as some any moment rapture theorists do not quite
get it now), so in his next letter to the Thessalonians Paul will "spell
out" in indisputable great detail WHEN this gathering back to Christ occurs
and when it won't!
Question?
When the Lord descends from heaven, where
will the departed saints be who have already
died believing in Him, i.e. the "dead in Christ"?
That is correct!
They are right with Him (following Him on their
white horses (Rev. 19:14).
Well then, what does it mean they shall "rise"
first?
It simply means they will appear in their spiritual
bodies before we are gathered and changed into ours.
Remember they have
preceded us in the
resurrection of the spiritual body!
Now take your Strong's Concordance (if you
don't have one, get one) and check out the Greek word for "rise".
You will find that the word "anistemi" can
be used (literal or figurative, transitive or intransitive) and in this
sense it means "to stand-up" as in "to present".
It is kind of like an announcer
would say:
"At the sound of the 7th
Trump will all those who already have on their spiritual robes please rise,
i.e. stand up!
Now would all those remaining please
put on your spiritual robes and join them as a group!"
So the "dead in Christ", those
who have died believing in the Lord, who are with Him now, will appear,
i.e. stand-up first, when Christ returns, before we are changed and join
together with them!
Here's how Paul puts it:
[17]
Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in
the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the
Lord.
We who are alive in the flesh
and all the saints who are coming with the Lord, are going to gather
together as a group at the 7th Trump, which is what the expression
"caught up together in the clouds" means.
It is a figure of speech and the
expression "in the clouds" has nothing to do with "clouds" any more than
the expression "He got into hot water" has to do with "hot water".
The former means "group" and the
latter means "trouble".
(See Heb. 12:1 for the same figurative
usage of "clouds" where Paul says we are going to gather in the clouds
and run a foot race.)
Hebrews 12:1
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run
with patience the race that is set before us,
Well, if the saints are in their
spiritual bodies and we are still in our flesh bodies, how shall we be
gathered together?
It is the "mystery" of 1 Cor. 15
which we studied in our last lesson.
"In a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye", at this same last trump we shall
be changed into our "breath of life" bodies, our "air" bodies, which are
our spiritual bodies as we shall see after Christ explains this same event
in Matthew 24:29-31.
We pick it up just after He has
finished describing the great tribulation of Satan, the false-christ:
Matthew
24:29
Immediately
after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the
moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and
the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
[30]
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then
shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of
man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Does it say that when Christ
returns (which we know is at the last trump) that only the elect are going
to see Him?
No, it does not!
When Jesus Christ returns with
all the saints (remember?) "all the tribes
of the earth" shall see the Son of man coming!
There is NO secret rapture!
You can either believe some theory
of man that says only "the church" sees Him first or you can believe
the words of Jesus Christ.
The choice is yours!
Because at this point the saints
"who
are alive and remain" haven't even been gathered!
Christ and the saints appear
first, THEN we are gathered to them!
[31]
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from
one end of heaven to the other.
Paul says exactly the same
thing in 1 Thes. 4:17, "Then we who are alive
and remain shall be caught-up (gathered)
together
with them in the clouds (in a group, i.e.
figuratively in clouds), to meet the Lord
in the "air" (spiritual body, in the spiritual
dimension), and so shall we ever be with the
Lord (in our spiffy spiritual bodies)."
The Greek word for "air"
used here is "aer".
It is used only several times in
the New Testament and you can look it up for yourself (which you should
do) and check out how it is used, but it
does not mean the "air" that birds fly in which
is the word is "ouranos" as used in Luke 9:58
"And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests;
but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head."
ouranos, oo-ran-os',
Greek 3772; perhaps from the same as Greek 3735 (oros) (through the idea
of elevation); the sky; by extension heaven (as the abode
of God); by implication happiness, power, eternity; specially the Gospel
(Christianity) :- air, heaven ([-ly]), sky.
Paul is telling us in 1 Thes.
4:17 that we are going to be "changed" into
our "breath of life"
bodies, our "aer" bodies
of that spiritual dimension in order to meet the Lord and the saints who
are already in theirs.
One thing is for sure, we can't
imagine how glorious that day will be but we know that when we see the
Lord (and the angels) we will be instantly changed to appear just like
Him!
1 John
3:2
Beloved, now
are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:
but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall
see Him as He is.
How wondrous and marvelous
is the truth of God's Word.
You shall know the truth, and the
truth shall set you free... free from worry, free from anxiety, free from
the bondage of the traditions of men, free from ignorance...free to love
and please Him.
1 Thes.
4:18
Wherefore comfort
one another with these words.
Jesus Christ is returning to
the Mount of Olives and that is where we shall gather together as a group
in our spiritual bodies to be with the Lord Jesus Christ for ever more!
To study the Bible is the noblest of all pursuits;
to understand it, the highest of all goals.
We pray that with the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, you accomplish both.
1 Corinthians
10:11 Now all these things happened unto them {the
ancient Israelites} for
ensamples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends
of the world are come.
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