the dormant state of 1Thess 4 -
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
If we read the versus we have to integrate them in the greater scheme of things, that is, we extract all the points, like so......
1) Those departed who are asleep, meaning have died, that is, their earthly tent has dissolved.
2) Do not grieve for them, as if they are lost as those without Christ grieve, having no hope for them living again.
3) God will bring with him those who had fallen asleep, meaning died.
4) The ones remaining alive will NOT precede those who had fallen asleep/died.
5) Seventh trumpet is sounded.
6) The dead in Christ will rise first.
7) We who remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds, meaning we will be reunited with the dead who had been raised before the snatching up of those remaining alive.
When we integrate these points into a thesis statement, that is,
the resurrection of the dead, is not a one off event in time and space within the earthly realm, then we can assert that........
Those who had previously died or fallen asleep in Paul's time, are raised first and are raised before the ones remaining alive at the seventh trumpet call at Christ's brilliant coming, some 2000 years and counting. The question is when are the dead being raised?
The answer is irrelevant to the thesis statement, because my claim is that the resurrection of the dead is not a one off event in future time, rather it is at least more than one event. Since the dead are being pictured coming with Christ, before the ones remaining alive are snatched up, then we see a priority of a group being raised before the other. Let us say there are two groups, the dead/departed and the living. Today Paul is numbered amongst the departed. The question is when is Paul being raised?
Notice the seventh trumpet doesn't indicate the initiation of a one of resurrection event, rather it implies an end of the harvest, that is, where arch Angel declares.......
And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: (Revelation 10:6)
So the arch Angel is declaring the end of the harvest and not the beginning of the reaping of the harvest. This means that the harvest must have been reaped from multiple times throughout the new covenant age (great tribulation), that is, it has to encompass the millennium reign in heaven by those already departing, because the God of Abraham is the God of the living, then those departing are being raised.
Before we discover when they are being raised, let us integrate more points from the above......
The departed have hope in being reunited with the risen Lord, this is why evidence of scripture points to the death of the earthly body of being that crossroad to recieving what has already been laid for all believers by the cross of Christ. If we continue in belief that we are awaiting messiah to raise us up, how are we any different to the old covenant people's who were waiting for messiah on his first advent. In this regard we are unwittingly denying that Christ has come and raised the dead.
Paul states.....
We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. (2 corinthinas 5:8)
How could Paul be at consciously at home with the Lord if he continues to sleep, rather we know that Paul should already be reunited with the Lord, in his incorruptible heavenly body, for this is what scripture states.....
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)
My claim is that he is appearing to every departed soul, that has been left naked after the earthly tent has been dissolved, which is why Paul states.........
2Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling,
3because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.
4For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. (2 Corinthians 5:2-4)
You know if Paul is a disembodied soul sleeping, having no conscious interaction with Christ, then this by definition is nakedness and death in Hades. Is there Hades after death? Absolutely not! Otherwise we would be denying the cross of Christ. So apostle John states that when Christ appears to the departed believer, that believer will see the risen Christ as he is in his glorified heavenly body and the believer too, will also be like the Lord, meaning he too will put on incorruption in order to be reunited with the Lord.
What does Hebrews say........
27And as
it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28So
Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.(Hebrews 9:27-28)
So after death follows judgment before the Lord and the thrones that where setup as his jury and council to deliberate on the fate of every departed individual from every nation. That is why it is written that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess before his courtroom, after people are passing from this earthly life. The Hebrews author takes it further by emphasising that Christ will appear the second time to the disciple who had seen him in particular, as this letter is audience relevant to the Jewish church in Jerusalem. The second time the disciples shall seem, is when they are presented before him in their glorified Holy Heavenly bodies (Lords from heaven), that is why it says WITHOUT SIN and onto SALAVATION (salavaging of the soul).
This context of Hebrews versus is when a believer after death, receives their eternal inheritance at the Lord's appearing, which happens to every departed individual as they are being led before the courtroom of Christ that was setup in the 1st century, consisting of the 24 heavenly judges as his jury and Christ (King of kings) as the judge and the Holy Ghost as the believer's advocate or solicitor.
Here is the context......
15And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that
by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the first testament,
they (witnesses of Christ) which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 16For where a testament
is,
there must also of necessity be the death of the testator/witness.
17For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. 18Whereupon neither the first
testament was dedicated without blood. (Hebrews 9:15-18)
We have the context, that is, a witness of Christ needing to taste the cup of Christ, that is death, before they can lay claim to their eternal inheritance that has already been setup for them, by the cross of Christ. Notice it spells it out......
That is by means of DEATH.
We as testators in which Christ was offered once for the redemption of transgressions (Hebrews 9:27-28), he is going to appear not to bear the sins of a departed believer, but to salvage or rapture that individual from this temporal mortal earthly life to the eternal heavenly life, to be forever with the Lord, in his Father's house.
This is why the Lord states......
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:40)
Notice that the singular is implied in that Jesus will raise
HIM up at the last day. The last day as far as
HIM (singular) is concerned is when the individual testator dies, to then immediately receive their eternal inheritance at the Lord's appearing.
6For
I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7I have fought a good fight, I have finished
mycourse, I have kept the faith:
8Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous judge, shall give me
at that day: and not to me only,
but unto all them also that love his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6-8)
More importantly what did Paul think would happen to him after his earthly body was to be put to death?
Paul believed that after his earthly body is killed, that is, from henceforth after DEATH, he will immediately recieve what has already been laid up for him to receive, which is in harmony with Hebrews and in harmony with what Jesus Christ said and in harmony with what Paul and John state and this leaves us to reflect upon, that is, that day that Paul alludes to, is the day of his execution at the hands of his enemies. So on the day of Paul's execution, when his body is put to rest, Paul believed that he will behold the appearing of the Lord and that he will immediately then come before the righteous judge and his 24 strong heavenly jury, to then receive his eternal inheritance. So that Paul appeared before the Lord the second time, but this time without sin, as the Lord (Holy one) from heaven (1 Corinthians 15:47). Notice Paul also emphasised that all believers will have their turn, when they too, longing for Christ's appearing will receive their crown of righteousness (eternal inheritance) after death.
The above versus cannot be Ponting to the brilliant coming of the Lord at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, rather it highlights the fact that the believers individually are longing for the day they pass from this earthly life, to be reunited with Christ in heaven and within their heavenly bodies. The days leading up to the brilliant coming of the Lord in Peter's epistles can hardly be a longing for those days, rather the context of longing for the appearing of the Lord is not the day of the Lord (vengeance poured out on the inhabitants of the world), it is a day when testators individually in turn are being reunited with Christ, as Paul states to be away from the earthly body, is to be rejoicingly present with the Lord.
Now one final bit to the equation of exegesis of scripture in its entirety and in context to the works of the cross that delivers on that promise of eternal inheritance,
without Christ needing to all over again present himself to the world, as he stated
the world will not see me anymore (John 14:19).
Many confuse the one off
day of the Lord at the seventh trumpet sounding with the Lord's appearing that happens to every departed individual, within the context of the reaping from the great harvest of God.
Evidence of scripture through the testimony of scripture has the first new covenant witness Saint Stephan declaring that his day and hour has come to be finally reunited with Christ.
55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit,
looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56“Look,” he said, “
I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
59While they were stoning him, Stephen appealed, “
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit/soul” 60Falling on his knees, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:55-56, 58-60)
Th context of sequential events in the Acts of the Apostles is to Saint Stephan, who being a man of Galilee, was told the following previously before his execution.....
Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." (Acts 1:11)
