Our Blessed Hope

[Noblemen]

There is no feeling a human can have when in a dilemma that is better than hope. Hope is a prime word in the Fathers plan. When Christ comes to live in a believer, the Scriptures relate that Christ offers hope in every circumstance of life. Sometimes a believer may lose hope, but Christ in him is hope personified. Paul says that if in this life only we have hope, we would be of all man most miserable, First Corinthians 15:19. Sadly, this is the state many humans come to from time to time. This life in Christ is the only life that makes Christ Himself our hope.

Then again, Paul says that we are saved by hope, Romans 8:24. But he goes on to say that hope that is seen is not hope at all. So hope is unseen virtue of Christ working in the believer. If hope could be seen, there would be nothing left to hope for.

But right out of one of the most magnificent Scriptures Paul ever gives us, he says that Christ is our hope of glory Colossians 1:27.

Here again is proof that the "in Christ" truth forms the foundation for the believers faith, the faith of the Son of God.

Our expectation of the Rapture is based in this Christ-hope. Though the body of Christ has waited over 2000 years, we stay expectant because Christ in us is our hope. There are at least four blessed hopes the believer can have now.

1) Our hope is laid up in a place, Philippians 3:20-21. Our citizenship is in heaven. Believers are not looking for Christ to return to this earth and straighten out all the problems here. Remember, at the rapture Christ does not come to the earth, we will meet Him in the air.

2) Our hope is centered in a person, Titus 2:13. The born-again eagerly look for their Savior to appear.

3) Our hope fulfills a purpose. When Christ comes for His church, earthly bodies will be conformed to His glorious body. This is vividly described in the resurrection chapter, first Corinthians 15:51-57. Praise God, this corruptible will put on incorruption.

4) Our hope rests in Christ power, Ephesians 1:19-23. God's purpose for us to be conformed to the image of His Son does not depend upon us anymore than our salvation depended upon us. It will all take place by the power of Christ. Our hope Rests in Christ who has the power to subdue all things to Himself.

 

[ThatTrueLight]

All I can think of here is a wonder filled

 

[Noblemen]

All I can think of here is a wonder filled

 

[ViaCrucis]

1) Our hope is laid up in a place, Philippians 3:20-21. Our citizenship is in heaven. Believers are not looking for Christ to return to this earth and straighten out all the problems here. Remember, at the rapture Christ does not come to the earth, we will meet Him in the air.

Our citizenship is--present tense--of (from) heaven (for our Lord Jesus, even now, lives and reigns at the right hand of the Father above all power, authority, and dominion with all things subject to Himself). And you have it completely backward, we are looking for Christ to return to this earth and straighten it out. At Christ's coming on the Last Day He is coming down, we meet Him in the air to greet Him--there is nothing in this passage that says we get beamed up into heaven at the resurrection of the dead. Consistently Scripture says that God will set the world, all creation, to rights. The Prophet Isaiah spoke of God making a new heavens and a new earth (which is referred to by St. John in the Apocalypse), the Prophet also speaks of the time when men shall turn their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks and no longer know the art of war. Of a time when the child shall play near a viper's den without fear, of the wolf and lamb laying together, of a lion eating straw like an ox.

It is precisely the redemption and setting right of all things that Christ came, not so that we could get zapped up into a place called "Heaven" for eternity, but that God would indeed make right all that is wrong. Which has has done, is doing, and will do in Christ Jesus by His death, resurrection, ascension, and coming again.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Bible2]

Noblemen said in post 1:

Our expectation of the Rapture is based in this Christ-hope.

It is often claimed that a pre-tribulation rapture is our blessed hope. But nothing in the Bible teaches or requires a pre-tribulation rapture. Instead, the blessed hope (Titus 2:13) is the hope of eternal life: "In hope of eternal life" (Titus 1:2), "that blessed hope" (Titus 2:13), "the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:7), by which is meant the hope of obtaining an immortal, physical resurrection body (Romans 8:23-25, Philippians 3:21, Luke 24:39) at Jesus' 2nd coming (1 Corinthians 15:21-23,51-53; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-16, Revelation 19:7 to 20:6), which won't occur until immediately after the future tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and Matthew 24 (Matthew 24:29-31; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, Revelation 19:7 to 20:6). Also, Jesus himself is the hope of believers (1 Timothy 1:1b), for he himself is eternal life (John 14:6), and only by believing in him can people have eternal life (John 3:36).

No Christians are hoping for the tribulation instead of Jesus' 2nd coming, even though those Christians who (rightly) hold to the post-tribulation rapture view know the tribulation must come first (Matthew 24:29-31; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, Revelation 19:7 to 20:6; cf. 1 Peter 4:12-13). For a Christian (whether male or female) who holds to the post-tribulation rapture view is like a pregnant woman nearing the end of her term. She isn't hoping for birthing pains instead of the birth of her child, but she knows birthing pains must come first (John 16:21-22, Isaiah 26:17-19; 1 Corinthians 15:21-23).

Job should be looked to by obedient Christians as an example of patient endurance through suffering (James 5:11). Just as God allowed Satan to bring suffering to righteous Job (Job chapters 1-2), so God sometimes allows Satan to bring suffering to obedient Christians (Revelation 2:10). And during the future tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and Matthew 24, Satan will be allowed to unleash his wrath against obedient Christians in every nation (Revelation 12:9,17, Revelation 13:7-10, Revelation 14:12-13, Revelation 20:4-6, Matthew 24:9-13).

By the power of Satan working against Job (Job 1:12), he first suffered the loss of his wealth and servants from murderous robbers (Job 1:14,15,17) and a natural disaster (Job 1:16), and suffered the death of all of his children in a natural disaster (Job 1:18-19). Then, again by the power of Satan working against him (Job 2:6), Job suffered the loss of his health (Job 2:7). But he remained patient through all of his loss and suffering, never cursing God because of it (Job 2:9-10, Job 1:20-22), but wholly trusting in God through it all (Job 13:15).

Because of this, God greatly rewarded Job after his suffering was over, giving him twice as much wealth as he had before (Job 42:10,12, Job 1:3) and the same number of children as he had before (Job 42:13, Job 1:2), and giving him a very long life (Job 42:16), so that he lived to see his grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren (Job 42:16). While he was still suffering, Job mistakenly thought that his suffering was God's wrath against him (Job 19:11), when in fact God had no wrath against him, for he was righteous in God's eyes (Job 1:1,8, Job 2:3). Instead, Job was suffering from the hand of Satan (Job 1:12, Job 2:7). Similarly, during the future tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and Matthew 24, the suffering of obedient Christians won't be God's wrath against them, but Satan's wrath against them (Revelation 12:9,17, cf. Revelation 2:10).

God allowed Satan to bring loss and suffering to Job in order to prove that Job didn't love God just because God had made him wealthy and secure (Job 1:9-12) and healthy (Job 2:4-6), but that Job would continue to love and trust God even if all of his wealth, family, and health were stripped away from him. Indeed, Job would have continued to love God even if God had killed him (Job 13:15). This is the kind of love for God that Christians will need to have during the future tribulation. They will need to continue to love God even when he allows Satan (the dragon) and the Antichrist (the individual-man aspect of Revelation's "beast") to make war against Biblical Christians and physically overcome them in every nation (Revelation 12:9,17, Revelation 13:7-10, Revelation 14:12-13, Matthew 24:9-13), stripping away all of their wealth and family and leading them away to be beheaded (Revelation 20:4-6). Christians must so love God and so trust him that they have no fear of suffering or death (Revelation 2:10, Hebrews 2:15), knowing that even death will only bring their still-conscious souls into the presence of Jesus in heaven (2 Corinthians 5:8, Philippians 1:21,23, Revelation 6:9-10, Luke 23:43).

Christians mustn't love their mortal lives to where they will deny Jesus Christ and the Bible in order to keep from getting killed (Mark 8:35-38, John 12:25, Revelation 12:11), just as Christians mustn't love their families to the point where they will deny Jesus Christ and the Bible in order to keep their families from starving or getting killed (Matthew 10:37, Luke 14:26). And Christians mustn't love their wealth to the point where they will deny Jesus Christ and the Bible in order to keep their wealth from being taken away (Matthew 6:24; 1 Timothy 6:9-10). Jesus Christ requires Christians to forsake everything, even their own lives, for his sake (Luke 14:33, Luke 9:23, Matthew 10:38-39), just as he forsook everything, even his own life, for their sake (Philippians 2:6-8; 2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 Corinthians 15:3).

"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy" (1 Peter 4:12-13).