The coming of Christ for His Church is a truth that is fraught with controversy among believers in the Lord Jesus. Much of the controversy could be eliminated by a careful reading of 1st Thessalonians 4, 1st Corinthians 15, and Titus 2. In this latter reference of Titus 2, believers are admonished to be looking for the “blessed hope in the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.”
The 1st Thessalonian 4 passage elaborates on this same event by stating, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 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 shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. 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 shall rise first: then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.”
Note carefully the words of the last verse. It is this blessed hope, this assurance of the catching away of the body of Christ, consisting of all believers that are alive at that time, that is to be the very basis of our comfort, our consolation. We are to use these very words, setting forth this truth, to be a comfort one to another, and the more so when the disposition of loved ones who have gone ahead is called into question. This expression in 1st Thessalonians 4:17 is “caught up.” The Latin version uses the word “rapto” in the Vulgate. It is from this that the English word “rapture” is derived. Incorporated into the idea is that of a breathtaking spectacle whereby those in the body of Christ, that is all believers alive at the time of the blessed appearing, will be snatched away, instantaneously removed from the earth in a split-second of time, “caught up,” the text says, to be ever with the Lord, “and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
Seriously now, how likely does this appear to be? Speaking after the manner of man, not very. Not at all likely. In fact, fanciful, fairytale-ish, wishful thinking, or a host of other improbables.
Nonetheless, the true believer, while admitting he does not know the how or the when or it, take great comfort, as he should, in the fact of it. And what makes him so certain it is factual? It’s realization is linked to the integrity of a God who cannot lie. This is the believer’s blessed hope. It is the rapture of the Church, well preceding the Second Coming of Christ that is to occur later. One day this blessed hope will occur. Perhaps today.
CC-06-16
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