Prophecy Line.
Is the Church Caught Up and Away from earth?
John Wharton 08-22-24
Hey Friends. Here’s a Bible Thought for today. 🙂
Is the Church Caught Up and Away from earth?
Yes it is!
Really?
Well how will it happen??
Well let’s see –
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 is a really great passage overall about the Church being taken away from this earth!
1Thess 4:13 ESV2011 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
It seems like some in Thessaloniki were worrying about their loved ones who had already
died.
Maybe they weren’t clear that since their loved ones were Christians, they would see them again on the other side.
Paul tells them that we Christians don’t have to feel hopeless about this like the pagans who don’t fell any hope.
Paul says they are asleep. The early Christians used this term for those who had died.
Jesus used this expression Himself in Mark 5 –
Mark 5:35 AKJV/PCE While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?
Mark 5:39 AKJV/PCE And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.
Notice that the daughter was definitely dead. And Jesus did raise her from the dead. But He described her as sleeping.
God will bring the dead in Christ for the resurrection!
1Thess 4:14 ESV2011 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
The resurrection is our great hope as Christians.
Rom 6:5 ISV For if we have become united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
So when Jesus returns to catch the Church up He will bring those who have already died in the faith.
Those Dead in the Faith will go first!
1Thess 4:15 ESV2011 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
We Christians who are still alive when Jesus returns for the Church won’t be caught up first.
Those Christians who have already died in the faith will be caught up first!
QUESTION – How will that happen since they are already gone??
Paul tells the Corinthians that the bodies of we Christians will all be changed into immortal bodies! They won’t die and decay anymore!
1Cor 15:51 ESV2011 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
Changed = transformed, made different.
And in 1 Corinthians 15:52 Paul again tells us that First those Christians already dead in the faith will raise up in these new immortal bodies. And then Second the bodies of we Christians who are still alive will be changed very rapidly into our new immortal bodies.
1Cor 15:52 ESV2011 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
1Cor 15:53 ESV2011 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
Twinkling = a jerk of the eye. An instant!
Imperishable = undecaying
And there is that order once again.
First those dead in the faith will rise up.
Then those Believers still alive will be changed.
Jesus will call out with a Commanding Voice!
1Thess 4:16 ESV2011 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Paul says that the Lord will come down from heaven to above this earth.
He will cry out with = a cry of incitement .
The ESV2011 and the ISV indicate that it is a cry or shout of command!
Jesus is commanding us to come up to Him in the clouds!
I personally wonder if this voice of an archangel refers to Jesus commanding voice. He is the Lord of all. But it may be that Michael is there with Christ at this event.
I don’t believe that the archangel is mentioned in relation to this anywhere else.
Some would say that this in Matthew 24:31 is a reference to what we see here in 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
Matt 24:31 AKJV/PCE 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.
But that is NOT TRUE!
Matthew 24:29 shows that the context of this passage that Jesus is talking about is at the end of the time of tribulation.
Matt 24:29 AKJV/PCE ¶ 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:
Matthew 24:31 is Jesus Second Coming when He actually does come back to this earth.
Those Christians alive at that time will be caught up to Jesus in the clouds!
1Thess 4:17 ESV2011 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
Then we Christians who are still alive on this earth will be caught up to the Lord who is still in the air. He does not return to rule the earth at this event! So it is NOT the Second Coming of Jesus.
Caught up = ἁρπάζω harpazo v. to seize.
{in various applications}
[from a derivative of G138]
KJV: catch (away, up), pluck, pull, take (by force)
Look at the ways that the KJV translates this Greek word harpazo –
catch away, catch up, pull, take by force!
It does sound like Jesus is treating this as a Rescue Mission to rapidly catch us up and away from this earth before the terrors and judgments of the tribulation time start.
THINK ON THAT – It is a comforting thought.
Christ is that concerned to get His Church off of this earth before those judgments start to fall!
And in Fact, Paul tells them and us to encourage each other with these words of promise to us.
This is such Good News that we can Encourage each other with it!
1Thess 4:18 ESV2011 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Amen!
I Hope this article helps you understand what’s coming for we Christian Believers.
Photo Courtesy of www.heartlight.org
