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KINGDOM
BIBLE STUDIES
“Teaching the things
concerning the
THE
OLIVET DISCOURSE
An
exposition of Matthew chapter twenty-four and Luke chapter twenty-one
Part
VII
THE
COMING OF THE SON OF MAN
Originally
written in December 1974
Introduction
“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 the heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall
be shaken: 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” (Matt. 24:29-30).
Before we can fully comprehend what
this COMING OF THE SON OF MAN really means, we must first understand the truth
that Christ’s first advent was really divided into two events: a personal and a
spiritual manifestation. His second advent must be similar. His first advent
saw Him come first in a personal manifestation – as the Babe of Bethlehem, the
carpenter of
This second advent then, like the
first, must be divided into both a spiritual and a personal coming, the
spiritual manifestation being the FULNESS OF THE SPIRIT when He comes to be
glorified “IN His saints… to be admired IN ALL THEM that believe;” the personal
appearing being when “this same Jesus (the glorified MAN) shall so come in
like manner as ye have seen Him go” (Acts 1:11). So the signs
pointing to His second coming must of necessity point
to both a spiritual manifestation and also to the
personal and corporeal appearing of “this same Jesus” in glorified body.
Among God’s people today we
generally find two classes; those who see ONLY the literal, personal return of
the MAN Christ Jesus; and those who embrace ONLY the spiritual coming of Christ
“IN His saints” (II Thes. 1:10). It is important that we understand that Christ
in His first advent came in BOTH a personal and spiritual manifestation and,
according to the scriptures He shall SO COME in His second advent!
THE
MAN CHRIST JESUS
The great error of those who believe
only in a spiritual coming of the Lord lies in a misconception of what FORM
Jesus is now in. Many believe that Christ is now EXCLUSIVELY in the same
form in which He existed BEFORE He became a man, and that it is in that
pre-existent, omnipresent, spirit-form that He is now head of the Church. They
reason then, that since it is the pre-existent Christ, the eternal Spirit being
who is head of the body of Christ; and since WE are the BODY OF THE CHRIST, the
FULNESS (Gr: completion) OF HIM, indwelt by the SPIRIT OF HIM who IS our
head – then no physical return of Jesus is necessary, for HE IS NOW IN US, His true
body. Since Christ has come to dwell in us as His body, and since the one
who has come to dwell within us IS OUR HEAD, then Christ need only come in
fulness WITHIN US in order to be fully and completely
manifested to the world. So the reasoning goes. There are only two or three
things WRONG with this reasoning!
First of all,
Christ does not now exist in ONLY omnipresent Spirit-form. 2000 years ago the
pre-existent WORD of God BECAME FLESH. “In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word WAS MADE FLESH, and dwelt
among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father” (Jn. 1:1, 14). The word here translated WORD is from the Greek word
LOGOS. “In the beginning was the LOGOS.” The Greek word means: (1) a thought or
concept (2) the EXPRESSION or utterance of that thought or concept. The Logos
therefore was, in the beginning, the utterance and EXPRESSION (i.e. revelation)
of the person, thought, mind, will and nature of GOD. The utterance and
expression of a thing is simply the MANIFESTATION or REVELATION of that thing.
So the Logos was the MANIFESTATION and REVELATION of God – especially His
manifestation and revelation unto men in the visible realm. The Logos is the
INVISIBLE GOD revealed, put on display, brought into manifestation
so that men can see and perceive WHAT GOD IS LIKE. The INVISIBLE GOD began to manifest
Himself to men early in the history of the human family. “And they heard the
voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the PRESENCE OF THE LORD GOD amongst
the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him,
Where art thou?” (Gen. 3:8-9). God here manifested Himself unto Adam and Eve by
utterance and through some form of His PRESENCE from which they sought to hide.
This coming forth into manifestation of God was the LOGOS, the revelation and
expression of God. It was by this same LOGOS that God created all things! “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God. All things were MADE BY HIM and without
Him was not anything made that was made” (Jn. 1:1-3). God created all things by
the LOGOS. And HOW were all things created? “And God SAID, Let
there be… and it was so” (Gen. 1). God SAID! God first THOUGHT, PLANNED and
PURPOSED, and then He SPOKE that which He thought, planned and purposed. His
SPEAKING was an UTTERANCE, an EXPRESSION, and a MANIFESTATION of GOD HIMSELF.
This manifestation of God was the LOGOS which went forth by the Spirit and
creatively produced that which before had only existed in the mind, plan, and
purpose of God. In later times the LOGOS, the revelation and expression of God,
came forth unto men in various ways. Paul speaks of one of these manifestations
of God in I Cor. 10:4: “And did all drink of that same spiritual drink: for
they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and THAT ROCK WAS
CHRIST.” Again, the Lord came to
But then – in the end of the Old
Testament economy God did a NEW THING. “And the WORD was MADE FLESH, and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14). What happened was
that the LOGOS, that REVELATORY EXPRESSION of God, was MADE FLESH and in actuality BECAME A MAN. He was converted
into, changed into FLESH. Now He was flesh and
blood, exactly as you and I. He was GOD – but now God changed INTO flesh and
blood – God WITH us – Emmanuel!
“Let this mind be in you which was
also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the FORM OF GOD, did not regard equality
with God as something at which He should grasp. Nay, He stripped Himself of His
glory, and took on Him the nature of a bondservant by
BECOMING A MAN LIKE OTHER MEN. And being recognized as truly human, He humbled
Himself and even stooped to die; and that too a death on the cross” (Phil.
2:5-8, KJV & Weymouth). Again, “Forasmuch then as the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself TOOK PART OF THE SAME… For verily
He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of
Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved Him TO BE MADE LIKE UNTO HIS
BRETHREN: (Heb. 2:14, 16-17). God came in the flesh as Jesus Christ. Jesus took
human nature, human substance, human IDENTITY upon Himself. The LOGOS who had
existed from eternity was MADE FLESH, made a man, converted into flesh, changed
into a HUMAN IDENTITY – and then he WAS A MAN! Yes, Jesus was a MAN. He was God
MADE FLESH. And so, we read in I Tim. 3:16, “And without controversy great is
the mystery of godliness: GOD was MANIFEST IN THE FLESH, justified in the
Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world,
received up into glory.” John says that the disciples of our Lord actually touched and handled the WORD OF LIFE
(then made flesh). “That which was from the beginning, which we have HEARD, and
we have SEEN WITH OUR EYES, and we have looked upon, and our hands have handled
of the WORD (Logos) of life; for the life was MANIFESTED, and we have seen it
and bear witness… That which we have SEEN AND HEARD declare we unto you” (I Jn.
1:1-3).
The question now is, did Jesus upon
His resurrection and ascension DISSOLVE AND ANNIHILATE that human identity
and RETURN EXCLUSIVELY to the form He was in BEFORE He was made flesh? Or, did He and does He ETERNALLY RETAIN His HUMAN IDENTITY?
The answer to this question is of utmost importance.
If Jesus somehow dissolved and
obliterated the human identity of the MAN Jesus, and
simply returned exclusively to that form He was in from eternity as
omnipresent Spirit, then there WAS NO NEED for either a resurrection or an
ascension! Jesus could simply have allowed His flesh body to rot in the earth
and God would then have forever been FREE FROM HIS HUMAN IDENTITY. The SPIRIT
of Jesus would then have been released to dwell once again in the purely SPIRIT
form with the prerogative to manifest Himself in any form He would choose at
any time. Or, as some erroneously affirm, God could simply have DISSOLVED the
flesh body of Jesus into some gaseous substance and floated it away out of
existence. But since Jesus DID ascend, WHAT was it that ascended? The two men
in white apparel didn’t say, “The eternal, pre-existent, omnipresent Spirit of
Christ just ascended! But they DID declare to the astonished disciples, “This same
JESUS, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so COME IN LIKE MANNER
as ye have SEEN Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).
The simple truth is that there was
a RESURRECTION! And it wasn’t the eternal, omnipresent, pre-existent
Christ-Spirit that was resurrected! The ever-living GOD didn’t die! The
pre-existent WORD didn’t die. But the WORD who had been MADE FLESH did die!
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He
might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened
(made alive again) BY THE SPIRIT” (I Peter 3:18). It was FLESH that died.
Therefore, it was FLESH that was resurrected! It wasn’t the pre-existent
Word that was resurrected, but the MAN CHRIST JESUS. It was the Word made
flesh, who died in the flesh, that came back to life again. And if God had
purposed to dwell forevermore in the form He was in from eternity then He
needed not to raise this MAN JESUS from the dead at all! But by raising Him up,
God has eternally PRESERVED THE HUMAN IDENTITY of the MAN CHRIST JESUS! It was
not GOD that was raised up, but a MAN that was raised up! God is not now ONLY
Omnipresent Spirit, but is also a resurrected, glorified MAN – the same as you
and I will be when we receive our immortal incorruptible spiritual bodies. Yes,
the body Jesus now has is not a corruptible flesh body – it is a spiritual
body. But it IS a BODY! Jesus Christ IS an individual, resurrected and
glorified MAN dwelling in an immortal, incorruptible BODY. And so we read, “For
our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change OUR VILE BODY, that it may be fashioned
like unto HIS GLORIOUS BODY” (Phil. 3:20-21).
Of this glorious body Paul writes,
“So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is
raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is
sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a
natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is
a NATURAL BODY and THERE IS A SPIRITUAL BODY” (I Cor. 15:42-44).
That the MAN JESUS was resurrected
in His individual human identity is made plain in the following scriptures:
“And as they thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of
them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and
affrighted, and supposed that they had SEEN A SPIRIT. And He said unto them, Why are ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that IT IS I MYSELF: handle
Me, and see; FOR A SPIRIT HATH NOT FLESH AND BONES AS YE SEE ME HAVE… and
while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, He said unto them, Have ye
here any meat? And they gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And He took it and did eat before them” (Lk.
24:36-43). And again, “Ye men of
One of the errors which leads to the
idea that Jesus shall not personally return to the earth as a resurrected and
glorified MAN, is the false notion that it is the omnipresent, pre-existent
SPIRIT of Christ which is the HEAD of the BODY OF CHRIST. The Word, however,
makes it abundantly clear that it is the resurrected and glorified
MAN CHRIST JESUS Who is head of the body of Christ. Says the apostle Paul, “And
what is the exceeding greatness of His power which He wrought in Christ WHEN HE
RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD AND SET HIM AT HIS OWN RIGHT HAND IN THE HEAVENLY
PLACES… and hath put all things under His feet, and
GAVE HIM to be the HEAD over all things to the Church, WHICH IS HIS BODY” (Eph.
1:19-23). Now let us note the following facts: (1) It is not Christ in the form
of the pre-existent LOGOS Who is head of the body, but it is CHRIST RAISED FROM
THE DEAD AND SET AT THE FATHER’S RIGHT HAND Who is the head. This is clearly
the RESURRECTED MAN. (2) This glorified man is made HEAD over all things to the
Church. The HEAD of a body is not the same as the life in the body, for
the HEAD of a body is A MEMBER OF THE BODY. This is a truth FEW understand.
EXAMPLE: You, in your natural,
physical being, have a head upon your body and you ALSO have a life flowing in
your bloodstream. The life in your blood IS NOT YOUR
HEAD. Your head is a specific MEMBER of your body – a member which lives by THE
SAME LIFE as every other member of your body. Paul applies this principle to
the body of Christ in I Cor. 12:12: “For as the body is one, and hath many
members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are ONE BODY: SO
ALSO IS CHRIST.” We are all members of ONE BODY. We are all SONS OF GOD!
But don’t ever bypass the fact that the MAN CHRIST JESUS IS ALSO A MEMBER OF
THIS BODY! What member IS HE? Why, He is THE HEAD! And the same life of GOD
which gives life to US is also the life of the MAN CHRIST JESUS! And all of us together,
Jesus the Head, with all of us who as members of this Christ-body are the
“completion of Him” make up the complete and true CHRIST of God. That is not
the omnipresent Spirit of Christ which is the Head of this many-membered Christ
Body – but the RESURRECTED, GLORIFIED MAN – is further emphasized in Col. 1:18:
“And He is the head of the body, the church: Who is the beginning, THE FIRST
BORN FROM THE DEAD; that in all things He might have the preeminence.” And
again this order of Headship is revealed in these words: “But speaking the
truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, WHICH IS THE HEAD, EVEN
CHRIST: from Whom the WHOLE BODY FITLY JOINED TOGETHER and compacted by that
which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the MEASURE
OF EVERY PART, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love:
(Eph. 4:15-16).
(3) “And hath put all things under
His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things
to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all:
(Eph. 1:22-23). We are the BODY of which Christ Jesus is the HEAD. Christ does
indeed dwell within us and shall ultimately reveal His fulness in His body (See
Olivet Discourse, Part VI, Sign of the Son of Man). It is the SPIRIT OF THE SON
that indwells every member of His body. But this indwelling SPIRIT is NOT the
biblical picture of Christ in His Headship. It is the glorified MAN who is the
Head, and it is HIS SPIRIT which gives LIFE to that individual member of the
body who is the Head and TO ALL THE OTHER MEMBERS AS WELL. And it is the SPIRIT
OF LIFE which gives the HEAD, the Man Christ Jesus, the ability and power to
RULE as the Head. And it is the SAME SPIRIT which gives the body the ability to
receive dictation from the Head and to fulfill the will and direction of
Him Who is the Head. If your natural body had no LIFE in it then a head would
do you no good. And if your natural body had life in it but no head – the life
would do you no good. In like manner, if we as the body of Christ did not have
the eternal Spirit of Christ IN US, then the headship of the MAN JESUS would be
worthless. Jesus is A SON. WE also are SONS. The same Spirit indwells us all.
But Jesus is the head and we the BODY UNDER THAT HEAD!
WHY
THE MAN JESUS MUST RETURN
According to the teaching of the
popular churches of our day, Christ will at any moment now come in a secret
rapture “FOR His saints.” He will then take them up to heaven for seven years, and following that shall come back again “WITH His
saints.” The argument is, of course, that since He will come with His
saints He must have to come earlier for the saints. Repeatedly we hear
statements like this: “Jesus is coming FOR a church without spot or wrinkle,”
or “Soon Jesus will return FOR His church to take it out of the world,: or “The
Lord comes in the rapture FOR his saints; after the tribulation period He comes
with HIS saints.”
First of all,
does the Bible anywhere use the expression “coming FOR the saints”? The simple
fact is that the scriptures never even once speak of Christ coming “FOR” the
church! Never! Nowhere! Not even ONCE! Surely then, a teaching that continually
uses an expression that the scriptures never use (and the word “rapture”
isn’t in there either!) should be subjected to close examination. If the
scriptures do not speak of Christ coming FOR His saints, then what do they
say? A close perusal of the Word reveals that the Spirit of God has given
testimony concerning TWO DISTINCT ASPECTS of His coming. They are: (1) Christ
comes IN His saints, (2) Christ comes WITH His saints. Both
of these statements are thoroughly SCRIPTURAL. But the phrase “Christ
coming FOR His saints” is NOT SCRIPTURAL.
We would do well to take a look at these two revelations of the Word. In Study
VI of this present series we have dealt in detail with the great truth of
Christ coming IN His people. This truth is set forth in II Thes. 1:7, 10-12 in
these words: “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven… when He shall come to be glorified IN HIS
SAINTS, and to be admired IN all them that believe…
that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified IN YOU, and ye IN HIM.”
Now let us consider the scriptures
which speak of Christ coming WITH His saints. Paul says in I Thes. 3:12-13:
“And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love
one toward another… 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.” Jude also refers to this great event: “And Enoch also, the
seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh WITH
TEN THOUSANDS OF HIS SAINTS, to execute judgement…”
(Jude 14). And again, “Ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the
valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal; yea, ye shall flee, like as ye
fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of
There is another set of scriptures, similar to these, which speak of Christ coming with all His
“holy ANGELS.” “When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy
ANGELS WITH HIM. Then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: (Mat. 24:31).
Paul says, “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall
be revealed from heaven WITH HIS MIGHTY ANGELS: (II Thes. 1:7).
It is important to note here that
the Greek word “aggelos” (English: angel) means a “messenger.” It is used in
reference to Christ (see Mal. 3:1 in Sept. Version), also of men (Rev. 22:8-9;
Rev. 1:20; 2:1, 8, 12, 18: Rev. 3:1, 7, 14), of spirits (Heb. 1:14) and of
Satan’s emissaries (II Cor. 12:7). This word “angel” into which the Greek word
“aggelos” is transliterated means absolutely nothing to the average person. As
we have seen, the word means simply “messenger”, and in many instances refers
to celestial beings who are dispatched as “messengers” of God. But in many
other cases the term is used, not to designate some special order of beings,
but merely to convey the idea of one who is acting as a MESSENGER. It is in
that sense that the word is used of Christ, men, spirits, and even the
emissaries of Satan. So, when the King comes “with all His HOLY ANGELS” (Mat.
24:31), it is not with some kind of extra-terrestrial beings that He comes, but
with “all the HOLY MESSENGERS.” Zech. 14:5 tells us that He comes “and all the
saints with Thee.” These two scriptures are considering the same company and
the same coming. But the point which we need to stress here is, that while the
church today is voluble in telling of Christ coming “for” His saints, yet the
Word tells a far different story. Instead of coming “for” them, the Word says
that He comes “with” them. There is a world of difference between these two
statements.
It is extremely significant that the
Word speaks of Christ coming WITH His saints. This should, once and for all,
settle the question of whether or not there will be a
personal return of our Lord. We understand the great truth of Christ coming IN
His saints – in His body. But apart from the personal return of the resurrected
and glorified MAN CHRIST JESUS, how can He come WITH saints? Remember: Our text
in Mat. 24:29 is speaking of the coming, not of the Holy Spirit, or the
pre-existent Word, but the coming of the SON OF MAN. The Son of MAN
clearly refers to the resurrected One who was born of the virgin. There are
multiplied scriptures which speak of the coming of the SON OF MAN.
When we understand this truth that
the first advent of Christ involved both a personal and spiritual
manifestation, and when we further understand that Jesus was raised from the
dead as a RESURRECTED MAN in Whom dwells all the fulness of the Spirit of God –
then it is a simple thing to see that not only must there be a full revelation
of His Spirit – but the individual man, our Head, in Whom dwells the same
Spirit which WE ALSO have received, shall also be REVEALED AGAIN UPON THIS
EARTH.
It is true that Christ shall be
glorified “in” His saints. But it is equally true that we shall be GLORIFIED
TOGETHER with Jesus. So Paul says, “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God
and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we
may be also GLORIFIED TOGETHER” (Rom. 8:17). Paul makes it clear that Jesus is
ONE SON of God and we are ALSO SONS. And that ONE SON and all the other
SONS are to be GLORIFIED TOGETHER. This is not the “in” glorification of
Christ, but the “with” glorification! TOGETHER! Since Jesus is a resurrected
SON even as we shall be resurrected and changed into immortal incorruptible
SONS, it is only proper that when all God’s SONS are manifested in splendor and
glory that He, our ELDER BROTHER, should be there too – manifested WITH US! If
Jesus is to be only some unseen, spiritual, indwelling PRESENCE and LIFE, then
who is to say that WE ALSO won’t be merely some ethereal, unseen, spiritual
presence? And if that is all we are to be then there is no need whatsoever for
a resurrection or a changing of our vile bodies; we would only need to die and
shed this old physical structure so that we could live forever as a disembodied
SPIRIT. When the Sons of God are manifested they will be individual,
resurrected, incorruptible PERSONS. And Jesus is SUCH A PERSON! And that PERSON is HEAD of His BODY of which WE ARE
MEMBERS. And if the Sons of God are revealed to the creation as a mighty,
invincible, corporate body of PEOPLE, all members of a great “many-membered”
BODY, then why should we have a HEADLESS BODY by doing away with our ELDER
BROTHER and making of Him merely an invisible spirit force? A bunch of
glorified human-divine Sons of God with no glorified personal Jesus, the
first-born Son, is untenable!
IS
THERE A “SECRET” RAPTURE?
We have already seen that not one
scripture in the entire Bible speaks of the popular doctrine of Christ coming
“FOR the saints.” Because the scriptures do speak of Christ coming “with” the
saints many Christians have simply ASSUMED that He would have to come at an
earlier time “for” them. We constantly hear a barrage of assertions like this:
“Quickly and INVISIBLY, unperceived by the world, the Lord will come as a thief
in the night and catch away His waiting Bride.” “His appearance in the clouds
will be veiled to the human eye and NO ONE WILL SEE HIM. He will slip in, slip
out; move in to get His jewels and slip out as under the cover of night.” “The
rapture will be a SECRET coming, and only the believers will know about it.”
“It will be a SECRET rapture – QUIET, NOISELESS, sudden as the step of the
thief in the night. All that the world will know is that multitudes at once
have gone.”
But do the scriptures really teach
that there is to be a secret rapture? Let us look at the main verse used to
prove the theory and see! “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; then we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” (I
Thes. 4:16-17). This verse certainly indicates ANYTHING BUT a quiet, secret
event. Whether we take the SHOUT, the VOICE, or the TRUMP in a literal
sense or as having a figurative meaning, either way, this passage does
not convey the idea of a SECRET and QUIET event of which the people of earth
are totally unaware! It indicates that the coming of the Lord will be a LOUD,
NOISY, OPEN, EARTH-SHATTERING EVENT. Nevertheless, in spite
of every indication to the contrary, this verse is constantly
used as a text for sermons which describe the “rapture” as a secret, hidden,
coming of Christ.
Instead of teaching that He would
return in a secret coming, Jesus actually warned
against this concept: “If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or
there; believe it not… If they shall say unto… behold, He is in the SECRET
CHAMBERS; believe it not” (Mat. 24:23, 26). Also in the context of Matthew 24,
Jesus stressed that men do not know the day nor the hour of His Coming, but went on to say that it will be “as it was in the
days of Noah” when people were eating, drinking, and getting married – not
expecting destruction to fall. They “knew not UNTIL the flood came, and took them all away so shall also the coming of the
Son of man be” (Mat. 24:38-39). The wicked knew not UNTIL the flood came – but,
obviously, when it came THEY KNEW IT! It was no secret event. It was observed
by believers and unbelievers alike! And notice: It was not Noah and his family
(the righteous) who were “taken away.” Who was “taken” in Noah’s day? The
wicked! Speaking of the same wicked who were eating and drinking, etc. Jesus
says that THEY “knew not until the flood came and TOOK THEM ALL AWAY.” Luke
gives the same account of this teaching of Jesus, except that in Luke we read:
“and the flood came and destroyed them all.” And yet songs have been
written and sermons have been preached, and tears have been shed as men would
urge us to be ready to be “taken” when Jesus comes. But Noah was the one who
was “left” to inherit the earth. And SO SHALL ALSO THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN
BE. So there is no “secret rapture” here!
The scriptures DO teach, of course,
that Christ will return “as a thief in the night.” This means that the TIME of
His coming is unknown. It will come as a complete surprise to those who are not
watching for His return. But the use of this term never indicates in any
way that the EVENT ITSELF will be secret and quiet and will happen without the
people of the world even knowing that anything has transpired. “If therefore
thou shalt not WATCH”, Jesus said, “I will come on thee as a THIEF, and thou
shalt NOT KNOW WHAT HOUR I shall come upon thee” (Rev. 3:3). “Behold, I come as
a THIEF. Blessed is he that WATCHETH” (Rev. 16:15). We should not think that
the Lord will prowl around like a thief and “steal” a people away, working in
the dark under cover of night, afraid of being discovered or thwarted. The
meaning is that He will COME as a thief, not that He will ACT like a thief! It
is the element of SURPRISE to those who are NOT WATCHING that is indicated.
Once a person has the false concept
in mind that there will be a special coming of Christ “for” the church, he then
reads about believers being “caught up” and immediately concludes (assumes)
that they will be caught up to HEAVEN. But this is not what the passage in I
Thess. 4 says at all! Our Lord’s coming “for” His church is nothing more than
an invention of ignorance, hatched up by men with vivid imaginations who are
reading into their Bibles many fantastic tales which have no relation to TRUTH.
Heaven is not mentioned in I Thes. 4:13-17. The text does NOT say, “And we
which are alive and remain shall be caught up and taken away to heaven.” What
it says is, that we which are alive and remain shall be caught up “in the AIR
to MEET the Lord.” How far are we going to be caught up? IN THE AIR! WHY are we
going to be caught up? To MEET the Lord.
But let us
look further. Let us look at the entire context and see what is
the subject Paul is dealing with. He starts out by saying, “I would not
have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning THEM WHICH ARE ASLEEP…” (I Thes.
4:13). So the subject under consideration in this portion of scripture is WHAT
HAPPENS TO THOSE WHO HAVE DIED, those who did not live until the time of the
coming of the Lord and the manifestation of the Sons of God. Will those
overcomers who DIED because the hour had not yet come for their glorification –
will they miss out on the glory of that Great Day? Oh, NO! For Paul tells these
saints at Thessalonica that those who have died in Jesus are GOING TO RETURN TO
THIS EARTH when Jesus comes! “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep… For if we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus WILL GOD BRING WITH
HIM” (I Thes. 4:13-14). WHO is going to come WITH HIM when He comes? Those WHO
SLEEP IN JESUS! But this is not what our modern teachers tell us. They tell us
that when Jesus comes “with” His saints that it will be those who were already
resurrected and caught away to heaven some seven years before, and that since
Jesus came “for” them, He will later return “with” them. But the scriptures say
NOTHING about Jesus coming “for” the saints; it only speaks of Him coming
“with” them. Is it already resurrected and glorified saints that Jesus brings
WITH Him when He comes? Ah, NO! “Them which SLEEP IN JESUS will God bring with
Him.”
Where are those who have died in
Christ? They are now with the Lord. When Stephen, the first Christian
martyr, was stoned to death he cried out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”
(Acts. 7:59). Paul in another place reminds us that, “Whilst we are at home in
the body, we are absent from the Lord… We are confident, I say, and willing
rather to be absent from the body, and to be PRESENT WITH THE LORD: (II
Cor. 5:6-8). When a saint of God dies His spirit “ascends” and goes to be
present with the Lord. His body “descends” into the grave and there sleeps. So
all the saints of God whose bodies now “sleep” are in spirit PRESENT
WITH CHRIST JESUS. And, according to the Word, when the man Christ Jesus
returns to this earth THEY WILL COME WITH HIM. Not resurrected and “raptured”
saints coming “with” the Lord, but saints whose bodies are still sleeping in
the grave. Hear it! “Even so, them… which SLEEP in Jesus will God BRING WITH
HIM.” And if you think the so-called “rapture” in I Thes. 4:13-17 is to “take
you to heaven” then you will be greatly disappointed. For the subject here is
not the “GOING” of the saints, but the “COMING” of the Lord! WITH His saints!
HOW
JESUS RETURNS
The “rapture” passage, I Thes.
4:16-17, says that saints will be “caught up” to “meet the Lord in the AIR.”
This verse explains WHERE saints will meet the Lord. The place of “meeting”
will be just above the surface of the earth, in the lower atmosphere – in the
air. There is nothing in these verses to indicate that Christ will then turn
around and take the saints to some far off heaven somewhere.
“To meet the Lord in the air.” Not
meet Him up in heaven, or in outer space. But in the air. Air! The stuff we
breathe. It is all around us. It’s what there isn’t any of in outer space. It’s
what there isn’t any of in the heaven above, in the spirit realm, for it isn’t
needed there since that realm is occupied by spirit-beings. When airplanes fly
up above the clouds, they have to take their air with
them in order to breathe. The Wuest translation says
that we meet Him “in the lower atmosphere.” But it
will be in a much higher spiritual order. Caught up! Not only geographically, but caught up into an entirely new
experience and realm in God! Hallelujah!
Notice that saints will rise to “MEET”
the Lord. The word that is here translated “meet” is a word that was used in
reference to the coming of a king or governor to visit a city. As he
approached, the citizens would go out to meet Him and then escort him on the last part of his journey into the city. And it has
precisely the same meaning here. As the Lord descends from heaven, saints will
rise “to meet the Lord in the air,” in order to
also come WITH Him as He continues to earth.
This word “meet” is the Greek word
“apantesis.” It is used in two other passages which we will now consider to see exactly how the word was used in the scriptures.
First: “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which
took their lamps, and went forth to MEET the bridegroom… and at midnight there
was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to MEET him” (Mat.
25:1,6). In this parable, the five wise and the five foolish virgins were to
take their lamps and go out to meet the bridegroom. What for? To have him turn
around and take them to where he had just come from? Of course not! If this
had been the case, he would have been coming to meet them, instead of
them going to meet him. The plain and simple truth is that when the
bridegroom approached, they went out to meet him so as to
escort him back to the very place where THEY HAD BEEN WAITING – to the place
where the marriage would be held. They went out to “meet” him and after meeting
him they returned “with him.” Notice how the word “meet” was used!
Second: “And so we went toward
In the scriptural examples, people
went out to “meet” someone and then escorted that person to the place where he
was coming. In no case are two stages, or two comings, implied by the word
“meet.” Likewise, there is absolutely no room for a period of seven years
between our going up to MEET Christ and our coming WITH Him. It is all a part
of the ONE SECOND COMING OF THE SON OF MAN. And all that the “rapture” means,
is to be caught into the air to “meet Him,” in order to
descend “with Him.” So the saints will be caught up to “meet” the approaching
Christ, so they TOGETHER WITH HIM can make a triumphant descent to earth in
glory and honour and great majesty.
Let me cite another illustration. In
the Spanish Bible the word for “meet” is the Spanish word “recibir.” Collins
Spanish-English Dictionary says that “recibir” means: to receive, to admit; to
welcome. This is exactly the meaning of the English word MEET in our text! If
my wife is in
Let me say that I have no desire to
“go to heaven” when Jesus comes. When He comes He shall COME WITH HIS
SAINTS, not “GO” with His saints. But the average Christian is not looking for
the COMING of Christ; instead, they are anticipating the GOING of the saints!
It is amazing what foolishness saints partake of! Recently, I listened to a
musical presentation of the Book of Revelation. The theme song was about the
“rapture” and they were singing about going to heaven and being FOREVER with
the Lord. Well, they can go to heaven if they like – and STAY FOREVER. But they
will miss the millennium, they will miss the salvation of the nations, they
will miss the manifestation of the Sons of God and their glorious rule over
this earth, and further, they will be ABSENT from the center of God’s presence,
glory and purpose FOREVER. For the Word tells us: “And I John saw the
Brother Bill Britton, in his article
titled THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH, WHAT IS IT? Has written so ably of those
events which shall shortly come to pass at the COMING OF THE SON OF MAN. I
would like to close this Study by here quoting a portion of his inspired
remarks: “What really happens is that Jesus is coming back with a sound of a
trumpet. Now wherever the Bible speaks of a trumpet, it is symbolic of a
message going forth. Look it up. Many scriptures confirm this. Trumpets sounded
for each feast day. There was a trumpet, or message, that introduced the feast
of Passover, a type of
To
be continued… J. PRESTON EBY
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