Monday, May 19, 2008

Rapture Question

Someone asked me, after Sunday morning's message (May 18), what happens to a believer's bodies in the rapture (the taking into heaven of believers prior to the Tribulation). These are questions that are not often explicitly addressed in Scripture but are answered often by inference. The best passage on this questions is 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

(1 Th 4:13-18 NASB) 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. {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, shall 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 shall rise first. {17} 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. {18} Therefore comfort one another with these words.

If those who are dead in Christ are translated into heaven with resurrected bodies, then it would seem consistent with this passage that raptured ("those caught up together with them") saints are also translated into heaven with resurrected bodies. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul reassures the believers that their presence in eternity will be in a new body fit for life in eternity.

(1 Cor 15:50-52 NASB) Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. {51} Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, {52} 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.

Issues of the end times are always interesting. On the positive side they encourage us to carefully study Scripture to see what is being said about these issues. We should be cautious, however, to not go beyond what can be clearly discovered by careful bible study. Some issues are intentionally left vague or hidden because God does not want us to be concerned with them.
Furthermore, the intent of prophecy has never been to give us all of the details of what happens in the end times. Rather the primary purpose of prophecy is to encourage us with regard to the faithfulness of God to carry out His sovereign purposes and to diligently pursue Christlike character. Note the concluding verses of both contexts of the preceding passages.

(1 Cor 15:58 NASB) Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

(1 Th 4:18 NASB) Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Stay tuned for my June Messenger article where I discuss in more detail my position on the purpose of prophecy.