Christian, your Lord may come, as you read these words; if so, in a moment you would leave this world; the dead in Christ shall rise first, and then we – mark we – which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them; not in a whirlwind, with a chariot of fire and horses of fire like Elijah, but caught up by the invisible power of God. Enoch walked with God, and was not, for God took him; he “was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Heb. 11:5). So will it be with the Christian when our Lord comes, so may it be with us this very day; we which are alive and remain shall be caught up (translated without seeing death) together with them (that is those who are asleep, “the dead in Christ”) in the clouds. They rise first, but the period of time is almost imperceptible, and all together, caught up in the clouds, meet the Lord in the air. Wondrous, glorious meeting! Marvelous meeting-place, the air. And precious thought, “so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Blessed prospect, His own presence, His own company, His own likeness forever and forever. “Wherefore,” concludes the apostle, “comfort (encourage) one another with these words.” We are not to look for death, though we may fall asleep, but this is not our hope; comfort one another with these words, the Lord is coming!
How wonderfully all Scripture hangs together! Had not our blessed Lord this glorious event before Him, although the moment had not yet come for it all to be fully told out, when He uttered those memorable words to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die”?
Not only will He who is the resurrection raise, by His mighty power, that one who died in the faith, but at the same moment shall mortality be swallowed up of life. For He who is also the life shall change the living believer. He who liveth then, when Christ comes, and believeth in Him, shall never die (John 11:25, 26). The Lord did not say, “he that believeth and liveth,” but “he that liveth and believeth,” shall never die, never pass through death at all.
Some have had the thought that those who are not looking for the coming of Christ may be left behind to pass through the great tribulation, which shall come upon the earth after that event. But God accredits all Christians as looking for Christ, though many sadly lack spiritual intelligence as to the accomplishment of their hope in Him. When God says, “We which are alive and remain shall be caught up,” and “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,” His word is a sufficient answer to such unscriptural thoughts.
The 144,000 sealed of the tribes of Israel, and the great multitude of Gentiles in Revelation 7, of whom we shall speak more later on in another paper, are a fresh company preserved of God (after the translation of the heavenly saints), for millennial blessing on the earth.
How often, too, have we heard the saying: “Oh, there’s one thing certain, we shall all die,” although the Word of God most distinctly asserts the contrary. Enoch and Elijah were both taken away from this scene without passing through death; two others are likewise spoken of, the beast and the false prophet (Rev. 19:20) who shall also go to hell without dying. And, as we have seen, when our Lord comes, the living believers will be changed. Scripture is often erroneously quoted to favor this wrong thought; many say, “It is appointed unto all men once to die,” whereas God never said “all,” but simply “it is appointed unto men” (Heb. 9:27). It is the lot of men, death having come in as the wages of sin, but there have been exceptions, and Christ having died and risen, believers are in Him a new creation, on new ground altogether, and there will be a further exception for all saints who are alive when He comes. Death has no claim upon them; they have died with Him.
Another passage, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22), might at first sight present some difficulty; but when understood in its true import, it perfectly accords with what we have seen. All who remain in their old Adam-standing, natural men, will surely die; but Christians are in Christ, who is risen from among the dead, and are not viewed by God here, where the two headships are contrasted, as in Adam at all. All such shall be made alive.
In 1 Corinthians 15:51 we read the very opposite: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.” How beautiful the harmony of God’s Word, when we forsake our own thoughts, and bow to His! The apostle, by the Spirit of God, speaks of it as a mystery which he shows to the saints, “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed;” what could be plainer?
The Lord will take the very smallest possible space of time to accomplish this mighty act, “a moment,” “the twinkling of an eye,” Beloved reader, if that marvelous moment were to come now, that moment only known to the Father, that moment for which the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and all heaven wait; that moment for which every saint on earth should be waiting; would you be amongst the number changed and caught up to meet Him, and so to be “forever with the Lord?” The last trump will very shortly sound, and “the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” The term “the last trump” does not mean the last that ever will sound; Scripture distinctly speaks of others in the Revelation after this. It is a military allusion; a particular call or sound, the last of a series, well-known in military circles in that day, the signal for the departure of the men. So will this trumpet-call he responded to by every saint of God; this corruptible shall put on incorruptibility and this mortal shall put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:51-56); so beautifully agreeing with what we have seen in 1 Thess. 4. The grave shall not hold back one single saint of God; He who is alive for evermore, and has the keys of hades and of death (Rev. 1:18) will exercise His omnipotence, and all His own in earth or sea shall rise to meet Him. He was the first-fruits, “afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Cor. 15:23).
(To be continued.)