For the
Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an
archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise
first. 1 Thessalonians
4:16 NKJV
Today
begins the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, a celebration of their New Year
beginning just as the western world does on January first. It is a holiday that many believe has serious
rapture possibilities written all over it for a number of reasons. Although I believe the rapture could happen
at any time, and is not reliant on occurring on a Jewish holy day, it is
certainly a possibility. Rosh Hashanah
is set to begin at sundown today in Israel, but I feel I should also mention
that it is also called the day which no one knows because in Biblical times,
the calendar was set by the sighting of the New Moon at sunset. So although on the calendar it begins today, many
believe that technically we should wait to see if the moon is sighted before
the celebration begins.
Concerning
the rapture of the Church, however, I thought I would share some thoughts I
have concerning what we might experience when that blessed hope finally
occurs. As I studied the question of the
rapture, I was surprised to find that some of the teachers I highly respect do
not necessarily agree with some of my thoughts.
Although I suppose that should not come as a surprise, it still was a
disappointment to me because I believe that the Bible is pretty clear on the
events surrounding our deliverance. So
enjoy reading today and decide for yourself if those who choose to believe that
Jesus Christ died for our sins will in fact, know when we go.
One
of the things I enjoyed most when teaching young people were the questions I
often got from them concerning the things we were studying in the scriptures.
One of my favorites, and one I got repeatedly when teaching the rapture of the
Church is if we will know or be aware that we are being raptured, or do we
simply find ourselves suddenly in heaven without a clue that it was about to
happen? That really is a great question and one I think many of us have thought
about at one time or another, so I thought we might take a little time this
morning to look closer at the event we call the rapture.
This
verse in Thessalonians is probably the best one we can use in describing
exactly what God says will happen on that day. If we look closely at what it
says, we find that we are told there are actually three distinct things which
will occur in sequence when Jesus returns for His Church. These are a shout by
the Lord Himself, the voice of an archangel, and the sound of the trumpet of
God. So let's look closer at each of these three and see if there is a clue to
the answer to our question “will we know”?
The Shout. In this verse we
are told this shout is from the Lord Jesus Himself. Now at first, it would seem
understandable that Jesus might want to shout since He has been waiting over
two thousand years to come get His bride, yet there may be more to it than
that. We are also told here that “the dead in Christ will rise first”. So there
is a sequence of events, and the first is the resurrection of the bodies of those
believers who have already died to be reunited with their souls which went to
be with Lord at the time of their death.
We are
confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be
present with the Lord. 2 Corinthians
5:8 NKJV
When
a believer dies, his soul goes to be with the Lord in Heaven while his body is
left behind. At the time of the rapture, the Lord apparently commands their
bodies to rise from the grave just as He did with Lazarus.
Now
when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come
forth!" John 11:43 NKJV
So
the first thing to happen at the time of the rapture is the resurrection of the
dead in Christ. While teaching this during Sunday School, one of my students
said “dude, wouldn’t it be cool to be in
a cemetery when that happens?” We laugh, but I just wonder if he is right? Everybody present saw Lazarus arise, so I
just wonder if we will see the dead in Christ arise?
The Voice. The only angel in
the Bible to receive the title of archangel is the angel Michael, so I think it
is safe to assume that is who is being talked about here. As opposed to the
Lord's “shout”, we are told that we only hear the “voice” of Michael, so we are
left to wonder exactly what his role here is. If you have studied this passage
in the past, or study it further, you will find there are a few opinions as to
what might be going on. Although any of them might be right, I am going to go
as far as to suggest a new one which may or may not be accurate, but feels the
most comfortable to me. As I sat and thought about why Michael might be
involved, I decided to look at the other occasions where he is mentioned in the
Bible. A very interesting place I found is in the book of Jude where we are
told this;
Yet
Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the
body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said,
"The Lord rebuke you!" Jude
1:9 NKJV
Now
I certainly found it curious that here we find a situation involving Michael
that, along with the account of the rapture, is concerned with a body belonging
to a believer. In this account in Jude, the only explanation that makes any
sense is that Satan was disputing “possession” of the dead body of Moses. We
can find an account of this in the non-canonical Book of Enoch, which Jude is
obviously referring to. In that account Satan laid claim to the body for two
reasons. The first was that Moses was a murderer because he took the life of an
Egyptian, and the second was that Moses body was buried on earth, and he,
Satan, is the lord over the things of this world. So my thoughts are these; if
Satan has in the past disputed over the ownership of the body of one believer,
just what will his reaction to the resurrection of all dead believers bodies
be? If in fact this is what happens, doesn't it make sense that the same
scenario will repeat itself and the voice of the archangel is Michael again
saying “The Lord rebuke you” to Satan? As I said, there are other ideas
concerning this portion of the verse, but since both of these accounts of
Michael concern the ownership of believers bodies, to me this seems to be a reasonable
conclusion.
The Trumpet. Actually, we are
told here that what we hear is the "trumpet of God". Just what
exactly is this trumpet sound and what if anything makes it special? In another
account of the rapture, Paul tells us this;
In a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed. 1
Corinthians 15:52 NKJV
Here
Paul refers to this trumpet as the "last trump". This helps us
identify it for from studying rabbinical sources we see that this use of the
term "last trump" means it is the shofar, or ram's horn which is
being used. The shofar is related to the account of Abraham sacrificing Isaac,
and rabbinical tradition regards the left horn as the "first trump"
and the right horn as the "last trump". There are two ways to blow
the shofar, with the first being a series of short blasts which signify an
alarm or bad news, and the second being one long blast which is meant to signal
victory or good news. It is this last long blast which is identified as the
"last trump". According to rabbinical sources the "last
trump" or "tekiah gedolah" lasts as long as the blower has the
lung capacity to blow. In this case, where the "trumpet of God"is
being blown, one has to wonder just how long the blast will be? My personal
opinion is very, very long.
The
shout of Jesus calling for the resurrection of all dead believers bodies to
rise, Michael rebuking Satan in the Lord's name for possession of the bodies,
and the tekiah gedolah which lasts as
long as the blower has breath, certainly gives rise to the thought that the
answer to our original question might well be; yes! Yes we will know that the
rapture is occurring because there is a sequence of three events which must
take place before we go. I suspect the last trump will last long enough for all
believers to know and understand that the time has come for the bride to go
with the bridegroom and to rise and meet Him in the air. Come quickly Lord
Jesus!
Keep
watching. (and listening)
