“But we
speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for
had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 NKJV
know; to perceive or
understand as fact or truth; to apprehend clearly and with certainty
Let
me begin today by asking you a question; if Satan had known that the
crucifixion would result in the salvation of the world, would he have gone
through with it? If you think that the
reference to the “rulers of this age” is speaking of the Sadducees, Pharisees,
and Pilate of Rome I suggest you might want to reconsider. The crucifixion was Satan’s master plan and it
backfired in his face in a spectacular way.
He had absolutely no idea that what he thought would be his crowning
glory would end up being God’s plan to save mankind by salvation through grace
as the result of the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.
“And
you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has
made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped
out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to
us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed
principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over
them in it.” Colossians 2:13-15 NKJV
Speaking
of Satan, Jesus said he is the ruler of this world;
“I will
no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has
nothing in Me.” John 14:30 NKJV
Paul
calls him the god of this age;
“whose
minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on
them.” 2 Corinthians 4:4 NKJV
John
describes him as the wicked one;
“We
know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked
one.” 1 John 5:19 NKJV
The
“mystery” of the “wisdom of God” was that Jesus’ death and resurrection would
result in the creation of the Church, a body of believers He would call His own
and who would spread the gospel, the good news of salvation by grace available
to all who choose to believe, to the ends of the earth. Look back at the definition of “know” from
the dictionary at the beginning of this article. Paul refers to this plan as a “mystery”
because it was not known or understood as a fact or truth, and Satan was the
one God was hiding it from.
Considering
that the mystery of the Church was hidden from Satan, it is logical to question
if there might be something else God has chosen to hide. Something many do not realize is that while
the creation of the Church was called a mystery by Paul, he also called
something else a mystery as well.
“Behold,
I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—
in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will
sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this
mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is
written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
1 Corinthians 15:51-54 NKJV
Now
to me, personally, I think it makes perfect sense that Paul describes the
rapture of the Church as a mystery. If
the birth of the Church had been known in advance to Satan, he would have come
up with some sort of plan, devised some kind of scheme, and done everything in
his power to stop that from happening.
Does it not then seem logical that if it were possible to know the
timing of the rapture that Satan would do the very same thing if he could? That is not to say that Satan doesn’t
understand prophecy for he has had two thousand years to study it and probably
knows it much better than we do, but by not revealing the timing of the rapture
God forces him to be defensive in his planning rather than offensive.
There
are some today who believe that it is possible to know or somehow deduce when
the rapture will occur. Many have actually
revealed dates they believed the Church would be taken, only to be disappointed
when those dates came and went. Can we “know”
the time of the rapture? Although some
might disagree, I would say that according to the definition of know, “to apprehend clearly and with certainty”, no
one knows when this will occur. Yet that
does not mean that the signs we are seeing are not meant to alert us to its
imminent fulfillment. Jesus made it
clear that we are to be watching, and that if we do we will know the time is
quickly approaching when we will hear the trumpet blow and Jesus will call out
to His Church to meet Him in the air.
On
that subject, I thought I would leave you with an interesting take on the
rapture from Jack Kelley, a wonderful Bible teacher I have come to know and
respect for his deep understanding of God’s Word.
To underscore the
Church’s uniqueness, its departure will have to be even more dramatic, even
more cloaked in mystery than its arrival was. Soon and very soon, on a day that
no one could have predicted in advance, believers will hear a loud command,
“Come up here!” (Rev. 4:1), accompanied by the trumpet of God. Immediately the
spirits of dead believers will receive new resurrection bodies and the living
will be transformed from mortal to immortal. Together we will meet the Lord “in
the air” having disappeared from Earth in the twinkling of an eye (1 Thes.
4:16-17, 1 Cor. 15:51-53) and then we’ll proceed to His Father’s house (John 14:2-3).
This has always
intrigued me. The Greek word for air refers to that space between Heaven and
Earth called its atmosphere. So we’re not immediately going to Heaven, nor is
the Lord coming all the way to Earth, as He will in the 2nd Coming. Instead the
meeting will take place in the atmosphere.
The atmosphere was
created on the 2nd day when God made an expanse to separate the water under it
(the sea) from the water above it (the water vapor canopy that surrounded the
Earth until the flood.) He called it the sky or firmament (Genesis 1:8). Unlike
all other creation days, the 2nd day was not pronounced good. Some scholars
speculate this is because demonic spirits immediately inhabited it. This may be
why Paul also referred to Satan as the ruler of the kingdom of the air
(Ephesians 2:2).
If this is the case,
then it means the Lord is going to shock Satan again, this time by suddenly
assembling the raptured Church in his front yard without any warning. Each list
of sins that Satan saw nailed to the cross 2000 years ago will be represented by
one deliriously happy redeemed believer in a final grand display of victory
before we fly off to our mansions in the sky. Talk about a dramatic ending for
the Age of the Church. What a day that will be. Now do you see why its exact
timing has to be kept secret? We
wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise.
Have
you ever made the decision to accept the salvation God has offered to you by
the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ? Romans 10:9 states that there are two
conditions necessary for salvation. 1) confess with your mouth and 2) believe
in your heart. Verse 10 continues, “It is with your heart that you believe and
are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” Romans
10:13 says that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. If you have never done this I urge you to do
it right now, and not be taken by surprise when the Church is called home to
spend eternity with God our Father.
Keep watching.
