For we
know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building
from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we
groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from
heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who
are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed,
but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 2
Corinthians 5:1-4 NKJV
Since
confession is good for the soul, let me confess; I have been doing a lot of
groaning lately. You see, although it
appeared I would make it through this flu season unscathed, I made the mistake
of traveling to Southern California for a week and as you might expect, caught
the bug from someone. I am one of those
who rarely if ever get sick, so when I do, I tend to groan a lot. Like many, I find that as I grow older I spend
considerable time reflecting on just how nice it will be to finally get my
heavenly body and leave this old bag of bones behind, and with that in mind I
couldn’t help this week dreaming about hearing the call to come home.
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
This
is a subject I have talked about before, but seeing what is happening right now,
and thinking about the seventieth anniversary of Israel’s independence
approaching, I thought I would share some thoughts with you again that I have discussed
before 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 wonder if it’s possible we will see the dead in Christ rise?
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 this 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, of 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.
If
you have never accepted the free gift of God’s grace, and the forgiveness of
your sin, you can do it today. Just pray
a simple prayer like this and believe that He will do as He has said He will,
and you too will go to be with Him for eternity and receive a new,
incorruptible body which will never get sick, and never grow old. Dear
Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and I believe You died for my sins. Right now,
I turn from my sins and open the door of my heart and life. I confess You as my
personal Lord and Savior. Thank You for saving me. Amen.
Come
quickly Lord Jesus!
Keep
watching, (and listening).
