Paul tells us that "God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him." This statement is from the famous "rapture" passage in the Book of First Thessalonians. We have taken Paul's words and turned them into a flight of the believers to Heaven. Paul is not emphasizing that the believers are going to fly to Heaven but that the great army of saints, from the time of the righteous Abel, will return with the Lord Jesus to destroy the wicked and establish the Kingdom of God on the earth.

Paul said this so the living believers would be comforted by the fact that they soon would see their departed loved ones and enter the Kingdom of God together with them.

In order to view the "catching-up" of the saints as the way Paul meant it to be understood we have to realize the purpose of the coming of the Lord is not to carry off His Church to Heaven.

In the first place, the great majority of the saints are already in the spirit realm. When the Lord comes He is going to bring them with Him. Since this is true, it is clear the purpose of the coming of the Lord is not to deliver the believers from Antichrist or the great tribulation.

We believe Jesus died and rose again and so we believe God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. (I Thessalonians 4:14—NIV)

What sense would it make for Jesus to come from Heaven with more than ninety-nine percent of His Church during the reign of Antichrist and the great tribulation, and then "rapture" them to Heaven to escape trouble.

This makes sense?

Second, the catching-up must follow the resurrection from the dead of those who return with the Lord and the immortalizing of those who are alive on the earth when Christ returns.

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. (I Thessalonians 4:16—NIV)

Why would resurrected and immortalized saints need to be caught up to Heaven to escape Antichrist and the great tribulation.

This makes sense?

If the purpose for the coming of the Lord is not "to carry His waiting bride to Heaven," why then will Christ return to earth? The purpose of the coming of the Lord (there is only one coming, according to the Scriptures!) is to drive wickedness from the earth and to bring justice to the saved nations—nations that were not corrupted by the wickedness of Antichrist.

When the Bible uses the term "nation" it is not referring to the modern nations as we know them. Such did not exist in Bible times. The word nation means merely any homogeneous group of people having a common language. A tribe of Indians would be a nation. A village of one hundred Vietnamese would be a nation if there was one headman and a common language. Such uncorrupted groups of people are the inheritance of Christ and His saints.

To be continued.