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The Daily Word of Righteousness
"Rapture" or Resurrection?, #3
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. (Revelation 20:6)
If the catching up of the saints had one-tenth the importance being assigned to it today it would be discussed in several passages of the New Testament, as is true of the doctrine of righteousness, for example.
The Book of Revelation, which is the definitive unveiling of the future, does not reveal a withdrawing of the believers to Paradise for the purpose of escaping suffering or escaping the Antichrist. It is the resurrection, not the catching up, that is the victory.
Once we have been raised from the dead we have no need of being caught up to deliver us from suffering. We shall have immortal bodies. Therefore it is not logical to speak of the catching up as being for the purpose of escaping suffering or danger.
Rather, the catching up of the saints is for the purpose of arraying the army of Christ in battle formation under the Commander in Chief.
It is Christ's resurrection, not His catching up, that saves us, that justifies us. We are being pressed into His crucifixion and His resurrection. The power of Christ's resurrection is associated with the fellowship of His sufferings. Christ's ascension, which took place forty days after His resurrection (as may prove to be true also in our own case), was not an act of redemption on a level with His resurrection.
Redemption is the reclaiming of that which disobedient man forfeited to Satan. Man forfeited access to eternal life, not residence in Heaven.
To our knowledge there is no inkling of such an emphasis in the Old Testament, while the resurrection from the dead indeed is presented in the Old Testament.
For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: (Job 19:25,26)
Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. (Isaiah 26:19)
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2)
But no Old Testament passage that mentions a catching up.
Resurrection into eternal life in the Presence of the Lord Jesus is the great hope of the Christian Church. Ascension into the realm of spirits is no guarantee that we will not suffer. Indeed, there is much suffering in the spirit realm. The worst suffering anyone can experience is found in the spiritual Hell and the spiritual Lake of Fire. There is no release there by means of unconsciousness or death.
To be continued.