What should we do to awaken the Christian churches, because it appears most Christian churches believe First Thessalonians 4:13-17 sets forth a "pre-tribulation rapture" as the manner in which the living Christians will escape from Antichrist and the great tribulation.

Should we fire cannons?—bang on pans?—say, look! look! look!, the passage is about deceased believers? Deceased believers!

Is there anything we can do or say that will cause Christian Christians to perceive that the passage has nothing to do with Christians disappearing and being carried off to Heaven to escape suffering? It is a word of comfort to believers concerning fellow saints who have died.

"That ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope."

This is Paul's reason for writing to them—that they do not grieve concerning dead Christians. The passage is seldom if ever used today to comfort living Christians concerning their dead loved ones. It is employed to assure living Christians that they will be carried to Heaven so they will not have to face Antichrist or suffer during the great tribulation.

The sincere student can perceive at once that the passage is not being applied as the Apostle intended.

He can perceive also that the saints in Thessalonica did not view going to Heaven as the goal of salvation. If they viewed going to Heaven as the goal of salvation they would not have been concerned about the death of their fellow believers.

Salvation delivers us by changing us so we no longer are citizens of Hell but of the Paradise of God. Salvation is the change in us, not a change of environment while we ourselves have not been changed.

It was little comfort to the saints of Thessalonica that their loved ones were in Heaven with Jesus. The Apostles did not present eternal residence in Heaven as the hope of salvation.

What, then, did the Apostles point to as the goal of salvation? The Apostles emphasized the righteousness that comes to us as we receive the Lord Jesus and turn away from our sins. When through the Lord Jesus we have our sins forgiven and are able to resist sin and live righteously, then we have the hope of eternal life and of entering the Kingdom of God when the Lord returns.

To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. (Acts 26:18)

The Apostles preached salvation in terms of the Day of the Lord, the coming of Christ in His Kingdom with the holy angels, the Day of Judgment. The purpose of salvation is to be received favorably by the Lord and to enter eternal life in the Kingdom of God, and to avoid being destroyed by the wrath of God when the Lord returns.

Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:31)

And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. (I Thessalonians 1:10)

The Thessalonian believers would not understand at all our present hope of living forever in a mansion in the spirit realm.

To be continued.