Do you think the millions of saints that will return with Jesus and claim their bodies from the grave could be harmed by Antichrist or the great tribulation?

Can you see that a rapture to escape Antichrist and the great tribulation is not only unscriptural but nonsensical?

But everyone believes it. No, many distinguished Evangelical scholars have rejected this unscriptural emphasis. In any case, everyone used to believe the earth was flat!

But maybe we will be raptured before the day of resurrection.

Wrong on two counts.

First, we could not be caught up into the air to meet Jesus before our body was changed in some manner. And there would be no need for Jesus to come and bring just our spirit to Heaven. He can do that by killing us. Not too long ago the spirits of thousands of people of Nicaragua and Honduras passed from the physical realm into the spirit realm because of a natural catastrophe. No rapture was necessary.

Also, the concept that only our spirit is raptured is unscriptural.

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)

The dead in Christ will rise first. This does not mean rise into the air, it means rise from the dead just as Jesus rose from the dead on the third day.

The dead in Christ are not caught up first, they are raised from the dead.

Do you see there is no need for the dead in Christ to ascend to Heaven? They have just come from Heaven! Only a relative handful of God's witnesses will be on earth at this time. The great multitude who are raised are the deceased saints of all ages, including the deceased relatives of the grieving Thessalonians.

Nowhere, nowhere, nowhere in the Bible will you find any passage that tells us God will deliver the dead and living saints from Antichrist and the great tribulation by carrying them to Heaven. This is woefully unscriptural and illogical.

The doctrine of surpassing importance is that of the resurrection.

Paul was seeking to attain the resurrection. Can you imagine Paul seeking to attain the catching-up?

Read carefully the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians. See if you can find any indication that it is important we are caught up, that it is a major doctrine of redemption worthy of being preached every Sunday.

Is our resurrection important?

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (I Corinthians 15:19,20—NIV)

Can you see that in the above verse Paul does not emphasize our life in Heaven? Paul is saying our hope in Christ extends from the present life to the life we will have when we have been raised from the sleep of death. We are not making a case for soul sleep, just pointing out that Paul is claiming here that if we are not to be raised from the dead we are pitiable. He makes no reference to our being caught up to Heaven.

To be continued.