Tag Archives: Jesus

WHY RESURRECTION MATTERS

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Based on the increased church attendance in Easter, it is not surprising that two-thirds of Americans believe Jesus rose from the dead. That should sound encouraging, but unfortunately, not all of them believe everything the Bible says about Christ’s resurrection. For many, it is a nice thought they acknowledge once a year without considering the life-changing importance the resurrection has for their daily lives. Because Jesus lives, we can too, and that sure hope impacts how we approach each day. Not all life-changing events should be taken for granted or overlooked especially the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Christ changes everything.

                                Read 1 Corinthians 15:20-22

Paul now turns from negative (15:11-19) to positive consequences of the resurrection (15:20-28) – the assurance of the resurrection of the body of believers from the dead.

                                     But now Christ is risen from the dead,

       The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is a fact. He is risen indeed! and has become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Passover was on the fourteenth day of the first month of the Jewish calendar. Jews offered a sacrifice of first-fruits the Sunday after the Sabbath (Saturday) following Passover, the feast of Unleavened Bread (Le 23:10-11). The priest would bring a sheaf of grain and wave it before the Lord. This “first-fruits” was representative of the harvest to follow and the first installment of the harvest to come. It was like a guarantee, or first payment on what was to come. This day Jesus arose. Jesus was the “first-fruits” at the time of His resurrection. The full harvest of the corps of believers was to follow.

      The Jews presented a grain offering to God on Pentecost 50 days later; this was also called “first-fruits” (Le 23:15-17). Thus, the first first-fruits of the Passover was the first of the crops offered later. Jesus is the “first-fruits” and the harvest is yet to come. Paul compared these two first-fruits to Jesus’ resurrection and the resurrection of believers. If God raised Jesus, He will also raise the saints after Him.

      “Those who have fallen asleep” are believers who had died at some point in the past. Christ’s resurrection became the first-fruits to rise from the dead of those who had already died from the Corinthian point of view. Jesus was the first human being resurrected. Jesus resuscitated Lazarus from the dead, but Jesus did not raise him into a resurrection body. Lazarus returned from the dead to the same life only to die again. Jesus rose never to die again.

      For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.

     The two representative men in the Bible are Adam and Jesus. Adam represented the death of man because of his sin and Jesus represented salvation of man’s physical body by His resurrection; He makes believers alive for all eternity (Ro 5:12-19). Jesus was the first-fruits of those who would later rise from the dead.

       For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

The resurrection of the believer will be a physical resurrection, not a spiritual resurrection. Just as certainly as Adam died, so those in Christ will have resurrection life. Note the word “all.” “All” in one case is the “all” in another case. Everyone dies without exception in Adam (He 9:27), but everyone who believes in Jesus will rise bodily from the dead without exception.

                    Read 1 Corinthians 15:23-28

Only the just, the righteous, will rise at Christ’s second coming, each in his own order. God will raise the martyred saints to eternal life, but the unjust dead will not be resurrected until the end of this period. If we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us when we die, we will be resurrected through the power of that same Spirit at that time (Romans 8:9, 11, 14). In addition to the dead in Christ, those who are true Christians at His coming will rise in the first resurrection. The Feast of Trumpets celebrates the second coming of Jesus Christ to intervene in world affairs, resurrect the first fruits, and establish God’s Kingdom on earth (Matthew 24:30-31; Revelation 11:15).

Then (v. 24): The word “then” means after this. There is an interval of time between the order of ranks of the resurrection at Jesus’ Second Coming and the establishment of His mediatory Millennial Kingdom. The Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and 25 gives the signs that precede Jesus’ Second Coming to establish His Millennial Kingdom.

Comes the end, “The end” is the end of time and the ushering in of eternity. This will be 1007 years after the Rapture. There will be seven years of Tribulation, then Jesus will reign in the Millennium for 1000 years (Re 20:7-10).

When He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, Jesus will deliver the Millennial Kingdom to the Father at the end of the Millennium (v.25). When He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power, He puts all His enemies under His feet-Millennium (Re 20:7-10). All things will be what God intended them to be. Sin will not exist, and the Father will reign without challenge.

The last enemy that will be destroyed is death (v.26). Jesus will defeat death so that, from that point forward, there will be no further death. Jesus will destroy the final enemy by the resurrection of the body of the believer. The word “destroyed” is a strong term meaning annihilated. This is the death of death. Universal death will end at this point. Once we pass from death into our resurrection body, we will never die again. Jesus’ victory in time will be the death of death. There will come a time when death will die. Christians will live in their resurrection bodies for eternity.

      If death be an enemy, (as we usually judge), that also must be destroyed; and there is no other way to destroy death, but by the causing of a resurrection from the dead. So that the apostle proves the resurrection from the necessity of Christ’s reigning until all his enemies be destroyed, of which death is one; for it keeps the bodies of the members of Christ from their union with their souls, and with Christ, who is the Head of the whole believer, the body as well as the soul.

       For he hath put all things under his feet (v.27).—1Corinthians 15:26 is a parenthesis, and the “for” with which this verse commences goes back to 1Corinthians 15:25. The connection is, Christ must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. Christ must triumph, for according to the statement in Psalm 8:6 (see also Psalm 110:1), God hath put all things under man, and in a higher sense under the Son of Man. (For a similar application of Old Testament statement regarding man to Christ as the Son of Man, see Matthew 21:16; Hebrews 2:7.) But when God says that all things are put under Him, He evidently is excepted who did put all things under Him. This leads up logically to the complete triumph of God the Father, expressed in the following verse, which is an expansion of 1Corinthians 15:24.

       Son … himself … subject—not as the creatures are, but as a Son voluntarily subordinate to, though co-equal with, the Father (v. 28). In the mediatorial kingdom, the Son had been, in a manner, distinct from the Father. Now, His kingdom shall merge in the Father’s, with whom He is one; not that there is thus any derogation from His honor; for the Father Himself wills “that all should honor the Son, as they honor the Father” (Joh 5:22, 23; Heb 1:6). God … all in all—as Christ is all in all (Col 3:11; compare Zech. 14:9). Then, and not till then, “all things,” without the least infringement of the divine prerogative, shall be subject to the Son, and the Son subordinate to the Father, while co-equally sharing His glory. Contrast Ps 10:4; 14:1. Even the saints do not fully realize God as their “all” (Ps 73:25) now, through desiring it; then each shall feel, God is all to me.

                         Read 1 Corinthians 15:54-58

      But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I’ll probably never fully understand. We’re not all going to die—but we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes—it’s over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we’ll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen- everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true:

             Death swallowed by triumphant Life!
             Who got the last word, oh, Death?
             Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now?

      These words, with the following clause, are taken out of ( Hosea 13:14 ) and that they belong to the times of the Messiah, the ancient Jews acknowledge; and the Chaldee paraphrase interprets them of the Logos, or Word of God, rendering them thus,

“my Word shall be among them to kill, and my Word to destroy;”

      Wherefore the apostle is not to be charged with a misapplication of them, nor with a perversion of them, as he is by the Jew: in the prophet they are thus read, “O death, I will be thy plagues, O grave, I will be thy destruction”; between which, and the apostle’s citation of them, there is some difference; the word (yha) , which we render in both clauses, “I will be”, the apostle translates “where”, and that very rightly, and so it should be rendered there; and so it is by the Septuagint interpreters, who render the whole as he, with a little variation, “where is thy revenge, O death? where is thy sting, O grave?” and so the Arabic version of Hosea still nearer the apostle, “where is now thy victory, O death?” or “where is thy sting, O grave?” and even the Chaldee paraphrase on ( Hosea 13:14 ) renders the same word “where”; for instead of, “I will be thy king”, the Targum reads, (Na Kklm) , “where is thy king?”

        The sting of death is sin
Death has a sting, and which was originally in it, and that is sin; sin is the cause of death, it is what has given rise and being to it; it entered into the world by it, and is supported in its empire through it; it gives it its resistless power, which reaches to all sorts of persons, young and old, rich and poor, high and low, bond and free; it gives it all its bitterness, agonies, and miseries; and it is by that it does all the hurt and mischief it does; and it may fitly be compared to a sting, for its poisonous and venomous nature:

        The strength of sin is the law;
not that the law of God is sinful, or encourages sin: it forbids it under the severest penalty; but was there no law there would be no sin, nor imputation of it; sin is a transgression of the law: moreover, the strength of sin, its evil nature, and all the dreadful aggravations of it, and sad consequences upon it, are discovered and made known by the law; and also the strength of it is drawn out by it, through the corruption of human nature.

        But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory
Over sin the sting of death, over the law the strength of sin, and over death and the grave; and which will be the ground and foundation of the above triumphant song in the resurrection morn, as it is now at this present time of praise and thankfulness to God: and it is all

          Through our Lord Jesus;
He has got the victory over sin; he has put it away by the sacrifice of himself; he has finished and made an end of it; for though it reigns over his people before conversion, and dwells in them after it, yet in consequence of his atonement for it, it loses its governing power through the Spirit and grace of God in regeneration.

        It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God! With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.

       This is the conclusion of the whole, and contains the use the apostle makes of the above doctrine, addressing the saints at Corinth in the most tender and affectionate manner; owning the spiritual relation they stood in to him, and expressing the great love he had for them, which filled him with a concern for them, that they might be both sound in principle, and right in practice.

            Be ye steadfast, unmovable; in all the doctrines of the Gospel, and particularly in this of the resurrection of the dead, which he had been laboring throughout the whole chapter.    Always abounding in the work of the Lord; going on in it, being more and more in the practice of it; either in the work of the ministry, which some of them were in, to which the Lord had called them, and for which he had fitted and qualified them, and in which his glory was greatly concerned, and therefore called his work; or any other work, even all good works, which the Lord commands, requires, calls his people to, and strengthens them to perform: which when they do they may be said to abound, and to be fruitful in every good work: and for their encouragement it is added

RAPTURE 4

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Characteristics of the Rapture

  1. It will be sudden! 2. It will be unexpected! 3. It will be surprising! 4. We should be alert!

Jesus said, “No man knows the day or the hour” so we should live so as to “be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew14:44). Only a pretribulation rapture preserves an imminent (“at any moment”) return of Christ. Throughout the ages, Christians have understood the rapture to be imminent. Nothing could be a better motivator to holy living than knowing that Jesus could come as any moment. In fact, He may come before you are finished reading this.

Also, Jesus will come in a cloud and take His believers back to heaven, where He has prepared a place for them. There will be an exodus of believers that will leave non-believers on earth alone. Jesus will not meet His non-believers in a battle and He will not establish a reign on earth. Remember the Second Coming of Jesus is one event that occurs in two parts. The Scriptures that provide these characteristics have already been presented herein. This is just a summary of what to expect and what will not happen at the rapture.

The 7,000 Year Theory of Mankind

The 7,000 Year Theory is one of the oldest theories dating from the earliest days of the Church. It begins with God creating the heavens and the earth in six days and resting on the seventh. It should be noted that God does not spell out upon which “day” was the first day in terms of days of the week as we know them. The theory states that God will deal with mankind for six of His days (6,000 of our years) and rest on the seventh day (the1,000-year Millennium). It also assumes that all the days of the week are of equal length. Knowing three other Scripture verses will help in understanding: 1) 2 Peter 3:8 teaches one day with the Lord is 1,000 years, 2) Hebrews 4:4-11 presents the Millennium as a day of rest, and 3) Revelation 20:1-9 gives us the idea of a 1,000-year Millennium.

According to the Jewish calendar (which has today’s year 360 days –not 365), 3,760 years after Creation the Christian Era begin (1 AD on our calendar). That is almost four of God’s days. Since its beginning, the Christian Era has lasted almost 2,000 years or two more of God’s days. This means mankind is approaching the seventh God-day (the Millennium). But before the Millennium occurs two things must take place- the Rapture and the Tribulation Period.

As we are now in the 21st Century and a new millennium, there is a sense of change in the air with mounting anticipation about the Rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Today, Messianic expectations are rampant among Jews in Israel, Predictions of the Rapture and the Second Coming are widespread among Christians, and doomsday prophecies are flourishing among cults. As a reminder in Matthew 24:44, Jesus said: “No man knows the day or the hour,” so we should live so as to “be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect”.
Some Rapture Background/History

Critics of the Pretribulation rapture view often refer to its lack of historical support. These critic types have argued that it was invented by John Darby in the mid-1800s and was never mentioned before that. These arguments generally reason that because this teaching is less than 100 years old, it cannot be biblical, or Christians would have held to this view many years earlier. What this reasoning fails to completely understand is that biblical truth must be determined by the clear teaching of Scripture, not how that teaching has been perceived throughout history. This reasoning seems to completely ignore the way Scripture is determined to be in the Bible. However, a substantial amount of Scripture evidence reveals a belief in a Pretribulational rapture long before John Darby. The earliest documents of the ancient church (including the New Testament cannon) reflect a clear premillennialism. Pretribulationists point to the early church’s clear belief in imminence as evidence that Pretribulationism was held by at least a few from the earliest times.

Clearly early views of the church’s theology were underdeveloped and sometimes contradictory, containing a base out of which would develop various and diverse theological viewpoints. Finding clear Pretribulationism spelled out in the early church fathers is difficult, but some Pretribulational elements are clear. When systematized with their other prophetic views, these elements contradict posttribulationism, and support Pretribulationism. For an example, the apostolic fathers clearly taught the Pretribulational features of imminence. So an examination of the early church fathers reveals that they were predominantly Premillennialists or chiliasts. I found at least eight listed writings from 100 AD to 330 AD. That supported these views. While the early church fathers expected the church to be suffering and persecuted when the Lord returns, they also believed in the imminent return of Christ, which is a central feature of Pretribulational thought.

Expressions of imminence abound in the apostolic fathers. Clement of Rome (90-100 AD), Ignatius of Antioch (98-117), The Didache (100-160), The Epistle of Barnabas (117-138), and The Shepherd of Hermas (96-150) all speak of imminence. In fact, The Shepherd of Hermas speaks of escaping the Tribulation. So in the end, one cannot find a clear statement of patristic eachatology in the early church regarding the rapture. However, the argument that Pretribulation is not valid only because of the lack of historical support in the early church is certainly NOT true. What we can conclude from the early church fathers is:

  1. They expected a literal coming of Christ followed by a literal 1000-year kingdom.
  2. They believed in the imminent coming of Christ with occasional Pretribulational inferences.
  3. They were being persecuted by the Roman government but did not equate this with the future Tribulation wrath.
  1. It will be sudden! 2. It will be unexpected! 3. It will be surprising! 4. We should be alert!

Jesus said, “No man knows the day or the hour” so we should live so as to “be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew14:44). Only a pretribulation rapture preserves an imminent (“at any moment”) return of Christ. Throughout the ages, Christians have understood the rapture to be imminent. Nothing could be a better motivator to holy living than knowing that Jesus could come as any moment. In fact, He may come before you are finished reading this.

Also, Jesus will come in a cloud and take His believers back to heaven, where He has prepared a place for them. There will be an exodus of believers that will leave non-believers on earth alone. Jesus will not meet His non-believers in a battle and He will not establish a reign on earth. Remember the Second Coming of Jesus is one event that occurs in two parts. The Scriptures that provide these characteristics have already been presented herein. This is just a summary of what to expect and what will not happen at the rapture.

The 7,000 Year Theory of Mankind

The 7,000 Year Theory is one of the oldest theories dating from the earliest days of the Church. It begins with God creating the heavens and the earth in six days and resting on the seventh. It should be noted that God does not spell out upon which “day” was the first day in terms of days of the week as we know them. The theory states that God will deal with mankind for six of His days (6,000 of our years) and rest on the seventh day (the1,000-year Millennium). It also assumes that all the days of the week are of equal length. Knowing three other Scripture verses will help in understanding: 1) 2 Peter 3:8 teaches one day with the Lord is 1,000 years, 2) Hebrews 4:4-11 presents the Millennium as a day of rest, and 3) Revelation 20:1-9 gives us the idea of a 1,000-year Millennium.

According to the Jewish calendar (which has today’s year 360 days –not 365), 3,760 years after Creation the Christian Era begin (1 AD on our calendar). That is almost four of God’s days. Since its beginning, the Christian Era has lasted almost 2,000 years or two more of God’s days. This means mankind is approaching the seventh God-day (the Millennium). But before the Millennium occurs two things must take place- the Rapture and the Tribulation Period.

As we are now in the 21st Century and a new millennium, there is a sense of change in the air with mounting anticipation about the Rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Today, Messianic expectations are rampant among Jews in Israel, Predictions of the Rapture and the Second Coming are widespread among Christians, and doomsday prophecies are flourishing among cults. As a reminder in Matthew 24:44, Jesus said: “No man knows the day or the hour,” so we should live so as to “be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect”.
Some Rapture Background/History

Critics of the Pretribulation rapture view often refer to its lack of historical support. These critic types have argued that it was invented by John Darby in the mid-1800s and was never mentioned before that. These arguments generally reason that because this teaching is less than 100 years old, it cannot be biblical, or Christians would have held to this view many years earlier. What this reasoning fails to completely understand is that biblical truth must be determined by the clear teaching of Scripture, not how that teaching has been perceived throughout history. This reasoning seems to completely ignore the way Scripture is determined to be in the Bible. However, a substantial amount of Scripture evidence reveals a belief in a Pretribulational rapture long before John Darby. The earliest documents of the ancient church (including the New Testament cannon) reflect a clear premillennialism. Pretribulationists point to the early church’s clear belief in imminence as evidence that Pretribulationism was held by at least a few from the earliest times.

Clearly early views of the church’s theology were underdeveloped and sometimes contradictory, containing a base out of which would develop various and diverse theological viewpoints. Finding clear Pretribulationism spelled out in the early church fathers is difficult, but some Pretribulational elements are clear. When systematized with their other prophetic views, these elements contradict posttribulationism, and support Pretribulationism. For an example, the apostolic fathers clearly taught the Pretribulational features of imminence. So an examination of the early church fathers reveals that they were predominantly Premillennialists or chiliasts. I found at least eight listed writings from 100 AD to 330 AD. That supported these views. While the early church fathers expected the church to be suffering and persecuted when the Lord returns, they also believed in the imminent return of Christ, which is a central feature of Pretribulational thought.

Expressions of imminence abound in the apostolic fathers. Clement of Rome (90-100 AD), Ignatius of Antioch (98-117), The Didache (100-160), The Epistle of Barnabas (117-138), and The Shepherd of Hermas (96-150) all speak of imminence. In fact, The Shepherd of Hermas speaks of escaping the Tribulation. So in the end, one cannot find a clear statement of patristic eachatology in the early church regarding the rapture. However, the argument that Pretribulation is not valid only because of the lack of historical support in the early church is certainly NOT true. What we can conclude from the early church fathers is:

  1. They expected a literal coming of Christ followed by a literal 1000-year kingdom.
  2. They believed in the imminent coming of Christ with occasional Pretribulational inferences.
  3. They were being persecuted by the Roman government but did not equate this with the future Tribulation wrath.