A PERSPECTIVE OF THE END TIMES FOR CHRISTIANS (Part 3)
There has been no end to the confusion on whether Christians go through the great tribulation or the wrath there are even some that say that Christians have to go through the resurrection. They don’t understand, first, our position as sons of God, second, the difference between the resurrection of Israel and all unbelievers and the rising of the Christians. One of the verses that has cause such confusion is II Thessalonians 2:3.
A PERSPECTIVE OF THE END TIMES FOR CHRISTIANS (Part 3)
AN UNDERSTANDING OF II THESSALONIANS 2:1-3
There has been no end to the confusion on whether Christians go through the great tribulation or the wrath there are even some that say that Christians have to go through the resurrection. They don’t understand, first, our position as sons of God, second, the difference between the resurrection of Israel and all unbelievers and the rising of the Christians. One of the verses that has cause such confusion is II Thessalonians 2:3.
Ii Thessalonians 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
What theologians have taught is that there has to be “a falling away” from Christendom as told in chapter 3. However, that does not fit with the context of verses one and two. Verse one talks about “our gathering unto him”. Verse two says that we shouldn’t “be shaken in mind or be troubled by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter from us (the apostles), as that day of Christ is at hand.” In other words that Christ is coming to gather us together. Then verse three is on the same subject in talking about a “falling away”. It is not a falling away! It is a gathering together! Bibles that pre-date the King James version have this section translated “a gathering together”. Those bibles being the Geneva Bible, the Cranmer Bible printed in 1537 and the Tyndale Bible of 1539.
This truth is substantiated by I Corinthians chapter 15 and I Thessalonians chapter 4.
I Corinthians 15: 51 Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
I Thessalonians 4: 13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Both records, I Thessalonians 4:17 and I Corinthians 15:54 record the same event happening and put it into different terms for easier understanding. Mortals putting on immortality in I Corinthians 15:54 is the same as I Thessalonians 4:17 being “caught up together in the clouds to meet the lord in the air.”
The difference between the resurrection of the just and the unjust and the rising of the Christians is that ALL people that were living have to die to have a resurrection, whereas, in the rising of the Church of Christ not all are dead! Some of us change from mortal to immortal.
We are not here when the antichrist arrives on the scene because we are already gathered together with Christ.
