THAT BLESSED HOPE
By Clyde L. Pilkington Jr.
"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13).
We have seen from the Scriptures that the hope of man has been the resurrection. To Paul, the apostle, God revealed a mystery in relation to resurrection. He called this mystery hope, the "blessed hope." Some saints will bypass death and proceed straight to resurrection. This will be the blessed experience of those who are still alive at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 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. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 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" (II Corinthians 15:51-54).
"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. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 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. 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: 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. Wherefore comfort one another with these words (I Thessalonians 4:13-18).
(Editor's Comments: Some of you reading this may think, "Why was this article even written? All it does, for the most part, is simply restate exactly what is written in the Bible." That is precisely the point! This is not about some special, "secret rapture" of the Paulinian believers in Christ. It is the resurrection and vivification of all who died in Christ, and the vivification of all who are in Christ, who are surviving, at the time of his second coming.
Believe the word of God; not in something that men have mistakenly fabricated from it.)