Those that Sleep

The following text ‘appears’ to have two conflicting statements within it!...

So those who are ‘asleep/dead in Christ’, will...

For years I had struggled with this text. For we are clearly told in verse 14 (1) that those who had previously died trusting in the Lord [Asleep in Christ], He will bring with Him at His coming. Yet we are further informed via verses 16 and 17 that those who are (2) ‘dead in Christ’, He will raise up to meet Him when He comes to snatch away all living believers from the Earth... just before He pours out His wrath upon a godless Earth. Which is it to be then?

At His death, Jesus entered into Hades for us... yet being guiltless of any sin, the law of ‘Sin and Death’ having no legal right to detain Him in that place, was broken. This not just for Him but for all who had and will trust in His atoning sacrifice for sin. For as one man bound us all to God’s righteous punishment for breaking His law (sin) [The first Adam] so by one man’s obedience to God’s good law [The Second Adam, Jesus] may all be freed from the terrifying, but righteous punishment for breaking it. (Just as our ‘good law of the land’ is terrifying to him who would be caught in the act of murder, rape or whatever... he can expect no mercy if he be found guilty)

And with death having no legal right to detain this righteous ‘Man’, this ‘Son of Adam’ even our brethren and now family member in Hades... the ‘Just and Righteous Father’ raised Him to eternal life, who released with Him, all those imprisoned but trusting souls who had waited in faith for the great day when He would pay for their many sins. Now Jesus, and not the accuser Satan holding the Keys of ‘Death and Hades’, detains or releases whomsoever He will in that dungeon, based on their acceptance or rejection of His atoning sacrifice. Oh the wonders and mysteries of God!

God looked for one man, just one righteous among men that could save Mankind but could find none, no not even one [Revelation 5:3], for all have sinned and are guilty before God. Thus God sent us His only begotten Son as a saviour [The Word - John 1:1-4] to enter our family, the family of Adam via His servant Mary.

Today with the ‘righteous dead’ with the Lord, it makes perfect sense that when He returns... they shall also return with Him and therefore always be with the Lord.

Paul confirms to us that the soul’s of the ‘righteous dead’ are with the Lord... when He Himself, longing to be with Him and depart this life, was torn between the two seeing that his fellow believers needed his encouragement, godly support and knowledge.

[Please note... Paul wasn’t condoning suicide, but understanding that death would bring him immediately into the presence of the Lord... simply longed to depart this life, as do many Christians, especially those whose eyes are fixed on the eternal and not the temporal.]

So far we have confirmed the validity of verse 14 which states that “those also who ‘sleep in Jesus’ God will bring with Him” At His Second Coming. But still, what of verse 16 that appears to contradict this verse when quoting “the dead shall rise first”, and of 17 that not only confirms this last statement but amplifies it by adding that all then living believers shall be “caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air”. How then can those asleep/dead in Christ come with Him and be raise-up to meet Him at the same moment?

To understand this we first need to understand what Biblically constitutes a man... what is it that we are actually made-up of, 1 Thessalonians 5:23 gives us our first clue.

We are told that we are made in the very image of God (Genesis 1:26-27) and as God is triune...
(1) Father, (2) Son, (3) Holy Spirit...
...or prier God's salvation plan in eternity past...
(1) Jehovah, (2) The Word, (3) Holy Spirit
so then are we three, who are made in His very image...

And as it was back then so it is today, for a women’s body gathers and organises the ‘dust of the Earth’ [The required elements], God breaths His live giving spirit into this wonder, and at some stage bursting into life, it becomes a living soul! So we now have a body, a life giving spirit given of God and a living soul. Which at death our body returns to the grave from where it came (the Earth) and the life giving spirit returns to God who gave it.

But of the living soul we now need not ask, for we now know that at death the soul of the unbeliever is held in Hades to await judgment and sentence, whilst the soul of the believer is sped immediately into Heaven, to ever be with his Lord, wheresoever He should be.

So today, after death with the payment for sin past [The Cross] there are two separate locations for the eternal souls of the dead.

1. With the Lord in Heaven.
   For having no outstanding debt before God the Father, having acknowledged their sin, repented and accepted Jesus’ gracious prevision for sin, these faithful souls have no outstanding debt before God. These God will soon return to Earth to live and reign with Him.


2. Hades.
   Having hardened their hearts against their own knowledge of their own sin, comforting themselves with every type of lie and excuse, resulting in their damning refusal of the gracious gift of God... they stand guilty before Him. Thus they need be held in Hades... until the great day that all the guilty shall stand to be judged and sentenced at ‘The Great White Throne Judgement’. (Revelation 20:11)

To be alive as God intended we need, a body, a life giving spirit and our ‘living soul’. This will have it’s perfect fulfilment for those of us who love the Lord when He soon returns to Earth. Yes, those who have previously ‘died trusting in Christ’ are today happily with Him, and although they shall always be with the Lord this situation (of not having a body) is not God’s perfect plan for Mankind, but only a temporal condition. For when He returns to Earth with them they shall receive... not their old mortal corruptible bodie, but a ‘quickened’ immortal and incorruptible one which God shall raise from the Earth to meet them in the air. This is called ‘The First Resurrection’.

But what of those believers, who having not tasted death Jesus finds still living, but worse... still living in their old perverse mortal bodies at His return? How then shall they share in the First Resurrection, how can their new bodies be raised-up to meet them when they still walk in them upon the Earth? We are told these saints need never see death, for God tells us that He will change their mortal bodies to immortal and their corruptible to incorruptible while still clothed in them. This in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump as they are raised together with the glorified bodies of those precious souls who come with Christ. Yes, they with them shall be raise up together to meet the Lord and their brethren in the air, and so shall they too... ever be with the Lord! (1 Corinthians 15:51)

Yet we have a sad truth to face...
For we need reflect upon those of antiquity, who before the Cross having pulled away the shoulder from a desperate conscience, refused to acknowledge their sin but choose rather to hide behind a lie. Who at the suddenness of death learned only too late the awful and horrifying truth, that all outstanding sin ‘MUST’ be accounted for if God is to remain righteous... and a righteous God He truly is! For even His great mercy towards us who believe came at a terrible price... that His only Son, His lovely, obedient, innocent Son... Jesus should taste shame, horror and death, even the death on a Cross to save us, and this by satisfying God’s righteousness. A righteousness that demand that the price of sin is death, not of an animal, bird or even an angel... but a man’s live for a man’s sin..
For these are the wretched souls who Christ left behind in Hades, back when He visited that awful place, who then by His unquestionable innocence triumphed over death on the basis of of an innocence life. Whom having being careful to be judged and crucified as a sinner, thus entered Hades. And so breaking the power of that place condemned Satan, and holding the of ‘the Keys of Death and Hades’, in His nail scared hands released that tiny band of trusting souls that had waited patiently, for His promised arrival.

Yet what of today, with multitudes upon multitudes scorning our message, a message that burns so hotly within us whom though hated, mocked and abused... we cannot keep silent. These shall in like manner learn the awful truth that at death, far from entering into an eternal oblivion that will annul all their wicked deeds, they shall find themselves cast into an oven of regret called Hades with the shame of their deeds covering them, like excrement covers the swine that has been in the sewer. From where, at some future point they shall be dragged, resurrected [In their old mortal body] to stand before a fearsome, righteous and mighty God whose Son’s payment for sin they had so despised, and whose servants they had abused, mocked and even killed.

So therefore we have two coming resurrections, the resurrection of the Just and the resurrection of the Damned, both separated by a promised one thousand year Millennium Kingdom to be lived out here on Earth. [The Millennium - Revelation 20:6]

Speaking of the soon to come first resurrection we are brought back to our original problematic verse, which now should no longer presents us with any difficulty. For we now know that on the great day Jesus comes to snatch away His own from an ungodly World, a World He is about to punish, He brings with Him those precious souls that had trusted in Him and His gracious payment for sin. [He’s work on the Cross] And snatching-up all living believers at that time, He raises with them the dead bodies of those precious souls that accompany Him, reuniting them with their new incorruptible immortal bodies in a union of true life, just as God had intended. And those living believers who are waiting for Him at His coming, He will change in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye... and their base bodies will be made glorious! This is the First Resurrection.

But what of our new glorious bodies we are to attain, which Scripture affirms can not only abide in the Heavens but on the Earth also, is not restrained by walls yet can partake of food, wine and water? If we were talking here only of organic matter we should have a problem for what if an apple tree nourishing it’s fruit from the grave a believer, should find it’s fruit then eaten of another believer, on the great day the ‘Just’ are resurrected, whose body should this organic matter belong? No, with our bodies continuously discarding and replacing bodily elements it is obvious that we are talking about so much more here than mere organic matter, but possibly of some mysterious nature that is individual to each of us, that God will regenerate our glorious body from.

So then, we shall have bodies like our King, let us then take a quick look at one or two scriptures regarding our Lord’s glorious body, as these will shed some light on ours, for He is as we shall be.

And with the Apostles fearing the Jews locked within a single room, unhindered by mere walls, distanced or heavenly dimensions the glorified Christ suddenly appeared amongst them!

So many people think that the Heavens are but a shadow of this life and that this is the richer more real world, that because... to us they are unseen. Yet it is here that is but poor a shadow of the Heavenlies and we who are but a shadow of those who abide in them. They who abide in much such higher realms than we, can... when permissible enter our reality, move mountains or fight for the righteous. We have a great example of this in 2 Kings.

Though the Christian can fight in the heavens realms through prayer, so can they trained in the dark arts petition the vile powers trapped in the air, who long ago rebelled against God, both of whom together shall be punished in an everlasting Hell. Speaking of the heavens there are yet others, less aware, but being deceived enter into these heavenly realms illegally, putting themselves in tremendous danger, these by the likes of the Ouija boards Tarot cards or presenting themselves before mediums and spiritualist and thus opening themselves up to all manner of lying entities.

But what of that great day that shall certainly arrive soon? Will you see Christ in horror and shame, or ever waiting for Him rejoice at His coming? For on that great day He will close forever the door of Grace to a World that hates Him. Then will it be that He will no longer restrain His righteous fury, but having removed His own from a rebellious generation He will punish an ungodly World that loved unrighteousness rather than justice and chose a lie rather than the truth. And think not that death will dissolve a man’s sin, for at the judgement all will be presented before a righteous and fearsome judge who will show no mercy. Who having sent His Son to obey and suffer terribly for the very sins they then stand accused, rejected Him to His face.

The World today, even at this late stage not knowing the signs Jesus warned of, refuse to believe that He is about to come, but those of us who believe and have searched out these things, know through interpreting Worldly events via Scripture, that all things spoken of are about to be fulfilled.

Not knowing the signs they blindly walk to destruction as a fool to the stocks or a bull to the slaughter house.

The signs of the times today say... He is coming very soon!