1515. The Rapture Proved by the Out-Resurrection

The Rapture Proved by the Out-Resurrection

"We shall all be changed, in a moment" (1Co_15:51-52).

The disembodied spirits of believers are at home with the Lord. When the Lord Jesus returns, and the bodies of sleeping saints are raised, God will bring their spirits with Him. These spirits will enter into their raised bodies and together with living saints, they will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

This is clearly the teaching of 1Th_4:14-18.

We have before proved that the saints are seen in the air with Christ during the tribulation scenes of Rev_4:1 to Rev_19:21; we want now to establish the fact that the resurrection of saints must precede the Rapture. This will assure our hearts that those with Christ, in Revelation scenes, are dwelling in their raised and glorified, or raptured and glorified bodies.

1. The Fact of a Resurrection

"But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days."

This is the last verse of Daniel's prophecy; he spoke of the fact that many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; and God told him, that he should stand in his lot at the end of the day.

The statement "in thy lot" is suggestive of a distinction in the resurrection.

2. The Fact of an Out-Resurrection

"As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming" (1Co_15:22-23).

The resurrection here is positively placed at the parousia, coming of Christ.

Paul spoke of an out-resurrection; he said: "If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." The literal rendering is the "out-resurrection."

3. The Fact of an Out-Resurrection and a Rapture

"Behold, 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" (1Co_15:51-52).

The dead are to be changed, for "corruption must put on incorruption;" the living are to be changed, because the mortal are to "put on immortality." This change takes place as the dead and living are caught up to Christ.

"For our citizenship (1911 Bible) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body" (Php_3:20-21).

Jesus Christ said: "I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die" (Joh_11:25-26).

In these words Christ clearly taught the resurrection of the dead and the rapture of the living.

The Apostle Paul, in the Holy Spirit, taught the same thing with the additional words, that "we shall all be changed."

Surely the passages quoted are sufficient to set forth the resurrection and the rapture of saints with new bodies, caught up to meet their descending Lord.

4. The Post-Tribulation Resurrection

"I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years" (Rev_20:4).

In this resurrection only tribulation saints are mentioned, those martyrs who had refused to worship the beast or his image, or to receive his mark. As this resurrection is the finality of the first resurrection, therefore the resurrection of the saints of other ages, must have already taken place.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR