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The Period between the First Resurrection and the Catching Away

I don’t know that I have ever heard anyone preach on the interval of time between our being raised from the dead and our being caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

The fourth chapter of the Book of First Thessalonians speaks of the saints, who will return with Christ, rising from the dead just as Christ rose from the dead. Then the passage goes on to state that the living saints will be caught away in clouds together with the newly raised saints to meet Christ in the air. This is in preparation for the descent of Christ with His saints to establish the rule of God over the earth. It is the coming of the Kingdom to the earth, for which Christians have prayed throughout the centuries.

There were forty days after Christ rose from the dead before He was taken up into the heaven. The New Testament mentions a few of the episodes that occurred while the resurrected Christ was on the earth, such as the conversation with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Christ poured out the Holy Spirit on His new Church ten days after His ascension, the ten days signifying His observance of the Jewish feast of Pentecost.

But what about those forty days while the resurrected Christ roamed the earth, before He ascended into the heaven? Will it be true that there will be a period of time after we are resurrected, before we are caught away to meet the Lord in the air?

I think it is highly likely.

By the way, the idea that the believers will be caught up in a secret "rapture" in order to escape the Great Tribulation is nonsense, isn’t it? After we have risen from the dead, how can we be harmed by Antichrist or the Great Tribulation? Would it have been possible for Christ to have suffered at the hands of the wicked after He was raised from the dead and before He was taken up into the heaven?

Anyway, this passage from First Thessalonians is not about the going of the Church to Heaven but the return of Christ with His saints to set up His Kingdom on the earth.

The teaching of an imminent "rapture" in which all believers are caught up to Heaven in order to escape the tribulations of earth is of a delicious spirit of error, especially now as we see the disintegration of the comfortable American way of life. All sincere disciples do well to reject it from their thinking. It is not going to happen!

You know, the greatest hope we have when a loved one dies is that we will see him or her again. This is the reason for the forty-day period. It will be a time of fellowship, of the most extravagant rejoicing, as we are reunited with our loved ones. Our supreme joy will be due in part to the awareness that we have attained to the first resurrection and do not have to look forward anxiously to the general resurrection—the judgment that will occur at the end of the thousand-year Kingdom Age.

I believe the most helpful action we can take during the next few years is to press into Christ continually—every moment of every day and night. Then, when there is danger, we will be alerted and God will show us what to do.

I started thinking about Adam and Eve. God had told them not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Here came Satan with a reason why they should eat of the tree. God was right there in the Garden. They could have asked Him what they should do. But they did not do this!

Christ is at hand for us to talk to. How many times have we encountered difficulties and pain because we did not seek wisdom from the Lord. Will we ever learn!

I believe there will be a period of time after we have been raised from the dead (or changed into bodily immortality, if we are alive when Jesus returns) and before we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air (in the air because that is where Satan’s headquarters are located, and the establishment of the Kingdom must begin there).

What an unparalleled time of rejoicing that will be! When I "saw" this period between the resurrection and the catching away, in a sort of vision while praying early one Sunday morning in the Annex of the Fremont First Assembly of God Church in California, I heard the Word, "You have set a table before me in the presence of my enemies."

When the hour for the catching up arrives, there will be the sound of thousands of organs and symphonies playing "All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name." Multiplied thousand of angels will be singing this grand old hymn.

Then we who have attained to the first resurrection from the dead will join in the hymn of praise to Him who alone is worthy of worldwide praise.

We will begin to move upward from the surface of the earth toward the clouds. We will be able to see and hear the millions of wicked people below us as they roar obscenities at what they are seeing and cannot prevent or control.

Then we will look up at our destination and see the ranks of white war stallions, waiting for their riders. These fierce horses are pawing restlessly, waiting for the trumpets to sound "attack."

I pray you and I will be among the throng of glorified saints, having our eyes fixed on the huge figure of our Commander in Chief, mounted on His white stallion, "Conqueror." There will be a giant angel on each side of Christ The white robe of Christ will be covered with blood. Across His chest will be white letters: "The Word of God." The atoning blood and the Word of the Father. There is no authority or power anywhere that can stand against the atoning blood and the Word of God.

So the eternal romance begins with the fiercest of all battles—Truth, against the destructive lie that Satan is. The Paradise we dream of cannot come into existence except as conquering saints, under Christ, install and maintain it on the earth.

So, as always, He has kept the best wine until now. The wonderful reunion and fellowship of the victorious saints when Christ appears. The table spread before us as we rise from the surface of the earth, observing the wicked beneath us as they shake their feasts at God and scream their murderous defiance. The mounting of the saints on the white war stallions at the very place from which Satan destroyed mankind.

Total, complete victory over the enemy. Antichrist and the False Prophet in the Lake of Fire. Satan in the Bottomless Pit.

Quietness over the whole earth. Then from every corner of our planet will be seen people of every tribe wending their way toward Jerusalem, the source of the light that can be seen from every corner of the earth.

In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many people's will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:2,3)


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