Trumpet Ministries The Resurrection
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The resurrection from the dead is the central hope of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. No other religion, to my knowledge, offers the hope of people returning to resume life on the earth in a flesh and bones body.
The resurrection from the dead threatens Satan’s kingdom, which consists of the nations on the earth and the earth itself. Satan is not at all concerned that we return to Heaven, his original home. Satan's fear is that Christ and His saints will return and take over the kingdoms of the world.
We spoke previously of the fact that the resurrection will be divided into two parts: the first resurrection, composed of the royal priesthood; and then the second resurrection in which all other people who have lived on the earth will rise and stand before Christ and His saints to be judged according to their works.
Christians often state they want to make Heaven their home when they die. We have fantasized an entire world and have furnished it with what we think would be desirable. Yet, almost none of the world and furnishings we think of as Heaven can be found anywhere in the Scriptures.
The truth is, our concern should not be what happens to us when we die. The Scriptures are vague on this point. The real issue is what will happen to us when our body rises from the dead.
Every individual who has lived on the earth will be raised in either the first or second resurrection. The power of God will put our body back together again just as in the beginning God made man from the dust of the ground.
It is what happens to us after this that is important. The Scriptures teach that we will be clothed in our own works. We will reap what we have sown. Our body will correspond to what has been developed in our inward nature.
When we die our body sleeps in the ground. We hope our inward nature will go to an area of peace and joy.
But in the day of resurrection, in which we all will participate, our flesh and bones body will be reassembled and once again house our inward nature. It is right at this point that we either will be clothed in the Glory of God or in the corruption of the adamic nature.
The resurrection is the focus of concern, not what happens when we die. For no matter where we go when we die we will be awaiting the day of resurrection.
The problem with the current "rapture" teaching is that it ignores the resurrection and emphasizes the catching up of the believers. The result of such an unscriptural emphasis is that the majority of Christian believers expect at any moment to be caught up to Heaven without first having been resurrected or transformed! This is a tremendous error in Christian thinking.
The primary goal of redemption is the adoption of our body so it is filled with the Life of God. The Apostle Paul groaned for the adoption of his body so he would be free from the compulsions of sin.
Such groaning is unknown to us today. Rather we are waiting for an unscriptural "rapture," which is not even an act of redemption. The catching up of the saints to meet the Lord at His coming is for the purpose of assembling the army of God. The redemption ceases when we are resurrected or transformed. The catching up is an act of Kingdom power. That it is not an act of redemption is illustrated by the fact that while the types and statements of the Old Testament speak of the resurrection, no type or statement has to do with the catching up of the saints.
Jesus Christ was raised from the dead on the third day, the day of the Jewish feast of Firstfruits. Jesus Christ was caught up into Heaven forty days after His resurrection. To my knowledge there is no symbolic feast celebrated forty days after Firstfruits.
However, fifty days after Firstfruits is the Jewish feast of Pentecost. Following the type, the Holy Spirit fell on the waiting disciples on day of the Jewish feast of Pentecost.
"When the day of Pentecost was fully come..."
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is physical death. This shall take place when the Lord returns. What we will face in that day depends on our behavior today.
Those who are living in total consecration to Jesus will be raised (or transformed) when He returns, and then clothed with the Glory of God. This completes their redemption. Then they shall be caught up to meet the Commander in Chief in the air in preparation for the Battle of Armageddon.
Those believers who are not living in total consecration to Jesus will be judged by the Lord and His saints, as we see in the Book of Jude.
In no case will the lukewarm, pleasure-loving, self-serving Christians of the United States of America be suddenly caught away to Heaven to escape Antichrist and the great tribulation. To teach or believe such a thing is to invite a dreadful future because of our lack of preparation. Such a hope is not scriptural, only a manmade tradition.
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (Romans 8:11)
Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:23)
Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, (II Corinthians 5:2)
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, And so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10,11)
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