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To: aruanan

The same Paul that gives us the example of Abraham in how he was saved and how we all are saved the same way, as Abraham (i.e., we’re all one that way)... also gives us the mystery (something not told before) of the Rapture... in that not all will die but that the dead in Christ will be raised up along with those in Christ who are living, at that time that He comes in the clouds for His own... :-)


210 posted on 03/31/2010 10:07:52 AM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: Star Traveler
also gives us the mystery (something not told before) of the Rapture... in that not all will die but that the dead in Christ will be raised up along with [sic] those in Christ who are living, at that time that He comes in the clouds for His own... :-)

The mystery referred to here is the instantaneous change of our physical nature upon the return of the Lord whether or not we have died, not the scheduling and ETA's of various raptures and resurrections.

Note that the mystery isn't the resurrection since those Paul was writing to already knew about that.

It wasn't about the return of Jesus in the clouds because the angels told those watching him leave, "Why are you standing around gawking? He'll return in the same way you saw him leave."

It wasn't that Jesus would come back again and receive the believers to himself because he had already said that.

It wasn't about the timing of the resurrection relative to those still living because Paul had already dealt with that earlier when he was counseling these people who had been scammed by the first century's version of the Left Behind movement.

It wasn't about the unambiguous appearance of the Lord himself in the sky with sights and sounds, which the 1st century Left Behind group seemed to have forgotten about when telling others that the resurrection had already happened, since Jesus had already talked about the angels being sent out upon his return at the sound of the trumpet to pick up his own around the world.

The mystery was not even that those living would be taken together with the risen dead to meet the Lord in the air since it was a given, through Jesus's parable of the harvest, that the elect would not be dead when he returned but left behind after the evil were taken away by the angels and then subsequently gathered to Jesus.

The mystery was that all believers who had not died by the time of the Lord's return would be changed instantaneously into imperishable and immortal bodies along with all those who have "slept in Christ."

"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed."

This is how he reassured the scammed ones: When Jesus comes and resurrects the dead in Christ, you're going to know it because you'll be instantly changed from mortal to immortal bodies. There won't be any mistake about it. Are you changed now? Okay, then, the resurrection has not occurred, but it will and you'll be a part of it whether you are dead or alive. "Therefore, my dear brothers. Stand firm. Let nothing move you."
225 posted on 03/31/2010 2:27:44 PM PDT by aruanan
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