First Stage of Christ's Second Advent -- Part 2

The first epistle to the Thessalonian assembly was written when it was about one year old. Unlike “churches” in this generation, that assembly had been subjected to such great truths as Divine election, positional and conditional sanctification, and the second coming of Christ. The apostle Paul had been informed of the condition of the assembly, which necessitated his writing two epistles to correct some problems that involved eschatology, and conditional sanctification. The language of the epistles indicates that there was no doubt in the minds of the Christians there that Christ was coming, but they had been disturbed.

The true expositor of Scripture takes a complex subject (intricate, like the Trinity or hypostatic union of Christ’s two natures) and is never satisfied until he can convince the sheep of God that it is the voice of truth. Paul stated it succinctly: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene…” (II Tim. 2:15-17 NASB). Verses 16-17 prove that false teachers take a truth that is plainly stated and exchange it for poison. (See Rom. 1:25.)

Paul’s two epistles to the assembly at Thessalonica magnify Christ’s second advent. Christ’s coming is an incentive in the first Epistle: (1) It is an incentive to hope: “…wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1:10 NASB). (2) It is an incentive to a faithful ministry: “For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?” (2:19 NASB). (3) It is an incentive to “…increase and abound in love for one another, and for all men, just as we also do for you; so that He may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints” (3:12, 13 NASB). (4) It is an incentive to comfort one another with the message: “…the Lord Himself will descend from heaven…” and “…we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord” (4:16, 17 NASB). (5) It is an incentive to holiness of life: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:23 NASB).

Christ’s coming gives comfort to the persecuted in the second Epistle. Soon after Paul’s first letter, he received reports of a false verbal message and a forged letter that involved the apostle. His eschatology was challenged; therefore, the apostle necessarily gave a warning to the assembly, which was a model to others: “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it [the coming of Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him] will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction” (II Thess. 2:3 NASB). Two things precede the day of the Lord: (1) the gathering of the saints to the Lord and (2) the apostasy, which will culminate in the man of lawlessness (II Thess. 2:1-3).

Christians need to quickly know that deception does not end when they are regenerated. The blinding of the mind is removed in the Christian just so far as the light of revealed truth and its application dislodge the deceptive lies of Satan. The verb deceive (exapatao) means to deceive thoroughly or lead astray. It is preceded by the indefinite pronoun anyone (tis), which emphasizes the Christian’s responsibility to refuse to allow anyone to lead him astray.

Paul’s instruction clearly proves that the matters under consideration were to believers: “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope” (I Thess. 4:13 NASB). Ignorance (agnoeo, to be ignorant or uninformed—used as a present active infinitive in this verse) concerning any Biblical subject is not advantageous to Christians. The apostle used this Greek word six times in his epistles (Rom. 1:13; 11:25; I Cor. 10:1; 12:1; II Cor. 1:8; I Thess. 4:13). Ignorance here is attributed to brethren. Therefore, Christians are uninformed on any subject until they are instructed. Who can say he is informed on every verse of Holy Scripture? To have read or heard every verse of Scripture read does not indicate that one is instructed. Furthermore, to be informed does not mean that he has been fully informed.

Ignorance of God’s word, which results in sinful grief, applies to Christians. Sinful grief is the result of Christians not having the Biblical concept of death. Christianity does not destroy human passions because Christians do not part with their old nature in regeneration. However, grace enables them to appropriate spiritual instruction concerning death, and their grief is transformed into joy. Therefore, the radius of hope is reduced or expanded in proportion to the instruction a Christian possesses.

Paul wanted the Thessalonian saints to know with absolute certainty that their bodies, not less than their souls, belonged to Christ by redemption: “For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:22, 23 NASB). Death was intended for punishment because of sin: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12 NASB). However, death for the elect has been transformed into blessing. Therefore, Paul was inspired to write, “…do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (II Tim. 1:8-10 NASB).

No greater truth has ever come from God to His chosen ones than the death of death in the death of Jesus Christ. Physical death to the Christian is only his disrobing that which is corruptible in order to be robed with that which is incorruptible (I Cor. 15:50-58). Looking at death from the standpoint (the mental position from which a person views things) of time, it means to terminate the conflict, finish the race, and reach the goal. Christ’s second coming is the grand climax to which Scripture points, providence oversees and cares, and hope patiently waits. Hence, the Thessalonian saints could be comforted only by knowing that those who were departing by means of death would share in the first resurrection as much as those who are alive when Christ comes.

Physical death to the Christian is compared with sleep. A statement often repeated is, “The act of dying is the same in all.” However, this statement must be examined. There is an important difference between the deaths of Christians and non-Christians. The Christian’s dying act has the comfort of Christ’s presence: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me…” (Ps. 23:4 NASB). Conversely, in the non-Christian’s dying act he may experience some well- wishers waiting to see what they may get when he takes his last breath. There will be no angels to escort him into heaven. This, however, does not remove the truth of God’s omnipresence. As God cannot be measured by time, He cannot be limited by space. No place can be without God, and no place can contain Him. Therefore, God is present with all by Deity, but only in His saints by the presence of a gracious efficacy. God is in the world by His providence, in the heart of the Christian by grace, in the heart of the sinner by inspection, and in hell by His justice.

Man is passive in regeneration, and he is also passive in the act of dying. God not only gives life, but He also takes it: “For I know that Thou wilt bring me to death And to the house of meeting for all living” (Job 30:23 NASB). Diseases and accidents are often represented as causes of death, but the act of dying is in God’s hands. Although a wound is self-inflicted, the act of dying is in the hand of God: “The LORD kills, and makes alive; He bring down to Sheol [grave, KJV] and raises up” (I Sam. 2:6 NASB). The instruments of death themselves are under God’s control. He can either restrain or not restrain disease or an inflicted wound.

As the Christian does not observe the change that was wrought in his heart when he was regenerated, he does not note the change that takes place in the act of dying. As one is not conscious of the act of going to sleep, the Christian will not be conscious of the act of dying. Furthermore, as regeneration placed the chosen sinner into the body of Christ, the act of dying admits him into eternity. Death is related to the mortality that resides in the bodies of saints, but Christ’s death for them has transformed the whole concept of death into what is called sleep.

A description of deceased Christians is that in sleep one has no awareness of time. Actually, the sense of time has been removed from deceased Christians because they are in eternity with the great “I am.” From the perspective of eternity, there is no gap between the death of the Christian and the coming of Jesus Christ. However, from the perspective of time, which is filled with death and destruction, there is an interval between them. Men cannot think of these two spheres of reality together. Therefore, they cannot synchronize the clock of timelessness with their clock of temporal time. Hidden in the “until we meet again” is the eternal now. This is true because it is the truth of Jesus Christ, the “I am” (John 8:58).

The meaning of John 8:58 must be considered in order to better understand the timelessness of eternity. Christ said to the Jews, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad. The Jews therefore said to Him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am. Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple” (John 8:56-59 NASB). This proves the religious Jews knew nothing about Christ’s eternality.

The following facts should be observed from John 8:56-59—(1) the time before Abraham (Gen. 11:26), (2) the time of Abraham, who was born 2008 years subsequent to Adam and lived 175 years (Gen. 25:7, 8), and (3) the time when Christ spoke of Abraham nearly 2000 years subsequent to Abraham (John 8). The eternal Son of God proved His eternality by placing Himself before Abraham, but He went further to prove His eternality by making the time before Abraham the time of Abraham. The time He was speaking coincided with the present active indicative of the verb eimi with the pronoun ego—ego eimi, “I Myself am.” Jesus Christ did not say, “Before Abraham was born I was,” but “before Abraham came into existence I Myself AM.”

When the Christian steps out of time, he no longer lives in the flow of temporality, but he lives in terms of the relationship of the dead in Christ. This relationship is one of immediacy, which is without any intermediate agency. There is no time interval projected into it. The word “until” is extinct from the glorified Christian’s vocabulary. In the glorified state, everything is absolutely heavenly because it is new—new creature, new man, new and living way, new name, new heaven, new earth, new song, new Jerusalem (the holy city). The Lord said, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5 NASB).

Consider the following questions:

1. Is there a long night of disembodiment between death and resurrection?

2. What does “until the coming of the Lord” mean for the deceased Christian?

3. Is the soul asleep until the resurrection?

4. Did Paul shrink from the idea of dying?

5. Will Christ bring disembodied saints to receive their glorified bodies when He comes for His own?

6. Can disembodied saints be considered perfected?

7. How can perfect saints in eternity be brought into time to be perfected?

8. What is the Christian’s status (position, state, or condition) subsequent to death?