The Eternal Now--Part 2

This brings us to the second message in the series, The Eternal Now. The Scripture reference is I Thessalonians 4:15-17—“For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord” (NASB UPDATE).

Two questions are in order: (1) Will disembodied spirits (souls) be brought back with Christ to receive their glorified bodies? (2) How can perfected saints come back with Christ for the purpose of being perfected? Can the perfected be perfected? “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked” (II Cor. 5:1-3 NASB UPDATE). We have a house here that is mortal; but when we die, the house with which we will be clothed will be immortal. “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (I John 3:1-3 NASB UPDATE). The deceased saints of I Thessalonians 4:15-17 cannot be compared to the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-15), the daughter of Jairus (Luke 8:41-56), or Lazarus of Bethany (John 11:1-46). All of these received their old bodies of “flesh and blood,” not bodies of “flesh and bones,” like the resurrected and glorified body of Christ (Luke 24:39).

The body of “flesh and bones” of Christ, subsequent to His death, operated on a different principle. Christ used language not used anywhere else in Scripture. After His resurrection, Christ said, “See My hands, and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39 NASB UPDATE). The life of our bodies is in the blood (Lev. 17:11). However, the life of the glorified body will be vitalized by a different principle. Hence, the glorified body will be independent of blood. But in order to remain Man (God-Man), a human body remained a human body. The glorified body is more real than the earthly body, because it is indestructible.

Evolutionists insist that there is no essential difference between human and animal bodies. If there is no essential difference, then why not use animal blood for transfusions? If there is no essential difference in life, then there is none in death. However, the animal body has no transcendental significance; whereas, the human body does have transcendental significance. The resurrection of the bodies of saints is patterned after Christ’s. It has been said that a human being is not a human being without a human body.

It was within the context of time that Paul spoke of the dead saints receiving glorified bodies, because it was in connection with living believers. Living saints shall not precede the deceased saints to meet the Lord in the air. In fact, they both meet Christ in the air at the same time. Christ comes into time to snatch away the living saints and meet the deceased saints in the air. Christians in time can relate with the hemisphere of time, but they cannot relate with the sphere of eternity. That is why Paul was not permitted to speak about what he heard. He said, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows—was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak” (II Cor. 12:2-4 NASB UPDATE).

Paul’s enemies were boasting about their visions; therefore, the apostle counterattacked them on their own ground. Although Paul was answering his critics, he did not think that displaying his credentials would be profitable. The credibility of Paul was beyond reproach. All Paul was allowed to talk about was that which takes place in time. Christians will not be able to talk about the things in the sphere of eternity, until we are removed from the hemisphere of time.

There is no better way to illustrate this complex subject than to use Deuteronomy 29:29—“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law” (NASB UPDATE). God’s will is a great globe with two aspects. Man does not see or understand the sphere; he sees the hemisphere of the revealed—not the secret.

One must guard against a system of interpretation that would apply Deuteronomy 29:29 exclusively to the assembly. God’s covenant with Israel must not be confused with the assembly. We must not interfere with the Divinely-appointed sphere of the covenants. Paul said they pertain to Israel: “Who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises” (Rom. 9:4 NASB UPDATE). Paul also said, “Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church [assembly] of God” (I Cor. 10:32 NASB UPDATE).

There are two great words that should come to our minds when we read or quote Deuteronomy 29:29—mystery and revelation. Man has always quarreled with God over secret things. The one prohibition in the Garden of Eden started man’s quarrel with God. Man associates secrecy with selfishness; yet, all nature proves that in Divine administration secrecy and benevolence may coexist. God keeps to Himself the secret of germination, but He gives the revelation of the harvests. Spring keeps the secret of germination, but autumn fills the barns with plenty. We must not look at the mystery and forget the benevolence.

Truth is a sphere, because no one can see all of it at once. It is like a great globe which has two aspects. Looked at from one side, only half is seen. Looking from the other side, one can see the other half. There are many things which God partly keeps secret with no ultimate intention of keeping them secret. Such things as the Trinity, atonement, and providence are to be reverently explored, but all the time remembering that it is the fact of these things, not the theory, which is the important matter. This may be applied to all the major doctrines. The secret will of God cannot be known; and for that reason, it cannot be our rule of duty. On the other hand, the things that are revealed are to be considered our most valuable property in the aspect of “time.”

In I Thessalonians 4:13-18, there is a succession of events: 1. The Lord Jesus Himself will descend from heaven. 2. The dead in Christ will rise first. 3. The living will be snatched up to meet the Lord Jesus in the air.

On the other hand, there is no succession of events in eternity. This, however, does not eliminate an “order” of events. In reference to God’s decrees, “before” and “after” does not mean that one decree is before another in the order of time, because all are from eternity. Order does not necessitate time. It means arrangement of persons or things by sequence or rank. However, time means the sequential relations that any event has to another as future, present, or past. Hence, the sequential which is characterized by the regular sequence of parts—future, present, and past—would bring finite duration into eternity; and that is impossible. Thus, what Paul described as a sequence of events in the hemisphere of time must not be confused with the order of events viewed from the sphere of eternity.

Some say death becomes synonymous with resurrection, but death does not express the same idea or equivalent in meaning as resurrection. However, it is suggested that they may occur together in the sense of forming a single experience. Paul does show that death is the exit out of time, and in the same experience, one enters a higher life in eternity. “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (II Cor. 5:1 NASB UPDATE).

Death is not the Christian’s going away but his going home. Christ’s going away was in two stages: (1) Calvary—“And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, Father INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT. Having said this, He breathed His last” (Luke 23:46 NASB UPDATE). (2) Olivet—“And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9 NASB UPDATE). Therefore, the saints will also go away in two stages: (1) The spirit returns to God—“…the spirit will return to God who gave it” (Eccl. 12:7 NASB UPDATE). (2) The body is raised—“This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:39 NASB UPDATE).

We cannot synchronize the “clock” of time with the “clock” of eternity. It is the attempt to do this which has led to the speculation and unfortunate controversy over the so-called “intermediate state” of the deceased between the death of the believer and the rapture. Looked at from the perspective of eternity, there is no separation, because there is no time in eternity from which to be separated. Looked at from the perspective of time that passes away, there is a lapse between them. What appears to be the long night of death is reduced to a mathematical point. Thus, the dead do not live in the flow of time, but they live in terms of the relationship of the dead in Christ. John said, “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on! Yes, says the Spirit, so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them” (Rev. 14:13 NASB UPDATE). This relation is one of immediacy (a state or quality of being immediate, instant) with no time interval projected into it at all.

The following list of questions is for each one of you to answer:
1. Is there a long night of disembodiment between death and the resurrection?
2. What does “until” the coming of the Lord mean for the deceased?
3. Is the soul asleep until the resurrection?
4. Did Paul shrink from the idea of dying? Dying to the Christian is being at home with the Lord.
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 perfected saints in eternity be brought back into time to be perfected?