The Daily Word of Righteousness

Sound the Alarm in the Churches, #2

After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (I Thessalonians 4:17—NIV)

We are caught up together with the resurrected saints to meet the Lord in the air at His return so we may descend together with Him.

The Scriptures do not tell us Christ is coming to carry off His Church to Heaven. The Spirit does not tell us Christ is coming to carry off His Church to Heaven. Then why do we continue to preach what is not of God? We are destroying multitudes of people who would be sturdy saints if they were taught correctly. I think we are going to be required to stand with them and explain to God why we were preaching that which is not scriptural.

We have said so far that the Day of the Lord will not be a happy time of believers going up to a picnic in Heaven. This concept is totally unscriptural.

We have said no passage of Scripture teaches that the Lord is coming to carry His Church to Heaven. It seems to me that every Christian who reads this ought to at least find one passage of Scripture that states clearly the Lord is returning to carry His Church to Heaven before he or she continues to believe and preach this. But it appears we are in a day when people are apathetic, not caring enough about their beliefs to check them out in the Bible.

We have said the Lord is interested in righteous behavior, not just in imputed (ascribed) righteousness, and that He shall judge each one of us according to what we have done during our lifetime, whether or not we are a Christian.

Let me deal very briefly with these three errors and then proceed to discuss the scriptural version of the Day of the Lord, and why we are saying it is time to sound the alarm in the Christian churches.

First, what will the Day of the Lord be like? And by the way, the Day of the Lord is the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. There will not be a special, secret coming before the Day of the Lord, the coming of Christ, when the Lord whisks away the believers to Heaven. This is an unscriptural teaching. The Lord Jesus warned us that His coming would be as the lightning flashing from one end of the sky to the other, not a secret, invisible appearing. We are warned in the Scripture about this error, and yet it is popular in America.

The so-called rapture of First Thessalonians is the coming of Christ, the Day of the Lord.

According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. (I Thessalonians 4:15—NIV)

The above is from the "rapture" passage and it is referring to the coming of the Lord.

For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. (I Thessalonians 5:2—NIV)

And in the context of the "rapture," the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night."

Therefore the "rapture" is the coming of the Lord and the Day of the Lord. Where are the Christian scholars concerning this matter?

The fourth chapter of the Book of First Thessalonians is announcing the parousia of Matthew, Chapter Twenty-four, according to the Greek text.

THERE SHALL BE NO SECRET RAPTURE. IT IS UNSCRIPTURAL!

To be continued.