Page 60 - Eschatology - Masters revised

to his new house. There he would physically consummate the marriage. She would then live together
with him. Later, there would then be a seven-day marriage wedding feast to which their friends and
family would be invited.

In John 14, Jesus is promising His disciples that when His Father gives Him permission, He will come to
take them to be with Him forever. He will remove them from this earth to meet Him in the air. He will
take them to heaven to be with Him in His Father’s house and the place prepared especially for them.
This will now be their dream of anticipation.

1 Corinthians 15:51-58
In 1 Corinthians 15 the Apostle Paul revealed God’s truth about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead. He then wrote about our resurrection from the dead, and finally about the resurrection body. At
the end of that chapter he described the process in which we receive our resurrection (glorified) body.

1 Corinthians 15:51–58 (NIV84)51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all
be changed— 52 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. 53 For the perishable must
clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has
been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is
written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55 “Where, O death, is your
victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the
law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore,
my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of
the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

When Paul wrote that not all of us will “sleep”, he was talking about the Rapture of the church of Jesus
Christ. Paul uses “sleep” as a metaphor for physical death in various places in his letters. The only way
some of us will escape physical death is to be raptured.

He goes on to say that all bodies of believers will be changed from the perishable, mortal, sin-affected
body we now have, to the imperishable, immortal, glorified body we will have. Our best illustration of
what the body will be like is the glorified body of Jesus Christ after His resurrection.

This amazing change will occur in a “flash, in the twinkling of an eye”. Our bodies will become glorified
bodies by the same power by which God raised Jesus Christ from the dead and gave Him a glorified
body.

Paul closed this section with this encouraging truth. This truth should motivate us to stand firm and to
live for eternal values.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul wrote to believers who were grieved that their loved ones were dying
physically and would now miss the anticipated Rapture of the church. Perhaps these believers wondered
whether their loved ones who had passed from this life would receive their glorified bodies now that
they had died and missed being alive for the Rapture of the church. Paul wrote to assure them that all

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