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Chapter 12: The Church in the Future

Connect.

The church was born on the day of Pentecost. So will this institution last forever? What is
the future plan of God for the church today? Will we have a church in heaven throughout all
eternity? The Bible does tell us the future plans that God has for the church. Today, in this
short lesson, we will review these future plans and try to answer the questions we have
posed. Ready?

The Church in the future

The church is on the lookout for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus promised His
disciples that He would come again.

John 14:1-3 “Let not your heart be troubled...In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it
were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be
also.”

While the date and time are unknown (Mark 13:32), Jesus is returning to call his bride home. He is
waiting patiently because of His desire that all men should come to repentance and become his bride.

2 Peter 3:8-9 "But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count
slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to
repentance."

This is a future event, and it may be very soon, that Jesus Christ will sound a trumpet, and all members
of the universal church will be caught up to be with Him in the sky. This is described in I Thessalonians 4.

I Thess. 4: 16-18 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice
of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After 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. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.

This passage of scripture was addressed to the brothers and sisters in the church of Thessalonica (ie.,
believers in Christ - I Thess. 4:13) but will be a future event that will encompass the entire body of
believers who are alive when Christ returns. This event is called the rapture.

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