Last Sunday evening I heard a ‘mid-Acts-hyper-dispensational’ preacher make the statement, "The rapture is not back in Matthew through John." But then he said the reason it was not back there was because it was another coming .... another event .... because God has another agency.
Let’s think about that. Another coming? Jesus’ disciples combined His coming with the end of the world:
Matt 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
Evidently, Paul understood the same truth .... associating the coming of Christ with the end. When Christ comes, then will come the end of the world. There are no verses that teach that Paul was talking about an entirely different coming. He wasn’t:
1 Cor 15:23-24 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
Moses taught that the Lord will come with ten thousands of His saints:
Deut 33:1-2 And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.
2 And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.
Jude showed that when the Lord comes, His saints will come with Him. Enoch also prophesied the same thing:
Jude 1:14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
Paul said the Lord Jesus Christ will come with ALL His saints .... not a separated agency of SOME of them .... not just ‘his’ converts. But 'mid-Acts-ers’ teach that Christ will come with ONLY those who have been saved by PAUL’s writings, who-they-think are SOLELY the body of Christ. There is no reason to think these saints are another agency. They aren’t:
1 Thess 3:13 To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. (ALL His saints does NOT mean PART of His saints .... it means what it says "ALL His saints.")
1 Thess 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. (Saints did "sleep in Jesus" BEFORE PAUL .... see Dan 12:2; Stephen in Acts 7:60, David in Acts 13:36; 1 Cor 11:30, 15:51; the fathers in 2 Pet 3:4)
Jude showed that when the Lord comes with His saints .... He will judge all:
Jude 1:14-15 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
The Psalmist knew that the Lord will judge everyone .... when He comes:
Psa 98:8-9 Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together
9 Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
Paul taught that when the Lord comes .... it will be the time of judgment. There is no verses that indicate this is a different judgment. It isn’t:
1 Cor 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
2 Tim 4:1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
When the Lord comes .... He will come in the clouds:
Matt 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
John records the same information about Christ’s coming .... everyone will see Him coming in/with the clouds:
Rev 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
Paul also shows that, at the coming of the Lord, in the clouds is where we will meet Him. There is no reason to think that His coming in the clouds that the other prophets prophesied .... is a different coming in the clouds that PAUL prophesied. It isn’t:
1 Thess 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
The coming of the Lord will be attended by a trumpet’s sound:
Matt 24:31 And he shall send his angels (WHOSE angels? HIS angels! Notice the verse does not identify who will blow the trumpet. It is not the devil’s angels. It is not the devil’s trumpet. They are GOD’s angels .... and it is GOD’s trumpet!) with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Paul also showed the sound of a trumpet:
1 Cor 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, (Notice again, the verse does not identify who will blow the trumpet.) and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Again, Paul wrote of the trumpet sound that will accompany the Lord’s coming. It is GOD’s trump. There is no reason to think the trump PAUL told us about will be a different trump. It won’t:
1 Thess 4:15-16 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: (Yet again, the verse does not identify who will blow the trumpet.) and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
When the Lord Jesus comes .... His saints will be gathered together:
Matt 3:11-12 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner;
but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Paul also taught that when Jesus comes .... He will BOTH .... burn the ungodly with fire, and be glorified in His saints:
2 Thess 1:7-10 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. (the SAME day that He comes with fire on His enemies)
Matt 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Paul also taught that God’s saints will be gathered together .... when the Lord comes. There is no reason to think that THIS gathering is another gathering. It isn’t:
2 Thess 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
Not only will it be the SAME gathering ....
but ALL the saints EVERYWHERE .... will be gathered together ‘IN ONE’.
Caiaphas, the high priest, prophesied that Jesus would die for Israel .... and not for Israel only --- but He will gather together ALL the children of God in ONE:
John 11:51-52 And this spake he (Caiaphas - John 11:49) not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; 52 And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
Are YOU a child of God?
Luke 20:36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.
Are you ONE ‘with’ the children of God? I am.
Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Then in the end of the world (1 Cor 10:11), in the dispensation of the fulness of times .... ALL will be gathered together in ONE in Christ (Rom 12:5; 1 Cor 12:12-13; Eph 2:16, 3:5, 4:4; Col 3:15). Certainly, ALL the saints that were in heaven .... will be JOINED WITH .... ALL the saints that will be on earth. There is no reason to think that this is another union. It isn’t:
Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
The ‘mid-Acts’ preacher makes another coming, another agency, another event, another Jesus, another destiny, another inheritance .... another .... another .... another .... He divides into oblivion, and there is no reason to.
This is David Dowell, saying, "Think about it!"
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