On September 12, 2010, during Sunday Evening Story-Time, the IL teaching elder emphasized again about the REUNION of the saints in the air. He said that is our HOPE, our confident expectation. He repeated, as he has done for several weeks, that Paul was comforting the brethren about the loss of their dead loves ones. A main point was that the saints will be forever reunited with other saints in the body of Christ who have died.
1 Thess 4:13-18 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 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: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
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.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
The Cunning Royal Jester teaches that the ‘comfort factor’ is the happy reunion in the sky ‘with’ the saints in the body of Christ .... that they will be together forever, up in the heavenly places, as they reign with Christ.
That teaching has problems. If the body of Christ saints reign and stay in the heavenly places for eternity .... and Jesus Christ reigns forever in the kingdom on earth .... then they will not REALLY be WITH Him.
So the Cunning Royal Jester turns a FLIP and explains that to be ‘with’ the Lord .... does NOT mean to be in ‘His personal presence’ .... but it means, like, in spirit, not in person .... like, "Are you ‘with’ me?" "Yeah, I’m ‘with’ you."
That teaching also has problems. The Cunning Royal Jester teaches that the alive saints in the body of Christ will be reunited ‘with’ the dead saints in the body of Christ at the mystery-secret-resurrection-rapture .... when they are "caught up together ‘WITH’ them in the clouds" .... and that they will be together ‘with’ each other forever, as they reign in the heavenly places ‘with’ each other.
1 Thess 4:17-a "Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them (the dead in Christ) in the clouds,"
The Cunning Royal Jester makes the alive and the dead body-of-Christ-saints really be ‘with’ each other .... meaning in each other’s personal presence.
But then the Cunning Royal Jester CHANGES the meaning of ‘with’ when he applies it to the saints being ‘with’ Christ. He says to be ‘with’ Christ does NOT mean to be ‘with Him in His personal presence’.
So, the Cunning Royal Jester has the saints really being WITH EACH OTHER .... but they will not really be WITH THE LORD, the same way as they are WITH each other .... even though the VERSE says .... "SO SHALL WE EVER BE":
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 Cunning Royal Jester earned his name. Don’t let him FOOL you!
This is David Dowell saying, "Think about it!"
