be wary of people who are smarter than Jesus

The Word for today:

1 Thessalonians 4

mark this: 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Therefore comfort one another with these words.

We're outta here…

The "Rapture" was taught by Paul to fledgling believers in Thessalonica who had been Christians for all of one month. The rapture is not an exotic notion in scripture; it is basic to God's program. 

The Rapture signals the end of the era of grace in which we now live and the beginning of "The Day of the LORD."  The Day of the LORD opens with the Rapture, then continues throughout the 7-year Great Tribulation period (see Matthew 24:21) and the Millennial period.

    

The Day of the LORD is a technical expression which includes the time when God puts down rebellion and establishes His rule.  It begins with trouble (the Hebrew day began with darkness--"the evening and the morning were the first day"). God begins in night but moves to light.  So the Great Tribulation leads into the glorious millennial reign of Christ.

 

The Day of the LORD is found in Joel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.  Also spoken of by the prophets as "that day," as in Zechariah.

    

The Rapture is found (by type--a prophetic "picture") in the Old Testament-- in the departures of Enoch (Genesis 5:24; cf. Hebrews 11:5) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11).

    

It is first found in the New Testament in the gospels, in kernel form--

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.  (John 14:2-3)

    

The Rapture is imminent; it's the next thing on God's prophetic calendar.  Note that "next" can mean "soon," but it does not have to mean "soon."  Next means next.

In the meantime, be very wary of people who say they're smarter than Jesus:

No one knows, however, when that day and hour will come—neither the angels in heaven nor the Son; the Father alone knows.  (Matthew 24:36)

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