Why would the dead in Christ need to accompany Christ to the earth, only to turn around and go straight back to heaven again? Just to come along for the ride?
If it's to get their bodies, why would they suddenly need their bodies in heaven then, when they haven't needed their bodies in heaven before where they'd just come from, and some of them have already been there for thousands of years? Couldn't wait another seven years?
How could that possibly be a secret event, if all the graves will be opened, the saints will rise again bodily, then the living will be caught up bodily to meet them in the air? If it's physical, it's visible! (The resurrection; and the catching up.)
Why will Christ even need to come (as far as the air), if it's just to get the living? If He has no purpose on the actual earth at that time, couldn't He just translate the living like He did Enoch, or catch them up like He did Elijah?
But if Christ is coming at that moment in order to dwell with the righteous in the new earth forever, then it would make TOTAL sense why He will bring the dead in Christ with Him, and why it would be appropriate that they be clothed with their resurrected bodies at that time, and why the living will be caught up and transformed to meet them in the air - it's so we can all be reunited, and appear with Him in glory, to the awe of the whole world - the elements also will melt with fervent heat in that very day - and there will be new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness - the consummated eternal kingdom of God on earth, the new earth.
But if instead His coming at that moment will just be to take us away - then we've got all those dilemmas posed above.
Any thoughts?
If it's to get their bodies, why would they suddenly need their bodies in heaven then, when they haven't needed their bodies in heaven before where they'd just come from, and some of them have already been there for thousands of years? Couldn't wait another seven years?
How could that possibly be a secret event, if all the graves will be opened, the saints will rise again bodily, then the living will be caught up bodily to meet them in the air? If it's physical, it's visible! (The resurrection; and the catching up.)
Why will Christ even need to come (as far as the air), if it's just to get the living? If He has no purpose on the actual earth at that time, couldn't He just translate the living like He did Enoch, or catch them up like He did Elijah?
But if Christ is coming at that moment in order to dwell with the righteous in the new earth forever, then it would make TOTAL sense why He will bring the dead in Christ with Him, and why it would be appropriate that they be clothed with their resurrected bodies at that time, and why the living will be caught up and transformed to meet them in the air - it's so we can all be reunited, and appear with Him in glory, to the awe of the whole world - the elements also will melt with fervent heat in that very day - and there will be new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness - the consummated eternal kingdom of God on earth, the new earth.
But if instead His coming at that moment will just be to take us away - then we've got all those dilemmas posed above.
Any thoughts?
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