BIBLE STUDY MADE INTERESTING REGARDING THE TRUE “STATE OF THE DEAD”
In 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18 concerning the resurrection of the dead,{paraphrased} It says that the dead in Christ will rise first, and then we which are alive and remain will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and to forever be with the Lord
"We will meet the Lord in the air!" He will not be walking on this earth when He comes! You see, these are important {3} words-"in the air" because Lucifer will impersonate Jesus before Jesus comes back for those awaiting His return. Lucifer (Satan) will look like Jesus, talk in tones similar to Jesus, healing people of various diseases and other miraculous acts- but yet- it is only an appearance to us by Satan to delude us into giving him worship that belongs to JESUS ONLY Jesus warns us ahead of time that this will occur, when He said that there would be those who are false christs and false prophets. He knew what we, those that are living just before the return of Jesus Christ, would be facing- A delusion of mighty proportion.
As we prepare to meet our King and our Lord Jesus Christ, there are several matters that we need to be aware of in setting our life in order, so that we can become useful servants to both our fellow-man , as Jesus was, but also to our Lord and Saviour who died that we might live now, and eternally with him when he comes in the clouds of glory. See 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18 4:13 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.
*{those that are sleeping the sleep of death in Jesus}
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.
4:15 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. {simply “sleeping the sleep of death” in Christ Jesus}
4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
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.
{ Both the living righteous who are changed in an instant and the dead who have just been resurrected by Christ will be joined together with their Lord}
4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
You see, dear friends in Jesus, as shown in 1st Thessalonians
Chapter 4: 13-18 ..we have a vivid picture of those who are waiting in their “beds of the sleep of death”.
And in verses 14-16, Jesus describes death as a “sleep”-almost like when you are sleeping at night, wherein you know not anything-unconscious- until you awake the next morning. So, it will be the same for us to be resurrected from our grave (place of sleeping the sleep of death), just like Jesus was raised by God through the voice of an angel sent by God to his tomb, so we too will be raised by the voice of Jesus. See what God the Father did for Jesus in the book of Acts 4th Chapter
4:10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead.
JESUS MUST HAVE EVERY PART OF OUR BEING, and that we have not reserved any portion of our life unto ourselves, but into His care and to be used for His purposes to honor and glorify the Father who is above us all.
Jesus will raise us up also by His voice found in: 1st Cor.6
6:14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by His (Jesus) own power.
As we prepare to meet the Lord, our lives should reflect the fact that we are living for Him in every way and that our message to the world should be: “I serve a risen Savior who forgives me of my sins, and unto Him do I pledge my allegiance now and forever more.”
The song in your “heart” or {mind} should be: ” Oh, how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus because He first loved me.” So undeserving a sinner though we be, Jesus would have died and arose again, if there had only been (1) sinner to die for; he would have gone to the Cross for that one individual. But Praise God, He lived and died for all of us, both the redeemed by His blood and for those who are still deciding who they will serve- God or Lucifer {Satan}.
The choice belongs to each of us-the decision is life eternal with Jesus or death eternally[TOTAL DESTRUCTION] along with Satan and his evil disobedient and demonic angels who rebelled against God in heaven. This death that we are discussing is referenced in the book of Malachi 4th chapter, verses 1,3 and in Revelation 20, verse 9. That decision must be made now before Jesus comes; otherwise the verse found in Revelation 20:9 will take effect after the judgment of the wicked in heaven during the millennium(1000 years of judgment) and then, the entire earth will become “one ball of hell-fire” {which is the 2nd death} which also cleanses and purifies the earth of any of the effects of sin. (See Revelation 20:7-10).
The first death each of us has to suffer because of sin from the garden of Eden, but the 2nd death which is destruction forever can be avoided by deciding today, I will serve the Lord with my whole heart {mind} and life now and forever.
For those of you who remember the story in the Bible of the one lost sheep, well you see dear friends, this earth is that (1) “lost sheep”. This earth is the only place in all of God’s universe that has gone astray and it is here that Lucifer or Satan was cast to after his rebellion in heaven which allow him to tempt, harass,destroy, to maim and kill mankind anyway he could since the sin in the garden of Eden in effect gave Satan control of our earth instead of Adam who rejected obedience to God.
Therefore, it was appointed for Jesus to come and to take away the sins from all the people of this world who repent and confess their sins to God and to prepare a way for us to be returned unto the presence of the Father someday, after the return of Jesus back to this earth for His family. The earth has been in rebellion against God for 6000 years because men chose to obey Satan instead of God and His commandments. See Ref.Psalm 119:176 ” I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.”
Therefore, dear “seekers of the truth as it is in Jesus” sspend time each and every day with the Lord and utilize the other web sites available also : biblestudiestruth-bibles.com and the web site: amazingfactstv.org We sincerely hope that you will visit this web site often for up-dated pages of information and new studies of biblical matters with the accompanying scriptures pertaining to that subject matter.
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Your friends in search of truth and mercies of Love from our Lord, elder John and Marsha MacMillan