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Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 2 PART 4 BOOK 42
I Thessalonians 2:15 – 4:18 - Part 2
My, if you don’t realize that the Body of Christ is a Pauline revelation - and he’s the only one that uses that term, and the beginning of the Body of Christ began with Paul, then the end of it also has to come from Paul. So Paul alone teaches this monumental thing that we look for at anytime, and that is the silent out-calling of the Body of Christ in what we call the Rapture of the Church.
I’ve always liked to use Psalms chapter 2 to illustrate this timeline. It’s a perfect illustration where Israel, along with Rome, rejected Christ. Psalms 110:1
"The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool."
Christ’s rejection, the 7 years of Tribulation, the Second Coming, and then the kingdom. Now of course wherever I teach the timeline the first thing I ask people is, "What does the Old Testament program lack?" Well the Church Age is missing from that timeline. It’s not mentioned one time. So since we know that the Church Age is missing from the timeline, we make another timeline and put in this parenthesis (the Age of Grace, the calling out the Body of Christ, which is the Church) Since the 7 year Tribulation, the return of Christ at His Second Coming, and the 1000 year Kingdom Age still must happen, we know that, in order for those events to happen, that God will take the believing Church out of the way, He has to resurrect the Church Age believers so that we can all be reunited and go on up into glory and face the Lord at the Bema Seat for rewards, so that has to include those who have died in Christ.
God has merely pushed the Tribulation, the return of Christ and the 1000 year Kingdom Age out into the future while He is filling up the Body of Christ. "The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us…"
God has seen fit to keep this Church Age phenomenon and that’s what it really is, it’s just something out of this world. But He has kept it secret, and even the Lord Jesus Himself in His earthly ministry was so careful not to reveal the Church Age. Now here in I Thessalonians is 1 of 3 portions of Paul’s letters that deal with the Rapture. That is all part of the Second Coming, and is never mentioned in Paul’s letters as part of the Rapture, and that’s why the Lord could come this afternoon before we leave. Now let’s look at the Rapture.
I Thessalonians 4:13
Now verse 14. I Thessalonians 4:14
"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, (that’s Paul’s Gospel salvation message of I Corinthians 15:1-4) even so them also which sleep (or have died) in Jesus will God bring with him."
Resurrection day! Now read on in verse 15.
I Thessalonians 4:15
I Thessalonians 4:16
Now verse 18.
"Wherefore comfort one another with these words."
So let’s pick it up in verse 51 of Chapter 15 which of course is the great resurrection chapter. In this chapter Paul says, "that if Christ be not risen from the dead, then we of all men are most miserable."
Now the oriental religions speak of reincarnation, but never resurrection. So remember only Christianity teaches that concept. This is a unique phenomena for us as believers in Christ. So Christ was the first fruit of a real resurrection. I Corinthians 15:51a
Well God has. I Corinthians 15:51b
The blessed hope, the appearing, not the Second Coming, but the appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ who will only come to the air for us. I Corinthians 15:51
With God nothing is impossible! Now I know when we look at this whole concept of the Rapture and that in less than a second of time, every believer who has died is going to be resurrected, given a new body, joining the Lord in the air. We can’t go to glory in this body if we’re alive when He comes, so He’s going to change this body.
So God’s trumpet will sound.
I know with God nothing is impossible, and He can change several million people from this body of flesh to a resurrected body that is incorruptible in a blink of an eye. I Corinthians 15:53
(so that we will never die)
Now we’ve got a few moments left, and I guess I will take time for the third portion where Paul speaks of the Rapture and that’s over in II Thessalonians chapter 2. I can’t take you back to Isaiah, and teach the Rapture. Only Paul has been designated the apostle of the Church Age, the apostle of the Gentiles. And Paul defends his apostleship over and over. And like I said in my newsletters that the man who instituted the Body of Christ as He calls himself in I Corinthians chapter 3, the masterbuilder.
So now in II Thessalonians chapter 2, beginning with verse 1.
II Thessalonians 2:1
Now verse 2.
II Thessalonians 2:2
Now verse 3. Here Paul clarifies it.
All the prophecy concerning Christ’s coming was to the Nation of Israel.

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