Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | 1 Thessalonians 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Thessalonians 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain [on the earth] will simultaneously be caught up (raptured) together with them [the resurrected ones] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord! [John 14:3; 1 Cor 15:52; 2 Cor 5:8; Phil 1:23; Col 3:4] |
Subject: Rapture different from Second Coming? |
Bible Note: RoaringLamb: Thank you for the very indepth response. I am quite amazed that you spent the time required to ask an informed question. I am not sure where to begin, but I do know Duet. 29:29 says some things are known only to the Lord Almighty. Perhaps that's where I should start. I am not an expert on end times. I too dove rather deeply into studing all I could on the subject. No one could answer the questions I had, without using so much intertwisting of Old Testament verses taken what seened to me, as being streched to a fine point. There are many, many great thelogians that have spent their entire life studing this and My time was better spent elsewhere. I think there are several facts that seem to have a common thread. For me the more basic facts the better. Here are some I think are important to me. Jesus said He was going to return. Jesus did not know when He was returning, only the Father knows. There will be much tribulation as never before. How long this will last is known to the Father. When Jesus returns it won't be a secret, it will be very well known. When we die we are absent from the body, and present with the Lord. Those who die before His return, have gone before those who have not died yet. Some will be alive when Jesus returns. When Jesus returns we will be reunited with a glorified body. There will be a day of Judgement, and the sheep and goats will enter the perminate place of eternal life. I am to be ready, but keep working for we know not when He will come. My concern is that by being so involved with studing the end times I overlook the meaning of becoming Christlike today. I am convienced satan will use anything he can to distract us form our daily prayer and letting the Word speak to us. I believe that studing the end times can become a subject to throw us off course. What makes all this tie togeter for me is that no matter what I think, in reality there is nothing I say or think will amount to anything, because the Lord Almighty knows exactally when, and how it will all take place. For me there is more important things wI should be occupied with. With that I believe many who expouse one theory and become so dogmatic that they have it all down to the number of days and years for each event to take place are just shouting in the wind. But people want to know what is going to happen next. As long as people have an extreme hunger to know every detail, there will be some one willing to write lots of books with fiction mixed with Bible and call it good. In my bold opinion this is nonsence. I find it upsetting the amount of time given to studing the book of Revelation. Most people don't know that 65 percent of the book of Revelation is from Old Testament passages. Yes, I do believe there is error being repeated as fact and truth. Jesus said this would happen, and said even the intellegent religious leaders would be led astray. I think this may be at work today. I hope I have not let you down by not having a tightly all figuared out chart of all these events. I honestly am trying to become more Christlike, and that is sometimes a three steps foward and 2 steps backward. If I devoted the rest of my life to just studing how to love my neighbor as myself I think I would barely scratch the surface. I mean that with my very soul. I at times feel so inadiquate in my developing faith in Christ I surely shame the honor of being called a Christian. Your thoughts? justme |