BIBLE TOPICS

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path". Ps 119:105

Subjects

JUDGEMENT

Resurrection and Removal of Those Living and Who Are Responsible to Judgement.

At his first coming, Jesus, by the power of the Spirit of God, performed many wonderful miracles as described in the Gospel records. These attested to his divine authority, but they were all beneficial in their effects and limited to the small land of Israel. The prophecies show that, at his return, his miracles will be on a far greater scale and will display not only the goodness but also the severity of God. (Romans 11:20-22).

Thus Paul writes:

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.

Here will be a mighty miracle indeed. The summoning many millions from their long sleep in the dust of the earth. Isaiah was moved to exclaim:

"Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the first, and with the last, I AM HE." Isaiah 41:4

"Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead." Isaiah 26:19

Faithful Job also knew and understood this for he said:

"I know that my redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand up at the last upon the earth: and after my skin hath been thus destroyed, yet from my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eves shall behold, and not another. Job 19:25-27

John the beloved disciple of Jesus records these words that Jesus spoke:

"Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh. in which all that are in the tombs (literally: tombs of remembrance) shall hear his voice, and shall come forth: they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done ill, unto the resurrection of judgement." John 5:28-29.

Some idea of the magnitude of the task set before Christ, is revealed in the vision of Daniel. An innumerable company shall stand before Jesus, to whom all must give an account of their lives:

"I beheld till thrones were placed, and one that was ancient of days did sit: his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and the wheels thereof burning fire. . . . Thousand thousands (a million angels) ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand (a hundred millions) stood before him: the judgement was set and the books were opened." Daniel 7:9-10

Further Prophecies to Consider:

Exodus 32:31-34; Job 21:29-31; Psalm 7:6-9; Jeremiah 17:9-10; Matthew 25:31-46; 1 Corinthians 4:4-5 and Hebrews 10:26-31.