Chapter 5:1-11

“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. ² For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. ³ For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. ⁴ But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. ⁵ You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

⁶ “Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. ⁷ For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. ⁸ But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. ⁹ For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. ¹¹ Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.”

Once again, thank you for your encouraging emails. It is always good to know that someone is reading these articles. I certainly enjoy writing them, and over the past 11 years and more, with about 6 of those being on Rapture Ready, it has been and continues to be a pleasure.

The idea of making sure that we are working until Jesus comes to get us is very important. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us that the very reason that God is patient is that He wants ALL to come to repentance. God is not the ogre that many atheists make Him out to be, but He is graciously and lovingly patient with a rebellious and thankless world, a world that has rejected His love, scoffed at His Son, and made a mockery of His grace. Yet, rather than shuffle them and us, without Jesus, off to hell as we deserve, He patiently waits, allowing as many as possible to live in His loving Heaven and under His eternal protection.

God knew that the life of saved people would at times be very difficult. His own Son, Jesus, had a very difficult life here on earth. The very people who claimed to be for God, the Pharisees, hated Him and turned a large part of the Jews against Him. They eventually killed Him using the hands of the Roman soldiers. Jesus warned us that the peoples of the world system would treat us as they treated Him. For hundreds of years, the true churches of the Lord — from the one formed in Jerusalem to the churches of the Dark Ages, the churches in Russia, many parts of Europe and elsewhere — were hunted and hurt, many killed because of the truth. They, the true churches, refused to identify with Rome or England later on, and they were made illegal; many were executed, imprisoned and hurt over many, many centuries.

The exploits of the NT churches were laid out in a book called The Trail of Blood, an excellent read but not for the faint of heart at times. One Cardinal was quoted as saying that had not the RC Church hunted the Baptists for 1,200 years, they would have overrun the RC church by now.

Satan is a brilliant strategist, and he saw that pain and suffering did not quell the growth of the churches, so he set about to destroy by calm and comfort. For the past century, the churches of the world have enjoyed relative peace and safety. New laws and freedoms made our lives easier and easier; we could expand, and we did. More missionaries and more churches, more outreach and more expansion. However, all alongside the growth, the Devil has planted false churches. We have seen so much heresy and the power of greed, money and prestige take over the Lord’s churches, and for many, the need for expansion choked out the truth of the Gospel.

As we get closer and closer to the return of Jesus, it is very possible that we that are in the Lord’s churches will experience more and more trouble. Paul – well, really, the Holy Spirit using Paul’s hands – gives us words and instructions to be comforted with.

• We will not be Over Taken by ‘That Day,’ verses 1-5

Paul will explore two kinds of people here in these verses. People who live in the Light and those that live in the darkness. Depending on where you live, ‘That Day’ will be different for you. We in the Light know that the day of the Lord will come as a ‘thief in the night,’ not to us but the people who live in Darkness; they will see That Day as a thief in the night. If you take the time to go back and read Matthew 24, you will see that Jesus uses the phrase, “do not be deceived” often. He is warning His people to make sure that we are read up and watching so as not to be deceived. Jesus told us in the Gospels that ‘That Day’ will come when the world is just like it was in the Days of Noah.

What marked the Days of Noah? In Genesis 6:5, we find the answer; “that every imagination of the thoughts of his hearts was only evil continually.” Wow, we are there for sure today! We can see evil in the people in our leadership, we see evil in our society, and it seems that we only promote evil right now. I just saw an article about a school taking a day trip to a Gay Club, actually taking students there. Another had drag queens doing lap dances. And just last week or so, we heard of an incident where a young man claiming to be ‘transgendered’ had raped or at least sexually assaulted girls in the school or schools he attended.

We see the rampant evil in our governments, the corruption and the thievery. We see lying as a way of life for many in power. We find out years later that there were vast cover-ups to protect those that broke the law. Even now, 58 years later, they will not let us have the true story of what happened to JFK. We are beginning to find out that there have been large payments used to cover up sexual misconduct in the halls of government. And soon, we are to see the former governor of NY arrested and charged with sexual misconduct. Those of us that are of the Light should be able to see these things and not be caught off guard, not be dismayed, and not be discouraged to think that evil had won. The people of Noah’s day thought evil had won until the rain started to fall. Then only those who obeyed God lived.

All too often in our churches today, we do not teach about the end times and about what to look for. Many Christians have never even read the Book of the Revelation, which promises a blessing for just reading it. Yet, after just about 3 weeks, and some say 3 months here in Thessalonica, Paul was broaching the end times. He had and was preparing them for the end. He was teaching about the Rapture and the need for God’s people to keep an eye open and to know what to look for so that we are not caught off-guard. Sadly, too many churches today do not teach about the end and that we should live in anticipation of Jesus’ return.

Hiebert tells us that ‘The Day of the Lord’ is a familiar Old Testament expression that denotes a time when God would intervene in the history of man to judge His enemies, deliver His people, and establish His Kingdom. The Rapture is just the beginning of a long journey of 7 years to the establishment of the Kingdom here on earth.

• A Thief in the Night, verses 2-3

Today we see brazen thievery in broad daylight. But in Jesus’ day, most of the thievery was done by night. There is still a lot of that today as well. A good thief must be good at stealth and good at secrets. The day of the Lord will be just like that, sudden; no one will know when it is going to happen, and we cannot set any dates. This is an important doctrine. If you see or hear any preacher, pastor, or so-called modern-day prophet setting a date for the Lord’s return, the Rapture or the Day of the Lord, they are liars. Paul tells us that The Day will come as a thief in the night. Our job is to be ready and to be doing the Kingdom business of sharing the Gospel.

While we are not to set dates, as children of the Light, we are not to be surprised by the arrival of The Day; rather, we should be looking for it with diligence and anticipation.

In Matthew 16: 1-3, Jesus criticized the religious leaders of the day for not being able to recognize the signs of the times. Why were they blind? The vast majority of them, if not all at the time, were children of the Darkness. But as children of the Light, we are to live prepared for the unexpected. The people who live in the darkness, blinded by their sin and rejection of God’s grace, are trying to create peace and safety on earth without Jesus. This is impossible with sinful men. We are corrupt at best, and dead people cannot produce life, furthermore, a good life. But when the leaders of the world promise us ‘peace and safety,’ beware that the time of The Day is near. They are trying to do what only God can and will do.

The Rapture is part one of the whole Day of the Lord. The first part told to us in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 is that we will “meet the Lord in the air.” The second part seen in Zechariah 14:5 is Jesus coming with the saints. These events are 7 years apart at least; together, they make up The Day of the Lord. In that time, God will judge His enemies, rescue His people, and pave the way for the establishment of the Kingdom that Jesus will rule from Jerusalem. Paul tells us that as we get closer and closer to The Day, the signs will be like the labor pains in a woman who is giving birth.

Just over 2 weeks ago, we got a call from our daughter, and she was experiencing labor pains. It was very early, in the wee hours of the morning, and she went to the local hospital. But it was not until about 12 hours later that she gave birth to our first grandbaby. Well, The Day of the Lord will be like this; we will see signs, then more clear signs, then very deliberate signs, then the Trumpet sounds and The Day begins.

We will come back to this text next week. There is so much more to investigate, but I want to leave you with Paul’s words of comfort from verse 11. ‘Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.”

Let us help each other to be ready for The Day. We did not miss it; God did not forget us, and He certainly did not change His mind. Rather, He is doing what a Loving, gracious God does. He is being patient, waiting for as many as possible to receive Jesus’ awesome gift of salvation. So let us edify to build each other up, encourage each other, and comfort each other. God knows how to care for the righteous in Jesus, and for sure, He will not judge the righteous with the evil ones. This we know for sure, and we will explore more of this next week as we revisit these verses.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

 

Chapter 4: 13-18

¹³ “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

^{15 “}For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

All of us face the trials of life in different ways. Some are overthinkers or worriers; others tend to go numb; some sleep, some can’t; others get busy, and on and on we can go. The last 20 months for a lot of us have been eye-opening. We have seen the very systems that the Bible talks about come to life right before our eyes. For some that are saved, this has been eye-opening; it has reassured us that the Bible is real, the words are true, and the promises are secure.

It has also answered a lot of questions for us. We can see, maybe for the first time, how the world system will get the vast majority of the world left after the Rapture to take a mark that allows them to buy and sell goods. We can see how the powers that be will know who has and does not have the mark. We see the apps coming to life that gives us permission to live, to go out to eat, and to buy and sell in some cases right now. We can see how they will be able to track purchases as they move us to more and more online purchases with digital monies and/or currencies. We can see how a global event like the Rapture can unite the governments of the world. People from all walks of life, all religious backgrounds, all political spheres and financial circles can come together around a common ‘enemy.’

Paul lived in a time when death was rampant. The sanctity of human life outside of Christianity simply did not exist. The Roman government used death and death by torture to quell uprisings and to enslave millions. They made death into a sport. The Roman coliseum was built to entertain the masses with death. All around them, these Christians in Thessalonica could see their friends, their brothers and sisters in the Lord, dying, and they wondered if the promises were true.

How could the world get any worse? Surely, Jesus is coming soon.

• The Hope we have in Jesus, verses 13-14

According to Guzik’s commentary, there were prevailing ideas that death was the end for all people. Ancient writers like Aeschylus, Catullus and Theocritus all taught that death was the end. But Paul talks about those that have fallen ‘asleep’; they are just sleeping. Remember that Jesus, as he went to heal Jarius’ daughter, told the mourners that she was just asleep. The word ‘cemetery’ was actually coined by early Christians; the word means ‘dormitory’ or ‘sleeping place.’

We need to be careful how far we take these analogies; the Bible does not teach ‘soul sleep.’ Our bodies go into the ground and decay, and they will be resurrected one day. But ALL people live forever. When we were created, we were created as living souls. We will live eternally somewhere; heaven or hell are the two options offered by God. The choice of where we live is up to us. Those of us that die in Jesus are immediately in His presence, and we are there forever. The idea of ‘falling asleep’ is a reference to the body only.

While we mourn the loss of loved ones – mothers, fathers, children, grandparents and friends – we who know Jesus do not mourn as though we will never see them again. As well, we also know that those who died with an illness are ill no longer. They are whole and happy in Jesus. My mom has Alzheimer’s; she will be 88 next week if the Lord spares her life, but one day she will remember us all. No PSWs or nurses will be needed to care for her; she will be whole. I have a father, a brother, countless friends, and acquaintances that have died in Jesus; they and I will all be reunited one day, maybe sooner than we all think. But this is the hope we have. This is what carries us through the grief and the loss. Hope is one of the remaining supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:13).

We are confident in the empty tomb of Jesus, the proof that there is life, a good life after death for the saved. We can even see the events like Jesus’ transfiguration in Matthew 17 and see Moses and Elijah, men who had been dead for millennia physically, but yet they walked and talked with Jesus. The witch at Endor knew she was talking to Samuel that night; for the very first time, she was actually speaking to the dead, and it shook her. Paul tells of his ‘life after death’ experience, and he does so in the third person: “I know a man.” Well, he was the man. This man died and saw things that he simply could not put into words. Yet here he was, that man, talking about the resurrection and about life after death.

Jesus will bring the saved dead back with him, and we will see them again. Paul uses the term ‘we’ in these verses (see verse 15, “we who are alive”). He expected the Lord to return in his lifetime. He lived each day longing and expecting the Lord’s return. Later as we read, Paul starts to use “you.” He understood that Jesus would not return in his lifetime, and it changed his writings.

But I can say that we have a very good chance of seeing Jesus return in our generation. I will not set dates nor times; that is forbidden. But we can surely see more and more that framework for the power and rise of the Man of Sin. We can see the mechanisms that will help him dominate the world. We can see the forming of the One-World Religion as the Muslims, Catholics and Jews begin the building of a worship facility in Berlin, Germany. China is fast becoming the military superpower; Russia continues to encroach unabated into Europe, and the US military is being depleted both of arms and people.

• The Job we have in Jesus, 2 Peter 3:9

While we are excited about the return of Jesus, we need to be aware that His return, though good news for us in Jesus, is a damning event in the lives of those that don’t know Him. Shortly after His coming for us in the Rapture, the world will be plunged into chaos, disease, food shortages, natural disasters, and the breakdown of law and order. Death will be rampant, and the Gospel will be scarce. Most of the people that don’t know Jesus before the Rapture will never get to know Him after. They will die in their sins and spend an eternity in Hell. What are we to do about that? Tell others about Jesus. We need to be about the business of the Kingdom.

We can see that the people in charge already understand that a vast majority of the people will do what they are told. When the Mark of the Man of Sin comes into play midway through the Tribulation, the vast majority of people will simply line up to get it; they will not question nor challenge the order. ALL of these will go to Hell; none can be saved. Once you take the Mark, you are sealed for eternity. There will be those that understand what is happening; either they are saved, or many of the Jews will realize that this Mark is evil as it requires you to worship a man and not God. These rebels will be hunted down and executed.

Take the time to read Revelation 11-13. I am sure you will not be able to put it down once you begin. The point is that all of our friends, family, co-workers and neighbors who don’t know Jesus as Savior will not have a great life after the Rapture. Theirs will be hell on earth and then hell for real without Jesus. We need to be about the work of sharing the Gospel. Jesus is the only way.

Like Paul here in this letter, ‘we’ should expect to meet the Lord in the air. ‘We’ should expect to hear the Trumpet. ‘We’ should expect to see the dead in Christ raised. ‘We’ should expect to see the dormitories open and the sleeping bodies of our loved ones in Jesus awake. ‘We’ should expect to fly in the air to meet Jesus. Sadly, not many of us, myself included at times, live this way. Maybe some of us have become the end-time scoffers, not by our words, but by the way we live. We do not take hell seriously, and just maybe we don’t truly believe that actual people that we know are there and others are on their way simply because they don’t know Jesus as Saviour.

If you and I truly believed that Hell was real and that the people we sit and work with every day, the people we eat lunch with and joke with and host football pools with every day, are going to die without Jesus and spend eternity in Hell, how would that change the way we share the Gospel? Jesus is coming to get us; this is a fact. How many of us will there be to go, and how many will we help be in that group? God wants ALL to be saved, and He is giving mankind as much time as He can.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca