“Encourage One Another About The Rapture!”

“Encourage One Another About The Rapture!”(I Th.4:13-18).
The doctrine of the resurrection always needs some depth of explaining in different contexts before it can make sense. We may not be surprised if the majority of modern-day Judaism adherents are Sadducees. We think so because the Sadducees do not believe in the resurrection of the dead. It surely needs some convincing to convert a Sadducee to Christ.
Away from the Jews, the resurrection of the all-inclusive Christ poses yet another difficulty at the encounter of the gospel and other religious orientations. In Corinth, some people received baptism on behalf of their dead family members.
In Africa, the gospel runs the danger of syncretism as the resurrection may be understood confusingly as a form of reincarnation or a blend of both.
In Thessalonica, the confusion was in the Thessalonians thinking that all believers had to be alive at the second coming of Christ. True that when you are uninformed, you are deformed. Without a clear understanding of the future resurrection, they grieved for their departed believers “like the rest of mankind who have no hope.”
It is in this regard that Paul gave them this explanation: “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore, encourage one another with these words.”
Amongst us are those who also have the same worries. And the further we are away from Jesus in time, the more worried and confused we become. The more worried and confused we become, the more necessary it becomes for us to rehash these words of Paul in encouraging one another.
The story of believers who have died in the Lord is not yet ended – including you and I who may join them before the Rapture. The dead and the living will all meet at the rendezvous during the rapture!
Weekend prayer: Holy Spirit, inspire us to encourage one another about life towards and after the Rapture. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
26/04/2025.