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1 Thessalonians 4:15. ‘For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.’ What does this text mean? Please explain!
The promise here is that those who are alive will not meet the Lord before those that have been sleeping in death. The word ‘prevent’ is used in an old-fashioned sense, pre – meaning before and ‘vent’ from a word meaning ‘to come’. It means we shall not come before those who have been dead and enjoy the experience of joining with Jesus before they do. It will be something we shall all share at the same time, together with them (verse 17). What joy that will be!
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| Matthew 10:28. ‘Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him that is able to destroy the soul and body in hell.’ Please explain! |
This text has 2 parts
1. Death imposed by persecutors that can kill the body but leave the soul intact.
2. Or Death being brought about by God, that kills the body and the soul
We can see from this that in speaking of a soul, it is not referring to an entity that is immortal. It is talking of something that can be killed and destroyed. The soul can be killed. In the first part of the verse Jesus is talking about fearing those who persecute martyrs to the death. They may be able to kill the body but the ’essence’ of the person, the character, is preserved in the records of God. |
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The character, the new heart, the life through the Holy Spirit, is remembered by God and those faithful martyrs will be called back to life again. When they commended their lives to the Lord, they knew their life would be safe with God and they would not be forgotten. Here are the words of Paul about his own life and trust in God. 2 Timothy 1:12 ‘For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.’ |
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In the second part it is God that is responsible for their final death. It is referred to as God’s ‘strange act’. ‘For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth. Isaiah 28:21,22. They will lose both their body and the sinful character they have developed. The death penalty will be total. It is worth noting that it is a ‘death’ penalty and not a ‘life’ penalty. Life will cease. Any trace of sin will be removed from the world by God and sinners will be destroyed with it. It will be annihilation. This is the situation that Jesus warned us to fear and shun.
It is only in pagan religions that good and evil exist side by side in balance, the dark and the light together. The God of the Bible, the Creator God is able to destroy evil. Evil cannot exist in the presence of God. He is all powerful, He does not have to share His creation with an evil presence forever. |
Jesus died that evil maybe overcome once and for all. The present delay in His doing this is to give us chance to choose to leave evil behind so that we are not destroyed when evil is destroyed at the end. ‘He is long suffering to usward not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’ 2 Peter 3:9
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Paul says, For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.’ 2 Corinthians 4:16 Please explain!
This is used at times to prove that we have a separate inner |
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