Biblical Discernment
Our Blessed Hope
jacksdon@gmail.com
Several years ago I was attending a men’s Sunday school class at a local church in Kentucky. The men in the class asked me to teach. The first two Sundays I taught on “Our Blessed Hope.” I was quite surprised to learn that the men in the class had never heard of this great doctrine. I decided to run a small experiment: I asked the first five people that I saw, after the second class, “Can you tell me what our blessed hope is?” Not one of them knew. A Sunday school teacher asked me, “Is this a trick question?” When I came for the 3rd Sunday I discovered that the class had been disbanded and the men scattered to other classes. I was assigned to an “old man’s” class where no one had a Bible and most of the men slept during class. I soon exited stage left.
One of the great reasons for the “religious” confusion existing today is the failure to ascertain just what God’s program is in this dispensation of the grace of God. During this present age God is doing one thing and one thing only. He is bringing into existence, and bringing to completion the Church which is the Body of Christ. Needless to say, this is not a denominational church, in spite of what many zealous denominationalists may think. God says, “There is ONE Body [Ephesians 4:4]. Truly it has been the Devil’s trick to divide and subdivide the members of the ONE Body into innumerable sects and “religious” groups, thus causing them to lose their testimony and discrediting them with the world.
The one true Bible Church is not an organization, but a Divine organism. It is the Body of Christ, and it is composed of every blood-washed, redeemed child of God saved during this church-age. Soon the last member of this Body will be added to the church, and then the Body will be “caught up” to meet the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, in glory. We call this the “rapture of the church.” The occurrence of this wondrous event will take place when the Body of Christ is complete.
Paul is the only New Testament writer to reveal the great truth of our blessed hope:
In Titus 2:1 Paul exhorts the pastor/teacher to: “…speak thou the things which become sound doctrine.” He mentions our “blessed hope” in verse 13:
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 15:51 “Behold I show you a mystery [a sacred secret]: We shall not all sleep [i.e., die], but we shall be changed, [52] In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump [of this age]; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. [53] For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 “But I would not have you to be ignorant brethren, concerning them who are asleep [those who have died in Christ], that ye sorrow not, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them who are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend form 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 who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.”
This wonderful “hope” is for the Body of Christ only; and will occur before the great tribulation and the return of our Lord to earth to rule and reign over Israel and the nations in the millennial kingdom.
Our Blessed Hope
jacksdon@gmail.com
Several years ago I was attending a men’s Sunday school class at a local church in Kentucky. The men in the class asked me to teach. The first two Sundays I taught on “Our Blessed Hope.” I was quite surprised to learn that the men in the class had never heard of this great doctrine. I decided to run a small experiment: I asked the first five people that I saw, after the second class, “Can you tell me what our blessed hope is?” Not one of them knew. A Sunday school teacher asked me, “Is this a trick question?” When I came for the 3rd Sunday I discovered that the class had been disbanded and the men scattered to other classes. I was assigned to an “old man’s” class where no one had a Bible and most of the men slept during class. I soon exited stage left.
One of the great reasons for the “religious” confusion existing today is the failure to ascertain just what God’s program is in this dispensation of the grace of God. During this present age God is doing one thing and one thing only. He is bringing into existence, and bringing to completion the Church which is the Body of Christ. Needless to say, this is not a denominational church, in spite of what many zealous denominationalists may think. God says, “There is ONE Body [Ephesians 4:4]. Truly it has been the Devil’s trick to divide and subdivide the members of the ONE Body into innumerable sects and “religious” groups, thus causing them to lose their testimony and discrediting them with the world.
The one true Bible Church is not an organization, but a Divine organism. It is the Body of Christ, and it is composed of every blood-washed, redeemed child of God saved during this church-age. Soon the last member of this Body will be added to the church, and then the Body will be “caught up” to meet the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, in glory. We call this the “rapture of the church.” The occurrence of this wondrous event will take place when the Body of Christ is complete.
Paul is the only New Testament writer to reveal the great truth of our blessed hope:
In Titus 2:1 Paul exhorts the pastor/teacher to: “…speak thou the things which become sound doctrine.” He mentions our “blessed hope” in verse 13:
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 15:51 “Behold I show you a mystery [a sacred secret]: We shall not all sleep [i.e., die], but we shall be changed, [52] In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump [of this age]; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. [53] For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 “But I would not have you to be ignorant brethren, concerning them who are asleep [those who have died in Christ], that ye sorrow not, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them who are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend form 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 who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.”
This wonderful “hope” is for the Body of Christ only; and will occur before the great tribulation and the return of our Lord to earth to rule and reign over Israel and the nations in the millennial kingdom.
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