This is my favorite chapter of New Covenant teachings - I am enjoying my life with my new husband … but Yeshua is my first love, my ultimate husband, my savior-redeemer-and personal advocate. My soul anxiously awaits His return to gather me to Him, to be with Him forever.
There are those claiming to be Christians that adamantly repudiate The Rapture - all I can say to them is that The Rapture IS a true event that is going to be happening when Elohim decides the time is right to call His Children home. I intend to be in that ingathering :-)
And I truly feel sorry for those who have determined in their minds to avoid it. Why anyone would chose to remain behind is something my mind and spirit cannot comprehend since ALL of the Scriptures - Old & New Covenants speak to the wonderous Rapture taking place.
According to the Old Covenant Scriptures, Enoch and Elijah are the only two people God took to heaven without them dying (aka; they were "raptured" = blissfully taken into their eternal life to be with Elohim forever more).
Enoch: walked straight out of this life and into his eternal life without tasting death. (Genesis 5:24)
Elijah: was walking with Elisha, who was also a prophet, and Elijah was suddenly taken up into Heaven before Elisha's very eyes. (2 Kings 2:10-11)
The end-time Church, who is the living Bride of Christ, will also be lifted up out of this world without tasting death (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
{The Rapture} is the hope of the Saints … it is to be encouraged & taught.
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1 Thessalonians ~ Chapter 4/Thursday Bible Study
Exhortation to Moral (principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character) Purity (freedom from anything that debases, contaminates, pollutes).
"Furthermore, brethren, we ask you and beg of you, in the Name of the *Lord Jesus Christ, that you continue to live in a way pleasing to **Elohim, so that you may grow more and more. What that way is, we have already made clear to you. You remember what directions we gave you by authority of the Lord Jesus? It is the will of Elohim that you be holy. You must abstain from adultery (sexual intercourse between a married person and a person who is not his or her spouse). Let each one of you see to it that he choses for himself a wife to be held in sanctity (ultimate importance and inviolability = being held in reverence as something that must never be violated; safe or protected from attack, infringement, destruction, or interference) and honor (high respect; great esteem). One must not yield to lustful (having or showing strong feelings of sexual desire) passions (strong and barely controllable emotions), as the heathen (a person who does not belong to a widely held moral stance - especially one who is not a Jew, or Christian - as regarded by those who do) do in their ignorance (lack of knowledge or information) of Elohim. No one should wrong his brother or defraud him in business, for the Lord is the avenger (a person who exacts punishment) in such cases. This we have told you before, and have given proofs from life. Elohim's purpose in His call to us is that our way of living should not be sinful, but sinless. Whoever disregards this course of living disregards something more than some manmade rule: he rejects Elohim Who called us and has given us His ***Ruach HaKo'desh to help us. (vv. 1 thru 8)
Exhortation to Brotherly Love
Then, with regard to brotherly love, there is really no reason why I should write to you about that, for Elohim Himself has commanded you to love one another. Now you are already extending your love to include all the brethren in the whole land of Macedonia. We urge you, nevertheless, to do still better in every way. We trust that you will strive to live peaceably, minding your own business and working with your own hands. This is advice we have given you on previous occasions. You understand that we want you to command the respect of outsiders, and not to be dependent on anyone. (vv. 9 thru 12)
The Lord's Return
Now, brethren, we do not want you to be ignorant in regard to those who have died. You have no reason to grieve like the rest who have no hope; for if we believe that Yeshua died and then rose again, so also will Elohim bring back with Him those who have died in the Lord. And this much we can tell you from The Word of the Lord, that we who may be still living when the Lord returns will not in any way precede those who are already numbered among the dead. With a word of command, at a call from the archangel and at the sound of Elohim's trumpet, the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven. Then those who have died believing in Christ will be the first to rise. Next, those of us still living shall be taken up into the clouds, together with the resurrected dead, to meet the Lord in the sky! After that we shall be with the Lord forever and ever! Encourage and console one another, therefore with these words." (vv. 13 thru 18)
*Lord Jesus Christ (in Greek: Kyrios Iēsous Christos) = the most formal title for Jesus (Yeshua). It occurs often in the New Testament letters.
The word “Lord” has a wide range of uses; it can be a simple respectful “Sir” or a more formal, “Master.” But the New Testament also uses “Lord” of God. The word “Christ” is the anglicized form of the Greek word meaning “anointed one” or “Messiah.” “Lord Jesus Christ” reminds us that Jesus is both the promised Messiah and our God.
**Elohim (Hebrew: אֱלֹהִים, romanized: ʾּlōhīm: [(eloˈ(h)im]) is a Hebrew word meaning "Gods – Father, Son, & Holy Spirit". Although the word is plural in form, in the Hebrew Bible it usually refers to a single deity “Behold, the Lord – the Lord is One”, particularly the God of Israel.
***Ruach HaKo’desh: In Hebrew, the Holy Spirit (רוח הקודש, Roo-ahk hah-Koh-desh) refers to the divine force, quality, and influence (aka, power) of God.
The Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16 & 11:13; 1 Corinthians 6:9; Ephesians 1:13 & 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 4:8; Titus 3:5; and Jude 1:20), is referred to more than 90 times in the Brit Chadashah.
**1 Thessalonians 3: https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2023/03/1-thessalonians-chapter-3thursday-bible.html
