51 – Rapture & Resurrections

THE PROGRAM OF THE RAPTURE OCCURS IN SEVEN STAGES.

1. the Lord Himself descends from Heaven
2. with a shout
3. with the voice of the Archangel
4. with the trumpet of God
5. the Dead Saints shall rise first
6. then we that are Alive, that are Left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds
7. we meet the Lord in the air and shall ever be with the Lord
   The Rapture of the church was a mystery (mystērion) in that it had not been known in the Old Testament but now was revealed. The dead in Christ will first be raised, and then the living will be translated instantaneously to our glorified resurrected bodies. imminent means hanging over one's head ready to fall or overtake one. It also means close at hand in its incidence. Since we do not know when Christ's coming will be we say it is imminent. 1) We can't count on some amount of time transpiring before He comes. 2) We cannot legitimately set a date for it. 3) We cannot legitimately say it will happen soon. Because of this Christians should always be waiting patiently for our Lord to return at any time.At death the human spirit is separated from the body (Genesis 3:19; Ecclesiastics 12:7; 2 Corinthians 5:8). A resurrection is an event whereby a dead body is raised to immortal life for some explicit purpose. This is different from somebody coming back to life.