Amazon.com
eBook & paperback
Volume 11 ... #9
Paul Believed By Faith He Was Delivered From The Wrath To Come.
I Thess. 1:9-10 ... how ye turned to God from idols to serve the LIVING and true God; And to wait for HIS Son from heaven, whom HE raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
*****
Notice how Paul said "which delivered us from the wrath to come" ... It was as if it were already done ... yet the wrath was yet to come.
This is how faith sees things. When we believe, it is as if it is done, though it is still to come.
The apostles Paul and Peter knew of coming wrath of God upon this earth. We see this by what they wrote.
Peter tells of the coming wrath of God in II Peter 3:10-14.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
Nevertheless we, according to HIS promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of HIM in peace, without spot, and blameless.
*****
Paul explains to us that the children of God are not appointed to go through the wrath of God but we will be delivered from this happening ...
I Thess. 5:1-11 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with HIM.
Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
(But if you wake up one day and all the godly people you knew are gone and you remain on this earth, know this: Somehow you did not "endure" to the end.)
*****
By faith in what God has said in Bible, we also believe the wrath of God will come upon this earth and God will destroy this present heaven and earth.
I believe we, who belong to God and continue with God, will be removed before this happens.
We will be removed as follows:
I Thess. 4:13-18 ... But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep (dead), that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with HIM.
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 (precede) them which are asleep (dead).
For the Lord HIMSELF shall descend from 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 which are alive and remain shall 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.
*****
Notice we will all meet "in the air", not on this present earth.
We will be given "new bodies" before this happens ... spiritual bodies (as it pleases God) ... we will not have the physical bodies we have now. (I Cor. 15)
I believe we will be taken by Jesus to the "new heaven", the "new earth", which is spoken of by John in Revelation 21.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard A GREAT VOICE out of heaven saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and HE will dwell with them, and they shall be HIS people, and God HIMSELF shall be with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
*****
By faith in what God has said in Bible we believe these things as if they are already done for that is the way faith is.
*****