|
Like unto His
glorious body
"Behold, I
shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed, In a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the
trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (I
Corinthians 15:51,52).
This is one of the
greatest promises in the Bible, assuring us that
"we" (i.e., all believers, whether dead or living
when Christ returns) shall suddenly be changed,
with our dead or dying bodies instantly
transformed into incorruptible, immortal bodies,
which can never die again.
This great change,
when it finally occurs, will take place "in a
moment." The Greek here is en atomo, "in
an atom of time." This word, implying the smallest
entity conceivable by the Greeks, is used only
this one time in the New Testament. It is further
described by "the twinkling of an eye," where
"twinkling" is the Greek rhipe, also used
only this once. Evidently there is nothing else in
this present world comparable in rapidity to this
miraculous change which will be called forth when
"the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with
the trump of God" (I
Thessalonians 4:16).
The great shout
(probably uttered by Christ Himself as at the tomb
of Lazarus) will instantly create new bodies for
both dead and living believers. "The dead in
Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive"
(I
Thessalonians 4:16,17).
Our new bodies will
be like Christ's resurrection body. He "shall
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned
like unto His glorious body, according to the
working whereby He is able even to subdue all
things unto Himself" (Philippians
3:21).
Christ is able thus
to create new bodies for us in a moment, just as
when He created all things in the beginning: "He
spake, and it was done" (Psalm
33:9).
HMM
Thanks to
INSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH
|