Many commentators and myself see Paul simply making a statement to believers that God will save and change all his children regardless if they were already dead or the ones still alive in the day Christ appears in his kingdom.
There is a HUGE
WHEN difference....
between...
WILL SAVE....and
ARE SAVED.
....
* A man WHO confesses true heartful believe, WHILE ALIVE in his bodily flesh...
IS SAVED THEN...Before his BODY experiences, PHYSICAL DEATH.
* A man WHO IS alive in his physical body, and
believes.....la, la, la, la, living his bodily life, working, playing....la, la, la,la,....ooh ah, powerful governing men have authority over him.....oooh, ah, they Dictate, Demand he does particular things, (AGAINST Gods teaching,) they promising to keep his body safely alive, threatening him, IF he do not comply........what’s he gunna do?
* Is he going to be
afraid of the governing powers....and YIELD to their demands and hope they keep their promise to keep his bodily life safe?
* OR is he going to be
NOT AFRAID, keep Hoping, keep TRYING
to be strong in his own willpower, to NOT Yield to the governing powers demands, that ARE AGAINST Gods teachings? (Which Scripture calls “enduring”).
*
IT’S a conundrum....
~ A threatening government power....(which holds the arms, ammunition, army)....whereby one MAY lose their life, IF they go against Them.
~ A promising God, who will NOT SAVE a mans soul or their life....IF they go against God.
* So HOW strong IS a individual in his OWN willpower? Strong enough to stand against evil spirits? Against wicked governing men, who can and will take his possessions, his livelihood, his savings, his property, his freedom, his life......IF he will not Yield to their demands?
* IF he is, or can be strong enough in his OWN power....YEAH for him....he will have endured. He will have been willing to LOSE all his possession, his freedom, perhaps even his bodily life....to endure Keeping his belief and hope IN God.
* But what IF, he isn’t Strong enough, IS TOO FEARFUL of losing his possessions, freedom, life and Yields to the governing powers?...and IS willing to Go Against Gods WILL, by acquiescing to the governing MANS WILL?
*...he didn’t “endure”....did he?
* 2,000 years ago, mankind was GIVEN A SOLUTION to The puzzling conundrum...
* THE Solution IS an “OFFERING” to EVERY man for the last 2,000 years.
* The REQUIREMENT IS: That each individual man, MUST AGREE, to Receive the “OFFERING”.
* THE “OFFERING”, IS a FREE GIFT, already PAID FOR, already allocated for Every man, to TAKE and possess “his” Gift or REJECT and LOSE possessing “his” Gift.
* THE OFFERING IS: IF, a man IS WILLING to lay down his bodily life, crucified with Jesus, and believes in “his” heart, Jesus IS the Christ, the Son of the Living God.....and IS willing to Confess “his” belief....and IS willing to REPENT for Not having believed....
RIGHT THEN ... BEFORE that mans physical death...
The Lord God SHALL:
FORGIVE that man for having HAD disbelief IN the Lord God;
SAVE that mans soul.
QUICKEN that mans spirit.
and
SHALL thereafter (in the future) raise up that mans body in a glorified body. and
Gods SPIRIT SHALL enter that man, and REMAIN IN that mans body, for the duration of that mans Bodily Life.
* SO....what’s the ADVANTAGE of the Lord Gods, 2,000 year old, Offered RESOLUTION?
1) it’s A Gift offering. Noone is Forced to Receive a Gift.
2) it’s a mans OPTION, to receive it, possess it, or reject receiving it, lose it.
** AND the BIGGY....Advantage!!
3) Once a man HAS RECEIVED his GIFT....NO ONE, NOTHING, can REMOVE that Gift from him.
WHY? Why can a man who
HAS RECEIVED the Lord Gods OFFERED GIFT,
NEVER have that Gift REMOVED from him?
Precisely BECAUSE....that man IS no longer “keeping in Belief by his own will power”.....that man IS KEPT IN BELIEF....by the POWER OF Gods SPIRIT IN that man.
*Thus RECALL....Scriptural Teaching; of WHAT the man IS NOW...
1 John 4:
[4] Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
That is very different from suggesting that Paul assumed he’d be harpazo’d. You may want that, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to escape persecution, but Paul and the early church focuses more on the resurrection then the harpazo.
Paul/Saul was a teacher and preacher....to Gentiles and Jews, <—— that was the Service unto the Lord, the Lord Called Saul (the Jew) and Paul (the Gentile) to do, and Saul/Paul AGREED.
If you want to learn of Sauls teaching to the Jews, read those texts.
If you want to learn of Pauls teaching to the Gentiles, read those texts.
If you want to learn of Pauls teaching of Resurrection, read those texts.
If you want to learn of Pauls teaching of Escaping Persecution, read those texts.
.....IOW, ALL of Saul/Paul’s teachings were Important and Focused on particular topics.
* Bottom line...God has provided us with a detailed Book of Prophecies, Promises, Disciplines, Consequences and the FREEWILL for every man to CHOOSE, his own desire of WHAT promises and consequences that man WANTS God to APPLY to that individual man.
* You WANT...God Angry at you, Gods Wrath upon you, Gods Tribulation upon the Earth to crush you, burn you, drown you?
That’s YOUR CHOICE....Don’t believe in Him, REJECT His Offering of “CONVERSION”....His Offering of His Spirit IN YOU....join up with the unbelievers....join up with the believers trying to keep their belief by their own power and give your bodily life in martyrdom....
Freewill is awesome!
When they were faced with martyrdom from 30AD (approx) to around 284AD, Eusebius tells us that they held their faith in the face of painful torture because of the resurrection, not a harpazo. I don’t recall Paul saying that millions of believers vanish all over the world: bakers, fishermen, pastors, tent makers, military etc..what will Rome do when we all vanish…He focused on the resurrection of the dead as the major theme. Did he think he’d be harpazo’d? No, I think just the opposite and he was willing to die for Christ because he knew what his reward would be.
Convoluted. This is not 30AD... You can not use one text, to pretend you know what Paul was THINKING concerting a completely different text.
You have 2,000 years of history in the NT...to leisurely read, be familiar with, study, for how many years?
In Pauls day, there was no reference NT Book. Every thing the Jews AND Gentiles were Hearing was NEW information to them. They were not bombarded in few brief lessons with all the knowledge Paul knew.
