1 Thessalonians 4:17 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Thessalonians 4:17

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Instantaneously, the dead are raised. Will it be us? In every age the preacher will say: Surely he comes soon. In every age there are things going on so bad, so awful, so shocking, things against God and his law, against Christ the Redeemer, against his people, that the preacher can legitimately say: Surely he is coming soon. The position today is such that we can say it with more realism than any of our predecessors. Mind you, the devil softens us all up and conditions us. In comes all the media, the television, the social media, and there is washing over us constantly godlessness, immorality, antagonism to God, and we get kind of used to it. Although we do not receive it and accept it and yield to it, we nevertheless get used to it, and the world no longer seems so bad. Is this what the Bible calls, Satan’s little season? Are we heading into the final apostasy? The moral hostility has risen to such a pitch. Things which are abomination to God in the Bible are now permitted by law. And in fact, the law is against those who hold any contrary view. Those who hold on to the old morality are now condemned. They are the people who are put out of work, thrown out of their jobs, lose their posts. These things have never happened before as they are happening today.‘Caught up together.’ The Greek says seized. It is something that will happen suddenly. We get the word rapture directly from the Latin translation of the Bible, and rapture used to mean just that in Latin, seized. We will be seized away, suddenly with them ‘in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.’ These are things I cannot even attempt to describe to you, friends. But all the world will know that Christ has returned, and it is the end of all things.

Application

Gender violation, is it not vile? Even little children urged to choose their gender, if you please. The rules of the Creator so dishonoured and trodden under foot. And many of them may be subject to surgical mutilation and chemical mutilation. Did you ever imagine a few years ago such awful and vile things? Such proud contradiction of the very laws of God and the moral standards of the Most High.

Atheism is legislated in. Perhaps some of you are not aware that it is now illegal to teach in British schools biblical creation as something that is serious and true. It is even illegal to teach what many, many serious scientists hold – special design. That there is evidence of design in the universe. Did you ever think a few years ago you would be living in a country where it is illegal to teach such things? The hostility to God, the antagonism is so great, and it is rising all the time and worse is coming in.

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1 Thessalonians 4:17 Commentary and Bible Study