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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Mark 13:26
Comments
Christ will return personally and visibly so that all are aware that he is coming. This is the sign the disciples had asked about. His coming will cause great alarm among many, for they will realise that the time of judgment has come. He will come with overwhelming supernatural power so that his enemies cower before him knowing that they cannot resist him.When Christ returns, he will come with his saints, with all believers who have died, whose spirits have been with Christ in heaven. These will be raised first. Their bodies will come forth from the graves and be wonderfully re-assembled and transformed, and their souls and bodies will be reunited. Then all those believers who are still alive on the earth, who are saved, will rise to meet them in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17). These are glorious, glorious things.But the unbelieving dead – those who have rejected Christ and been lost and condemned – will also be raised and there will be a great judgment (John 5:29). The earth will be destroyed, burned with fire, but it will be re-assembled and wonderfully recreated and rejuvenated and joined with heaven, and become the dwelling place of believers throughout eternity. Possibly it will be greatly enlarged, but certainly made very beautiful: physical and spiritual at the same time. What a wonderful and remarkable place! These things will happen at the end of time, when Christ comes again.The angels will play a wonderful part in this. Even though the remains of God’s elect have been scattered from one end of heaven to the other, none will be overlooked, for Christ will command his angels not to forget a single one. They will gather together his elect, his beloved children, chosen by God from before the creation of the world, and the number gathered will be identical to the number chosen.
Application
Questions
The words imply that the location of the mortal remains of the elect is important. Why is this, given that the souls of the elect are with Christ from the moment of death onwards? It is because the importance of the body is never minimised in the Scripture. Men care for the body after death in spite of the fact that it is buried in dishonour, and rightly so. How much more should it be honoured at the resurrection. Of course, mortal remains are in some cases consumed by fire, or devoured, or scattered far and wide, and bodily particles may have been reused in other bodies. But this is a supernatural retrieval based on the knowledge of God. A body is not identified by the precise collection of atoms that make it up.
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