Resurrection and Transformation
An extraordinary event will occur
at the Lord's coming. By the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, God
will raise believers who have died. Believers who are alive will be
"caught up" in the clouds. "For the Lord Himself will descend
from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the
sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we
who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the
Lord" (1 Thessalonians ,17).
Without going through death,
believers who are alive will transform into spiritual bodies. "We shall
not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be
raised imperishable, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians ,52).
"Our commonwealth is in
heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change
our lowly body to be like his glorious body" (Philippians ,21).
Just as the Lord Jesus was raised to life in a spiritual body, believers will
also be clothed with a spiritual body--glorious, powerful, and immortal.
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