The coming of the Lord gives comfort
I Thessalonians 4:13-18
People in the Thessalonian church expected Jesus Christ to come back in their lifetime, and so when some died, surviving church members were concerned that their friends had missed out on the second coming. Paul’s words are both rich in comfort to those who are “alive and remain” and also graphic in their depiction of the Lord’s descending from heaven so that, whether dead or alive, “we shall meet the Lord in the air.” Oh what a day that will be!
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But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
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