I know I’m not alone in this. It’s something that’s far too common based on my experience as well as from what others tell me.
We hear excellent presentations of the gospel, but they end without an ending. There’s no mention of eternal life or our glorious hope of resurrected bodies. Yes, sometimes the pastor mentions glory in his concluding prayer or perhaps quotes John 3:16, but what does “glory” or “everlasting life” signify apart from the context of the New Testament? Will we be spirits floating around like Jacob Marley or will we find ourselves sitting all alone on a cloud with harp in hand? I don’t think so.
The Bible is quite clear about our joyful hope of receiving immortal bodies at Jesus’ appearing (1 Corinthians 15:48-54, Philippians 3:20-21). This is not a fringe teaching, not at all, but it comes from several passages where the wording is unmistakable and cannot be misconstrued to mean anything else than our hope of resurrected bodies like that of our Savior after He rose from the dead.
Scripture tells us that Jesus will appear, hopefully soon, and at that time He will raise the dead in Christ and catch living believers up to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17). It’s then the Lord will give both groups of saints glorified and imperishable bodies. The words of the passages mentioned above refer to the event that today we call the “Rapture!”
One of the reasons that I wrote The Triumph of the Redeemed-An eternal Perspective that Calms Our Fears in Perilous Times was to provide pastors with a biblical basis for the Rapture from which they could boldly preach about Jesus’ appearing and the over-the-top joyous blessings associated with our receipt of immortal and imperishable bodies. I also wrote to provide a firm biblical foundation for the pre-Tribulation Rapture so that believers might rejoice in what lies ahead for them after the Rapture.
I often wonder why so many pastors refuse to mention our joyous hope of living forever in glorious, resurrected bodies. One could easily emphasize this biblical truth with mentioning you know what.
In my opinion, this results from unbelief. Pastors and teachers immersed in covenant theology must spiritualize a very large number of Old and New Testament passages that teach the restoration of a kingdom for Israel. In doing so, they deny the reality of the Tribulation and Jesus’ thousand-year reign and because of these errant beliefs they must find alternate interpretations for passages that refer to Jesus’ appearing as an event separate from the Second Coming.
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