By the way, when it says concerning them which are asleep, this doesn't mean that, this doesn't
teach soul sleep.
Like the soul is asleep inside the body.
I mean, what a nap.
You're just in there the whole time, you're just like, I'm dead, I wonder when the resurrection
is going to be or something, you know?
I wonder if it's tomorrow.
It's all dark in there.
This is what like seven-day Adventists and who's the other ones?
Jehovah's Witnesses, they teach soul sleep.
That when someone dies, their soul is just asleep in the body.
No folks, Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Luke chapter 16 teaches that the rich man, when he died, lifted up his eyes in hell.
There is no purgatory.
There is no in between.
You'll never find the word purgatory in the Bible.
There's only one or two places you can go to, heaven or hell.
Now you can believe that there's something in the middle, but your belief does not change
the reality.
I mean, you can believe you can fly if you want, but go ahead and jump off the roof and
see if reality doesn't hit you in the face, because your belief does not change.
We need to go to the word of God to see what it says, and the Bible doesn't teach that
when people die, they're just asleep in their body.
When it says them which are asleep, it's synonymous with those who are dead.
Why?
Because when someone dies, they look like they are asleep, right?
They just look like they're asleep, and to a certain extent, it kind of is true.
The body is asleep.
The spirit is absent from the body, but the body is asleep, and one day it will awake
to righteousness at the resurrection, the rapture, which is what we're going to look
at.
Okay?
Verse 14, and here's the proof of that.
Look what it says, for if we believe that Jesus died, synonymous with the sleep, and
rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
Sleep in Jesus basically means that people who have died, but they're saved, God's going
to bring their spirits with them to be reunited with their body, okay?
Verse 15, he says, 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.
So let me explain to you how the resurrection looks like, what the rapture looks like, okay?
When we say the rapture, by the way, the word rapture is not found in the Bible, but it's
a good word to describe the second coming of Christ.
It's a good word to describe the resurrection because that's literally what happens.
The Bible talks about the fact that Jesus Christ is going to catch them away, right?
It talks about, you know, not caught away, they're going to be taken.
One shall be taken, the other left, it shall be caught up.
So the idea there is almost like a bird of prey swooping down to snatch its prey, to
snatch whatever is taken up from the land.
Well, that's how the rapture is going to be, okay?
That's the second coming, that's why it's called a rapture because we're going to be
snatched away into glory, okay?
And the way it takes place is that when Christ comes, every eye shall see him, and the Bible
says that the dead in Christ shall rise first.
So they get first dibs on the resurrection.
You understand?
Because obviously there's going to be a lot of believers that are alive during that time,
but the vast majority of believers are dead.
There's far more believers that are dead than are alive, we understand that, right?
I mean, from the beginning of time up until the end of time, everyone who's ever died,
David, Moses, all the nameless prophets in the Bible, or even nameless pastors and prophets
and Christians throughout history who have died in the Lord, I mean, they're resurrecting
first.
Now don't take this lightly.
This is going to be a terrifying sight, okay?
And you're like, sight?
I thought it was like a secret or something.
People close fall to the ground, and everyone just like teleports or something like that.
No.
That's a sucky rapture.
That's a secret rapture.
That's the pre-trib rapture that's not found in the Bible.
The Bible says that every eye shall see him.
He's not like hiding or something, and then like he just raptures everyone and disappears.
No, the Bible says that everyone's going to see Jesus.
I mean, why wouldn't he want everyone to see him?
It's going to scare the crap out of everyone.
So the sight of Jesus, according to Romans 6, is so terrifying.
Put it this way, it's so terrifying, it's worse than any horror movie you've ever seen
in your life.
Forget Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Talk about the rapture here.
Forget Hellraiser.
Hellraiser ain't got nothing on the rapture.
In fact, the Bible says that the rapture is so terrifying that men will desire for the
rocks to fall upon them, to hide them from the face of him, to sit on the throne, from
the wrath of the Lamb.
That's how...
I mean, you're at a movie or something, you see something terrible, oh, I can't see that.
The rapture's worse.
They're like, find me the heaviest rock there is, the heaviest mountain there is, and please
let that thing fall on me to hide me from that.
And they can't hide.
That's a terrifying sight.
The rapture is the most terrifying sight in history.