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As we have seen in Numbers 1–3 of this series of articles, the sequence of events that will transpire with the coming of Christ is as follows:
- All the dead, good and evil alike, will be raised (John 5:28–29)
- The living saints will be changed and made ready for Heaven (1 Cor. 15:51–53; Phi. 3:20–21; 1 John 3:2).
- All the saints (the raised dead and the changed living) will be caught up by Christ to be with Him there forever (1 The. 4:17).
- The physical universe will be utterly dissolved (2 Pet. 3:4, 10).
Following these remarkable events will be the most dramatic of all, however. The final judgment of all men will occur. In a context of warning people to be ready for His coming, Jesus taught:
But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats (Mat. 25:31–32).
Often in the parables, Jesus spoke of a man who would leave his property in the care of servants, go away for a time, but would return, demanding an account of their stewardship. It is beyond doubt that He was referring to the certainty of the great judgment upon His return. This great judgment will be according to the words of Jesus (John 12:48). It will be a time in which the good and/or evil of our lives will be assessed and a sentence passed for eternity (2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 20:11–15). It will be a time of the vengeance of God against those who do not know Him and who have not obeyed the Gospel, whose fate will be eternal destruction and separation from God (2 The. 1:7–10).
All these events are depicted as fast-moving, sequential matters, with no hint of seven years of “rapture,” a long period of “tribulation” or a thousand-year reign of Christ on this earth.
[Note: I wrote this article for, and it was published in the “Bible Thoughts” Column for the Hood County News, Granbury, Texas, June 5, 1977.]
Attribution: From thescripturecache.com; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.
