For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. – Luke 17:24

There’s a lot of hype surrounding the concept of the rapture – the idea of the taking of the Lord’s people to be with Him, but Jesus never implies a secret return to claim His own – in fact He specifically states that it will be obvious to all:

And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. – Luke 17:23

The day of the Lord is to be sudden, but not secret. Those who say ‘here it is’ are wrong, because when Jesus returns no-one will need to have Him pointed out to them! The logic of Luke’s record in Luke 17:20-37 is inescapable: The Day of the Coming of the Son of Man is going to be as sudden and obvious as a lightening bolt illuminating the entire sky; this coming will burst into every day life for saint and sinner alike; this Day will suddenly change everything. Sinners will be left standing as the saints by their sides are taken to meet the Lord.

This fits perfectly with 1 Thessalonians 4:17

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

This speaks of our being caught up to meet Him in the air as He returns! Praise God that we will also be transformed, changed in the twinkling of an eye – as we meet Him, the coming King (1 Corinthians chapter 15)!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 11th, 2007 at 8:48 pm and is filed under Devotional. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.