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p336 * * * I see no reason to doubt that all saints* who have died will be raised up when Christ comes and changes us - the living that remain to the moment of His presence - and both shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air "They that are Christ's," in 1 Corinthians 15:23, seem to me a category put in an expressly large style so as to embrace the saints before the church as well as such as compose it. Compare Hebrews 11. And this is confirmed by the special communication which begins at 1 Corinthians 15:51: "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Here there is a secret beyond the Old Testament which revealed no more than the resurrection, and the coming with the Lord in the day of His appearing. (Job. 19, Zech. 14) But the apostle was inspired to add both the manner of raising the dead saints and especially the change of us the living, then found here below, who shall all be alike changed, and, according to 1 Thessalonians 4, caught up to meet the Lord above. Hence in this latter scripture, "put to sleep through Jesus," may be said of dead Christians (the occasion of the need of comfort to the living, ver. 13), while the next verse speaks with greater comprehensiveness of those fallen asleep in general. Again, the dead in Christ need not be restrained to those since redemption; it is in contrast with the dead in Adam, or after a merely natural sort.

{*'When will the Old Testament saints be raised? Are they included in "they that are Christ's at his coming" and raised when the Church is caught up; or are they only raised on the sounding of the seventh trump (Rev. 11:15-18), that being the final one of this dispensation, thus in keeping with the word to Daniel (chap. 12:13) and that which Job says (chap. 19:25-27)? Was not this expecting Him on the earth, as in the Millennium?'}

There is nothing said of raising saints from the dead under the seventh trumpet, though I do not object to the conclusion that as it is the winding up of God's appeals to the world and the introduction of the world-kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, so it announces the judicial recompense in broad terms up to the end. The time of award to His "servants the prophets, and to the saints," etc., does not fix it as the moment of their resurrection - they may well have been raised before. At any rate, nothing of the kind can be built on a passage which is silent as to that for which it is alleged.

Nor is there the least warrant to connect "the seventh trumpet" with "the last trump" of 1 Corinthians 15, nor even with the "great sound of a trumpet" in Matthew 24. "The seventh" is of course the closing one of the Apocalyptic series and of the general course of the book up to the kingdom. "The last trump" of 1 Corinthians 15 means Simply the final summons when the heavenly saints leave their earthly sojourn to join the Lord - a figure, like others in the chapter, taken from familiar military matters. The trumpet in the gospel all rather connected with the divine call to gather Israel from all lands according to the prophets. There is no doubt that when this point is reached all the departments of the kingdom, heavenly and earthly, will be occupied and displayed by Christ, the risen saints, and the people of God, nor will it cease till every creature, even of the lost, bows and confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Daniel and Job will be there, of course, among the rest.

The scripture which is most to the point (of proving saints raised just before the millennial kingdom begins) is Revelation 20:4; but I see no reason to doubt that the first class already enthroned includes the Old Testament saints with the church, while the two classes particularly described and then raised in addition to the foregoing are only the Apocalyptic confessors. This then gives no countenance to the view, that the Old Testament saints are reserved till then. The sufferers at the end of this age are specified as then made to live and reign with Christ: else they might seem to have lost all as regards the kingdom. No others are said to be raised at that time.

[53250E]

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