Does the Bible Prohibit Cremation? 1. Scripture says nothing about a required mode of burial for either believers or non-believers. However, burying the body was the standard practice among the Israelites in the Old Testament and Christians in the New (exceptions: 1 Sam. 31:8-13; Jos. 7:25). 2. Obviously any buried body will eventually decompose (Ecc. 12:7). So cremation isn’t a strange or wrong practice – it merely accelerates the natural process of oxidation. 3. The believer will one day receive a new body (1 Cor. 15:42-49; 1 Thes. 4:13-18; Job 19:25-26), thus the state of what remains of the old body is unimportant. 4. The imagery of Christ’s resurrection pictures burial and then a raising up from the dead (Rom. 6:3-5; 1 Cor. 15:3-4). Because of that, many Christians prefer burial to cremation to maintain a likeness to Christ's burial (although literally He was laid in state in a cave, not buried in the ground).
John MacArthur

A Thief In The Night And The Ra

A Thief In The Night And The Ra

Timing Of The Rapture – 5 of 5

A THIEF IN THE NIGHT AND THE RAPTURE

When we seek an understanding of the timing of the Rapture, we find more than sufficient information in the Bible to know that it is to occur at the end of time, when Christ returns to judge the nations. Six different paths of the Bible have been examined, and each gives the same teaching. But before we leave this question we should look at one more path. It, too, is intimately concerned with Christ’s coming. It, too, will show us that the believers will be here when Christ returns in judgment.

Repeatedly the Bible speaks of Christ coming as a thief or as a thief in the night. Jesus said in Matthew 24:43 in the context of His discussion concerning His return:

But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.

God declares in II Peter 3:10 as He discusses the destruction of the universe at the end of time:

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and works that are therein shall be burned up.

In Revelation 3:3 we read the warning:

Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

And in Revelation 16:15, as God is speaking of the end of the world, we find:

Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.

On the basis of these verses various doctrines have come forth, amongst which are those which suggest that Christ will come silently. Suddenly and quietly the Christians will be removed from this earth. This idea certainly appears to be valid in the light of the language of Christ coming as a thief in the night.

But is this really so? Certainly I Thessalonians 4:16, which speaks of the Rapture of the believers, does not suggest He will come silently as a thief. For there God speaks of the shout of command, of the trumpet of God. This is anything but a silent coming.

Wonderfully, however, the Bible is its own commentary. If we follow the Biblical rule of letting the Bible explain or interpret the Bible, an understanding of the phrase “thief in the night” can be found. We shall discover that the Biblical references which use this phrase are not at all suggesting a silent coming of Christ. Moreover, we shall discover additional support to the clear teaching of the Bible that the occurrence of the Rapture must be simultaneous to the timing of Judgment Day.

In I Thessalonians 5:1-9 we read:

But of the time and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that the day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this passage we find again a clear reference to the day of the Lord coming as a thief in the night. The day of the Lord is the day when our Lord Jesus Christ will come on the clouds with power and great glory. It is the day when He comes as King of kings and Lord of lords.

But in these verses God teaches that day will come as a thief in the night. Is He then teaching that He will come when no one expects Him?

Certainly this is to be true for the unsaved. Verse 3 records:

For when they shall say, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.

The unsaved are not looking for Christ to come in judgment. They may not even be looking for His return at all. They may believe, in their evolution theory-blinded minds, that mankind is finding answers to living in this world. These answers may assure him that, by exercising careful diligence, mankind can continue another million years or more on this earth. And certainly they are convinced that insofar as a Judgment Day is concerned, if it exists at all, it is probably millions of years away. In their own minds they have concluded that God need not be reckoned with. They are safe and secure to follow their own lustful pleasures.

If they are those who relate to the Bible but are unsaved, inasmuch as they are following other gospels than the true Gospel, they will also be quite sure that Judgment Day is of no real concern. After all, God is a loving God. He does not wish that any should perish. Somehow God has a marvelous plan for this earth and its inhabitants which will insure maximum love for all. In their blindness, by their false gospels which seem so successful and so God-ordained, they will be certain that there is still hope for a utopia on this present earth. Again, as in the case of those who wish to deny God altogether, they will feel all is secure.

Revelation 11:9,10 speaks of the killing of the two witnesses, an event which can be shown to be signifying the silencing of the Gospel all over the world. Note the world’s reaction to this in Revelation 11:10:

And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth.

This passage indicates that before Christ returns the Gospel is silenced. That is, the true Gospel is silenced. It, of course, is unacceptable to all kinds of people. For even though it teaches the love of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, it also teaches that mankind is under the wrath of God. It teaches that unsaved men are the slaves of Satan who must spend an eternity in Hell paying for their sins. These are ideas that are repugnant to mankind. It is so much nicer and more joyful to talk about God’s love and mercy. They fail to understand that God’s love and mercy have no meaning apart from a clear declaration of God’s wrath.

So for the unsaved, too, Christ comes unexpectedly. As a matter of fact, His coming will be a horrible surprise. For those who are not saved will discover they are to stand for judgment. They will discover that, while perhaps they thought all was well between them and the Lord, they actually had been following a salvation designed to their own liking rather that a salvation designed by the Bible. At Christ’s coming it will be a moment of truth. They will realize they had never served Him as Lord. They had been obeying the Bible only when it was convenient. They had never trusted Christ as the only one who could save them. Rather, they had been seeking a salvation based on the grace of God plus their own meritorious efforts. They had thought they were at peace with God and secure in Christ, but it was a false peace, a false security. At His coming the terrible truth will come to them that they never had been born from above.

For all these, Christ’s coming will be as a thief in the night. Notice what will happen to those for whom His coming is as a thief in the night. “Sudden destruction will come upon them, and there will be no escape.”

This is the language of Judgment Day. Remember what happened to the people of Noah’s day. Suddenly they were deluged with water and destroyed. Remember Sodom. It, too, experienced sudden destruction. Remember the language Jesus uses as He speaks of Judgment Day in Matthew 7:13:

Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.

And in II Thessalonians 1:9 God declares:

Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.

What an awful moment! What a terrible place to be! No wonder we read in Revelation 6:16 of men calling upon the rocks to crush them and the hills to cover them. No experience of trauma that mankind has ever experienced can approach the awfulness of Judgment Day.

But the Bible goes on to disclose other news relating to this momentous occasion. It indicates there are others present for whom our Lord’s coming is not as a thief in the night. These are the true believers. These are the ones who are ready for His coming because their sins have been washed away in Christ’s blood.

These are the ones who are not under the dominion of darkness. They are children of the day (a synonym for Christ Himself). They are children of the light. (Jesus is the light.) So they are the ones who belong to the Lord.

We read in these verses that the day of the Lord will not overtake them as a thief. For they have anticipated His coming and are ready for it.

We thus see that when Christ returns in judgment, the believers will still be here. Therefore these believers could not have been raptured earlier. And since Judgment Day is the end of time, we can know that these believers must now be raptured. They in no sense are to experience judgment, even as I Thessalonians 5:9 declares:

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.

The wrath spoken of in this verse is not the tribulation period as some would suppose. With the sure knowledge that the Rapture will be simultaneous with Judgment Day, we know believers will go through the final tribulation period. But that period is not the wrath of God that must be visited upon unbelievers as payment for their sins. The wrath of God is the punishment the unsaved are to experience eternally as a result of their sins. The true believers in no way are to experience this. For Christ has covered all their sins by His blood.

Revelation 6:15-17 speaks eloquently of the wrath of God:

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?”

This is the wrath from which the saved are free. Praise God for such a wonderful salvation!

In summary then we see that the verses of I Thessalonians 5 can be understood very readily when we recognize that there is a simultaneous occurrence of the Rapture and Judgment Day. While Christ comes as a thief in the night to bring judgment upon the unbelievers, the believers are ready for His coming. For them He does not come as a thief in the night. For them it is the marvelous moment when their salvation is completed, as they are raptured to be forever with Christ.

Conclusion

We have patiently looked at seven different paths in the Scriptures concerning the timing of the Rapture. Each of them shows us that the Rapture of believers is simultaneous with Judgment Day. God has indeed given us ample evidence of this.

Because this truth is so very clearly documented in the Bible, all other teachings concerning the details of our Savior’s return should be studied in the light of this truth. The fact is, we should find, as we study the Bible to discover aspects of His return, that there should be continuous agreement. This is so because the Bible is perfect in its truth and trustworthiness.

The big question we all must face is whether or not we are ready for our Lord’s return. Have we seen ourselves as the sinners we are? Have we repented of our sins, believing in the Lord Jesus as our sin-bearer? Have we turned away from our sins, earnestly desiring to be obedient to Christ?

If we haven’t, we are not ready for His return. We still are included amongst those who are subject to judgment. Our condition is indeed dangerous.

Praise God for His love that it is still the day of salvation, that forgiveness is available for any who call upon the Lord. Praise God for such a Savior!

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