“The Dead Will Rise Again—but Not Like the Movies” October 17
Most of us have wondered about eternity.
Perhaps as a child you lay awake thinking:
What happens when we die?
Where do we go?
What will eternity be like?
Will we still be ourselves?
Even believers who know where they will spend eternity can wonder what life beyond this one will actually be like.
Solomon said that God has placed eternity in our hearts.
Maybe that helps explain why our culture seems so fascinated with what lies beyond the grave.
Movies and television are filled with vampires, zombies, ghosts, and the so-called living dead.
But Scripture gives us a very different picture.
The Bible tells us there really was a time when graves opened and people who had died came out.
And it tells us something even more astonishing:
It will happen again.
But not with decaying bodies and filthy grave clothes.
Those who belong to Christ will receive bodies fitted for eternity.
Paul describes a day when the Lord Himself will descend from heaven, the dead in Christ will rise, and believers who are still alive will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord.
So what exactly will happen?
What happens to believers between death and resurrection?
And why did Paul say these truths should comfort us?
Today we’ll look at the resurrection of believers, the Rapture, an extraordinary event that occurred after Christ’s crucifixion, and the hope God has given us concerning eternity.
