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which He raises from the dead those individuals who have ―seen the Son and believed
on Him that sent Him.‖ The synchronization of these two events is seen again in the
Apostle Paul‘s discourse in Romans eight:
―For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the (revealing)
manifestation of the sons of God…Because the creation itself shall be delivered from
the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God… And not
only it, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves
groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our
bodies.‖ vss.19-23
Here the restoration of the cosmic order and the redemption of the bodies of the
―Sons of God,‖ the righteous dead, are unmistakably identified as to time.
It would seem that the words of the omniscient Christ, speaking of this great
event—the resurrection of the natural creation and of those who are possessors of
eternal life, and solemnly declaring four times in one discourse that it is to be at the
last day, would be sufficient to establish the point beyond cavil. But the advocates of
the Darby theory of a pre-tribulation rapture who have filled the people of God with
this false and unscriptural notion, seem not to hesitate to stultify the plain words of the
Savior in the interests of their theory, and insist that the ―last day‖ is an extended
period that can be placed three and one-half years earlier than the last day, and is
followed by the manifestation of the man of sin and the greatest orgy of evil the world
has ever seen.
It is conceivable and even probable that when the day of His appearing has come
and the sleeping saints are raised and the few surviving ones raptured to meet Him as
He comes to earth, His whole work of judgment and restoration will not be completed
within the span of twenty-four hours, but ―The great and dreadful day of the Lord‖
having come, there can be no turning back, but a speedy completion of all things
leading up to the inauguration of His glorious reign.
The word used in the singular with the adjective ―last‖ means just what it indicates,
the last day of this age and the reign of the ―god of this age.‖ When used in the plural
―in the last days,‖ it obviously means the final or closing period of days. But He never
says of the resurrection, ―I will raise him up in the last days,‖ but ―at the last day,‖
and (let us remember) ―where the resurrection is, there will the rapture be also.‖
―The last days‖ are to be succeeded by ―the last day,‖ and it is on that last day that
the sudden and startling event, which is to be ―In a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye,‖ will occur. That it is also designated as being ―at the last trump,‖ is another
significant point, and identifies unmistakably its time position in the final program.
The trump or trumpet is found in Matt.24:31, I Cor.15:52, I Thess. 4:16, and Rev.
11:15. In the latter instance the word ―trumpet‖ does not appear in English, but the
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