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“So Shall We Always Be With The Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17)

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 Fighting for Real Estate:  Part #15 – What Happens When We Meet The Lord?

 By Richard Allen – February 3, 2025

My question above: “What happens when we meet the Lord” should actually be expanded to ask: “What events will be going on when Jesus comes again for His Bride, the Church?” I ask this, since this larger question has a broader and more comprehensive answer available from Scripture.  As A.W. Tozer once explained, Scripture Truths are like the “facets of a beautiful diamond, every time you turn it you see the diamond in a new perspective!” So, let me give you a brief review of this truth from Scripture – turning this diamond of truth so we can comprehend the multiple facets that can be envisioned. The New Testament Scriptures record somewhere between 60 – 80 verses regarding the Second Coming of Christ – and many of them speak to the different facets of Our Lord’s Return.  To make things a bit easier to grasp, I’d like to propose that there are basically eight facets or types of verses regarding our Lord’s Second Coming in Scripture. Virtually all of these 60 – 80 verses fit into these eight categories:


  1. Jesus will Come again to “Rescue and cleanse His Bride” (i.e. the Righteous and Elect – both Jew and Gentiles, the Church)

  2. Jesus will Come again to “Punish the Ungodly” (i.e. unbelievers, Satan, the Nations, the Lawless One, the Antichrist)

  3. What “The Day of His Coming will be Like” (i.e. Trumpets, Angels, Heavens on Fire, Deliverance, a Marriage, Judgement and Wrath)

  4. What Jesus will be “doing in heaven  while He’s absent” (i.e. preparing Mansions, Reigning, Seated by the Father, Interceding for the Saints)

  5. What Jesus’ People should be “doing on earth while He’s absent” (i.e. Good Works, Fruitful Holy Living, Eagerly and Patiently Waiting)

  6. Warnings to “Watch and be Ready for Jesus’ Coming” (i.e. Watch, Pray, Care for and don’t mistreat Jesus’ Children, He Comes Like a Thief)

  7. Descriptions of “Events as Jesus Rescues His Bride, and Punishes the Ungodly” (Sheep and Goats, We’ll be Like Him, All Eyes Will See Him)

  8. Reasons for “Jesus’ Delay” (i.e. One Day is as a Thousand Years to God, Waiting for Men and Women to Repent)


No question there are other sub-facets or categories that we might observe, but these Eight Categories cover the vast majority of Biblical texts regarding His coming. What is most interesting is that Scripture unashamedly lumps these eight facets or categories together – often linking several of them in one passage. From my 50+ years of Bible Study one thing is clear:  Jesus’ coming will bring Salvation to His Church, and Judgment to everyone else. These concepts are not separated by 1,000 years or other fanciful musings – they are just the teachings of men. One such man was John Nelson Darby. Darby is known as “The Father of Dispensationalism.”  Here’s how Wikipedia describes Darby’s novel teachings regarding the Second Coming of Christ:


“Darby has been credited with originating the pre-tribulational rapture theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world to its heavenly destiny before the judgments of the tribulation. Thus, the prophetic program resumes with Israel's earthly destiny. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because ‘God is able to graft them in again,’ and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the ways of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favor to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfil all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham.”


So I am not misunderstood, there are many commendable things to be said about J.N. Darby. And I am not calling into question his sincerity or faith. But Darby did lead the Evangelical Church down a slippery slope – mostly because Darby divided things that God had joined together.  To Darby, there were two separate Peoples of God. First and foremost, Darby taught that the Jewish Peoples’ customs, ethnicity and worship were all eternal, and not temporary. It’s ironic, New Testament Scripture considers the Jewish customs, ethnicity and distinctive worship as Pre-Christian, Weak and Beggarly (Galatians 4:9), and a Stage of Infancy – the Maturity belonging to Christ and His Bride – the Church. Somehow, Darby never figured out that the Church was “Not just Gentiles,” but rather “Jews and Gentiles," making the Church a brand new and separate entity that was neither Jew nor Gentile (1 Corinthians 10:32). To make this division, Darby “cut the Body of Christ into two separate parts, with two separate salvations and two different destinies.  He taught that Judaism was earthly and based on Law-Keeping and Jewish Ethnicity – so the Jews would inherit the Earth, and Finally Obey the Law (a Law they could never obey in their past).  And what makes Darby’s musings all the more unbelievable is: Somehow a future Jewish People will finally keep the Law without being indwelled by the Holy Spirit!


In Darby’s teaching, the Church is a Heavenly People to be “Raptured Away,” caught up to Heaven at Jesus’ Second Coming – Part A. This sudden removal of the Church will keep them from the Great Tribulation, wherein followers of Jesus will be persecuted and martyred. Instead of “So shall we always be with the Lord” – as our subtitle above says –the Gentile Church will be dumped in heaven on her “wedding night” (see Matthew 25:6), after she’s caught up to “Meet the Lord in the Air.”  The Greek word “apantésis” that Paul  uses in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, which we translate as “Meet,” is a very peculiar word – only used three times in the New Testament. Here are the three passages where it is used:


Matthew 25:6 - “But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ “


Acts 28:15  - “And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us.”


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 shall we always be with the Lord.”


While I did take Greek Grammar 1 and 2 in College, I am not a Greek Scholar. But it doesn’t take a Greek Scholar to grasp that these verses cannot mean that the Church is secretively caught up and taken to Heaven to be left for a Thousand years, while her Bridegroom Jesus once again tries to save an unregenerated people In The Flesh!” This word for “Meet” means ‘going out to greet and accompany’ a visiting dignitary.  Here’s what Strong’s Concordance, as quoted by Biblehub.com online says about this word, describing how this word “apantésis” is always used in Scripture:[https://biblehub.com/greek/529.htm]


“The term ‘apantésis’ refers to a meeting or encounter, often used in the context of a formal or significant meeting.  In the New Testament, it is used to describe the act of going out to meet someone, often with the implication of welcoming or celebratory nature. In ancient Greek culture, ‘apantésis’ was often used to describe the custom of citizens going out to meet a visiting dignitary or important person as a sign of respect and honor. This practice was common in both civic and religious context, where the act of meeting was not just a physical encounter but also a ceremonial gesture of welcome and recognition.”


It’s clear from the three passages above, that in each occasion people went out to “meet” the approaching esteemed visitor and accompany him back to where they came from. This should be obvious with the Parable of the Virgins from Matthew 25.  As Bridesmaids they were certainly not taking off with the Bridegroom, and be absent from the Wedding Chambers for 1,000 years!  It’s also very clear from Acts 28:15, that these brothers went out as far as the ‘Forum of Appius and Three Taverns’ to meet the Apostle Paul and his company.  But the last verse is the clincher. When we, the Church of Jesus Christ are “caught up(the meaning of the word raparé i.e. Rapture), Paul gives us very specific instructions about Jesus’ Coming again: 1.) Jesus will bring our dearly departed brothers and sisters in Christ with Him, 2.) We will go out to Meet Him in the Air, and 3.) So shall we always be with the Lord! 


Sadly, in Darby’s quest to be the first to reveal this “New Light On the Bible,” he abandoned 1,800+ years of Church teaching and created “strange doctrines” that neither edifies the saints, nor can be shown clearly from Scriptural texts. You would think that someone would have pointed out to him: “Hey John, the very passage you are using to teach a secret coming of the Lord, where you teach that Jesus snatches and dumps His Bride in Heaven for 1,000 years, also says: ‘So shall we always be with the Lord.’ Maybe you have your wires crossed?” There were a few good men who resisted this “New Light On the Bible,” including J.C. Philpot and A.W. Tozer.  But most people swallowed Darby’s teaching “hook, line and sinker.” To me the most destructive aspect of Darby’s teaching is that he taught “another way of salvation” rather than by Faith in the Blood of Christ.  And he made the New Covenant of Jesus Christ – which Hebrews calls “The Everlasting Covenant" Temporary, and the Old Covenant of “shadows, types and the blood of animals” – Eternal!


I will give John Nelson Darby credit for this:  His errant teaching not only denigrates the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross a “Plan B,” kind of a consolation prize that God had to accept, when He really wanted to make Israel an obedient people “In the Flesh!”  Darby launched Christian Zionism and the whole “Fighting for Real Estate” that I’ve been writing about for 14 Blogs in this series. Next, we’ll look at several verses from Roman’s Chapter 11 – that Darby quotes in the passage above.  Darby believed that the impetus for God rebuilding the Jewish State, a Physical Temple with thousands of animal sacrifices, was:

“That He is able to graft them (the Jews) in again.”  You’ll see that he once again misses the teaching of Paul to the Roman Church – in order to teach “cleverly devised fables!”


Soli Deo Gloria

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