{"id":442,"date":"2012-11-16T16:27:33","date_gmt":"2012-11-16T16:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/figtreestudies.com\/?p=442"},"modified":"2012-11-16T16:27:33","modified_gmt":"2012-11-16T16:27:33","slug":"thief-in-the-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/figtreestudies.com\/?p=442","title":{"rendered":"Thief in the Night"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is readily accepted that when Jesus returns for the saints, there will be a lot of commotion and chaos on earth.\u00a0 This notion exists because it is believed that all of the saints will suddenly disappear when Christ returns.\u00a0 It is believed that machinery, such as cars, boats, planes, trains, and etc, operated by saints will suddenly become driverless.\u00a0 The end result will be numerous accidents, causing mass confusion.<\/p>\n<p>Wait a minute.\u00a0 Is this belief system in alignment with scripture?\u00a0 Remember, God is not the author of confusion (1 Cor.14:33.)\u00a0 God wants things to be done decently and in order.\u00a0 Let\u2019s consider some scripture concerning this matter.\u00a0 Jesus is to return to earth just as he left earth to go to heaven, (Acts 1:9-11.)\u00a0 When He left, there was no confusion, so when He returns there will be no confusion.\u00a0 Jesus will return as a thief in the night, (1 Thess.5:2.)\u00a0 Usually, thieves are not noisy.\u00a0 They work very quietly and quickly, so there is no commotion.\u00a0 Thieves, usually do not announce when they are coming to rob you.\u00a0 They show up unannounced or without warning.\u00a0 Jesus will return much the same way, with no one having prior knowledge of the timing, because no man knows the day or the hour that Jesus will return, (Mt.24:36.)\u00a0 Jesus return will be different from that of a thief, because He will announce that He has arrived by making a great noise, (2 Pet.3:10.) \u00a0The great noise is the voice of the archangel and the trump of God (1 Thess.4:16-17.) This is an announcement to the world that Jesus has returned.\u00a0 Jesus will not slip in and slip out without being detected, because every eye will see Him, (Rev.1:7.)\u00a0 People will see him coming in the clouds and they will stop whatever it is that they are doing to observe His return.\u00a0 His return in the sky will appear to be an unidentified flying object.\u00a0 Drivers of cars and boats will stop their vehicles to get a better view.\u00a0 Planes will be grounded by the air traffic controllers.\u00a0\u00a0 For the most part, everything will come to a screeching halt because everybody will stop what they are doing to observe the sky as they see Christ coming in the clouds<\/p>\n<p>Here is a different viewpoint concerning Christ\u2019s return that does not entail confusion.\u00a0 Just imagine for a moment, that Jesus is returning in the clouds the exact same way as He left earth when He was returning to heaven, (Acts 1:9-11.)\u00a0 The earth\u2019s inhabitants will hear a noise or the sound of a trumpet coming from the heavens, (Mt.24:29-31.)\u00a0 \u00a0Immediately, everybody looks up at the sky and they see something unusual, traveling slowly across the horizon, (Rev.1:7.)\u00a0\u00a0 Curiosity gets the best of them, so they stop what they are doing and fasten their eyes in the sky to better understand what it is that is travelling in the heavens.\u00a0 As Christ slowly passes over their respective global lines of longitude, the saints will be instantaneously changed into their new bodies, (1 Cor.15:51-52.) \u00a0Those that are not found worthy to receive new bodies will witness the saints slowly rise to meet the Lord in the air, (1 Thess.4:15-17.)<\/p>\n<p>This scenario presents a situation where there is no mass confusion and no chaos.\u00a0 It is a time of joy as ecstasy if you are one of the saints and a time of profound regret if you are an unbeliever.\u00a0 This series of events parallels with scripture because it can be likened to a two-edged sword.\u00a0 It supports the return of Christ for His saints on one side and it eliminates pandemonium on the other side.\u00a0 This is a direct reflection of the will of God, where all things are done decently and in order, (1 Cor.4:40.)<\/p>\n<div id=\"fb_share_1\" style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a name=\"fb_share\" type=\"box_count\" share_url=\"https:\/\/figtreestudies.com\/?p=442\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php\">Share<\/a><\/div><div><script src=\"http:\/\/static.ak.fbcdn.net\/connect.php\/js\/FB.Share\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is readily accepted that when Jesus returns for the saints, there will be a lot of commotion and chaos on earth.\u00a0 This notion exists because it is believed that all of the saints will suddenly disappear when Christ returns.\u00a0 It is believed that machinery, such as cars, boats, planes, trains, and etc, operated by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hmmmm","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/figtreestudies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/figtreestudies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/figtreestudies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figtreestudies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figtreestudies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/figtreestudies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":443,"href":"https:\/\/figtreestudies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions\/443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/figtreestudies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figtreestudies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figtreestudies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}