The Comfortable Hope for what the End of the World Brings

1 Corinthians 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

First comes the natural body (our bodies in this world). Then comes the spiritual body (our bodies in the world to come).

Our present physical bodies, due to sin, are corrupt. This is why they break down with disease at any time and also why as they age their beauty fades away. And of course, it is why they soon will die.

Yet, God has sown His spiritual life giving seed (through His holy Word found in the Bible) and that seed has fallen upon the hearts of men. With certain ones God's Spirit has blessed it and created new spiritual life within the dead sinner's soul.

Throughout the history of the world men and women possessing that living seed within have lived their earthly lives and then died.

Yet, the seed of God's Word is not destroyed by physical death. No. He points out to us that even in the growing process for things sown in this world it is necessary that death come before life:

1 Corinthians 15:35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:

The dead bodies of God's elect saints have long laid in the earth. Century after century has passed and their dead bodies have increasingly deteriorated. From every outward indication the grave seems to have won the victory over the people of God. The grave sites remain still and motionless. Days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries and even millenniums mark the passing of time without any movement towards the dead's rising up.

And yet, God's elect people know God is true. We know His Word is true and faithful. We know that God does not and cannot lie. We know that what God has said He will most certainly bring to pass.

So in confidence and full assurance we wait. And when resurrection Sunday comes each year we are reminded that our glorious expectation of a like resurrection as our Lord's will surely happen.

Of course, since the Bible has revealed we are presently living at the point of the end stage of earth's history, and since the Bible has revealed we have already gone through the great tribulation's judgment on the world's churches, and are now in the midst of the final judgment of this world-God's saints are indeed encouraged and comforted by the Biblical evidence which points to the year 2033 for the end of the world-yes-but that's not what comforts us, it is what follows the end of the world. And what follows the end of the world on that last day of history is the resurrection of the dead and the receiving of new resurrected spiritual bodies by all God's people. We are to comfort one another with these words:

1 Thessalonians 4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.