Jerry Shugart
Well-known member
The following evidence from the Scriptures demonstrate that those who received the Hebrew epistles were taught to be waiting for the rapture so they were members of the Body of Christ:
John told these believers that they were expecting to see the Lord Jesus appear while they remained alive and they were expecting that at His appearance they would be made like Him. There is no evidence that when the Lord Jesus returns to the earth to set up His earthly kingdom that living believers will be made like Him. Therefore, John's words can only be in regard to the "mystery" truth found here and only applies to members of the Body of Christ:
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 Jn.3:2).
John told these believers that they were expecting to see the Lord Jesus appear while they remained alive and they were expecting that at His appearance they would be made like Him. There is no evidence that when the Lord Jesus returns to the earth to set up His earthly kingdom that living believers will be made like Him. Therefore, John's words can only be in regard to the "mystery" truth found here and only applies to members of the Body of Christ:
"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Cor.15:51-52).