Prophecy As A source Of Comfort

Death is an integral part of life on earth.  While most religions have a belief in some kind of after life, there are some who believe we just cease to exist at death.  Ultimately, such a belief leads to the conclusion that life is without meaning and value.  Solomon addresses such an outlook in Ecclesiastes 1 and 2.  If that philosophy is true then it really doesn’t matter what we do while we are alive, because it is all frustrating and meaningless. 

Prophecy gives us assurance that our life here has meaning and value.  In I Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul wrote, “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.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

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.  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: 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.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Here Paul repeats what he said in I Corinthians 15, about both those believers who have already died and those who are still alive being gathered together to meet the Lord in the air, with no preference for one group or the other, just as Jesus illustrated in the parable of the workers in the field in Matthew 20:1-16.  Believing the Lord is coming back and we will spend eternity with him provides a level of comfort those who do not believe do not have. 

At the same time, we need to understand that we have not been told when he will return because he wants to surprise those who do not take him seriously, as we see in I Thessalonians 5:1-3.  “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.  For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” 

Knowing that the Lord will return, we can concentrate on what he has commanded us to do.  If we are obedient, we will be prepared whenever he comes and will not be caught goofing off, as I Thessalonians 5:4-8 tells us.  “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.  Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.  But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.”

Too often, prophetic teaching has been used to try to get people out soul winning in a desperate effort to prove they’ve been doing the Lord’s work, while neglecting the last part of the great commission in Matthew 28:20.   “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”  God wants us to do the whole job, so that there will be people serving him whenever he comes, not just if he happens to come when they predicted it. 

If we knew when Christ is coming, most of us would procrastinate until the last moment before getting busy, and as a result, the job would never get done.  By not telling us when he is coming, he encourages those who really believe him to be faithful so that he will be pleased when he returns   I Thessalonians 5:9-11 reminds us, “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.  Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”  Not only are we to comfort each other with the promises God has made, but we are to strengthen and build up one another.