Messianic Perspectives

Guest (Male): Peter prophesied that in the last days scoffers will say, "Where is the promise of Christ's coming?" Is this prophecy being fulfilled in our generation? We'll talk about it today, right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Liz Aiello: Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctive first-century Jewish point of view. I'm Liz Aiello.

Today we're talking about the promise of His coming with our Bible teacher, Dr. Gary Hedrick. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. Now with today's study, here is Dr. Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: Thank you. It's good to have you with us today, listening friend, as we continue our series on the promise of His coming. Today we come to a very familiar passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, beginning in verse 51. This is the companion passage to the one we've been studying in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

He says in verse 51, "Behold, I show 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." Now what is this change he's talking about? He's already said it twice: "we shall be changed."

In the Greek, it's the word *allasso*, and it means more than just a change. It's a transformation. Literally, it has the idea of exchanging one thing for another. And the Greek verb here is in the passive voice, which means the subject is the recipient of the action. In other words, it's not something I do for myself; it's something that's done for me.

So what sort of change is this? It's a transformation. When I exchange my corruptible body—this body that is subject to aging, disease, decay, and death—for an incorruptible body. We exchange corruption for incorruption and mortality for immortality. Verse 53: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.' Verse 55. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Isn't that an uplifting thought? Every Christian is destined to be a victor. We're following a victorious leader who never has lost and never will lose a battle. This victor, this captain of our salvation, is coming back to gain the final and lasting victory over the forces of evil, the devil, and death. Everyone who is on His side will share the victory with Him, and everyone arrayed against the Lord Jesus Christ will go down into ignominious defeat with His enemies.

Even now we're witnessing a polarization in our society between the forces of good and the forces of evil. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 prophesies that there will be a great falling away at the end of this age. The Greek word there for falling away is *apostasia*. In ancient Greek, it was a word that was used to describe a defection, a rebellion, or a political insurrection. And isn't that exactly what we're seeing right now? A holy war against the ways of God, against the principles of Scripture.

But I have good news for you, my friend. We may have lost a few battles along the way, but the war isn't over. And the promise of Christ's coming is also the promise of ultimate victory. Now if you're following along in your Bible, turn with me back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I want to show you three more things Paul says about the coming of the Lord. First, it says the Lord will descend with a shout.

Verse 16: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel." In the ancient Jewish wedding ceremony, we are told that the bridegroom would leave his bride behind while he went to his father's house to prepare a place for her. That was the betrothal period. When he was finished building the addition onto his father's house, he would return with his groomsmen in an elaborate processional to get his bride.

Sometimes he would send the processional without him to get her, but usually he went with them. And as the processional approached the bride's house, the groomsmen would shout to announce the coming of the bridegroom. The time had come. She was going to see her husband, and they would be together at last. And that's the imagery Paul is using here to describe the events of the second coming.

First, there is a shout. In the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25, it was the shout of the bridegroom that woke the members of the bridal party from their slumber. And here in 1 Thessalonians, it's the shout of the Lord that awakens the believing dead. It is always the voice of the Lord Jesus that wakes the dead. In the three recorded cases where Jesus raised people from the dead, it was always by his voice of omnipotence.

The shout, therefore, is for the believing dead who are then resurrected and transformed to meet the Lord in the air. But there's another voice here in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, and that's the voice of the archangel, the *archangelos* in the Greek. Now this is very significant because the archangel in Scripture is the protector of God's earthly people Israel.

In Scripture, we have only one archangel, and that's Michael. In Jewish tradition, there are three archangels: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. The Talmud says it was Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael who visited Abraham after he circumcised himself. But in reality, the only archangel mentioned in Scripture is Michael. Not even Gabriel is called an archangel in Scripture.

So Michael the archangel is the protector of God's earthly people Israel. When the Lord comes, he will have a message for that covenant nation—the earthly seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When the church is caught out with a shout, it will be the signal for Israel's purging in the day of Jacob's trouble, when God will purify the sons of Levi and prepare his people for his kingdom reign.

It will be a relatively brief period of tribulation, only seven years in duration, but it will be the greatest trial and persecution Israel the nation has ever seen. So before the tribulation begins, God gives his people Israel an assurance that they will not utterly perish. And so the special guardian of the nation in the person of Michael the archangel accompanies the Lord to give assurance to poor persecuted Israel that she will come through the test purified and preserved for the glorious reign of her King Messiah.

So the first thing is the shout of the Lord. The second thing is the voice of the archangel. And the third thing is the trump of God. In Judaism, this is the shofar, the ram's horn. The shofar had many functions in ancient Israel but was associated primarily with the events of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. That's why Rosh Hashanah is also called the Feast of Trumpets.

On Rosh Hashanah, the shofar was sounded in the Jerusalem Temple. The ancient rabbis said the shofar signified the resurrection of the dead to face judgment. In fact, in Jewish tradition, the first two shofars were taken from the ram that was sacrificed in Isaac's place on Mount Moriah. Those were the first two ram's horns. One was called the first trumpet and the other was known as the last trumpet.

In Jewish tradition, the first trumpet was the shofar that was heard at Mount Sinai. The last trumpet is the one that will be heard when Messiah comes at the end of time. The Apostle Paul mentioned this last trump in his prophetic teaching in 1 Corinthians 15:52. Remember what he said? He said, "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."

Now sometimes Jewish people will hear us here on the radio and they'll write and say, "Come on, you people are crazy. When Messiah comes it's not going to be anything like the way you're teaching." But wait a minute. When you compare the teachings of Orthodox Judaism with the teachings of evangelical Christianity, you find that in some cases the parallels are really quite amazing.

You see, when it comes to eschatology, the study of end-time prophecy or end-time events, most Jewish people really don't know much about it. They don't realize that the idea of a literal coming of the Messiah is rooted in ancient Judaism and the Tanakh, the Jewish scriptures. They don't realize that the teaching of an end-time tribulation for Israel is a Jewish teaching, based on the teachings of Daniel.

Orthodox rabbis were preaching this centuries before the evangelical Christians came along. Even the Talmud talks about a seven-year period that will precede the coming of the Messiah. It says it'll be a time when there will be drought and hunger and famine and a forsaking of the Torah even by Jews. This passage in the Talmud even talks about the heavenly voices and shofar blasts. And it says, "At the end of the seven years the son of David will come." You'll find that passage in Sanhedrin 97A if you care to look it up.

So the blast of the shofar signifies the resurrection of the dead and the return of the Messiah. But that's not all. A third significance of the shofar blast was that it was a call to battle. Zephaniah chapter 1 verses 14 through 16 says that the great day of the Lord will be a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the shofar and alarm.

So when Jesus descends with a shout to take his church out and the archangel shouts his assurance to the nation of Israel, God will sound the great shofar that will signify the resurrection and the return of the Messiah. At the end of the tribulation, the shofar will sound again to call together the Gentile nations of the earth for the last great battle of this age, the Armageddon campaign.

We call it the Armageddon campaign rather than the battle of Armageddon because it's not just one battle. It's a series of battles culminating in one final conflagration at the end of the tribulation period. Weapons of mass destruction will apparently be used because Jesus said that except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.

In other words, if he didn't intervene, biological life on this planet would be wiped out. It wasn't too many years ago that we had skeptics scoffing at this prophecy. How could all life on this planet ever be completely destroyed? But no one's scoffing anymore. We now have chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons capable literally of extinguishing virtually all life on the surface of this planet.

But it's not going to happen because Jesus Christ will return with his triumphant church at the close of the tribulation. He will establish a worldwide government and rule the nations. At last there will be true and lasting peace on earth. Well, we're out of time. We'll continue with this on the next program. Until then, this is Gary Hedrick saying God bless you. Take care. Bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. If you liked what you heard today, you will be pleased to know we've taken all of the programs in this series and placed them on one convenient CD entitled *The Promise of His Coming*. And it's yours for a gift of just $6 or more to Messianic Perspectives. Just visit our secure online store at messianicspecialties.com to place your order.

If you would prefer to order by mail, just address your request to Messianic Perspectives, P.O. Box 345, San Antonio, Texas, 78292. To order by phone, use our toll-free order line. The number is 1-800-926-5397. Let me remind you that when you order the materials we offer here on the program, you're not only enabling us to remain here on your station, but you're also helping us take the good news of Yeshua HaMashiach to Jewish people and Gentiles all over the world.

Even if you're one of our regular listeners, you still may not know that we're much more than just a radio program. Messianic Perspectives is sponsored by CJF Ministries, one of the largest missionary organizations in the world. We currently have missionary families serving the Lord all over the world, including the United States, Canada, South America, England, France, and of course Israel.

So when you write, consider helping us with a gift above the suggested amount. We'd be very grateful. Have you enjoyed this edition of Messianic Perspectives? Why not continue to learn about the Jewish roots of your Christian faith by inviting a speaker from CJF Ministries? Call our toll-free number 1-800-926-5397, and we'll be happy to handle all of the details.

And as always, when you're in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I'm Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on *The Promise of His Coming*, right here on Messianic Perspectives. Messianic Perspectives is sponsored by CJF Ministries of San Antonio, Texas, and is made possible on this station by the freewill contributions of our listeners in this area.