Well, finally, we get to the point of just what this "mystery" is. It is that between that ascension (Jesus being taken up into heaven) and His coming again, between those two stupendous works of God, not seen by the angels, not thought about by the prophets, there's a great gap. Those two works are not side by side.
To the apostle Paul, the events seemed to stand together or at least close to each other. To the believers at Thessalonica those events; Christ's life on earth and then His coming back made them all prepare to leave earth right then and there!
The seers could clearly see those two events but they could never have imagined that there was a great distance of time, thousands of years and events of which was hid only in the counsel of the Almighty between those two works. They couldn't see the apostle Paul, or Peter and his great experience with Cornelious, they couldn't see the book of Acts or Revelation and all those events.
It was this the angels could not look into and neither could the prophets or any one else - - not until the fullness of God's will deems that it is time. They knew the coming, they knew the consummating of the ages, the glory, but nothing else was clear to them.
We as a church, as God's creation, already reached the one great work; the Jesus, Mary and Joseph stuff, the parable stuff, the walk on water stuff, the cross and Calvary, the resurrection and ascension part, but still, even hidden to us, is the second great work. We know of it and can look through a glass dimly but even we can't see this other work clearly. We can read, but not totally understand the time or all the happenings in the plan of God. We can see events in this time but not totally understand the times.
One example is the rapture of the church; we can read the Scriptures but we don't know the time, or anything other than during this event the church is removed from off the earth. We can see the tribulation, the vials, the bowls and all the judgments, we can read of the great White Throne judgment, the 144,000, the voices under the altar crying for vengeance, but even to us living in this time we know nothing more. We can read about the Jews and how they will be reconciled to God, we know there is the anti-Christ, the false prophets, two witnesses, but even to those of us who are close to these events we cannot see any better than the prophets who were far removed from these events.
We know the destiny of the church is that period between those two great works, and we can read the scriptures that tell us the destiny of the church is to be caught out of the world. Raptured away, within the blinking of an eye. This is amazing and it is only one of a whole list of great events that will take place in between Christ's coming and His eventual return.
The scripture says in 1 Thess 4:15-17, "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until that glorious consummation shall not precede them that fall asleep in Jesus. 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 who 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....somebody say "Amen"!
The church, God's bride, Christ's reward for His death on Calvary, you and I and our time period, we are the mystery the angels wanted to look into and see. No wonder it is a pretty exciting time.
And you know what?? That time could be this instant!! Above all, in this busy, chaotic world, be ready and waiting.
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