Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XVII
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter
XVII.
Then, in the next place, having either himself
misunderstood the sacred Scriptures, or those (interpreters) by whom
they were not understood, he proceeds to assert that “it is said
by us that there will remain at the time of the visitation which is to
come upon the world by the fire of purification, not only those who are
then alive, but also those who are long ago dead;” not observing
that it is with a secret kind of wisdom that it was said by the apostle
of Jesus: “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.”4142
Now he ought to have noticed what was
the meaning of him who uttered these words, as being one who was by no
means dead, who made a distinction between himself and those like him
and the dead, and who said afterwards, “The dead shall be raised
incorruptible,” and “we shall be changed.” And
as a proof that such was the apostle’s meaning in writing those
words which I have quoted from the first Epistle to the Corinthians, I
will quote also from the first to the Thessalonians, in which Paul, as
one who is alive and awake, and different from those who are asleep,
speaks as follows: “For this we say unto you by the word of
the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord,
shall not prevent them who 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.”4143
Then, again,
after this, knowing that there were others dead in Christ besides
himself and such as he, he subjoins the words, “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.”4144
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
