Shalom dear doves,
 

Might there be a 'last days context' for our comfort especially in Th 4:13-18 ?

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.

1Th 5:5-11
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.
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.
 

Is the Gospel not about the resurrection?

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Luke 24:45-48
Then opened he their understanding,
that they might understand the scriptures,

And said unto them,

Thus it is written,
and thus it behoved Christ to suffer,
and to rise from the dead the third day:

And that repentance and remission of sins
should be preached in his name
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

And ye are witnesses of these things.

John 11: 25 Jesus said unto her,
I am the resurrection, and the life:
he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

Ac 23:6  But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and
the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I
am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of
the dead I am called in question.
Ac 24:21  Except it be for this one voice, that I cried standing among
them, Touching the resurrection of the dead I am called in question by
you this day.
 

But concerning those who rise in the 'first resurrection', we are told
they are 'blessed and holy'.

Rev 20:5,6  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the
thousand years were finished.

This is the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection:
on such the second death hath no power,
but they shall be priests of God and of Christ,
and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good,
unto the resurrection of life;

and they that have done evil,
unto the resurrection of damnation.
 

Part of the comfort that we are to be comforted with is that those who
die in the Lord are part of that FIRST resurrection ... and that we
"shall not prevent them which are asleep" ... rather ... "the dead in
Christ shall rise first."

Thus ...

it is NOT a thing to be overly sorrowful about if we, or one of our
loved ones, dies 'in the Lord' before He returns.  Because, we, or
that one, will be raised 'first.
 

Then ... what happens next ... gets very exciting! (And so comforting too!)
 

Whether we, who are still alive at the time, to witness this most
awesome and glorious 'first resurrection' ...

get to walk around this old earth to behold these new glorious bodies
of the resurrected saints walking around among us for some time,
before we are all caught up together in the clouds to be with our Lord
...

are whether they are resurrected first, and immediately then, and
together with us, we are all caught up ...

it is sure, then, GOING to be a VERY EXCITING TIME!!! (and comforting
too ... to see them.)

Either way!

Even so ... Come, Lord Jesus.

Baruch HaShem!

Amen.

David
--
dwzavitz@gmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/dwzavitz