(Ver 1.4)  This is Part 3 in a series of advanced spiritual Bible lessons on the important subject of “Is the Rapture of the Church a Bible Truth”.  If you have not read from the first lesson I would highly recommend that you go and start your study review with “Part 1” and then continue in succession until today’s lesson.  I have been going through the steps for building a firm doctrinal foundation for the Biblical subject of rapture.  In the last lesson we explored 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 to begin our discovery process to what God was teaching the early church on the subject of being “caught up”.  The Greek word “harpazo” was correctly and clearly translated as “caught up” in this verse and this Greek word is just a synonymous term for the modern English word “rapture”.  We further explored at least 6 historical rapture events recorded in the Bible to verify that being “caught up” was not a fictional or manmade concept but it was given to us by God as a standard pattern in the Bible starting in Genesis and going all the way to Revelation.

As we have discovered, not every historical rapture event reported in the Bible was both physical and spiritual but still every example fulfilled the pattern for the sovereign display of the power of God to take a man suddenly out of the world.  Each of these recorded rapture events that I mentioned from the Bible were the divine intervention of a sovereign God that interrupted the normal course of human events for the selected few that were affected.   We learned several important lessons from these examples.  For example, we can clearly observe that when these events transpired, that the man selected by God was removed from the earth while all others remained on the earth to be left behind.  We can further learn from the study of these men taken up that each was considered to be righteous and not evil in the sight of God.  Every person recorded in the Bible that has already been raptured was a righteous man in good relationship with the almighty God.  I could not find where God takes up an unrighteous man from off of the face of the earth as a historical pattern.  If you know of one that I missed you are free to tell me about it.  From what I have seen all those that were taken up by God had the normal course of their life suddenly and instantly translated by divine designed interruption.  These are all very important patterns to apply and remember.  God will not take everyone in the next scheduled rapture event either and God will only be focused upon the righteous people as is revealed in these great Bible patterns.

From the six recorded historical rapture events we have found in the Bible, three were very clear examples of living breathing men leaving the earth in complete unified body and spirit form.  These three men were Enoch, Elijah and the risen from the dead Lord Jesus Christ.   We of course know that Jesus going up was different from Enoch and Elijah since Jesus had tasted death first but was then resurrected back to life before He went up to heaven in Acts 1.  It is important to distinguish this difference since Enoch and Elijah never tasted physical natural death and they were both taken up by God as they were walking with God like we who believe in rapture soon will be also.  We further know that neither Enoch nor Elijah had any power or control over what transpired.  However the Lord Jesus Christ went up under His own control and power at His own timing, but He was also God.    Enoch and Elijah establish a pattern that teaches us that every living being does not necessarily have to experience natural death to be taken into the presence of God.  These three divine transportations from the face of the earth prove the concept of rapture is absolutely true and more than possible beyond any doubt in my mind.   We further saw two examples of spiritual transportation to heaven to view things never seen by human men and these two described experiences were Paul and Isaiah.  Finally, we also saw another human man named Phillip in Acts that was transported physically and spiritually from one natural location to another natural location on the earth.  All of these clear examples prove that another event just like those can occur by God’s selected design.  We have not talked about the book of Revelation or any future rapture events yet but we will get there as the Bible study continues.

A FRESH LOOK AT 1 THESSALONIANS 4:16-17

1Th 4:16  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:

1Th 4:17  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.

Today in this Bible lesson I am going to do a few things very different than in the majority of my other Bible lessons.  I am going to attempt to go into more technical depth with the basic Bible rapture information found in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.  I plan to give you a brand new approach for Bible study.  This method will help you to see how I think about the subjects found within a Bible study.  I realize that not everyone is like me and I understand that completely.  We are all unique beings with differing life experiences, training, education and personalities.  So while I describe to you how I study the Bible I am not saying that you must be like me or you are wrong.  I hope that you keep this in mind as you read the rest of the lesson.  I will not attempt to promote my Bible Study method as being superior to anything that you do.  In fact after you read this lesson, please be brave to share how you study the Bible, I would love to hear about it in a comment.  My primary point here is that we all just need to study the Bible and if anyone can use anything from my methods and learn from them that is really great, but if you have another method that works for you then you be led by the Spirit of God and do it that way.

I believe that many people do not generally spend enough time when studying specific verses in the Bible.  I am going to focus today on 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 again to help some to learn that there is always more that we can get from reading the same verses over.  In fact, most of the greatest revelations that I have received from the Spirit of God has come only after I spent significant time reading the verses over and over and over again.  Sometimes after the 30^th repetition of reading it slowly again, the Words on the page would suddenly come to life in my spirit and I would see something new that I had never seen before.   Even as I continue to meditate upon the verses and reread them I would again see something new that I had not seen before.  I have learned that God just works like this because humans are generally spiritual dull people requiring their minds to be renewed with the truth before being able to see what God is saying in the Bible.  It is also noteworthy to consider that because of the extreme intelligence of God, He is able to say significantly more in a few words than any human can say writing an entire book.  Usually this mind renewal process is not a onetime read it and we got it type of miracle.  Even if someone has a photographic memory and can immediately quote the verse that they just read does not mean that they understand what it said completely in their spirit.  You can even teach a parrot to quote the Bible but that bird will not understand what he is saying   I hope you understand these principles because they were very important points that I have learned from experience.

Let’s examine these Bible verses in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 and extract the primary stated nouns, verbs and adjectives.  This is actually a very good first step in any Bible study.  If you have never done this I would suggest that you put this into your study habits.  It will help us to be more detailed oriented when reading and it helps us stop at each word and consider why God has placed this word within the text.  Also, in doing this it will help explain how these words selected by God fit into a new way to study the Bible that I use constantly and I’ll talk more about this later.  A noun is a person, place or thing and is usually tangible in nature, recognizable within the 5 sense realm, but not always.  There certainly exist many intangible nouns beyond the 5 sense realm of the natural senses.  A verb is a part of speech that expresses existence, action, or occurrence and it is usually connected in relationship to the stated noun part of the sentence.  Finally, an adjective is a word or phrase of descriptive quality that modifies any given noun in the sentence.  An adjective almost always limits the qualified scope of the noun definition by providing us with specific descriptions, attributes or qualities of the specified noun.  I am going to give you a list of what I found in these two verses and I would like it if you would see if you can agree with me on these.  I certainly realize that I am not a perfect man and that I do not know everything so I am open to correction if you have very strong sound evidence for your belief and understanding of the these subjects.

This list is certainly not every word identified in the verses, but I believe that they represent the major subjects, actions and descriptions being communicated.  Being a detailed person I like to consider the words like “the”, “and”, “with”, “in” and etc., but including all of these in this study would make the lesson considerably longer.   Correct Bible study involves much deeper digging beyond a simplistic one time surface reading and this is what I am attempting to demonstrate to you today.  I personally believe that one of the next steps to correct Bible study is for us to look up each original language word definition in a good dictionary like “Strong”, “Thayer” or others.  I have found from experience that Strong appears to be a good word definition source however I do not consider it a perfect book without errors or at least certain human bias.  For example, Strong names the natural land of Israel “Palestine” in many of its definitions and I disagree with that.  There has never been a nation of “Palestine” that I know of.  Strong may have had a good reason for doing this, but I have not found it yet and it seems to promote the modern Palestinian view that the land of Israel does not belong to the nation of Israel.  I will point out that when Dr. Strong published this book back in 1890 the nation of Israel did not technically exist until 1948 when they were again given parts of this land area and reestablished as a nation.   Therefore when the concordance was published he could have viewed this land as the land of Palestine even though that nation did not exist either.

I have found 16 major nouns and some of them are used more than once like “Lord” and “we”.  I have found at least 5 distinct verbs of described accomplishment or action.  The adjectives are mainly two words that are describing two different types of Christians, the physically dead and the physically alive.  To study this completely we would need to look up the definitions of every word in the original Greek language to insure our understanding is complete on the word’s usage and translation into English.  I do this to protect the accuracy of the translation and in doing this I have discovered many mistakes that the translators have made.  If you have not ever looked up the definitions of these words in a dictionary like Strong’s, I would strongly suggest that you spend the time and do it before continuing to read. I simply will not go into that level of detail on every word to keep this lesson from growing into a longer book form.

I will point out a few key words that are important in verse 16.  The Greek word G2962 translated as “Lord” means the supreme one in authority and can only be a reference to Jesus Christ.  Therefore Jesus is at the beginning of this described future event.  The Greek word G2597 translated as “descend” means to come down and we are told the originating location for the descent by the Greek word G3772 translated as “heaven” the abode of God as one possible rendition.  So far in this event we have the risen spiritual Jesus from spiritual heaven descending down towards the physical natural earth.  That represents two realms of existence and a transition between them taking place.  I’ll skip the “trump“, the “archangel”, the “voice” and the “shout” for now.  Let’s go down to the Greek word G3498 translated as “dead” and you will find that this Greek word G3498 means a literal corpse.  The next primary verb is the Greek word G450 translated as “rise” literally means to stand upright again.  Thus we have Jesus coming down and the corpses arising up.  These are very descriptive words and I do not understand how or why people explain them away but they do.

Let’s quickly review some of the other key words found in verse 17.  The Greek word G2249 translated as “we” is just a plural form of the personal pronoun “I”.  Therefore God’s usage of this word “we” represents a group of more than one.  We of course are not given a number of people in this group and it could be an open ended quantity anywhere from 2 to more than we could count.  Did you ever think about the term “we”?  What is it that allows many separate individual people to be grouped into a single named pronoun entity?  The answer to that question is they all must have something in common together or they are not a “we”.  Also notice that the writer’s usage of the term “we” includes “me” the author of the letter.  Paul was clearly including himself in the category by using “we” or “us” and not “them” or “they” which would have excluded Paul.  Who are all of these “we” people and what is it that all these individuals in this “we” group have in common in this verse with Paul the writer?  The answers to those questions are found in the adjective that follows the pronoun.

The next key word G2198 is used as an adjective description for the preceding pronoun “we” and it was translated as “alive”.  G2198 literally means “to live”.  Clearly we are observing the stated contrast of verse 16 the dead corpses from the living bodies of those that are described to “live” here on the earth in verse 17.  Always attempt to place what you are reading in any verse within the context of the surrounding verses.  This is just a general rule of sound Bible interpretation.   Then notice that Paul was obviously alive when he wrote this letter, so he was including himself in this group of living and excluding himself from the group of corpses previously mentioned.  However, that is still not sufficient information for us to conclude who Paul was referring to as the “we” in this sentence because of the “and” word that connects the additional point to the description.  This next connected subject was the word “remain”.   Who remains, who left and what does that mean?  The Greek word G4035 translated as “remain” literally means those “left behind”.  However this “remain” can only be clearly understood correctly within the context statement of the preceding verse. Verse 16 clearly speaks of the antithesis of those alive in verse 17.  In verse 16 Paul writes about those that were not only “dead” rising but then speaks why they rise because they were also “Dead-In-Christ”.  The “Dead-In-Christ” must have already departed the earth to be present with Christ Jesus or the inclusion of the word “remain” would not make any sense to have been present in the sentence.  Can you begin to see how God says so much using so few words?  The wisdom of God is way beyond human ability to have written this text.  Notice that both verse 16 and 17 are clearly talking about two types of contrasting Christians.  One Christian group has physically died and spiritually departed earth and the other Christian group is alive and remains behind on the earth.

Finally the next key verb found in verse 17 after the stated adjective and noun is the Greek verb “harpazo” that we have already looked at before and it just means in context “to be taken up by force or external divine power”.  This is just not that complicated until you listen to deceived people that are trying to explain it all away using satanically inspired human reasoning.  Satan attempts to use people to help others see things that are not being communicated in the verses, but the Holy Spirit will always point us to Jesus and the truth.  We have just spent a very short time reviewing some of the key words found in the text, but certainly not everyone.  I hope and pray that you are getting the idea of how to do this for yourself.  I would much rather teach you how to fish than just give you a fish to eat in my lesson.  I know I have said that before, but not everyone has read every lesson that I have published.

What should the next step in the process of correct Bible study?  All of these steps are open to debate, but my next step is usually to explore the Bible for where else each word is used in the Bible? I would recommend that we need to exert effort to discover God’s usage of each of these selected words in the verses we are studying to insure that God does not redefine the word in any other verse of the Bible.  I have discovered that God’s definitions are always true and man’s definitions are always wrong.  Also by examining the word usage we can have a greater confidence and a more complete understanding of the entire subject being discussed.  Only by examining every word usage can we be assured that what we are teaching and believing is correct.  Simply by ignoring just one key verse on any subject from the Bible, that lack of information can leave us void of the complete truth omitting the key elements of the topic.  I pray that you realize that many times a partial or incomplete truth is more deceptive than a complete or total lie.  Not balancing every scripture on a subject will cause someone to think they believe the entire truth when they do not.

I certainly understand that the number of times any given word is used by God can make the research of the subject more complex if there are a great number of references found.  For example, the Greek word G2962 which is translated as “Lord” is found in well over 600 verses of the N.T. alone. That is a bunch of verses to read for any study.  However, if you have any doubts to who this “Lord” represents in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 then you need to do that study to resolve any conflicts in your mind that it can be no one else but the God/Man Jesus Christ.  If after reading all 600+ verses and still not being able to confirm that this word references Jesus, then I would suggest that you get saved and get to know Him personally for yourself before you come back and study the Bible.

Some words in the Bible are used very frequently and that truly makes them challenging for us to go and read every occurrence.  I suggest that if the word usage is less than 100 verses that you take the time and read them all.  If it is used many more than 100 times then that is probably more time than you have to spend.  I guess it depends upon your effort that you wish to devote.  I have found the harder I work the more I am rewarded with finding good things that I did not know before.  Take the Greek word G2597 translated as “descend” in verse 16.  It is found in 80 verses of the N.T.  Many times it is translated as “come down”, “came down”, “descended”, “and descending”, etc.  In reading all of these verses it seems very consistent what it means and it helps us to understand the word in relation to the Lord noun being described coming down from heaven.  Perhaps you do not know where heaven is stated to be in the Bible?  That would be an excellent question for you to answer in your word search.  You are probably not going to find the answer directly in the N.T. but it is stated clearly in the O.T. in Isaiah for example:

Isa 14:13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

We should be able to see that Satan is being revealed to make a statement about the placement of the throne of God in a realm called heaven.  Satan is obviously on the earth looking up and telling God what he will do to ascend up to raise himself above all the other angels (symbolic stars).  I also take it that the direction given is very relative to the direction of this throne and heaven.  North is the only stated reference to a physical direction, but even this is relative to the position of the earth during the earth’s tilt and cycle around the sun.  I personally believe that this is just a general direction of where heaven is revealed to be, since I have no proof for this location other than what the Bible says.  Therefore, I am not going to fight over it, if you choose to disagree with what I just said.  I will give you one other verse that appears to confirm what I just said about the location of heaven:

Psa 75:6  For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.

As you can read every direction given is where “promotion” does not originate from.  Which direction is therefore implied to be the source for a human’s promotion?  It is obviously from the north again.  If you read the context of this verse it is clearly speaking about God’s location being the one that raises up one man and lowers another man’s position on the earth.  Therefore God the judge is stated to be seated in the North.  We could go into other verses, but that is not a primary part of the rapture message even though it helps to establish which direction He will be coming from.

Take the Greek word G3498 translated as “dead” in verse 16.  Here is a fascinating word that can teach us a lot that is found in 123 verses of the N.T.   But, interestingly enough this Greek word is consistently translated as the same English word “dead” in every single one of them.  That is a tremendous rarity to find in so many translated verses.  Normally a Greek word can be translated into several different English synonymous words and some of them might be a stretched application for the given verse.  However, in this Greek word translation example, we can be more confident that “dead” literally means “dead”.  By reading all of those other verses, you will discover that this Greek word is almost consistently used to describe the physical death of the natural body.  However, that is not actually true in every word usage found in the entire New Testament.  This becomes a clear example of why it is so important to read every verse to expand what this word can apply to.  Take for example Matthew 8:22 where Jesus is speaking to a young man and tells him “let the dead bury their dead” when asked if it was permissible for him to go and bury his own dead father.  Here we have an important revelation of two kinds of dead being described in a single verse.  Since it is impossible for physically dead people to bury physically dead people Jesus had to be speaking of a new type of death and I call this the spiritually dead people in the city burying the physically dead people that have died naturally.  I know this presents some brand new challenging information for you to deal with in all of your Bible study verses.  However, that is what is necessary to learn when studying the Bible.  What we have just observed is a very basic Bible fact that the same Greek or Hebrew word can be used to describe both a spiritual truth and a physical truth and we need to be able to determine which it is or we will be confused.  That becomes a great challenge for us in rightly dividing the Word of Truth to determine which realm is being referenced in any one verse (2 Tim 2:15).  We can normally do this by examining the source statement closely within the context of the surrounding verses.  I hope you understand this point that I just taught you.  It is a major stumbling block to many carnal Christians when they read the Bible seeing all of the words as being natural references only.

It is a good basic rule of interpretation to take the Bible literally first and then seek to understand it as being non-literal only if there is a major conflict for a literal revealed truth.  Since Jesus was literally speaking about a real funeral service of a literal dead natural man, these are easy to accept as being literal interpretations and not symbolic references.  However, when Jesus tells the young man to let the dead bury his father, this departs from natural logic and can only be a symbolic spiritual reference to people that are clearly implied not to be like Jesus or the disciple.  This is one of those types of verses that one needs to see what is implied but not directly stated.  Jesus did not volunteer to go and help bury the dead father, Jesus is implying that he is not dead physically or spiritually.  Since Jesus did not tell the young disciple to go bury his father, Jesus was implying this man was not dead physically or spiritually.  These are just very basic ways to look at scriptures correctly dividing spiritual things from natural things to understand what was being stated.  I truly hope that you understand this concept because this will be repeated in so many other verses and subjects of the Bible.

I’m not going to go through every word in these two verses, but I will go through one more as an example of what we should be looking for.  The Greek word G3507 translated as clouds in verse 17 is only found in only 22 other N.T. scriptures.  That is a very manageable number of verses to go and read them all slowly and in-depth.  I have discovered that sometimes the fewer the verses a word is used in the more likely they are to all be linked together for a greater divine purpose.  This Greek word literally means cloudiness or a cloud and it is translated this way consistently in every example verse that contains it.  It can be either singular or plural but that is really not that important.  I personally believe that almost every one of these verses has something to do with the rapture but I do not have the time in this lesson to expand upon them.  We will get to as many of them as we can in future lessons as I am led.

If you have not done this research with all of these words, I would suggest that you stop reading now and using your Bible search program go look up and read every verse with every word being used in these verses.  It would take me a great deal of writing to do that, so I will allow you to do it on your own and if you have any questions or comments with what you find, you are more than welcome to add them at the end of this lesson as a comment or question and I will attempt to respond as quickly as possible.  Keep in mind my list of nouns, verbs and adjectives because I will be referring to these as I continue with a new perspective on Bible study.  Let me quickly review a list of my basic Bible study steps.

1. List every significant word and designate it to be a Noun, Verb, or Adjective.
2. Using a dictionary look up the words found in the original languages to insure your understanding.
3. Search for every occurrence of every word in a verse and read and study them to see how they fit into the entire subject being studied.
   

BASIC BIBLE RAPTURE CONCEPTS FOUND IN INTELLIGENT DESIGN

I am going to attempt to reveal how a former computer programmer logically thinks in simple black and white terms while observing the intelligent design found within the complex system of information found within the written Word of God.  I believe that God is the author of the entire Bible and that it was written down in 66 different books in a period of time over 1500+ years by 4o different prophets of God.  I further believe that God is supreme in all wisdom, knowledge and understanding.  I also believe that God is an omnipotent eternal Spirit.  Therefore I believe that the Bible contains the superior thoughts, actions, words and descriptions spoken by the superior knowledge, wisdom and understanding of the supreme Spirit of God.  Perhaps you have never thought of the Bible as being a very large complex system of divinely designed information.  However the existence today of hundreds and even thousands of church denominations in the world prove that few in the church agree with God on what the truth actually is in the Bible.  Did you notice how I phrased that last statement?  I did not say many do not agree with me or you or any other human opinion.  I said many do not agree with God.  Only God is true and everyone else is just potentially ignorant or confused.

The Bible is a book containing easily read natural plain text word data but still not very many can agree with what these simple words actually mean.  Why is that?  I believe that this failure to agree is largely based upon man’s introduction of their own “Human Opinion” or as it is referred to in the Bible, man’s “Private Interpretations” (2 Peter 1:20).  Private interpretations are defined as “Self” defined meanings completely separate from God’s intended purpose.  Ever since the Bible was created this has been man’s greatest weakness of not knowing the truth.  What Christians do not realize is that within the plain text words of historical accounts, genealogies, laws, commandments and instructions are found hidden threads of complex spiritual truths about a spiritual world that we have never seen or experienced fully yet.  The Bible contains such great detailed hidden spiritual information about this reality, but the carnal mind will never be able to see it or understand it while reading the Bible.  Most of the spiritual meaning is cloaked or covered beneath layers of parables, symbolism, allegorical content, Biblical typologies and many other methods that God uses to hide the information from plain natural view. Becoming spiritually “born-again” is the beginning to the process of obtaining the spiritual eyes to grow in mature spiritual “understanding” of the truth of God.

I want to ask you, do you believe that the Bible is a divinely created “Complex System” of information?  I guess the answer to that question should rest upon the definition of what a complex system represents.  So I’ll change the question to, what exactly is a “Complex System” and how should it be defined?  I believe that if you live in this world you are surrounded by a countless number of manmade and God created “complex systems”.  Whether God created or man created the complex system each has the same patterned characteristics.  Perhaps you have never thought about these concepts before and how they relate to the Bible.   We are surrounded by complex systems still there are a wide number of varying opinions to what a complex system represents and how it should be defined.  Rather than give you all of those varying opinions, I’m going to just stick with my viewpoint and tell you what I think about the subject based upon my experience and observation as a former computer professional.  I normally do not give out my opinion on things but I am going to make an exception for this discussion today.  You see by me giving you my opinion I am violating one of the main rules of Bible interpretation that teaches us we should not “privately interpret” anything.  I do hope that you understand that every opinion is nothing but a personal theory which is just another phrase for a private interpretation based upon ignorance of the subject under discussion.  However, since I have had vast experience with large scale computer system design and construction since the 1970’s, I feel that I am a bit more qualified to give an expert opinion on the subject than many others.  Please extend me some patience as I attempt to expound through a complicated subject.

Let’s start by looking up the antonym for the word complex.  If you do this you will find that the opposite of “complex” is the term “simple”.  By far the Bible is not a simple book.  Yes, the Bible has some simple statements in it, but I would strongly suggest that you go and read the books of Revelation and Daniel and find out how many mysteries you encounter on every page that cause you to scratch your head.  I find nothing simple about either one of these books.  There are so many Bible teachers teaching a completely different message from them that it is truly ridiculous.  I have concluded that the Bible cannot be considered a simple book and if you have read all of my other Bible lessons you should easily agree with me.  Let’s then examine the synonyms of the term “complex” and learn from those.  According to the thesaurus the term “complex” has some of the following synonyms:

1. Multifaceted
2. Compound
3. Composite
4. Multipart
5. Intricate
6. Multilayered
7. Many-sided

Wow, I really believe these words describe the Bible very accurately.  Think about what they say and then attempt to apply them to what you know about the Bible.  Now permit me to define the term “system”:

sys·tem/ˈsistəm/

We can learn a lot by reviewing word definitions.  The term “system” implies something that is complex by definition.  The term “system” means that which is found to be in multi-parts.  Is that the Bible? The Bible is 66 separate books written by 40 different humans.  Therefore this information alone causes the Bible to be a system of information.  A system is a set of connected things and the Bible is definitely a set of connected books.  A system is a set of lesser components that comprise a more complex whole purpose and this also describes the Bible precisely.  For example how many subjects are mentioned in this book?  There are so many different subjects that it would be very challenging and complex to attempt to list them all. .  That makes this book a clear complex system of different components of information designed designed by an intelligent author to teach us. I really pray that you are beginning to see this already, but I’m going to go into it in more detail to help you..

Based upon my personal experience as a computer system operator, programmer and designer, I believe that a complex system is first any observable set of components that were created by an external intelligent source of thought, design and construction.  I further see that every complex system is created for a very specific given purpose.  No useful complex system exists today in the world apart from external intelligent interaction and purpose.  Did you hear what I said?  I will probably get some disagreement from some potentially deceived individuals, but since they cannot provide any proof for spontaneous intelligent design construction by random chance, I will stick with what the Bible says about God creating everything that we can see.  You see “spontaneous design construction” or as some ignorant people call it “evolution” cannot possibly occur.  Evolution is increased complexity that had to come from a much less-complex set of random components without any intelligent design to assist.  This belief in evolution violates the second known law of Thermodynamics.  This law teaches us that everything around us is in a state of decay which is the reverse or antithesis of the addition of a force and intelligence necessary to form it, cause it to be or make it become complex.  The second law of thermodynamics is a study of entropy.  Entropy is the measure of the degree of randomness or disorder of a given system.  What that teaches is that a complex system is anything that is more ordered than it is random.  We could also say that a complex system is anything with a much greater degree of non-randomness by external intelligent design influence.

Ok, so the laws of thermodynamics just gave us a pretty good introduction to what a complex system represents.  From that I believe I will give you my definition for a system in the relationship to a book like the Bible.  The Bible would represent a complex system because it contains a collection of intelligent non-random words with organized designed purpose for every part to contribute to the greater complex whole.  In other words since the Bible is not random word patterns on a page and can be used easily by any person with a basic education, it is a system of related parts of information and by definition a system.  Let me give you these points one more time:

1. The Bible exists only because of externally influenced higher intelligence
2. The Bible is not a random collection of unrelated words
3. The Bible was written in distinct parts
4. Every Word of the Bible has a specific designed purpose
5. Within the books of the Bible is contained many multiple layers, parts, subjects, etc.

The substance, laws and organizational non-random structure found in our own universe did not suddenly appear from nothing as many ignorant college professors and school teaches would like us to believe.  The organization of a system from chaos or randomness would violate the laws of thermodynamics.  Just the existence of a vast expanding universe proves beyond any reasonable doubt that someone of greater ability external to this known system caused it to exist here.  This simply states that a designed system with rules and laws cannot create itself nor could any force within the system have created the system.  Randomness never creates non-randomness.  Dis-order never creates order.  This is really not that complicated, but so many get it easily mixed up with people’s words that are trying to deceive you.  The existence of a complex system simply means someone external to the system was the source of origination.

The universe is very much like a modern computer system.  A computer system is a complex machine with many organized laws, components and structured building blocks that all work together to fulfill a greater plan and purpose.  The existence of a working computer system proves the existence of an external computer designer, a computer builder and a computer programmer that cannot be found to be physically present within the computer system.  No one with any intelligence would look at a computer and believe that it just evolved into being present on the earth.  Therefore, since I believe that the universe was created by God and if the Bible was also originated from this same God as is declared (2 Tim 3:16), then I believe that the Bible qualifies to potentially be another complex system of recorded information created by the same external greater intelligence.  The existence of one complex universe system pattern helps to establish the existence of another complex Bible system pattern.

I believe that the size of a system plays a major role in the complexity of the system.  From what I have observed the larger the system is, usually the greater the complexity of the system.  Let’s go back to the universe system example created by God.  The universe is such a vast complex system that it can only be imagined to its total size, its full content, its type of individual components, its understood composition, its total mass and its actual past point of origination.  Scientists are still today constantly discovering new facts concerning the known parts of the universe surrounding us.  In my humble opinion based upon just the size of our universe alone we all need to open our eyes to embrace the existence of a much greater intelligent creator being.  Many agnostics and atheists will reason against me, but I still stand with that belief since I have personally come to know Him for myself.

I think I will expand the definition of size and help you to see that not all created systems need to be light years in expanse in order to be complex.  The system can still be considered complex depending upon the number of components and sub-systems discovered in the system.  You see I view the human body to be a very complex system within itself.  Within this one system of very measurable size and weight are smaller immeasurable components called cells.  There can be millions, billions and even trillions of cells within the many parts of the human body.  Many have estimated somewhere between 5 and 50 trillion cells in the human body.  Wow, that makes our bodies a very complex system all by our self.  Take the human body system and underneath this main system there are many sub-components containing subordinate systems and objects with each being made from individual cells.  For example we have the neurological sub-system object, the respiration sub-system object, the digestive sub-system object, the circulatory sub-system object and on and on I could go.  Each sub-system can have further divisions of several layers of individual object components, like the heart, lung, kidney, stomach, etc.  The level of complexity can get very great.  We could transverse the entire human body system all the way down to the individual cell level, molecular level and even add in the very complex DNA system object components that are a complex system by themselves.   The existence of the human body system objects with so many interacting sub-object components working together for the single greater purpose and good of the whole object represents external intelligent design.  Truly the human body system is an ordered arrangement of functioning designed components and systems.  Any complex system lacking non-randomness or chaos is a very strong indicator of intelligent design and this proves the existence of a greater intelligent designer.  Of course I am referring to God as the design engineer and creator for the human body object.

I have just introduced you to another factor for the definition of a complex system.  A complex system has other dependent subordinate complex systems within it.  Systems within systems, systems depending upon other systems and all working together for a greater purpose, how can we even get our minds around all of this?  Maybe you do not understand this statement yet.  Let’s examine the created universe system again.   If the universe is a complete complex system as I believe it is, how many other systems also exist within this system and would our universe still exist in the same form without every single one of these being present?  I told you I was going to get really deep in this Bible study to cause you to think today.  One basic rule of intelligent system design is that the designer never adds anything that is unnecessary for the completion of the whole given purpose.  In other words what I am teaching is that in any well designed system every given observable component has a specific purpose even if that purpose is not fully disclosed or known.  The universe system can be divided into a multitude of galaxy systems and the galaxy systems can be further divided into a multitude of solar systems.  The earth resides within the Milky Way Galaxy system.  The sun that the earth revolves around is just one star of around 20 billion others in our galaxy alone.  Therefore, scientists generally do not have a clue to how many galaxies exist in our universe since they do not even know how many total stars there are in our single galaxy.  Wow, is that cool or what?  God created such a great place for us to exist in.

Our planet’s solar system is just one complex sub-system found within the greater universe system.  Let me ask you this question and I want you to really think about it.  If our solar system did not exist would the universe still exist in the same form and for the same purpose?  I do not believe that it would.  Let’s shift back to the computer system example that I was talking about previously.  Any large scale modern computer system is comprised of many designed dependent sub-system components.  Every sub-system component is essential to the entire process or it would not have been included in the design.  Many of these sub-system components are so critical to the whole process that the designers have built in a factor called redundancy.  Redundancy just means if one critical part of the sub-system fails another part of the sub-system takes over until the whole sub-system can be repaired to full working redundant capacity.  The existence of redundancy within many critical computer systems proves that the omission of any single sub-system causes the design of the whole system to fail.  Thus the failure or elimination of even one sub-system without redundancy will be catastrophic for the working of the whole greater process of the system.  If you think a manmade computer system is different than a God designed complex system of the universe you are a very deceived individual.  Man was created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26) and what God does a man can only do on a smaller scale.  There is nothing new under the sun.

In any complex system in order to begin to understand it, one must be able to break down the whole information into lesser manageable components and sub-components.  Many times people get the complex Bible truths mixed up because they are missing the basic spiritual fundamental details that are spread out in specialized hidden designed formats in the Bible.  Any complex system with intelligent design should contain the ability to be analyzed and broken down into smaller manageable pieces that first need to be understood.  By understanding the smaller core pieces and parts we can more quickly learn about the more complex interactive purposes and parts of the entire system.  What I am trying to teach is that there are methods to learning the Bible and that these methods conform to known modern intelligent design procedures.  I am talking about a basic of life concept found all around us.

For example in order to correctly fix an automobile you better understand how it was built.  An automobile is a complex system with many dependent lesser complex systems working together to get the user to a desired location.  The automobile system has a cooling system, a power system, an electrical system, a transmission system, a braking system, an air conditioning system and many others.  In the car example the failure of the AC system will not stop the car from functioning.  This is a bit of a departure from what I said earlier.  However without an AC system the driver might die if they are going through a desert in the summer.  If any system of a car fails, someone needs to know what they are doing and how it works in order to fix it.  If you don’t believe me go and take apart your car’s transmission and see if it will ever work again.  God wrote the Bible using defined intelligent design principles and if we are to understand these words we must approach studying the Bible with the same level of intelligent analysis methods.

I am going to conclude this Bible lesson with a very deep application of mathematics and computer concepts and how they relate to the Bible.  If you are not into either one of these subjects this discussion might be less interesting to you because of the new level of complexity that I am introducing into an already complex subject.   I believe that God created these concepts such as math and computers for us to learn, use and to apply.  Every part of creation has a purpose just as every word of God has purpose.  Math and computers are certainly a part of God’s creation so they have a purpose whether you understand them right now or not.  Even if you have never studied these subjects you might just derive some added benefits if you attempt to learn some of the basics concepts for what they mean.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, I introduced you to a new concept based upon the laws of mathematical sets but I never revealed to you why I was giving it any significant emphasis.  I am going to continue to reveal my behind the scene logical thought process for what I was teaching in the first two lessons.  Let me give you a quick definition for a mathematical set.  A mathematical set is a grouping of related well-defined but distinct individual objects with common characteristics or features.  A set is a very similar concept to the definition of a system in many regards.  An object is either an abstract or tangible “noun” that can be practically anything that is perceivable or observable.  If you noticed, I just connected us back into the discussion the subject of “nouns” that we listed at the beginning of this lesson.  A tangible object noun is like a man, a city, a tree, an animal, a fork, a car, or whatever.  An abstract object noun is like an idea, a thought, a spirit, or an emotion, etc.  An intangible object is anything that is not perceived by the five natural senses and this is why I included the noun spirit.  However, a spirit can also manifest and be seen or felt within the natural realm as is recorded in the Bible.  In those instances the intangible spirit becomes a tangible object.

From my list of nouns in 1 Thessalonians most can be considered tangible objects.  God and Lord of course are generally intangible since no one can prove His existence with their physical senses.  Of this list of given nouns, how many are qualified to be sets or groups of related individuals or things?   That is probably a new complex question to think about?  Hopefully you can see that “we”, “them”, “the dead in Christ”, “the alive in Christ” and the “clouds” are all words that have both plurality and commonality.  Thus these nouns being more than one yet can be referenced with a single noun, qualifies the group to be a mathematical set by definition.  Do worry, not every Bible study that I do will contain this level of detail.  So do not get discouraged if you are having any trouble following it.  Do the best you can and learn what you can and more understanding will eventually come.

Both intangible and tangible objects can be grouped together into a single named defined set based upon any known and well-defined relationship or characteristic.   For example, a group or set of related objects would be like a set of universal cars or automobiles.  This universal set might include every automobile ever created if so defined.  Each automobile in the set can be a unique object (noun) alone but they can also be grouped together into a new greater set because they share many common characteristics and features becoming a new named object (noun) maybe called “Universal Automobiles”.  That brings up a new set consideration called sub-sets.   A sub-set is just a smaller more well defined set of the larger more general set of car objects.  That brings us into the world of “adjectives”, doesn’t it?  An adjective is nothing but a further subset limitation (division) of a larger defined noun set.  For example we can have a “Universal Automobile” subset of just “Toyota Automobiles” because all of the cars in this subgroup were manufactured by Toyota and share that common trait.   What if we created a subset called “Red Automobiles”?  Uh oh that brings a new wrinkle into the discussion that gets more complex.  Red Automobiles now cross over into every car manufacturer including “Toyota Automobiles”.  Therefore a Red Toyota Automobile is a common member of both sets.  This is where multiple subsets can potentially overlap each other and share common objects.  A single named object just might be found in common with multiple subsets and we need to at least be aware of this possibility when we read and study the Bible.    Do you understand sets yet?  Many have learned this in school and probably just consider this a minor review.  But, it gets more complicated than that simplistic introduction.

Let me review a few of these set laws that I have been going over very rapidly.  Each unique member object in a defined set will either be a totally separate noun object or another new subordinate subset object.  Every member object in a set or a subset is joined by the selected well-defined noun description or adjective qualifier commonality.  As long as this is true each member object can be legally included and named as one object in the set or subset.  However it is very important to note that one defined object does not exist multiple times in any one single set.  Also one member object does not exist in two different opposing separate sets.  For example, being in the “In-Christ” set is one of the common bonds that join every Christian that is saved together by God’s set definition.  Perhaps I did not give you enough scriptural information on Christians being in God’s set called “In-Christ”.  There are repeated scriptures written to the church that clearly state this fact.  This phrase “In-Christ” occurs around 27 times in the book of Ephesians alone.  But I will give you a few good examples to help establish the truth in your mind:

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Rom 12:5  So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

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

2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Gal 3:28  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

I am not going to go through every verse and explain them.  Nor am I going to attempt to give you every verse that says we (the church) are all in this mathematical set called those “In-Christ”.  However, I just listed some key verses that I felt were applicable to the topic discussion.  For example, look at the first verse found in Romans 8:2.  This verse declares a new spiritual law of life that opposes the old law of sin and death.  In effect God is revealing two sets of opposition.  I believe that these are those in Christ verses those out of Christ.  Then notice how in Romans 12:5 and Galatians 3:28 that Paul is clearly stating that we as many separate individuals are now referenced to be one “In-Christ”.  Those were mathematical set laws being stated whether you presently understand them or not.  Many times in the Bible God will say some of the most profound things in passing without any given explanation to what was just said.  I hope that you can see the stated fact that all Christians today are in the God defined set called “IN-CHRIST”.

Let us consider that there are multiple defined sets in existence in the Bible.  I personally believe that any plural noun reference in the Bible is a defined set.  We certainly all know that the O.T. nation of Israel is a predominate set of people described intimately in the Bible.  This set of people excludes every other person not of this natural nation.  Therefore the people not in this natural nation of Israel were another set called “Gentile”.  One set was in covenant with God and the other set was not.   If the saved church is now defined by God to be in the “In-Christ” set, where were we found to be before we were added to this new group?  Uh oh, maybe you have never thought this way before?  Theoretically we could have been in no other set but I rather believe that we were in either the set called “Gentile” or “Israel” which included everyone.  I personally believe that everyone in the world is in a defined set found within the Bible.  Determining the set is another new complex study.   However, I just alluded to this fact in the last paragraph when I reviewed Romans 8:2.  I believe that those now found “In-Christ” came from an unstated set of those that were “Out-Christ”.  Don’t start picking up any stones to throw at me yet, I’m not done.

You must understand that if God can name and define one set that there is no limit to the number of defined sets that God can use for His purpose. Please allow me to introduce you to a new important concept.  There is a very popular law of Bible interpretation that I call the “Law of Antithesis”.  This law states for every directly named truth in the Bible there exists an opposite truth position by unstated implied antithesis.  It is very much like reading about the subject of light and knowing that the opposite of light is the absence of light and that this is called darkness even if it was never directly mentioned or referenced in the verse it still exists somewhere.  In other words what was stated as truth for light in the verse, the opposite is implied to be truth for the unstated antithesis darkness.  Do you understand opposites?   In our current world there will always be opposing forces; evil opposing good, death opposing life, darkness opposing light, drought opposing rain, storms opposing calm and we could go on and on.  This antithesis fact came as a result of the choice that Adam made in Genesis 3 when he allowed the evil to enter the world after God had created everything in a state of being called “very good” and warned Adam not to do it.  Notice what God created as a set of “very good” and from what Adam chose a new set called ‘evil” entered into the world of good.

Antithesis truths are a very common binary computer concept.  Every computer in the world is a binary machine.  What is a binary machine?   A binary machine is one where the basic most simplistic unit of definition can only be one of two states of opposite.  The lowest and simplest form of every computer device is called a “bit” unit.  A bit is the rudimentary binary computer element that is assigned either one of two opposing force settings.  A bit is either defined as a 1 (one) or as a 0 (zero) thus a computer is called a binary machine.  However, modern computers are comprised of millions, billions and even trillions of these single bit binary units. These simple single bits can be combined and grouped together to form larger and more complex number concepts and objects such as bytes, words, double words, etc.  However the basis of every computer is still a simple solitary unit of either one or zero.  Combining multiple bits only facilitates larger binary numbers to be formed.  For example, an 8 bit binary number can be anywhere from 0000000 to 11111111.  These represent the numbers from 0 to 255.  In order to make larger numbers you must add more bits for more 1’s and 0’s.  This binary concept corresponds to a simple toggle switch that can be turned on or shut off.  Therefore, a bit is nothing but a binary electronic switch.   The laws of antithesis and computer binary concepts are very prominently featured within God’s intelligent Bible design.  Keep this information in your mind as we continue to study the subject.

In this discussion a mathematical set consisting of many individual objects can also be considered a complete self-contained object within itself as I alluded to earlier when discussing the set “In-Christ”.  Therefore using mathematical set concepts we have an important idea of many individuals being viewed as a collective named one.  The many being named as a one is another very popular concept found throughout the Bible and I pray that you are beginning to understand it.  The nation of Israel was many people but only one named wife to God in the Old Covenant.  The church of the risen Jesus Christ is also many people but still one named bride in the New Covenant.

I am taking these well-known mathematical facts and transferring them into my Bible study.  For example I taught you about the existence of the mathematical set of saved believers that God called those “IN-CHRIST”.  Every individual believer when they believed and accepted Jesus into their hearts to make Him their personal Lord and Savior enters into this common single object group having left their previous unnamed antithesis object group.  This set transformation is a single individual exiting or departing from a former set of many entering into as a new individual a new many set called “In-Christ”.   What I just described is God’s definition of marriage if you did not put that together yet.   When a man marries a woman, they both leave their former family sets to be joined together to become a new family set that never existed before and God defined them to be a new one (Genesis 2:24).  It is critical that you understand this simple but profound information.  Do you recall that I gave you 2 Corinthians 5:7 in my list of “In-Christ” verses?  What did that verse say?  It said if any man be “In-Christ” he is a new creature and the old things have passed away.  That verse teaches us set transition is possible with God.  We can leave the old set and become a member of a new set that never existed before called “In-Christ”.

By the defined existence of the saved group called those “IN-CHRIST” God has indirectly implied the presence of another unstated antithesis group of unsaved people in the world that we could call those “NOT-IN-CHRIST” or the “OUT-CHRIST” object group or set.  I hope you understand the concept for Biblical antithesis truths by now.  God teaches us by using a named noun set that there is a limitation to the scope of the objects in the named set.  If it was as the Universal Salvationist’s try to teach us that all will be saved, God would not have needed to create a named set called those “In-Christ” that excludes those that do not qualify.  No, I’m going to say this one more time that the existence of those that are “IN-CHRIST” clearly reveal the existence of those that are “NOT-IN-CHRIST”.   Jesus taught us these unstated concepts of set truths repeatedly in the Gospels using the wide path and narrow path example, the sheep and goat example and the wheat and the tare example.  All of these were single named symbolic sets with two opposing sets of many individual member objects.  Every parable mentioned was a binary teaching concept where only two states of existence persist.   Therefore sets and binary concepts are a prevalent themed subject in the Bible even if you never thought of them in these terms before.

I taught you previously that underneath this common set called those “IN-CHRIST” are two separate divinely defined sub-sets that I will call the “DEAD-IN-CHRIST” and the “ALIVE-IN-CHRIST”.   As you recall any set of collected objects can be sub-divided into further defined object groupings based upon selected and further defined commonalities.  In this case being dead or alive physically determines which sub-set you are currently in and if you are reading this lesson I will tell you that you are in the “alive” sub-set.  This is a major component to what God is teaching in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.   Try to understand how I arrived at the existence of these sets and then consider the existence of the antithesis set “OUT-CHRIST”.  Logically speaking, if the “ALIVE” and “DEAD” subsets exist within the “IN-CHRIST” set then the same must also exist in the “OUT-CHRIST” set.  These are all new concepts for you to grasp today.  All of these concepts conform to the mathematical laws created by God and are easily recognizable when you apply the laws logically to the scriptures.  If you do not understand basic Algebra, Geometry and math concepts you probably do not understand much about how I arrived at these conclusions.  Let me give you a quick picture diagram of these concepts that I have just given to you.

I probably do not have many readers that really understand computers and especially object oriented programming (OOP) concepts but I do know that I have a few that read my lessons that do.  This diagram shows a hierarchy of related objects.  OOP is not something that is required to understand the Bible but I have found that it is a good subject to know if you can grasp the complex ideas.  You see in modern computer programming there is a similar concept like math sets and sub-sets called objects.  An object in computer programming is a thing that performs a related set of defined tasks for the greater purpose of the system.  We’re back to talking about systems again.  I am still linking together all of the concepts using related titles and named entities to teach how these concepts overlap.  You see we are again speaking about one complex system within another greater complex system.  The computer that a program is running on is just one greater complex system and the application sub-system designed to do the corporate accounting runs beneath the computer system.

If you were programming a banking system in OOP, an object might be a single customer of the bank, or even one account of the customer of the bank or any other related defined banking noun.  Generally speaking programming objects are always nouns that have verb activities associated with them called methods or actions.  For example any customer object can change their address, create a new account, make a deposit, make a withdrawal, make a payment or perform any other normal banking activity. These are all verb actions performed by a banking object noun.  An object can also possess defined attributes.  A defined attribute is just like a descriptive adjective.  It is interesting to note than almost any adjective can also be a noun.  For example, a banking customer object will probably contain their name and address information as well as their date of birth, sex, tax ID and other pertinent personal identifying information.  Attributes of an object clearly identify the object and make it unique from other types of the same object.   I just tied into the discussion OOP the round trip with the beginning noun, verbs and adjectives from 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.  Can you see how all of these concepts are coming together yet?  We have gone from systems, to sets and now to objects and each possess the same characteristics and basic features.

So with every associated programming object we have a unique noun named entity that can perform specific things and be described with details that cause them to be unique from all other similar noun objects in the set.  I’m not sure how detailed I should get with this but I will teach you about another OOP concept called a class.  Every computer object is created from a class that is used to define the object its features and its designed actions.  While every object of the same type can be unique they are generally all created from the same class definition.  Therefore a “class” is nothing but a blue-print pattern used to create the unique noun object.  Wow, that is a God kind of realization if I’ve ever heard of one.  Patterns are a basic truth found in every part of the Bible.  Objects being created from class patterns are another basic reality found in every part of the Bible.  What I am doing is teaching you of the existence of God’s intelligent design concepts found in His Word using naturally created patterns found all around us.

One more complex concept found In OOP is that one object can inherit characteristics and features from another object’s class.  For example, a cell is a common human body object that is shared within almost every human component or object.  Therefore in the human body system we could have a basic cell object that every other system objects inherits from.  The complexity of object definition, object commonalities and object interaction can get very complex especially in a very large system like the human body.  Why am I teaching computer programming concepts and methods?  It is primarily because I see these complex concepts repeated by God in the Bible.  I am praying that you can see how your Bible is a very large complex system containing both antithesis and related word objects that I will call God’s Bible subjects.  These subjects have defined attributes, characteristics and limitations that I call “adjectives”.  These God given defined Bible subjects also can perform certain designed actions that I will call “verbs”.  All of these interact together with each other in a highly complex intelligent designed manner to achieve the greater message purpose revealed in the Holy Bible.  This is one of the central features of the Bible that makes it unlike any other created book ever conceived or written by a human.  It clearly demonstrates the characteristics of extreme intelligent design beyond the human capability to produce or even fully understand and when you see it, it proves the existence of a very intelligent author.

Let’s talk about the Bible object (subject) called man (Hebrew word H120 in the Strong’s).  I of course am using this term man to include both natural males and females in a generic object I could call “Mankind”.  Under this object type we could sub divide it into two specialized object types called the male and the female objects using the naturalistic perspective view.  Here is where I want to emphasize a change in your Bible perspective to include the spiritual viewpoint.   When you read the Bible looking at only the words from a natural perspective you will find only natural truths being communicated.  The spiritual truths are generally found within the same verses but deeper within the text than on the surface.   Perhaps you do not understand how one verse can project multiple or simultaneous messages.  If you do not understand this then you have probably not read and studied the Bible for very long.  I can read a verse that I have read for hundreds of times and suddenly in my spirit I see something that I had never observed before and the meaning is suddenly very clear now.  Explaining how you missed it before is a total mystery to most Christians.  What happened to cause this?  How can one person see something in a verse that the other person reading the same words cannot see? The answer to those questions is called God’s revelation or revealing of the words so that someone can finally see what was written there on the page from the beginning.   This fact is the main reason why God had to “reveal” the Old Testament to Paul and the other disciples even though they had read or heard the words all of their lives.   The New Testament has many, many quoted Old Testament verses with God’s explanations of what they finally mean.  One of my greatest frustrations is when people quote me Old Testament verses and they have not researched the New Testament information that explains them.  I run into this more often than I would like to admit.  When I try to tell them what the New Testament says, they close their spiritual eyes and refuse to be open to what God is saying.  The only thing that I can do after that is pray for them like Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus in chapter 1 of Ephesians.  Paul prayed for God to open their spiritual eyes of their understanding.  Go read this prayer and find out that Paul asked God to give them the revelation of Jesus Christ.  “Revelation” is God uncovering the words on the page so that they can be finally clearly understood.  If you have not prayed that for yourself, then do it!

Instead of a natural viewpoint let’s change the human object type “Mankind” into defined spiritual sub-divisions like I did in the previous diagram.  When confronted with Bible subjects I prefer to look at things from a spiritual God perspective first rather than from a natural human perspective.  We should understand that God is a Spirit and that God is the author.  When we try to look at the words from the perspective of how God looks at the words I believe that we come closer to seeing the truth.  There are probably not very many Bible teachers that would agree with me since so many are carnally minded.  One spiritual sub-division or object type of man would be the “IN-CHRIST” saved type of man.  We can clearly see from the Bible that not every human is in this defined object noun set.  This only leaves those that are not saved in the “NOT-IN-CHRIST” object type category.  Both the “IN-CHRIST” and the “NOT-IN-CHRIST” objects can inherit common characteristics and features from the greater “Mankind” object or class pattern.  However each new object type can also implement new individual characteristics or properties that are only common and in effect with the other named object types that are derived from this same object class pattern.  For example the “IN-CHRIST” object will be defined with a “SAVED” property and the “OUT-CHRIST” object will be defined to have a “LOST” property.  You just never know what you might learn when you read my Bible studies.  I try not to get this deep in most of my lessons but sometimes I believe that is just good for me to make you think outside of your box.

If we take this object lesson up the ladder from the “Mankind” object this human object that was created by God will inherit all of their spiritual characteristics from their creator class according to Genesis 1:26.  Mankind made in the image and likeness of God causes the man object class to inherit from the greater spiritual God object class but the spiritual God object class inherits from no one else being supreme.  That is until the Jesus Object class comes along and He inherited from both the God object class and the Adam/Man object class equally to become a new God Man.  I really believe I shock people sometimes because they do not think when they read the Bible.  Only Jesus was 100% God and 100% man.  Only Jesus called himself the Son of God and the Son of Man.  Only Jesus was a unique product of the naturally created and the divinely spiritual.  Only Jesus was qualified to save us by inheriting from two separate opposing natures.  If you disagree with what I have said you are free to be wrong and I will not argue with you.

Ok let’s move down below the “IN-CHRIST” object in the linked diagram.  We learned in 1 Thessalonians 14 that the IN-CHRIST object has been sub-divided by God into 2 binary antithesis subsets. These two were the “DEAD-IN-CHRIST” and the “ALIVE-IN-CHRIST” and both of these are unique qualifications that allow each to be treated differently by God at the rapture event.  Both of these object groups inherit common characteristics from the greater “IN-CHRIST” saved object type which inherits from the greater “Man” object class which inherits from the greatest “God” object class.   Understand the basic quality of the two groups of “DEAD” or “ALIVE” are speaking of the physical natural death or life respectively and not a spiritual feature.  The “In-Christ” object must contain the quality of spiritual eternal life already based upon what Jesus taught in John 3:15 that whosoever believes upon Him would not perish but have eternal life.  Right there Jesus is speaking about all those that are either physically alive or physically dead that believe in Him will have spiritual eternal life.  Therefore placing the verse in the proper context will align the words with those found in the saved “In-Christ” class.  It further goes on in John 3:15 and states that those that do not believe are those that “perish” and again this is a universal quality reserved for the “OUT-CHRIST” class of objects beings.   This is not good news for these people.

Let’s discuss in more detail the differences between the “DEAD-IN-CHRIST” and the “ALIVE-IN-CHRIST” objects.  The “DEAD-IN-CHRIST” objects must have a change of classification with the departure or the separation from their natural physical bodies.  The “ALIVE-IN-CHRIST” objects are still physically here on the earth and they remain present in their physical bodies.  The “DEAD-IN-CHRIST” objects have experienced natural death while the “ALIVE-IN-CHRIST” object types have not.  Once the naturally dead Christian departs they cannot die physically again.  Also both subsets are spiritually alive but one is in the body while the other is not in their body.  Using basic logic I have concluded that these two object types must also exist under the “OUT-CHRIST” object.  This is not rocket science we know saved and unsaved people both physically die by the story that Jesus taught in Luke 16.  However the departure from the body of the unsaved object will result in a much different location change to that of hell and not heaven like the “DEAD-IN-CHRIST”.  It is also interesting to note that the “ALIVE-OUT-CHRSIT” object types still can get saved and be changed to become an “IN-CHRIST” object and this results in a different future destiny completely.  The “DEAD-OUT-CHRIST” objects do not have any further opportunity to be saved once present in hell.  Maybe you can see why I like computer programming and why I can see things like this in the Bible.  If not don’t get upset at me, just keep learning whatever you can accept.  There are many other more complex things built into object oriented programming but I will not get into any of this in any more depth so that I do not totally bore anyone else that does not understand the importance.

Why have I spent so much time describing noun, verbs, adjectives, systems, sets and objects?  I use these complex realities whenever I study the Bible.  I read a verse and I analyze the words and then ask what are the objects given by God in this verse?  I then think why does this object exist?  Where did this object come from?  What does this object represent?  Does this object inherit any characteristics or features from any other Bible object?  Is this object a set or sub-set?  Does this object fit any known patterns in other verses of the Bible?  How does this Bible object differ from other Bible objects?  What features are presently in common and which features are unique?  Also remember that an object is just one member in a set.  How did the set get created?   How do members come to exist in that set and what are the benefits or pitfalls of being a member of that set?  We could finally determine, does this object have an antithesis related object?  So many questions to ask and I just really broke the surface of them all.

According to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, rapture is a select activity performed by God which is reserved for a well-defined subset of objects within the greater set of all human beings.  In order to qualify for rapture described in these verses the individual must be found in the given set that will meet the requirements.  This teaches us that those not raptured are excluded from the event being described.   From the 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 information we are given only one very specific set that qualifies for rapture in the description.  This set that qualified for the rapture was the “ALIVE-IN-CHRIST” believers and it excluded everyone else.  Everyone else not raptured were in the sets called the “DEAD-IN-CHRIST” and all members in the “OUT-CHRIST” set.  The “DEAD-IN-CHRIST” did rise bodily but since their spirits were already present in heaven they do not qualify for rapture (harpazo).  Please notice in these verses that there is no mention of those outside of the set of “ALIVE-IN-CHRIST” being taken up and off of the earth at this timed scheduled event.  That is a very important detail to consider.  Learn from what the Bible says and then apply correctly what it does not say also.  Selective and exclusionary rapture is a pre-established pattern found in the Bible found in the lives of Enoch, Elijah and Jesus.  These were all taken up and all of the others on the earth were left behind to remain.  This is a very key point to distinguish.  Not everyone is going up in this prophesied event being described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.

I totally believe that I have blown the minds of many of my readers.  I will conclude this lesson here so that I can allow you to think about the many facets of the information that I have presented.  If you like this style of detail you are free to tell me, but more than likely I will not go into this level of detail in the future on this subject of rapture.  In the next lesson I will attempt to get back to more of the standard types of Bible lessons that I have been doing for several years.  I just wanted you learn how I think and by doing this it might just help you to see why I write things in the style that I do.  Thank you for your time in reading and I greatly appreciate it if you would help point someone else to my website.  God Bless you until the next time I can get a lesson out.

If you would like to continue the study in this series on Rapture please go to “Part 4“.