Information Related to "The Need for Spiritual Readiness"
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The Need for Spiritual Readiness
The rapture theory helps a Christian be in readiness for Christ's unexpected appearance to take him away, or so goes the reasoning of those who adhere to the belief. On the other hand, the need for spiritual readiness is a valid teaching found throughout the New Testament regardless of any supposed rapture teaching. The Scriptures invariably connect it to Christ's actual return to inaugurate the Kingdom of God, not to a near approach to the earth by Christ years before His final coming.
Christ's comparison between the time immediately preceding
His coming and the time just before the flood of Noah's day illustrates this fact.
"But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be"
(Matthew 24:37). The comparison continues with a description of how some people who
lived and worked side by side with Noah were caught off guard by the
coming of the flood.
Similarly, in the end of the age people living and working side by side with Christians will be caught off guard by Christ's return. "Watch therefore (meaning stay alert to one's spiritual commitment and responsibility), for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming" (verse 42). There is no intimation, either in Greek or English translations, of any secret aspect to this coming. It is the prophesied return of Christ.
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