More On Leaving Our Bodies Behind

Q

Why do you think our earthly bodies will be raptured? What would we do with them in heaven? Doesn’t the Bible speak of a mass delusion that God sends to keep those left on earth from realizing what has happened? (2Thess. 2) Could it be that our souls will be raptured making Matt. 24 (about the vultures) have to do with our bodies?

A

In 1 Cor. 15:51-52 Paul said he was revealing something that had previously been a secret (a mystery). He said we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. This was his way of saying we will not all die, and He was talking about those of us who are still alive at the rapture. By definition death involves the separation of soul and spirit from the body, so if we don’t die we won’t leave our bodies behind. Instead we will be instantaneously be changed, from mortal (subject to death) as we are now, to immortal (not subject to death) as we will be then.

Believers who have already died when the rapture comes will get new bodies because their old ones will have decayed to dust. But we who are alive will simply be transformed without experiencing death. Rather than getting new bodies, our current ones will be made perfect.

The strong delusion Paul spoke of in 2 thes. 2:11 refers to those left behind believing the anti-Christ’s lie that he’s God. And the vulture comment in Matt. 24:28 has to do with the 2nd coming, not the rapture, which will have happened 7 years earlier.