In Christ, You Will Rise from the Dead

For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. (1 Thessalonians 4:14)

What if I told you zombies were real?

Well, at least kind of real.

Now, don’t go running off to buy a chainsaw or a shotgun just yet. This verse doesn’t mean you need to worry about brain-eating zombies crawling out of their graves and chasing you into a pub.

But this verse does seem to talk about the dead rising from their graves, and that sounds an awful lot like zombies. So…

In order for us to understand what’s really going on here, we need to look at the broader context of this passage:

Since Jesus died and broke loose from the grave, God will most certainly bring back to life those who died in Jesus.

We can tell you with complete confidence—we have the Master’s word on it—that when the Master comes again to get us, those of us who are still alive will not get a jump on the dead and leave them behind. In actual fact, they’ll be ahead of us. The Master himself will give the command. Archangel thunder! God’s trumpet blast! He’ll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise—they’ll go first. Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master. Oh, we’ll be walking on air! And then there will be one huge family reunion with the Master. So reassure one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:14–18).

When we read this passage in context, we can see that Paul isn’t talking about the dead coming back to steal life away from those who are still living (zombies); he is talking about Christ coming back to restore life to those who are physically dead (resurrection)!

You see, the early believers in Thessalonica were concerned that anyone who believed in Christ but died before His return would miss out on the resurrection and eternal life. Which is why Paul encourages them to rest in the truth of what God has promised us will happen when Christ returns:

those who have died after trusting in Christ will be resurrected first
living believers will follow closely behind
all believers will be reunited with their loved ones
all who are in Christ will be reunited with God!

So yes, my friend, the dead will rise. But they won’t be zombies, they will be resurrected children of God!

For a much deeper explanation of this passage, check out this amazing article from Keith Krell.

Who are you looking forward to seeing again after the resurrection?

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