Day and the Hour: Finally

Would you be surprised if the hour passes without making anyone disappear? You have to get this close to a beloved impossibility to realize it is impossible. Was there any true certainty before the final day and hour? If not, what does that say about the certainty of heaven?

But much better than introspection is to enjoy being connected to the vine, who is Christ, and by his Spirit believing his basic promise of resurrection.

Now, resurrection is a frightful thing when you understand it, because if you have not been careful to get rid of them before, you drag into it all the errors of your life which you liked well enough to keep. So let us be sure we understand what God means to do in the resurrection.

Whether or not there is a Rapture, there is a resurrection to prepare for, and the resurrection is inseparable from the return of Christ and the kingdom of God on earth. But before dismissing the Rapture, ask how it fits with the kingdom, for if it turns out to be essential, you surely don't want to be left behind.

The obvious thing to notice about the Rapture is that it is very selective and cannot be otherwise, simply because the candidates are all born in a narrow band of history spanning barely one century. Taking this fact as a clue to its purpose, we have an obligation to carefully consider how the second coming of Christ must transpire with or without the Rapture. Or to state it graphically, we look behind the doctrine of the Rapture to see if it is connected in some essential way to the rest of prophetic Scripture. Is it more substantive than merely the shadow of a single Parousia?

If the Rapture appears to be a distinct but essential part of the Second Coming, then we have no choice: we have the messy task of defending the impossible.

Therefore, The Day and Hour series could not be complete without looking into the arrangements necessary for bringing about the well-documented kingdom of God on earth. That will be the last volume, but to help some of our characters get into the kingdom age we need the link which is book nine.