Jesus" we are glad to say that we stand foursquare on this precious hope that He has

given. But do they? To all such we would say--do you really believe what the Lord

Jesus Christ taught here or have you substituted something other than the truth of

resurrection for your hope? If so it is a vain one. But this is not all. We have been

dealing with the hope for believers who have died. Does the Lord deal with hope from

the standpoint of His children who are alive when He returns again? The answer is yes,

He does. In John 14: 3 we find the following:

It is the believer's greatest joy to look forward by faith to the time when he will be

with his Lord. How is that going to be accomplished? By death say multitudes of

Christians; by My coming again, says the Lord Jesus. Which are we going to believe?

When we come to the epistles we find the same truth. It is well to remember that

I Thess. 4: was not written to give a dissertation on the doctrine of the Second Advent,

but to comfort those whose loved ones had fallen asleep, that they should sorrow not as

others who had no hope. The Lord would surely return "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 (17). The word so is houtos meaning thus--or in

this way. In this way (i.e. by the Lord's coming) shall believers be with the Lord and we

have no right to substitute any other way. The Thessalonians were exhorted to comfort

one another with these words and we look in vain for death or any other conception to be

presented as a hope by the Apostle. Rather is he promulgating exactly the same truth as

we have seen that the Lord Jesus proclaimed, namely that resurrection and His coming

again was not only the true hope of the living Christian, but also the hope for those who

had died. But, it will be objected, what about II Cor. 5: 6 and Phil. 1: 23? To begin

with, we would emphasize that both these verses have contexts and if these are carefully

considered, they only confirm what we have already stressed.  II Cor. 5: commences

with the word `For', reminding us that there should be no chapter break, but that the

apostle is continuing the argument developed in chapter 4.  Verse 14 reads `Knowing

that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present

us with you'. So the presentation of the believer to the Lord is vitally linked with

resurrection. Paul now refers to the earthly body as our `earthly house' (1) and contrasts

it with the resurrection body as `our house which is from heaven' (2). But what about the

time in between when this earthly house shall be dissolved (i.e. death) and we are clothed

upon with our heavenly house? (i.e. resurrection). This can only refer to the death state

and it is figuratively described as being `naked' or `unclothed' (3 and 4). Now the

apostle definitely asserts that he did not desire to be unclothed (4) but He did desire to be

clothed with the heavenly house (resurrection) and so avoid being `naked'. In plain

words--he did not look forward to the death state as a hope, but rather wished to avoid it.

The eye of faith looked on to the glorious time of resurrection when mortality would be

swallowed up of life (4) and this statement takes us to I Cor. 15: 54 `Death is swallowed

up in victory', and when is that? `When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,

and this mortal shall have put on immortality' (54) at the change in the `twinkling of an

eye' (52) and when the dead shall be `raised in incorruption' (42). Again we are forced