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"Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the
Father, Who raised Him from the dead)" (1: 1).
In the opening testimony, both the apostleship and the gospel preached by Paul is
involved; both stand or fall together.
"I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ" (1: 12).
The emphasis however in Galatians is placed on "a Tree" (3: 13), the Cross (6: 14)
and the Crucifixion (2: 20; 5: 24). Before we come to the resurrection as a doctrine, we
must be assured that the death of the cross was an integral feature in the plan of
redemption, and that is forever settled by this initial epistle.
The testimony of
I Thessalonians.
The "patience of hope" enjoined I Thess. 1: 3 is expressed in 1: 10 as waiting for
God's Son from heaven "Whom He raised from the dead". After two chapters of loving
interest and manifest care, the Apostle returns to the question of resurrection, this time,
not so much to prove the historic fact of Christ's resurrection, but to comfort the heart of
the believer as to his own participation in that glorious deliverance. "If we believe that
Jesus died and rose again" is the spring and ground of what follows. The words "will
God bring with Him" cannot refer to the saints coming with the Lord from heaven for the
next verse tells us "the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together WITH THEM . . . . . to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall
we ever be with the Lord" (I Thess. 4: 17). "The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ WITH
all His Saints" of I Thess. 3: 13 cannot refer to the church, for we have already seen
that `together' those that sleep and those that remain, await the coming of the Lord from
heaven to the air. The reference is to Zech. 14: 5 and to Jude 14:
"And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints (or holy ones, i.e. angels) with thee."
We read in Deut. 33: 2 that at Sinai "He came with ten thousands of saints" which
are, according to Psa. 68: 17 "thousands of angels . . . . . as in Sinai". Acts 7: 53
and Gal. 3: 19 reveal that the law of Sinai was given by the ministry of angels. To
return however to our main quest, the matter of the resurrection, let us take this
opportunity of noting the references in Paul's epistles to "sleep" as a figure of death, and
"waking" as a figure of resurrection.
I Cor. 15: 6, 18, 20, 51; I Thess. 4: 13, 14, 15 koimaomai to fall asleep.
Eph. 5: 14; I Thess. 5: 6, 7, 10 katheudo to go to sleep, be drowsy.
Rom. 13: 11; Eph. 5: 14 egeiro to rouse.
I Thess. 5: 6 gregoreo watch, 10 wake.
Eph. 2: 6; Col. 2: 12; 3: 1 sunegeiro to rouse together.
The reader will note that there are two different words used in I Thess. 4: & 5: and
care should be taken in the translation of these passages and the inferences drawn from
them. Let us attempt to make the distinctions obvious.