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The rapture in Philippians?
Topic Started: October 21, 2013, 12:04 am (1,371 Views)
metroames
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In Sunday school we are going through the book of Philippians. My teacher dug into the Greek for the two words translated "resurrection" in the following passage and discovered they were two different words:

Philippians 3:7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

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The first word translated "resurrection" is from the Greek word "anastasis":

Strong's 386 anastasis (from 303 /ana, "up, again" and 2476 /histemi, "to stand") – literally, "stand up" (or "stand again"), referring to physical resurrection (of the body).

Christ's physical resurrection is the foundation of Christianity, which also guarantees the future resurrection of all believers (see Jn 6:39,40,44).

[386 /anastasis ("resurrection") refers to the physical, bodily resurrection of Christ – and people (both of the redeemed and the unredeemed).]

http://biblesuite.com/greek/386.htm

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The second word translated "resurrection" is from the Greek word "exanastasis":

Strong's 1815 eksanastasis (from 1537 /ek, "completely out from," intensifying 450 /anistemi, "rise up") – properly, rising up to experience the full-impact of resurrection, i.e. thoroughly removed from the realm of death (the grave).

http://biblesuite.com/greek/1815.htm

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The meaning of this second word seems to be speaking of rapture:

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

What do y'all think?
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suzugos
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In verse 10 the term: αναστασεως αυτου (hanasteôs avtou) is in reference to Christ's personal resurrection. Paul desire is to know it with experiential knowledge as oppose to mere passive knowledge. Paul wanted to know Christ and the power (την δυναμιν) of His resurrection experientially. Thus Paul's reference to experiential suffering being made conformable to the Christ's death.

I hope your teacher didn't minimize those other important points regarding suffering and death. Such would miss the full meaning of Paul's exercise described in verses 10 and 11.

In certain older manuscripts (the ones some eschew) the word "hanastasis" in verse 10 is rendered "εξαναστασεως" (exhanasteôs) like in verse 11 meaning Christ was resurrected "out from among" the dead.

If we take the reading as given in those older sometimes eschewed manuscripts, verse 11's use of (την εξαναστασιν των νεκρων) "the resurrection out from among the dead" taken literally is quite the same as Christ's resurrection including the changes evidenced by the Resurrected Christ - thus Paul's reference to the "power" of said resurrection.

Since Paul did not contemplate believers walking around the world in changed, resurrected bodies for any protracted time as did our Lord Jesus Christ, the general conclusion of Paul's statement is that Paul anticipated being resurrected with a body like unto Christ's at His coming for His own; the event that modern Christians call "the Rapture".

Thus I agree with your teacher's conclusion as related in your post. :winky

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clark thompson

The first use is referring to Jesus' rising from the dead and by Him we have hope ours which is the second which may refer to the rapture.
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disturbo
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I don't know why Paul used two different words for resurrection.
The word in verse 10 is used 42 times and I think it refers to Christ resurrection.

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
The word resurrection in verse 11 is used once in the bible here in Phil. 11. and that is a bit peculiar.

11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

But the text is clear that it's referring to the resurrection of the dead and not a rapture. One who is raptured isn't resurrected anyway. They are translated.
Edited by disturbo, December 18, 2013, 8:14 pm.
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suzugos
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disturbo
December 18, 2013, 8:10 pm

One who is raptured isn't resurrected anyway. They are translated.
Well, I beg to disagree. Those who have deceased in the faith must certainly be resurrected at the Rapture. Didn't our Lord call Himself, "the Resurrection and the Life"? And also say:

"Wonder not at this, for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall go forth; those that have practiced good, to resurrection of life, and those that have done evil, to resurrection of judgment." John 5:28-29

So there is a resurrection unto life, which I submit is the Hope of the Church, commonly called the Rapture. It would take the power of the eternal God to reorganize the dust of the earth where some dear believer has long since decayed to produce a new body fit for everlasting life in His eternal presence. Then resurrection would also require a change or translation to become something the original was not. That change is translation. The deceased in Christ are to be resurrected with new bodies at the up-call of our glorious Lord.

And if resurrection for them, then why not for those still living whom the Apostle Paul says are dead with Christ (Rom.6:8) yet have the hope of also living with Him? According to Paul, we are all walking dead in these bodies of sin. The old man is dead. But we also walk in newness of life being resurrected with Christ and having hope of living with Him. Paul wrote of both conditions with present tense verbs.

As I see it you cannot have it both ways. Both deceased believers and living believers are raised, changed and outfitted for life everlasting with our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, in Php.3:10 when Paul wrote that he wanted to "know" Him and the power of His resurrection, using the aorist active infinitive Greek verb, γνωσκω (ginōskō). He wanted to know both the Lord and the power of the Lord's resurrection personally through experience - to know so fully he wrote of becoming conformed to Christ's death. Paul wanted to be resurrected. Remember, Paul dictated the Epistle to the Philippians whilst in a Roman prison. But it isn't until 2Tim.4:6 that Paul reveals he expected to meet his own decease before that hope so frequently mentioned in his early writings.

By comparison, I note that Paul's first epistle to those in Christ at Thessaloniki (which I believe was indeed his first) ends all five chapters with some aspect of the hope of Christ's coming for His own - always couched in terms of imminent expectation. Paul did not teach that the Church would go through the Tribulation.

In fact the earliest Christian writers immediately following the Apostles also held the doctrine of imminence. They held a Chiliastic eschatology quite similar to today's premillennialism. Even liberal scholars admit that much. Anyone hone reading the earliest ecclesiastical writers will too.

The writer called Clement of Rome wrote circa 96 AD: "Truly His will shall be quickly and suddenly accomplished, as the Scripture also witnesses that; 'He shall come quickly and not tarry' and 'the Lord shall come suddenly unto His Temple.'" (1Clem.23:5 - my translation) At the time of Clement's writing the Temple at Jerusalem was already destroyed. Yet Clement understood and believed that the Lord's coming unto His Temple was an immanent short term expectation.

The epic called "The Shepherd of Hermas" (circa 140 AD) reads: "Because of your faith, you have escaped from a mighty tribulation, also because you did not doubt the presence of such a beast. Go therefore, and tell the elect of God His mighty deeds and this beast is but a type of the Great Tribulation that comes." (Hermas, Vis.2:2:4b - my translation) Certainly the writer of that early Christian epic believed in a immanent millennial Kingdom of Christ with a Great Tribulation proceeding.

All this modern premillennial stuff doesn't look so new anymore, does it?

Thus the Apostle Paul taught the doctrine of imminence and for the first 200 years churchmen believed Paul and also taught the doctrine of imminence. Nowhere among Paul's writings does he even hint that believers in that day will themselves go through the Tribulation. Instead, Paul taught that believers would be resurrected, translated and taken to heaven where Christ is and also the Bema Seat of Christ. That is the eschatology Paul taught for believers while those who reject the Gospel will be subject to great delusion to believe a lie in the Tribulation.

Just a few thoughts,

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