Several years ago at a ‘grace’ Bible conference, a preacher read 1 Thes 4:17, and made the comment that the clouds in that verse were really angels:
1 Thess 4:17 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.
The ‘grace’ preacher used Heb 12:1 for support of his statement:
Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Well, way back then, we took issue with that assumption. The question was asked, “When do you change the common sense, natural meaning of a word or verse?” The consensus of the answer was, “When the natural meaning doesn’t make good common sense; then you look for an alternate or another definition.” That seemed like sound advice. After a round table discussion, the next morning, comments were made, like .... “The sky is so blue; there’s not an angel in it.” “Maybe it’s going to rain; I see lots of angels gathering on the horizon.” We had a good laugh, and hopefully made a few points, that if we are ‘caught up’ .... ‘in the air’ .... it is logical to believe that we would be ‘in the clouds’ .... rather than change the verse to be ‘in the angels.’ Beside that, the verse in Hebrews actually SAYS what the cloud is there. It explains the cloud to be witnesses.
I said that, to say this. A ‘pastor-shepherd’ brother (whose name I choose to withhold, although he mentioned mine excessively in his article, making it appear quite personal, in my opinion) recently replied to my inquiry about the timing of the last trump. I had sent five questions to folks who attended the Great Smoky Mountains GRACE Bible Conference last year. After reading a text message posted on my website www.magnifiedword.com on the subject, he accused me of falling into a trap of quoting definitions from a Greek dictionary without any regard for Greek grammar. Oddly, by the bottom of his first page, he admitted that his criticism in this regard was irrelevant to the question, and that he probably agreed anyway. He also charged me with being a very presumptuous Bible student, rather than a true one. That is a matter of opinion, and I could say likewise. He indicated that I did not diligently compare the details to make my determination that the last trump will be the seventh trump. Just because the 'last' trump being the 'last' trump in the Revelation doesn't fit into his paradine, does not mean that I didn't put my time in. He has no idea how much I studied. I'm letting the verse say what it says, and I'm believing it, as is. If their doctrine doesn't match what the verse says, then they need to change their doctrine, not the verse!
His rebuttal went into great Greek detail as to why the ‘last’ trump did not have to be the ‘last’ trump (as ‘last’ in a series). Other than what he said about me personally, which I believe is wrong, I did not see that any of his points proved any of my statements to be incorrect.
So I’m going to let clouds be clouds, not angels;
and I believe the ‘last’ trump is the ‘last’ trump, not the ‘extreme’ trump!
I think he can better pick a banjo than a trumpet!
This is David Dowell, saying, “Think about it!”
