What a Day of Rejoicing That Will Be!

“he will swallow up death permanently. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face, and remove this people’s disgrace from all the earth. Indeed, the Lord has announced it! At that time they will say, “Look, here is our God! We waited for him, and he delivered us. Here is the Lord! We waited for him. Let’s rejoice and celebrate his deliverance!””  Isaiah 25:8-9

“Look! He is returning with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes on the earth will mourn because of him. This will certainly come to pass! Amen.”  Revelation 1:7

 When we all get to Heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be! I love that old song. I’ve got to be honest, I don’t understand the timing of all of it. Will we go straight to Heaven when we die? Will it be like we did even though many years will have gone by on the Earth? The most important part though I am sure about. I will get to Heaven. If the timing were important for us to understand I think God would have made it more clear in His Word. As it stands, all I can figure is that we should just be excited about getting to be with Him and trust the timing to His perfect will.

 When Jesus returns for the living and the dead, those who are found in Him will rejoice greatly!  It will be the world’s biggest party! Never before has there ever been such widespread joy and celebration. I think of the famous picture of the couple kissing amidst the celebration in Times Square on V-J Day. That’s one that stands out in my mind as an image of a giant celebration. Now we will be celebrating not just our victory over an earthly enemy nation, but victory over death itself! There will be no more sickness or pain or brain tumors or genetic diseases or dying. I have so much to celebrate, I feel a little of it coming on early!

 Sadly, there will be another side to that day. When Jesus returns, Revelation says, “all the tribes on earth will mourn because of him.” That doesn’t sound like much of a celebration, does it? While the Christians who were awaiting Jesus’ return will celebrate, those who are not found in Him will mourn. They will see the sad truth that they should have accepted Jesus sooner. They shouldn’t have waited. They shouldn’t have gone their own way. It really did matter and they are too late. Again, what exactly will happen to all of those people and the timeline of it I’m not entirely clear on either. I have a friend who runs an entire ministry around Rethinking Hell. I can tell you for certain that I don’t know a much as Him about what will come to pass, but odds are, He doesn’t have 100% of the answers either. Only God knows the details, the times, the ways, the eventuality of all that will come.

Here's the Thing: Whether Hell is an eternal place, a temporary price to pay for sin, or something else entirely all I know is I’m glad I don’t have to worry about it personally. I pray that you won’t either. If you are still searching, still trying to come to an understanding about who Jesus is and why it should matter to you, please feel free to reach out. I’d be happy to chat with you about it! saltyzebrablog@outlook.com




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