9. What other clear statement of his beliefs on this subject did Paul make? Colossians 3:4.
NOTE: ‘To the believer, death is but a small matter. Christ speaks of it as if it were of little moment. “If a man keep My saying, he shall never see death,” “he shall never taste of death.” To the Christian, death is but a sleep, a moment of silence and darkness. The life is hid with Christ in God, and “when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” John 8:51, 52.’ A Call to Stand Apart, page 44.
10. How else does Paul speak of our gathering together to Christ? 2 Thessalonians 2:1.
NOTE: ‘Was there not some point of time to which Paul looked for deliverance and reward? Was this the day of death, or of the coming of Jesus? There is a certain day which he has emphasised very remarkably. It bears the designation in his epistles of “THAT DAY.” It is thus presented:
· 1 Thessalonians 5:2,4: “For yourselves know perfectly that THE DAY OF THE LORD so cometh as a thief in the night.... But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that THAT DAY should overtake you as a thief.”
· 2 Thessalonians 1:10: “When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in THAT DAY.”
· 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3: “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means; for THAT DAY shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”
· 2 Timothy 1:12: “For the which cause I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against THAT DAY.”
· 2 Timothy 1:18: “The Lord grant unto him [Onesiphorus] that he may find mercy of the Lord in THAT DAY; and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.”
· 2 Timothy 4:6-8: “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at THAT DAY; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.”
These scriptures do plainly teach the fact that the advent of Jesus was the time to which Paul looked for the deliverance of the saints, for the gathering of himself and all the others to Christ’s presence, and for the placing of the crown upon his own head, and upon the heads of all that really love the appearing of Jesus. He refers to the time of this great reward as “THAT DAY.” But he marks it over and over in such a manner that we cannot mistake the point of time. It is not the day of his death, but it is the day of the Lord Jesus.’ J. N. Andrews: Departing and Being with Christ, pages 5-6.