Smoodock's Blog

I have to laugh at myself, as I consider how I used to try to fit the word of God into the context of my own literal worldview. When I thought of the Lord coming in the clouds, I understood that to be literally so, and when he came at the sound of a trumpet, that, too, was literal (Matthew 24:30-31). Moreover, when I read: “he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him” (Revelation 1:7), I believed that would occur in a literal sense. How else could it be understood? What my mind’s eye saw was the Lord coming in the clouds, and he was coming so fast and traveled around the globe so quickly that everyone would be able to get a ‘snapshot’ view of him returning. Of course this is a ridiculous thought, and, hence, I’m able to laugh at myself for ever believing such a thing were possible. Not that God couldn’t move quickly, but that I, or any other human being, could actually get a snapshot view of such a thing occurring. It would be physically impossible to see anything moving that quickly.

This, however, is how I thought, and the reason why I’m displaying my ignorance for anyone to see is that folks, like myself, who believe the Bible is the word of God and, therefore, true, need to step back a bit and consider audience relevance. We inherited our literal worldview way of looking at things from the Greeks, but the Bible is rich in hyperbole, metaphor, parable, apocalyptic, hypotyposis (word picture), metonymy, simile, allegory, fable, type, enigma etc., and these are just scratching the surface. We do a great disservice to the word of God / truth when we take something to be literal, when it is not meant to be taken literally. For example, what would folks think of Christianity, if we actually cut off our arms or gouged out our eyes to keep from sinning (Matthew 5:29-30)? Who would take us seriously, if we really believed our Savior was a literal lamb (John 1:29), or whose tongue was a two edged sword (Revelation 1:14)? The Bible is a Jewish book, and we need to remember it can’t be understood as though it were a Greek novel.

So, when Paul wrote: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1Thessalonians 4:16), was he speaking literally or non-literally? Would we actually hear a trumpet at the return of Christ, and would we see the dead physically rise out of their graves? Would we, literally see the Lord descend out of heaven on a cloud? Many folks actually believe this will happen literally before their very eyes, and this, sad to say, is the orthodox view of the return of Christ. Nevertheless, it is false, not the word of God, but one’s literal understanding of the word of God (cp. Matthew 5:29-30). Audience relevance is important, after all, if one is speaking of the president, it would help to know, if he is talking about the President of the United States or the president of the raccoon club down the street.

In other words, the Jews knew Paul wasn’t speaking literally when he claimed: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God…” (1Thessalonians 4:16). Whenever, the Ark of the Covenant went out before the people, the Levites went before it blowing their trumpets, announcing his coming (Joshua 6:8). Whenever the call went out to gather the people before the Lord, the trumpet was blown (Numbers 10:2, 4). Thus, and among other reasons, trumpets were used to announce the coming of the Lord (i.e. his presence in the Ark of the Covenant), to sound the alarm of war, and to gather the Lord’s people into his presence.

Therefore, when Jesus said the angels would blow trumpets to gather the elect (Matthew 24:31), and Paul said the Lord would descend with the sound of the trump of God (1Thessalonians 4:16), it was a metaphor of a spiritual reality that was taking place. No one actually saw Jesus physically come to earth, and no one actually saw the dead rise out of their graves to greet the Lord with those who were alive at his coming in 70 AD. It was a spiritual event that established the New Covenant with believers of the Gospel, and it was also the judgment of Old Covenant Israel in that the Lord, through the Roman armies destroyed both Jerusalem and the Temple there, thus ending his covenant with physical Israel.