The writing below is another excerpt from my manuscript, Waiting for The Day and Hour:
As I have been writing, at the end of the church age, and the body of Christ is raptured into heaven, the final part of the sanctification process happens with the believer’s earthly body being transformed. It is transfigured from a mortal body into an immortal one; it becomes a heavenly body. The dead in Christ will be reunited with their transfigured earthly bodies as they are resurrected the moment the trumpet of God sounds. Every believer still living once the trumpet of God sounds will never die. Their earthly bodies will be changed in a moment, in the blink of an eye, into heavenly bodies, as I wrote under the heading, Salvation Completed (Made Perfect). This immortal body will live forever. It cannot be destroyed. It will be ἄφθαρτος (áfthartos) indestructible. Áfthartos can also be translated as imperishable. The body of Christ still living are mortal beings. The body of Christ in heaven died while being mortal beings, that is why they passed away. But once the last trumpet sounds, both the earthly bodies of the dead in Christ and the earthly bodies of the living will become áfthartos (indestructible/imperishable). Once the body of Christ is raptured, they will receive supernatural, godlike, heavenly bodies.
The heavenly bodies that God has prepared
for his children are made of the same spiritual substance that Jesus was
clothed in when he was raptured and out of the sight of his apostles. By the
power of the Holy Spirit, God will convert the believer’s earthly body into a
glorified body, just like the Lord’s (Phil.3:20-21). Just as Jesus was in an
earthly body, everyone born-again has been or is still in an earthly body. And just
as Jesus is now the heavenly man, so the body of Christ will one day be
heavenly men or people—Jesus is referred to as “the heavenly man” or “the man
of heaven” in many English translations (1 Cor.15:48-49). He is called [the] ἄνθρωπος
Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς (ánthropos Christós Iisoús) “[the] man Christ Jesus” even though
he is in heaven (1 Tim. 2:5c, mGNT).
God has kept the greater details
about this glorified body a mystery. However, having even this limited knowledge
should excite the believer about being raptured. The apostle John writes: “Beloved,
now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we
know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just
as he is” (1 Jn. 3:2, HNV). If a Christian is not longing and praying, they are
raptured as soon as possible, then there is something wrong with them (Rom.
8:23; 2 Cor. 5:2; Gal. 5:5; Phil. 3:20-21; 2 Tim. 4:8; Heb. 9:28). The
preceding Scripture verses proclaim that the followers of Jesus Christ should
be longing to be clothed in their heavenly bodies. The body of Christ is naked
without its heavenly garment. Its earthly garment is perishing, but its
glorified tent will never perish. The body of Christ is called to be immortal. And
the primary reason it has received the Holy Spirit is to make that happen. The
Spirit of God is sent as a deposit and guarantee (2 Cor. 5:1-5).
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