A superhero Armageddon
There’s an emotional, exhilarating moment at the climax of the superhero film Avengers: Endgame. A scant remnant of the Avengers is on the verge of annihilation at the hands of the alien warlord Thanos, who has arrived to conquer Earth. Captain America, hurting and exhausted—but unwilling to give up—drags himself to his feet, staggers forward . . .
. . . and hears crackling in his helmet radio.
Another crackle . . . then a single word: “Cap.”
Silence.
Then: “Cap, it’s Sam.” Sam Wilson, a.k.a. the Falcon. “Can you hear me?”
Steve Rogers, Captain America, can’t quite believe it. He raises his hand to his ear, as if to adjust or fix the comm.
“On your left.”
Rogers glances over his left shoulder . . . and across the battlefield multiple portals—radiant gateways through time and space—open to admit the rest of the Avengers, presumed lost forever, along with scores of allies. Suddenly the Captain has all the forces he’ll need to defeat Thanos.
He turns back to stare down the enemy with a whole new determination, and radios one more command: “Avengers! . . . Assemble.”
The real thing
I was reminded of that scene when reading my Bible the other day. In terms of fictional storytelling, there’s an undeniable thrill in the final Avengers-Thanos battle. Yet it’s nothing—literally nonexistent in terms of real-world events—compared to what’s going to happen when a real “portal” opens in the sky and Jesus Christ returns.
The Apostle Paul tells us that on the Last Day
the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. [1 Thessalonians 4:15-17]
But since “we must suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22), Paul realizes he needs to “clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we will be gathered to meet him.” (2 Thessalonians 2:1)
First, it will be in the context of persecution:
God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. [2 Thessalonians 1:7]
Secondly, it will involve the destruction of the real-world “Thanos”:
That day [of Christ’s return] will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed—the one who brings destruction. He will exalt himself and . . . even sit in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God. . . .
[B]ut the Lord Jesus will [remove1] him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by the splendor of his coming. [2 Thessalonians 2:1, 8]
In other words: at the climax of history, just when God’s people seem utterly defeated, down for the count . . . then the Lord will return to this world, gather and restore us—and destroy our persecutors.
An alternate translation of 2 Thessalonians 1:7 refers to “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to him[.]”
Believers: assemble!
Of course, we don’t actually assemble ourselves: in the original Greek of the New Testament, “assembling” (or “gathering”) is a noun, not a verb. There will be some kind of an assembly at that dramatic moment, but this verse doesn’t tell us how it will happen. Jesus does, though:
The sun will grow dark, and the moon will be hidden. The stars will fall from the sky, and all the powers in the heavens will be dislodged and shaken from their places.
That is when the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. All the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming; they will see Him powerful and glorious, riding on chariots of clouds in the sky. With a loud trumpet call, He will send out battalions of heavenly messengers; and they will gather His beloved faithful elect from the four corners of creation, from one end of heaven to the other. [Matthew 24:29-31]
The Greek verb translated “gather” is the very source of the noun “gathering.” So the Lord is saying that he will command angels to fan out and “assemble” His people from wherever they may be, living or dead.
Christians vs. “Thanos”?
What an astounding sight and experience that will be: graves ripping open and dead saints resurrected, and then all believers assembled in mid-air with the Lord Jesus—and reflecting His glory, as well.
Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. [1 John 3:2]
We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. [1 Corinthians 15:51-52]
He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. [Philippians 3:21]
I don’t know about you, but I’m sort of getting a superhero vibe here.
But . . . “superheroes” who will fight?
Don’t be shocked if that’s the case. I mean, obviously Jesus wouldn’t need us to fight—but he didn’t “need” the ancient Israelites to fight, either; nor does he “need” believers to spread the Gospel. Yet there are a few End-time passages that seem to indicate our own participation on the day Christ openly and visibly conquers the forces of Satan:
“On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a flame that sets a woodpile ablaze or like a burning torch among sheaves of grain. They will burn up all the neighboring nations right and left, while the people living in Jerusalem remain secure.” [Zechariah 12:6]
Then the LORD will go out to fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past. . . . Judah, too, will be fighting at Jerusalem. [Zechariah 14:3, 14]
“To all who are victorious, who obey Me to the very end,
“ ‘To them I will give authority over all the nations.
They will rule the nations with an iron rod
And smash them like clay pots.’ ” [Revelation 2:26-27]
Putting all these passages together, I can almost imagine the scene . . . .
The Antichrist’s forces, empowered and driven by demons, have seemingly wiped out the faithful followers of Jesus. Most of us are dead; a few survive, managing to elude “Thanos.” Satan and Antichrist’s overwhelming victory inspires their many worshippers to celebrate, assuming “they are safe and secure“ from those foul, intolerant preachers of “misinformation,” and from their despicable “God.”
Suddenly their confidence is smothered in terrible darkness . . . and utterly shattered a moment later by brilliant, preternatural flashes of lightning across the entire sky. Thunder explodes in their ears and rattles their bones.
Or . . . is that actually . . . a Voice?
We—His people, even the dead ones—hear it not only with our ears but in our very souls. Resonating with unspeakable power. A Voice like no other. The Voice we’ve been desperate to hear.
“My people—rise!”
Graves and tombs rip open and bodies—superhuman, radiant bodies—emerge. The few saints who’ve survived the Last Days are likewise transformed into superhuman beings.
We don’t need to be told to “look up,” because we already know. When we do raise our eyes, we see . . .
. . . Him.
He’s finally here! Lightning in the shape of a Man. A God-Man. His radiance reflected in the myriad of angels accompanying Him.
“Assemble!”
A divine wind—or is it angels?—seizes us like a tornado and lifts us into the air to meet the Lord. We join the ranks of His warriors; we are glorified along with Him. In our old bodies we couldn’t look at the sun without damaging our eyes—but now we are staring enraptured into the face of the Son of God. We can scarcely believe it but we do believe it! We’re living it!
“Saints . . . fight!”
Saints—assemble now!
The only other time the Greek noun for “assembling together” is used in the New Testament, it’s fittingly in connection with the Second Coming:
Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but let us exhort one another, especially as you see the Day [of Christ’s return] approaching. [Hebrews 10:25]
It wasn’t until I sat down to look at these verses and write this paper that a profound truth occurred to me: when believers join in church meetings to worship the Lord together—that’s a preview of the Rapture.
A key difference, of course, is that when the Lord does return, our “assembling together” will be something He makes happen, totally beyond our power. But for now, much more subtly and gently, He draws us together in corporate worship.
We must choose to obey His word and His promptings.
Finally, there’s another choice—related but different—faced by those who don’t yet know Jesus. Who haven’t yet had their sins forgiven. Who haven’t yet “tasted” and discovered the Lord’s goodness.
Join us. Join Him. “Give the LORD a chance to show you how good he is. Great blessings belong to those who depend on him!” (Psalm 34:8)
Believe and assemble!
Most translations have “slay” or “kill” here, but the original Greek term can also mean “take away” or “remove,” as in Acts 7:21 and Hebrews 10:9. I opted for this alternate translation because Revelation tells us explicitly that at Armageddon, “the beast”—i.e. the Antichrist—will be “captured, and . . . thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.” (19:20) By contrast, his troops will actually be killed (v. 21).