“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with THE VOICE of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” (1 Thess 4:16)

Here the Apostle Paul connects this utterance with Christ’s own words concerning that event, “the dead shall hear THE VOICE of the Son of God,” we can but identify Michael with our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear HIS VOICE and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” (John 5:25-29)

The words, “and now is” are not found in the Sinaitic MS; however they are found in most other translations.

Now there are two ways of looking at this text, if we remove the words “and now is” from Verse 25, and read it thusly,

“Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live… those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

It is self-evident that this applies to the time of our Lord’s Second Advent when as stated in 1 Thess 4:16, the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ (those who take part in the resurrection of life) will rise first, followed subsequently by those who die in Christ thereafter. Then once this resurrection is completed comes the resurrection of judgement, the general resurrection or “common salvation” (Jude 3) of mankind.

The “hearing” of the voice of the Son of God implies far more than just the initial command to come forth from the grave, for such it likewise implies that they continue to “hear [heed] that prophet”, that they render obedience to all that he commands in order that they might reach a full and complete resurrection (or restoration). As for those who will not hear that prophet they shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. (Acts 3:22)

Those who understand the true significance of the date A.D. 1878 are well aware that prior to this date it would not have been proper to say, “And now is”, for the time had not yet arrived for the resurrection and the raising of the dead.

The second way of looking at this, is with the addition of the phrase “and now is”, viz.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.”

All mankind, from God’s standpoint, being under the sentence of death are counted as dead. Likewise we ourselves by nature were so counted, but because we are reckoned as having passed from death unto life, in Christ we are counted alive.

How did this come about?

Well it happened the moment we heard (heeded) the voice of the Son of God, and chose to follow in his footsteps, when we fully consecrated ourselves and were baptized in to his death. Such and such alone having entered into covenant relationship with the Father (Psa 50:5); have passed from death unto life.

Getting back to the subject of the arch angel:

“The title “archangel” signifies chief messenger; and our anointed Lord himself is Jehovah’s Chief Messenger–the “Messenger of the Covenant.” (Mal 3:1) The voice of the Archangel represents Christ’s authority and command. Another illustration of this symbol is from David, who says of Christ prophetically, “He uttered his voice; the earth melted.” (Psa 46:6)

The great time of trouble will be precipitated, and the earth (organized society) will melt, or disintegrate, under the change of administration going into effect when the new King utters his VOICE of command. At his command, systems of error, civil, social and religious, must go down, however old or firmly entrenched and fortified they may be. The sword out of his mouth shall cause the havoc: The truth on every subject, and in all its varied aspects, shall judge men, and, under his power and overruling, shall cause the overturning of evil and error in all their thousand forms.” (The Time is at Hand)

If as some suggest the Lord and the Arch angel Michael are two separate beings then which of the two is superior?

Of course our Lord would be the superior, so then the question is asked:

Why should our Lord chose to use the voice of an inferior being to call forth the sleeping saints? Why not use his own voice?

The simple reason is because they are one in the same; our Lord is the Arch angel Michael, “WHO AS GOD,” or who as His representative, having been highly exalted to the divine nature, NOW possesses “life in himself” inherent life thus not only the authority to call forth the dead, but likewise the ability to do so.

We will take a look at another text which we believe confirms our Lord as the Arch angel Michael in our next post.