Mixture of Metals

Suppose that we were to take a mixture of metals and scatter them, burying some of them and strewing others over the ground here and there.  We disperse gold and silver, copper and zinc, iron and tin.  Then we take a powerful electromagnet and pass it over the area where the mixture of metals is scattered.  Immediately the magnet draws to itself just one kind of metal.  It attracts only the iron, be it buried or still on the surface of the soil.  It leaves behind all of the rest; the gold is left, the copper is left, and the silver is left.  The question is, “Why does the magnet draw to itself just the iron?”  The answer is simple high school physics.  It draws the iron because the iron has the same nature as the magnet itself.

Just so at the Rapture!  The Lord will draw to Himself only those who have the same nature as Himself.  It matters not whether we are rich or poor, clever or ignorant, wise or foolish, black or white, prince or pauper, alive or dead.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

John Phillips, Exploring 1 & 2 Thessalonians (Grand Rapid: Kregel, 2005), 124-125.