🕒 11 min read · 📝 2145 words

What “in an instant” and “in the twinkling of an eye” really mean 1 Cor 15:42

ATOMOS (ἄτομος) — “in an instant”

Meaning: something undivided, not cut, not broken apart. Sense: a continuous state, not a split‑second event. Implication: Paul is describing the undivided, continuous posture of faith — the unbroken orientation toward God.

RHIPE (ῥιπή) — “in the twinkling of an eye”

Meaning: the casting of the gaze, a rapid, repeated motion of the eyes. Sense: not a single blink, but the ongoing action of looking. Implication: The believer continually casts their gaze toward Jesus, who is the Last Trumpet.

Together

• ATOMOS = the continuous, undivided posture of faith.
• RHIPE = the continuous casting of the gaze toward Christ.

Paul’s phrase describes the Enoch‑like unbroken gaze — the very posture that keeps a believer from entering the thief‑like beginning of the Day.

A covenant pattern for how God corrects the fallen believer

Scripture presents a coherent, recurring pattern describing how God deals with a believer who abandons the gaze of faith and enters willful sin. At the same time, it reveals the contrasting path of the believer who maintains an unbroken orientation toward God.

This pattern appears across the biblical canon—in Jesus’ judicial sequence in Matthew 5, Paul’s warnings in 2 Thessalonians 2, the blinding of unbelievers in 2 Corinthians 4, the first woe of Revelation 9, the discipline and restoration of Job, and the walk of Enoch.

At the center of this pattern stands a New Covenant reality:

• Faith must be maintained until the end/goal (1 Peter 1:9) which is realized when a person is saved from God’s wrath, Romans 1:18.
• Confession is the sacrifice when we sin (Hebrews 13:15 and 1 Jn 1:9).
• God’s Grace teaches us to obey (Titus 2:11–12).

When faith is held fast, grace empowers obedience, Gen 20:6. When faith collapses into willful sin, confession ceases, 1 Jn 1:9, and the covenant’s disciplinary sequence begins.

Every believer experiences this at some point in their lives, because God disciplines every son He receives, Heb 12:6.

Enoch stands as the model.

Enoch: Faith That Endures Correction

Before exploring the pattern of judgment, we must first see the covenant norm. Enoch “walked with God,” not because he achieved behavioral perfection, but because he maintained an unbroken gaze—an ongoing, relational posture of faith, Gen 5:22.

His life demonstrates what it means to remain turned toward God.

Under the New Covenant:

• Faith is the believer’s side of the covenant bond.
• Grace‑empowered obedience is God’s work in the believer (Titus 2:11–12).
• Confession restores fellowship when sin occurs (1 John 1:9).

The covenant bond remains intact as long as the believer continues to turn toward God in faith, bringing sins into the light through confession.

Grace teaches us to reject ungodliness, and this requires acknowledging that ungodliness still resides in us.

God reveals this, corrects us, and—crucially—does so in a way we can endure while keeping our faith, as reflected in the covenant logic of Deuteronomy 5:33 and Deut 7:22.

Enoch’s walk embodies this: he did not abandon faith, and therefore he did not abandon confession.

At age 65, he was freed from the Adamic nature—rescued from the kingdom of darkness and set on the path of dying to sin (Romans 6:2).

From that point, he walked with God for 300 years until his physical death at 365. His life is a positive pattern: a believer who keeps faith through every correction.

How a Believer Falls Away

Paul warns of a “falling away” (apostasia) in 2 Thessalonians 2:3.

This is a personal departure from faith.

A believer falls away when:

• the gaze of faith is no longer maintained,
• willful, ongoing sin is embraced, and
• confession ceases, allowing sin to remain unaddressed.

Under the New Covenant, confession is our sacrifice (Hebrews 13:15; 1 John 1:9). When confession stops:

• the “sacrifice” ceases,
• the believer steps out of alignment with the covenant,
• and they stand exposed to impending discipline.

This is the moment the inner condition is no longer hidden.

Before moving deeper into the pattern, we must clarify a crucial distinction: eternal life and being saved are not the same thing in the New Testament.

• Eternal life is the gift given through faith in Jesus.
• Being “saved” refers to being spared from God’s wrath as we learn to deny Ungodlines, Rom 1:18 and Titus 2:11-12 and Eph 2:8-9.

Believers are saved from wrath when they walk in covenant obedience—not by the works of the Mosaic Law, but by the obedience that grace itself produces.

We are to perform works of righteousness, but we not capable of doing what grace of God does, we cannot teach ourselves to deny ungodliness, Eph 2:8-9.

God’s wrath is revealed against all ungodliness (Romans 1:18), and grace teaches us to deny ungodliness (Titus 2:11–12).

Thus, believers are saved from wrath (Rm 1:18) when they keep the covenant—either by not sinning or by confessing their sins, 1 Jn 1:9.

A believer can posess eternal life through having faith, and at the same time “not” be saved from God’s wrath – they will experience His wrath (Heb 10:26) while in faith to bring them back to obedience, Eze 20:37 and 1 Cor 11:32.

Once this distinction is understood, the covenant pattern becomes clear: when a believer abandons confession and steps out of grace‑empowered obedience, the hidden condition of the heart is revealed within the temple of their own body. They sit in the temple and call themselves God – thus they make their own rules determining for themselves what is right and wrong, 2 Thess 2:4.

A major source of delusion is the assumption that the Day of the Lord refers to the “Second Coming.”

Scripture never teaches this.

The only place the New Testament speaks of Jesus being “sent” again after His ascention is Acts 3:20, and even there it is conditioned on repentance, which marks the restoration of all things, Acts 1:6.

When believers collapse the entire covenant sequence into a single future event, they become blind to the Day already unfolding in their own lives.

The Man of Sin Within the Temple

Paul says the “man of sin” is revealed in the temple of God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). Under the New Covenant, the believer is the temple (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19). Therefore:

The man of sin/antichrist (Rev 13:18) is the fallen believer whose willful, unconfessed sin is now exposed within the temple of their own body.

This is not a global Antichrist figure.

It is the believer’s own sin nature taking the throne once restraint is removed once the believer has fallen away from the faith and into willful sin (become unsealed). The revelation of the man of sin is:

• the exposure of unconfessed sin,
• the unveiling of what has been ruling the heart,
• the manifestation of a life no longer aligned with the Enoch‑like gaze.

Where Enoch walked with God, the man of sin walks away from God in some area of life—still within the covenant environment, but now out of step with it.

This unveiling prepares the way for the next stage of the covenant pattern.

Delusion Sent: The Day of the Lord Begins

When the believer falls from obedience to the covenant and into willful sin restraint is removed and God sends planē—delusion (2 Thessalonians 2:11). The believer begins to believe a lie. The devil blinds the mind (2 Corinthians 4:4 and 2 Thess 2:11). The Day of the Lord has begun, it begins quietly, imperceptibly, like a thief in the night.

The fallen believer does not recognize this beginning, they do not recognize their delusion. The adversary has been granted access. The believer is being handed over to discipline, Romans 1:24.

This is the thief‑like beginning of the Day.

The Thief‑Like Beginning of Judgment

Jesus warns His own people—not the world—about a coming that arrives “as a thief.” This imagery is not about the end of history but about the beginning of covenant discipline in the life of a believer who has abandoned the gaze of faith.

He says to churches and disciples:

• “I will come on you as a thief.”
• “You will not know what hour I will come upon you.”
• “Blessed is he who watches.”

Because delusion has already been sent and the mind has been blinded, the fallen believer does not recognize the beginning of the Day of the Lord in their own life.

To them:

• life appears to continue normally,
• torment seems random or circumstantial,
• and the connection between their willful sin and their suffering is not yet perceived.

The thief‑imagery describes this unrecognized beginning. From God’s perspective, the “Day of Judgment” (Joel 1:15) has already begun.

From the believer’s perspective, the discipline is still hidden, its meaning not yet understood.

As the woes reach their full measure, the concealed work of judgment gives way to open revelation. What began quietly will break forth in a lightning‑like moment of exposure.

The Lightning Revelation of the Day

Jesus also speaks of lightning: “For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” Lightning imagery emphasizes:

• suddenness,
• visibility,
• exposure,
• unmistakable awareness,
• Destruction (2 Peter 3:10, the elemental things [Gal 4:3} melt)

This is the public manifestation of the judgment that began as a thief. What begins quietly—delusion, inner discipline, torment—ends in a moment when:

• the believer finally sees,
• the connection between sin, delusion, and torment becomes clear,
• and God’s hand is unmistakably recognized.

To the unprepared, this moment feels catastrophic. But to the watchful, it is the expected unveiling of a pattern Jesus and Paul both taught.

The faithful are instructed to recognize the time when the “day” is about to come upon willfully disobedient believers and to withdraw from fellowship with them, Matt 24:16.

Paul commands the church not even to eat with a professing believer who persists in willful sin (1 Corinthians 5:11–13). Jesus gives the same pattern in Matthew 24:16 and 28, where the faithful are told to separate themselves from those under judgment. Paul echoes this again in 1 Thessalonians 4:15, distinguishing those who are “alive and remain” from those who have fallen asleep.

Obedient believers are not to precede (Go before), accompany, or maintain fellowship with willfully sinful believers who have entered the Day of the Lord in judgment.

The thief and the lightning describe one Day from two angles:

• thief — how it begins (hidden, unperceived),
• lightning — how it breaks (visible, undeniable).
• Destructive

Restoration: Confession Returns and the Bond Is Renewed

The purpose of the Day of the Lord in the believer’s life is restorative.

God disciplines in order to bring His children back into the covenant bond.

The intended outcome is:

• repentance,
• renewed confession,
• revived obedience,
• restored fellowship.

Job’s story embodies this pattern. After his discipline, he repented—and God restored him, even doubling what he had lost.

When confession returns:

• the sacrifice of the New Covenant is restored,
• grace flows again,
• obedience is once more God’s work in the believer, Titus 2:11-12
• and the believer re‑enters the practical enjoyment of the covenant bond.

We are not told how Enoch’s journey unfolded in detail, but we can be certain he endured correction.

Yet he maintained his faith as grace taught him to reject ungodliness. His life shows the path of the unbroken gaze.

The fallen believer, once restored, returns to that same path—walking with God in a renewed gaze of faith, now with deeper humility and dependence.

The Two Paths and the Four‑Part Pattern

Scripture presents two covenant paths:

• Enoch — the unbroken gaze of faith.
• The man of sin — the broken gaze; willful sin; discipline and restoration.

Every believer experiences some measure of this pattern during Daniels 70th covenant confirmation week, because God disciplines all His children,Daniel 9:27.

The four‑part pattern of judgment for the fallen believer is:

1. Falling Away

• The believer enters willful sin.
• Confession ceases; the sacrifice ceases in practice.
• The man of sin is revealed within the temple.

2. Delusion Sent — The Day Begins (Thief‑Like)

• God sends planē (delusion); the believer believes a lie.
• The devil blinds the mind.
• The Day of the Lord begins quietly, like a thief.

3. Torment / Prison — First Woe Discipline

• Jesus’ pattern: adversary → judge → officer → prison (Matthew 5:21–26).
• Revelation 9: the first woe is torment, not destruction.
• Job’s experience is the lived example of this corrective prison.

4. Lightning Manifestation — Decisive Intervention and Restoration

• The hidden judgment becomes visible, like lightning.
• The believer recognizes God’s hand, repents, and is restored.
• Confession returns; obedience is revived; the covenant bond is renewed in practice.

Enoch shows what it looks like to remain in the bond. The fallen believer shows what it looks like when God, in love, uses judgment to bring them back.

The purpose of the Day of the Lord in the believer’s life is restorative. Through torment and exposure, God brings the fallen believer back into the covenant bond Eze 20:37 and 1 Cor 4:21. When confession returns, grace flows again, obedience is empowered, and fellowship is renewed.

The covenant bond—never broken from God’s side—is now re‑embraced by the believer in practice.