B. The Rapture (1Thes. 4:13–18) The Apostle Paul turned his attention to another area of deficiency in the Thessalonians’ understanding, which had probably come to his attention through Timothy. Though Paul had already mentioned the future in this letter (1Thes.1:10; 1Thes.2:12, 19; 1Thes.3:13), he turned to it again and devoted considerable space to instruction and exhortations dealing with Christ’s return (1Thes.4:13 –18, 1Thes.5:1-11). The subject of the rest of chapter 4 is the relationship of the Lord’s return to believers who had died. This is the classic passage in the Bible on the Rapture of the church.
1 Thessalonians 4:13. Paul introduced these instructions in such a way as to lay no guilt on the Thessalonians for their lack of knowledge. After all, they were new believers. He again called them brothers, emphasizing their equality of standing before God despite their knowledge deficiency.
Those who fall asleep are Christians who die. The figure of sleep for death is common in the New Testament (cf. Mark 5:39; John 11:11). This is not sleep of the soul, however, because Paul wrote elsewhere that a Christian who is absent from his body is present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8; cf. Phil. 1:23; 1 Thes. 5:10). It is rather the “sleep” of the body in the earth until it is resurrected, changed into a glorious body, and reunited with the soul (1 Cor. 15:35–57; 2 Cor. 5:1–9).
Paul wanted the Thessalonians to be neither ignorant nor grieving like the rest of men, that is, like unbelievers, over the death of fellow believers. Christians do grieve over the loss of loved ones; this is a normal human experience which even Jesus shared (John 11:35). But the grief of Christians differs from that of unbelievers, for the latter have no hope of bodily resurrection to glory with Christ (1 Thes. 4:16).
1 Thessalonians 4:14. Two reasons why Christians should not grieve like unbelievers are that Christians have a revelation from God that gives them hope and they have a glorious future with Christ. Just as certainly as Jesus died and was resurrected by the Father, so God will unite the resurrected dead in Christ with their Savior at His coming.
The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are among the best-attested facts of history. Since Christians know these events took place, they can be equally certain, Paul said, that the souls of believers who have died will return with Christ when He comes for His living saints. The prophecy of the Rapture is as sure to be fulfilled as the prophecies of Christ’s death and resurrection.
1 Thessalonians 4:15. The revelation of this resurrection came from Jesus Christ Himself. How it came to Paul is not known, but perhaps it was a direct revelation. Not only will the souls of the dead in Christ return with Him (v. 14), but their bodies will also be resurrected at His coming. The bodies of dead Christians will be resurrected immediately before living Christians are conveyed upward.
Clearly Paul believed that he and his Thessalonian readers might well be alive when the Lord returned. He believed that the Rapture was imminent, that it could take place at any moment (cf. 1:10; 1 Cor. 7:29, “the time is short”; Phil. 4:5, “The Lord is near”). And this truth of imminency brought comfort (1 Thes. 4:18).
1 Thessalonians 4:16. Jesus Christ now sits at the right hand of God in heaven (Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3). He will leave this position and descend to the earth. By the words the Lord Himself Paul emphasized that it would be the same Jesus who had ascended through the clouds (cf. Acts 1:11).
The sounds mentioned in this verse—a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God—are difficult to interpret. Who will voice the loud shout? Will it be Jesus Himself (cf. John 11:43), or the archangel Michael (Dan. 10:13; Jude 9), or another angel? Is this a literal trumpet call, or was Paul speaking figuratively in describing the call of God by which He will announce the Advent of His Son? (cf. 1 Cor. 15:52) These three phenomena may all refer to the same thing, but probably they are three separate almost simultaneous announcements heralding Christ’s return. Though one’s curiosity about these aspects of the Rapture is not fully satisfied in this passage, one thing is clear: Christ’s return for His saints will be announced from heaven forcefully and dramatically.
Then the dead in Christ will be resurrected, that is, believers of this dispensation will be raised. Old Testament saints will evidently be raised at the end of the Great Tribulation (Dan. 12:2), for the phrase “in Christ” refers exclusively to Church-Age saints. The bodies of the dead in Christ will rise before the living Christians are caught up to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thes. 4:17).
How will God raise the bodies of people who were buried hundreds of years ago? What about the bodies of those Christians who were burned to death and those whose ashes were thrown to the wind, and Christians who perished at sea? The resurrection of the dead poses a great problem to the faith of many. Perhaps that is why Paul stressed that this revelation came from Jesus Christ Himself and that it is as certain of future fulfillment as Jesus’ resurrection is a fact of past history. The God who created the universe out of nothing with a word is fully able to reassemble the decayed bodies of all His saints in a moment of time (cf. 1 Cor. 15:35–58).
1 Thessalonians 4:17. Whereas the previous verse explains the future of dead saints at Christ’s return, this one deals with what will happen to living believers (cf. 1 Cor. 15:51–52). After the bodies of dead Christians have been raised, those who are still alive and have been left behind momentarily will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Again Paul, by using the word we (“we who are still alive and are left”; cf. 1 Thes. 4:15), put himself in the living group; he thought that Christ would probably return in his lifetime, or at least he allowed for its possibility. Only a moment will separate the resurrection of the dead and the translation of the living (1 Cor. 15:51–52). In Latin the word for “caught up” is rapturo, from which comes the term “Rapture.” This is the Rapture of the church, when Christians are caught up to meet Christ in the clouds (cf. Acts 1:9). The events described here and in the parallel passage, 1 Corinthians 15:1-58, differ considerably from those that will accompany Christ’s return to the earth to set up His earthly kingdom (Rev. 19:11–21). This difference substantiates the distinction between the Rapture and the Second Coming.
The resurrected or translated bodies of all Christians will be united with Christ and with each other at the Rapture. From that time on and forever thereafter they will be with the Lord. The Lord will take living believers to the place He is presently preparing for them (John 14:2–3). But the place where Christians will be was not so important to Paul as the Person with whom they will be. “The entire content and worth of heaven, the entire blessedness of life eternal, is for Paul embraced in the one thought of being united with Jesus, his Savior and Lord” (Borhemann, quoted by George G. Findlay, The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians. Cambridge: University Press, 1904, p. 103).
1 Thessalonians 4:18. The logical and practical outcome of this revelation is comfort and encouragement. Paul applied his eschatology to life and called on his readers to encourage (parakaleite; cf. 2:12; 3:2) each other with these words. The facts that Christians who have died will be resurrected to join the living saints with the Lord Jesus when He comes, that they will actually precede those who are alive in that day, that those who are alive will be united with them, and that they will all be with the Lord forever, give abundant reasons for rejoicing. Not only do Christians not grieve like unbelievers, but followers of Christ can actually look forward eagerly to that great day. This is the great hope of the church, to see the Lord and be united with Him forever. It is that which every believer in this Age should anticipate. It is a blessed hope (Titus 2:13) with respect to the dead in Christ as well as for the living!
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