Getting caught up in the rapture!
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Question: How can the fall of
What situation was Paul addressing?
The people in Thessalonica were awaiting the Lord's presence (or coming).
However, many were concerned that those who had died before this event would
miss out on its benefits. The verses following all address this problem. Paul
is not (primarily) speaking about the coming of Jesus, but he is addressing the
lot of those who would not be alive to witness it.
Verses 13, 14: But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren,
about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no
hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring
with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
Verse 18: Therefore comfort one another with these words.
An
aside over the meaning of "God will bring with Him..."
The image of Jesus coming
down to earth leading an army of resurrected Christians, I believe, is not the
intention of verse 14. The words 'bring with', apparently, imply something
stronger than mere accompaniment. 'Bring' (ago, Strong's ref 71, means
lead or bring). 'With' (sun, Strong's ref 4862) denotes a closer
relationship than one that would suggest leading in Jesus' company. The usual
word 'with' that would mean 'in company with' is meta, ref 3326.
Examples of where it is used are Matt 5:41;
In fact, the combined
words sunago (Strong's ref 4863) is used to mean gathering together into
a unit, for example in John
In other words, those who had fallen asleep up until the time Paul speaks of, would be drawn or gathered together by God. It does not mean they would be led down to earth by God.
What was the Hope?
The 'hope' was the hope of the resurrection of the dead.
Acts 24:15 - "I have a hope in God, which they themselves also
accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the
unjust."
Acts 26:6-8 - "And now I am standing trial for the hope of the
promise made by God to our fathers; the promise to which our twelve tribes hope
to attain... And for this hope, O king, I am being accused by the Jews. Why is
it considered incredible among you if God does raise the dead?"
Why should the Thessalonians have hope? "For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen
asleep in Jesus." That is, God will also resurrect them to be with Him.
So this is a passage about the resurrection?
Paul was reminding the Thessalonians about their hope, the resurrection of
the dead. Now, we ask ourselves, what is the resurrection? When we die, we go straight
to heaven, right? Well, this certainly did not happen before Jesus' work.
John 3:13 - No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from
heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. So, this was the case up
to Jesus' coming to earth.
The automatic going up to heaven would happen after Jesus came in power.
Before that point of fulfillment of that part of Revelation, the dead
were not yet to rest from their labours. In the sense that they were no longer
burdened with life, they were, of course, resting. However in the sense of
eternal rest - i.e. 'Heaven', see Hebrews 4 - they had yet to wait. At that
point, the dead were raised. After that point, the dead would not
have to wait.
So what is Paul saying? At the resurrection, the dead in Christ would be
raised, to be with Jesus. They were not to be grieved over, because they were
'blessed' as participants of the first resurrection. "The dead in Christ
will rise first."
So what about 'we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord'?
Verses 15-17: For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we
who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those
who have fallen asleep. (16) For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the
dead in Christ shall rise first. (17) Then we who are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and
thus we shall always be with the Lord.
First of all, look at the sense of verse 15 and 17. Is there any precedence
in the Bible where this could possibly be talking about not 'we', but someone
thousands of years in the future?
Secondly, look at verses 16 and 17 with a pencil in hand.
The key words in verse 17 are: then, caught up, clouds
and air.
Take the passage at face value, but first pencil over some of the translated
English words with a few substitutes.
Then - There are (at least) two words translated to 'then'.
One is eita, meaning 'next' as in next in a sequence of events, occurring
shortly after the previous event.
John 19:26-27 - "He said to His mother ... then He said to the
disciple..."
The other word is epeita, that is, epi eita, or after then, or after that.
It has the sense of some time after the previous event or from then on.
Galatians
Galatians 2:1 - Then after an interval of fourteen years...
1 Thessalonians
Caught up - harpazo This does not mean 'lifted up' in any
sense of the word. It means 'snatched'. The sense is determined by the context.
Matt
John
John 10:28, 9 - no one shall snatch them out of My hand, the Father's
hand
Jude 23 - snatching them out of the fire
The two places where it can mean 'lifted up' are:
2 Corinthains 12:2-4 - "I know a man [who]... was caught up to
the third heaven... caught up into
Rev 12:5 - "her child was caught up to God and to His
throne." Again, the adverb pros (forward to, toward) gives it a
sense of direction.
The adverb used in verse 15 is 'in', but this is never used as 'into' (en,
1722). In fact, according to Strong's Concordance, there is never a
suggestion of motion. The word is 'in' as in "In Jerusalem. It is also
translated 'within', and generally means that.
So, we who are alive and remain will be snatched in the clouds. Just pencil
'snatched... within' over 'caught up... in'.
The Clouds - These are representative of the presence of God.
They are God's chariot (Psalm 104:3). The term in the clouds is never
used to mean 'in the sky'. "In the clouds" simply means with God, or,
in this case, with Jesus.
Except for Jude 1:12, the words 'cloud' or 'clouds' are never in the context
of a simple meteorological feature. Up in the clouds is always the location of
God or Jesus, whether His abode, or His 'chariot'. If you look at every
reference to the term, and then look at 1 Thessalonians 4:17, I believe it
would be clear that 'in the clouds' would be the natural 'place' to meet with
the Lord, but it is a spiritual place, and not in the physical sky.
The air - (Aer, Strong's ref109, from to breathe)
This again never means the sky. Two words are translated to 'air'. The
one meaning 'sky'(ouranos, ref 3772) is usually translated 'heavens', as
in "The birds of the air (sky)".
The 'air' in 1 Thessalonians
Acts
Rev 9:2 - ... and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a
great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by smoke from the pit.
1 Corinthians 14:9 - For you will be speaking into the air.
1 Corinthians
In an article by David Curtis (Up, Up and Away - the Rapture, suggestion
is made that the air might refer to the spiritual realm. He cites Ephesians
2:2 as a precedent for this. Although I am not fully convinced by his
argument here, I am reminded that the word for spirit is nearly the same: pneuma,
meaning a current of air, or a breath. The spiritual powers of Ephesians
Because of this, and the fact that it never means sky, I believe that
meeting with the Lord in the air refers to a spiritual rather than physical
meeting. I believe that the Thessalonians would have understood Paul's words
more like the following:
Verse 15 - After that (the resurrection of the dead), we who
are alive and remain shall be snatched together with them in God's
presence, to meet the Lord in the spiritual realm.
How would they have been expected to understand this? The dead would be
resurrected at the Lord's coming, and the rest of us would eventually meet them
in heaven.
Conclusion
Paul is not talking about a physical 'rapture'. The concept of a rapture has
no other support in the Bible, and I believe it has none in 1 Thessalonians 4,
either. Paul is addressing the 'first resurrection', showing how it is not just
the living at the time of Jesus' return who would benefit. Rather, the dead in
Jesus had simply been awaiting the time when they would be given access to
heaven, and God's presence.
The Thessalonians were not to grieve for the dead, as those who did not
believe in the hope of the resurrection, but to be comforted.
There is no physical rapture. It is a spiritual event that occurs to each of
us when we die, to meet with the Lord, "and thus we shall always be with
the Lord."