Scripture Reading: 1 Thes. 4:13-18
In 4:13-18 Paul gives an elementary word concerning the Lord’s coming and the rapture of the believers. Here, as a word of comfort, the rapture of believers at the Lord’s coming is mentioned in a general way. Concerning this matter, details are revealed in other books of the New Testament, such as Matthew and Revelation.
What Paul describes in 4:13-18 is the general hope of all believers. This is the hope of a holy life for the church life. This kind of life is neither sinful nor worldly. On the contrary, it is pure and holy. Furthermore, this holy life for the church life has a hope.
Because of man’s fall there is no hope for the fallen human race. The only expectation unbelievers have is death. Death is their destination. Day by day, they are living with a view toward their death, and they are on the way to death. Thus, death is their future.
In Ephesians 2:12 Paul describes the hopeless situation of unbelievers: “You were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” Unbelievers have no hope because they do not have God. Because they are apart from Christ and their living is without God, they do not have any hope. The only thing that awaits them is death. Everyone realizes this and takes it for granted. For this reason, unbelievers do not like to think about their future. Actually, they do not have a positive future. In their future looms the darkness of death.
As those who believe in Christ, we have a life full of hope. Our hope is the Lord’s coming back. Furthermore, our hope includes resurrection and rapture. Resurrection is not only a matter of life, but a matter of life overcoming death. When life overcomes death, that is resurrection. Rapture is something that goes even beyond resurrection. A person may be resurrected and yet not be raptured.
The holy life for the church life is a life with a future, a life with hope. This hope is not merely the Lord’s coming; it is the Lord’s coming with resurrection and rapture. The coming back of the Lord Jesus will cause the resurrection and the rapture to occur. As we have just pointed out, resurrection and rapture are both in addition to life. Today life is our possession. We have life, we are in life, and we are enjoying life. However, we are awaiting the Lord’s coming, and His coming will bring resurrection and rapture.
Resurrection, of course, is for those who have died. Today we are living a holy life for the church. If the Lord delays His coming back, we all shall eventually “sleep,” that is, die physically. All the believers who have died are waiting for resurrection. If we live until the coming back of the Lord Jesus, we shall not need resurrection. However, we shall still need rapture. Furthermore, those who have died will need to be resurrected and raptured as well. All believers, the dead as well as the living, need rapture. Rapture, therefore, is actually the end of our life on earth. This means that the conclusion of our life is neither death nor resurrection — it is rapture.
In the Scriptures there is not such a word as rapture, but the thought of rapture is there. As used by Christian teachers, the word rapture means to be taken away, as what happened to Enoch and Elijah (Gen. 5:24; 2 Kings 2:1, 11). Matthew 24:40-41; Luke 17:34-36; 1, 21:36 Thessalonians 4:17; Revelation 3:10; 7:9; 11:12; 12:5; 14:1, 16; 15:2 all refer to rapture, to the taking up of the believers to the heavens.
In the New Testament the rapture is an important subject. In 4:13-18 Paul speaks of it only in a general, elementary way. He tells us that the living, together with those believers who have died and have been resurrected, will be caught up to a meeting of the Lord in the air. In these verses Paul does not go further to explain the details. What he says here can be compared to an elementary school teacher giving his students some basic principles of mathematics. Actually, the rapture is not a simple matter. For this reason, there has been much debate among Bible teachers concerning it.
Paul’s intention is to give the new believers a basic concept of the hope of our Christian life. He wants to impress them with the fact that the Christian life, which is a holy life for the church life, has a hope. Therefore, this life is absolutely different from the hopeless life of fallen mankind. The hope of the Christian life is the Lord’s coming back, and this hope includes resurrection and rapture.
In verse 13 Paul says, “But we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are sleeping, that you may not sorrow even as also the rest who have no hope.” The words “those who are sleeping” refer to the dead (v. 16; John 11:11-14; 1 Cor. 11:30). The death of believers is considered by both the Lord and the apostle as sleep. Perhaps by the time Paul wrote this Epistle some of the believers in Thessalonica had died. Otherwise, there would have been no reason for Paul to write about this matter.
In verse 14 Paul continues, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so also those who are asleep will God, through Jesus, bring together with Him.” To believe in the hope described here includes believing in the Lord’s resurrection. Anyone who does not believe in Christ’s resurrection will not believe in this hope. But if we believe in this hope, this indicates that we have already believed in Christ’s resurrection.
Some may refer to verse 14 and say, “When the saints die, they go to heaven, and when the Lord Jesus comes back, He will bring them from heaven with Him.” To interpret the verse in this way is to neglect the first half of the verse, where we are told that Jesus died and rose. This, of course, refers to His resurrection. If the dead saints are already in heaven, and if the Lord will bring them with Him from heaven when He comes, then the dead saints do not need resurrection.
Verses 15 and 16 will help you to understand what I mean: “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are living, who remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall by no means precede those who have slept; because the Lord Himself, with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with a trumpet of God, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” Please pay careful attention to the word “rise” in verse 16. If the dead are already in heaven, what need is there for them to rise? If they are truly in heaven, they do not need to rise. Furthermore, they do not need to be raptured or to be caught up to the Lord. Their only need would be to descend from heaven with the Lord Jesus. The fact that verse 16 says that the dead in Christ shall rise indicates that they must be in some place other than heaven.
In verse 15 the Greek word translated “coming” is parousia, presence. In verse 16 the Greek words rendered “cry of command” may also be translated shout of command, as a signal for assembling. The trumpet of God is the last trumpet (1 Cor. 15:52), a trumpet for assembling God’s redeemed people (see Num. 10:2).
In verse 17 Paul goes on to say, “Then we who are living, who remain, shall be caught up at the same time together with them in clouds into a meeting of the Lord in the air; and so we shall be always together with the Lord.” According to this verse, both the dead and the living believers will be caught up to the Lord. First the dead will be raised, and then together we shall be caught up to a meeting of the Lord in the air.
The manchild in Revelation 12, the overcomers, will be caught up, raptured, to the throne of God in the third heaven before the last three and a half years of the great tribulation (Rev. 12:5-6, 14). Here, the majority of believers will be raptured to the air at the time of the Lord’s coming.
Some among us may still hold the concept that saints who have died have gone to heaven and are now there with the Lord Jesus. If Paul had not gone beyond what he says in verse 14, there might be ground for this concept. But in verse 16 Paul says that when the Lord Jesus comes, the dead saints will rise up. Where will they rise up from? From heaven? If they are already in heaven, what need will they have to rise up? And to what place would they rise if they are already in the third heaven with the Lord?
Many Christians have been cheated by sugar-coated religious teachings. One of these teachings says, “Oh, you don’t need to weep about your mother who has died. Because she believed in the Lord Jesus, she is now in heaven with Him. She is in a heavenly mansion, a home that is much better than yours. Why, then, should you weep? One day you will join her in heaven.” This kind of teaching is full of leaven and is very deceitful. I have studied the Bible for more than fifty years, and I have not found even one verse that teaches such a thing. This is a superstition that has its source in paganism, or in Buddhism, and was adopted by Catholicism.
According to the Bible, the dead believers are in Paradise (Luke 23:43), the comfortable section of Hades (Luke 16:22, 25-26). In Hades, there are two sections: a section of comfort and a section of torment. The section of suffering is different from the lake of fire. The unpleasant part of Hades may be compared to a jail in contrast to a prison. A jail is a place where criminals are held temporarily. But after a criminal has been tried and judged, he is taken from jail and put into prison. The sinners now in the section of torment in Hades are awaiting the final judgment, which will take place at the white throne of God. After that, the sinners will be cast into the lake of fire, the eternal prison.
The dead saints are in Paradise, and when the Lord Jesus comes, they will rise up. They will not rise up to heaven; rather, they will rise up and then be caught up together with the living saints. This is the reason verse 16 says that the dead in Christ will rise first. Then, according to verse 17, those who are living will be caught up at the same time with them to a meeting of the Lord. This means that all believers, the dead as well as the living, will be raptured to the air. This teaching is not sugar-coated, and it does not contain any leaven. On the contrary, it is according to the pure Word of God.
According to the Word of God, when the Lord Jesus descends from heaven, the dead saints will rise up. Their spirit and soul will rise out of Paradise, their body will rise up from the tomb, and their spirit and soul with the body will make them perfect. They will then join the believers who are living, and together we shall all be caught up to the Lord.
In verse 15 Paul says, “We who are living, who remain unto the coming of the Lord.” In verse 17 he also says, “We who are living, who remain.” Why does Paul add the clause “who remain unto the coming of the Lord” in verse 15 and the clause “who remain” in verse 17? If you consider this matter thoughtfully, you will realize that this indicates, or at least implies, that there are some living ones who do not remain. Some living ones are gone. These living ones who do not remain are overcomers.
There is a difference between the rapture of the overcomers and the rapture of those believers who are alive and remain until the Lord’s coming. The rapture of the overcomers will take place before the last three and a half years, a period known as the great tribulation. In other words, the overcomers will be raptured before the tribulation (Rev. 3:10). But those who are alive and remain will be raptured at the end of the tribulation, that is, at the last trumpet (1 Cor. 15:52). This is the rapture mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4. Regarding time, these two raptures are different: one takes place before the great tribulation, and the other, at the end of the tribulation. Furthermore, there is a difference regarding location. According to Revelation 12, the overcomers are raptured to the throne of God in the third heaven. But according to 1 Thessalonians 4, the rapture of those who are alive and remain will be to the clouds in the air.
We have pointed out that the Greek word for “coming” in verse 15 is parousia, the same word as used in Matthew 24:3. Christ’s coming will be His presence with His believers. This parousia will begin from the time the overcomers are raptured to the throne, continue with His coming to the air (Rev. 10:1), and end with His coming to the earth. Within His parousia, there will be the rapture of the majority of the believers to the air (1 Thes. 4:15-17), the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10), and the marriage of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9).
Parousia denotes the Lord’s presence; it does not directly denote His coming. Of course, His presence involves His coming. If I am away from my family and then am present with them again, my presence includes my coming. Actually, my presence equals my coming. For this reason, the word parousia may be translated coming. It would be rather awkward to literally render it as presence. But even though this translation may be awkward, it would be correct to say “unto the presence of the Lord.”
According to the New Testament, the Lord’s parousia, His presence, will last a period of time. It may begin immediately before the start of the great tribulation. The Lord’s coming (the parousia) will begin probably near the start of the tribulation. At present, the Lord is in the third heaven. When the great tribulation begins on earth, the Lord will leave the throne in heaven and descend from the throne, concealed in a cloud, to the sky. Revelation 10:1 speaks of a “strong Angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud.” This strong Angel is Christ, who descends secretly from the third heaven to the air. Probably the Lord will stay in the air concealed by the cloud for a period of time, possibly more than three years. This is the reason we say that the Lord’s parousia will last a certain length of time.
When the Lord is in the air, He will do a number of things. He will rapture both the resurrected and the living believers. He will judge all the saved ones at His judgment seat. At that time the decision will be made by Him concerning who will join Him in the millennial kingdom and who will not. This judgment will, of course, take place after the rapture mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4. This sketch should give us a general idea of the Lord’s coming according to the pure Word. This sketch is not according to strange or traditional teachings.
As Christians, we should live a holy life for the church life. This life has a hope, the hope that the Lord whom we are serving today will come back. At His coming back, the saints who have died will rise up from Paradise and the tomb to be caught up with those who are alive and remain.
This word concerning our hope was written to the believers as a comfort and encouragement in the death of their relatives. It is an elementary word concerning the Lord’s coming back and our being caught up to Him. If we would know the details, we need to study Matthew 24 and 25, the whole book of Revelation, 1 Corinthians 15, and other portions of the Word, including 2 Thessalonians. Once we study all these portions of the Scriptures, we shall see that the matters of the Lord’s coming and our rapture are not as simple as what is presented by many today. The details include the rapture of the overcoming saints, the judgment at the judgment seat of Christ, the reward in the kingdom, and the discipline by the kingdom. All these things are involved in the Lord’s coming and our rapture.
