1 Thessalonians 4.17-Believers Alive at the Time of Rapture Will Be Raised After the Dead in Christ (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Sunday November 3, 2024

First Thessalonians Series: 1 Thessalonians 4:17-Believers Alive at the Time of the Rapture Will Be Raised Immediately After the Dead in Christ

Lesson # 66

1 Thessalonians 4:13 Now, each one of us by no means wants any one of you at this particular time to be uninformed brothers and sisters about those who are asleep in order that each one of you would not experience emotional distress as the rest who do not possess a confident expectation. 14 For if-and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that each and every one of us does believe that Jesus died and then entered into the state of rising and each of us does, then in the same manner also through the personal agency of this same Jesus, the one and only God will certainly bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For we communicate this for the benefit of each and every one of you based upon the teaching originating from the Lord, namely that we, those who are alive, specifically those who are left until the Lord’s arrival, will by no means whatsoever enter into the state of preceding those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the one and only Lord Himself will for His own benefit as a certainty descend from heaven with a shout of command by means of a voice of an archangel as well as a trumpet blast ordered by God. Consequently, the dead ones in union and fellowship with Christ will for their own benefit as a certainty rise first. 17 Then, each and every one of us, namely, those who are alive, specifically those who are left, will be snatched away together with them in the clouds in order to meet the one and only Lord in the earth’s atmosphere. Consequently, in this way, each and every one of us will for our own benefit always be with the Lord. (Pastor’s translation)

1 Thessalonians 4:17 asserts that those Christians who are left alive on the earth at the time of the Lord’s arrival at the rapture will suddenly be caught up together with the dead in Christ in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

This verse is presenting the next event that will take place chronologically after the Lord Jesus Christ raises the dead in Christ, which we noted in 1 Thessalonians 4:16.

Paul is employing the first person plural form of the personal pronoun egō (ἐγώ), “we” which means “each and every one of us,” which not only refers to those Christians who are alive at the time of the rapture but is used also in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions.

This is indicating that absolutely no Christian who is left alive on the earth at the rapture will fail to receive their resurrection body.

That those Christians who are alive at the time of the rapture are the referent of this personal pronoun is clearly indicated by two participial clauses, which modify it, namely “who are still alive and are left,” which also appears in 1 Thessalonians 4:15 with the prepositional phrase “till the coming of the Lord” modifying them.

Therefore, the distributive use of the personal pronoun egō (ἐγώ), “we” refutes the “partial” rapture view, which contends that not all believers will be taken off planet earth at the time of the rapture.

This view contends that only those who are “watching” or “waiting” for that event and who have reached some degree of spiritual development that makes them worthy to be included.

Those who adhere to this theory use Luke 21:36, Philippians 3:11, Titus 2:13, 2 Timothy 4:8 and Hebrews 9:28 to support this view that only those believers who “wait, look for” and “have loved His appearing” will be removed from the earth at the rapture.

This view does not understand the doctrine of justification, which by way of definition is a judicial act of God whereby He declares a person to be righteous as a result of crediting or imputing to that person His righteousness the moment they exercised faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

Consequently, God accepts that person and enters that person into a relationship with Himself since they now possess His righteousness.

The other problem with this view is that it denies the teaching of the unity of the body of Christ since 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 teaches that through the baptism of the Spirit, all church age believers are united to the body of which Christ is the head (Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18).

Also, as was the case in 1 Thessalonians 4:15, Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 employs the nominative first person plural form of the personal pronoun egō (ἐγώ), which means “we” which would also include Paul, Silas and Timothy.

This would indicate that these three men believed that the rapture or resurrection of the church was imminent.

Why else would Paul include himself and these two men in the statements in verse 15 and now verse 17 if this was not the case?

Since Christ’s return at the rapture was imminent and because no Christian knows the exact date and time it will take place, Paul, Silas and Timothy included themselves with those who are alive on the earth at the time of the rapture.

So therefore, the rapture of the church is “imminent” which means that the rapture could happen at any time.

There are several Scriptures, which teach the church to expect Christ to come back at any moment (cf. John 14:1-3; Romans 13:11-12; 1 Corinthians 1:7; 1 Thess. 1:9-10; 5:1-9; Titus 2:13; James 5:7-9; Philippians 4:5; Hebrews 10:25; 1 John 2:28; 3:2-3; Revelation 22:7, 20).

Now, in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, the verb harpazō (ἁρπάζω) means “to snatch, seize, forcibly remove something, to seize by force with the purpose of removing” and is translated “will be caught up” by the NIV84, ESV and NASB95 and “will be suddenly caught up” by the NET Bible.

This verb is translated into the Latin with term rapio, “caught up,” which is transliterated into English with the word “rapture” and so therefore, this verb is where the concept of the rapture is taken from.

This verb means “to be snatched away” since the English verb “snatch” expresses more accurately the idea expressed by this verb harpazō (ἁρπάζω) because the former means “to attempt to seize something suddenly.”

Therefore, I am in agreement with the Lexham Bible’s translation of this word which translates this verb “will be snatched away.”

“With them” (σὺν αὐτοῖς) refers to the dead in Christ who will receive their resurrection bodies immediately before those Christians who are left alive on the earth at the time of the rapture, which is indicated by the result clause at the end of 1 Thessalonians 4:16, which asserts this about the dead in Christ.

This prepositional phrase indicates that those Christians who are left alive on the earth when the Lord returns at the rapture will be snatched away from the earth and receive their resurrection bodies “along with” or “in association with” the dead in Christ.

Also, in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, the word adverb hama (ἅμα), “together” does not denote a point of time which is emphatically simultaneous with another point of time demonstrating two different actions occur at the same time.

This interpretation of this word would indicate that those Christians left alive on the earth at the time of the rapture will receive their resurrection bodies at the same time as the dead in Christ but rather, the word means “together” since the word is a marker of association involving additional items affected by some event.

Here the word denotes that those Christians who are left alive on the earth when the Lord returns at the rapture will receive their resurrection bodies “together” with the dead in Christ.

This interpretation is indicated by Paul’s statements in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 in which he emphatically asserts that the dead in Christ receive their resurrection bodies first before those Christians who are left alive when the Lord returns at the rapture of the church.

In other words, these two verses assert that these two groups will not receive their resurrection bodies at the exact same time.