D.

The Rapture: Biblical Texts

1. 1 Thess 4:17 - This is THE RAPTURE TEXT

READ 4:13-18
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have
died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who
have died. 15 For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive,
who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died.
16
For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the
sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17
Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to
meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage
one another with these words.

Dispensational reading:
o when? “at the coming [parousia] of the Lord” (v 15)
o concerns all believers, dead and living (vv 14-15)
o preceded by a “cry of command,” an “archangel’s call,” and “God’s
trumpet” (v 16)
o first the dead, then the living believers, will be “caught up [harpazo] in
the clouds”

a(rpa&zw = “to grab or seize suddenly, to snatch, take away”

(BDAG, #2); Vulgate rapiemur, from which English “rapture”
developed
fairly common verb, not t.t. for “rapture”:
 John 10:28, “no one will snatch them out of my hand”
 Acts 8:39, “the Spirit . . . snatched Phillip away”
 2 Cor 12:2, Paul was “caught up to the third heaven”
o together we “meet the Lord in the air”
o following this meeting we are “with the Lord forever” in heaven; i.e.,
Christ descends to the clouds; we rise to meet him there; with us he
returns to heaven

Alternate reading:
o when? “at the coming [parousia] of the Lord” (v 15)

parousi&a = “the state of being present at a place, presence”

(BDAG, #1)
= “arrival as the first stage in presence, advent, coming”
(BDAG #2)
NT t.t. for the second coming (presence) of Christ
 Matt 24:3, “What will be the sign of your coming and
of the end of the age?”
 1 Cor 15:23, “then at his coming”
  2 Thess 2:8, “annihilating him by the manifestation of
his coming”
 2 Pet 3:4, “Where is the promise of his coming?”
Cf. also Matt 24:27, 37, 39; 1 Thess 2:19; 3:13; 5:23; 2 Thess
2:1; Jas 5:7, 8; 2 Pet 1:16; 3:12; 1 John 2:28

Dispensation rdg. requires 2 separate “comings”

1. secret coming for saints only (1 Thess 4:17)
2. final, public coming to rule the world (2 Thess 2:8, etc.)

However, 1 Thess 4:13-18 has a very public (noisy) coming using the
language of the final divine inbreaking (cf. Matt 24:31; 1 Cor 15:52).
This climactic, history-ending coming of God to earth happens only
once in biblical tradition.

o what happens? “we meet [ei)j a)pa&nthsin] the Lord in the

air”1

most commonly used of going out to meet an approaching person

(including a dignitary approaching a city) in order to accompany him
to (celebrate) his destination

 Acts 28:15, “The believers from there, when they heard of us,
came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet
us”
 Luke 17:12, “as he entered a village, ten lepers approached
him”
 Mark 14:13, “go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water
will meet you; follow him,”

Thus, we believers are not snatched away to heaven, but rise to

accompany Christ on his victorious journey to earth.

1
For differing interpretations of numerous commentaries, cf. L Flesher, Left Behind: The Facts Behind the Fiction,
pp. 160-61, n.26. Her own conclusion, in basic agreement with I. H. Marshall, is as above.