THE RAPTURE — WHAT DOES 1 THESSALONIANS 4 ACTUALLY SAY?
The word rapture can produce strong reactions.
Some Christians immediately think of believers suddenly disappearing from the earth while everyone else is left behind.
Others reject the whole idea.
But we don't need to do either.
Paul plainly says that Christians will be “caught up” to meet Christ.
So the question is not:
Is there a rapture?
There is.
The real questions are:
When does it happen?
and
What happens when it does?
Let's begin with the passage itself.
WHY DID PAUL WRITE THIS?
Paul was not giving the Thessalonians an end-times chart.
He was comforting Christians who were worried about believers who had died.
He writes:
“Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death...”
— 1 Thessalonians 4:13
Their concern was about fellow Christians who had died before Jesus returned.
Would they somehow miss what happened when Christ came?
Paul's answer is an emphatic No.
In fact, the dead believers have a place of priority in what happens next.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN JESUS COMES?
Read Paul's description carefully:
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God...”
— 1 Thessalonians 4:16
Notice what accompanies Christ's coming:
The Lord Himself descends.
There is a loud command.
There is the voice of the archangel.
There is the trumpet call of God.
Whatever else we eventually conclude, this does not sound like Paul is emphasizing secrecy.
It sounds like the arrival of a King.
THE DEAD IN CHRIST RISE
Paul continues:
“and the dead in Christ will rise first.”
— 1 Thessalonians 4:16
This directly answers the Thessalonians' concern.
Christians who have died will not miss Christ's coming.
They will be raised.
That means the catching up of believers is connected directly with resurrection.
Keep that connection in mind.
It becomes important when we compare Paul's other teaching.
THEN THE LIVING ARE CAUGHT UP
Paul continues:
“After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds...”
— 1 Thessalonians 4:17
There it is.
The biblical “rapture.”
The phrase “caught up” translates the Greek word harpazō, meaning to seize, snatch, or take up.
So Christians should have no reason to deny that believers will be caught up.
Paul plainly says they will.
But Paul isn't finished.
WHERE DO THEY MEET THE LORD?
Paul says believers will be:
“caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”
— 1 Thessalonians 4:17
Notice the direction of movement.
Jesus descends from heaven.
The dead are raised.
Living believers are caught up.
Together they meet the Lord in the air.
Then Paul says:
“And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
Paul does not say that Jesus and His resurrected people then return to live on this present earth.
Neither does he say that they remain forever suspended in the clouds.
He simply tells us what matters most:
From that point forward, God's people will always be with the Lord.
WHERE ARE THE SEVEN YEARS?
This is where we need to be especially careful.
Nothing in 1 Thessalonians 4 says:
Jesus takes the Church to heaven for seven years.
Nothing mentions:
a seven-year tribulation beginning on earth.
Nothing says:
Jesus returns again seven years later.
Those ideas may be argued from other passages.
But they are not stated here.
So before adding them to Paul's description, we should continue reading what Paul says elsewhere.
PAUL DESCRIBES THE RESURRECTION AGAIN
Turn to 1 Corinthians 15.
Paul writes:
“For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:52
Does that sound familiar?
In 1 Thessalonians 4:
The Lord comes.
The trumpet sounds.
The dead are raised.
Living believers join them.
In 1 Corinthians 15:
Christ comes.
The trumpet sounds.
The dead are raised.
Living believers are changed.
These passages appear to be describing the same great event.
WHEN DOES THIS RESURRECTION HAPPEN?
Earlier in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul gives us its timing:
“Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:23
When are those who belong to Christ raised?
“When he comes.”
Then Paul says:
“Then the end will come...”
— 1 Corinthians 15:24
Notice the movement:
Christ comes.
↓
Those who belong to Him are raised.
↓
Then comes the end.
That is considerably simpler than many prophecy charts.
WHAT HAPPENS TO DEATH?
Paul continues:
“For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:25
Then:
“The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:26
Christ is reigning now.
At His coming, His people are raised.
Death—the last enemy—is destroyed.
That raises an important question:
If death is the last enemy, what enemy remains to be defeated during another thousand years after Christ returns?
WHAT HAPPENS TO THIS PRESENT WORLD?
Peter also describes the Day of the Lord:
“The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire...”
— 2 Peter 3:10
He later says:
“That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.”
— 2 Peter 3:12
What are Christians waiting for after that?
Peter tells us:
“We are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.”
— 2 Peter 3:13
Peter does not describe Christ returning and then beginning another thousand years of ordinary history on this present earth.
His movement is toward judgment and new creation.
WHAT DOES 2 THESSALONIANS SAY?
Paul later wrote these Christians again.
This time he described the relief believers would receive from persecution:
“This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.”
— 2 Thessalonians 1:7
When do suffering Christians receive relief?
When Jesus is revealed from heaven.
But something else happens at that same revelation.
RELIEF AND JUDGMENT
Paul continues:
“He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
— 2 Thessalonians 1:8
So the same revelation of Jesus brings:
relief for God's people
and
judgment upon those who oppose Him.
Paul does not place seven years between those events.
He connects both with the revelation of Jesus from heaven.
CHRIST'S COMING AND OUR GATHERING
Continue into the next chapter.
Paul writes:
“Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him...”
— 2 Thessalonians 2:1
Notice how naturally Paul puts these ideas together:
Christ's coming
and
our gathering to Him.
Paul then discusses the day of the Lord.
He does not tell these Christians that their gathering to Christ occurs seven years before His coming in judgment.
That timetable must be supplied from somewhere else.
JESUS ALSO SPOKE OF A GREAT GATHERING
Jesus said:
“They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.”
— Matthew 24:30
Then:
“And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect...”
— Matthew 24:31
Again notice the familiar pieces:
Christ comes.
Clouds.
Angels.
A trumpet.
God's people are gathered.
Those similarities deserve careful consideration before we divide these passages into completely separate events.
SO IS THE RAPTURE SECRET?
If by rapture we mean believers being caught up to meet Christ:
Yes. The Bible teaches a rapture.
But if by rapture we mean a secret coming of Christ in which Christians disappear seven years before His public return, we need to ask:
Where does the text say that?
Paul describes:
a loud command
an archangel's voice
God's trumpet
the resurrection of the dead
Christ descending from heaven
That is a strange description for an event whose defining characteristic is supposed to be secrecy.
WHERE DOES THE SEVEN-YEAR TRIBULATION COME FROM?
There is no seven-year tribulation mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4.
Much of that timetable comes from interpreting Daniel's 70th week as a future seven-year period.
But that requires separating Daniel's 70th week from the first 69 by thousands of years.
We examined that question in our study of Daniel 9.
Daniel never explicitly tells us to stop counting after week 69 and move the final week thousands of years into the future.
So we need to be careful about building one assumption upon another.
A future 70th week becomes a seven-year tribulation.
Then:
The rapture must occur before that seven-year tribulation.
But 1 Thessalonians 4 itself says neither one.
WHAT DOES PAUL ACTUALLY TEACH?
If we stay with Paul's words, the picture is remarkably straightforward.
Christ returns.
↓
The dead in Christ rise.
↓
Living believers are changed and caught up with them.
↓
Together they meet the Lord in the air.
↓
From then on they are forever with the Lord.
Paul's purpose was not to give frightened Christians a complicated timetable.
It was to give grieving Christians hope.
That's why he concludes:
“Therefore encourage one another with these words.”
— 1 Thessalonians 4:18
WHAT ARE CHRISTIANS WAITING FOR?
The New Testament points us forward:
Christ returns.
The dead are raised.
The living are changed.
God's people are gathered to Christ.
Judgment comes.
Death is destroyed.
This present creation gives way to the new heavens and new earth.
The Christian hope is not primarily an escape from tribulation.
The Christian hope is Jesus Himself.
He will return.
His people will be raised.
Those still living will be changed.
Together they will be caught up to meet Him.
And:
“we will be with the Lord forever.”
READ FIRST. CONCLUDE LATER.
There really is a rapture.
Christians really will be caught up to meet Jesus.
We don't need to argue about that.
But before constructing a secret coming followed by seven years of tribulation and then another coming of Christ, let's ask our usual question:
WHERE DOES THE TEXT SAY IT?
Read 1 Thessalonians 4.
Read 1 Corinthians 15.
Read 2 Thessalonians 1–2.
Read 2 Peter 3.
Then ask:
Do these passages describe two returns of Christ separated by seven years?
Or do they describe different parts of one great final event—Christ's return, the resurrection, the gathering of His people, judgment, the destruction of death, and the coming new creation?
Don't begin with the chart.
Begin with the text.
Read First. Conclude Later.