In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul has been encouraging the church to remain faithful in times of trial. He reminds them at the very beginning of the chapter that they have been sanctified and, therefore, can no longer live like the others around them. He begins by focusing on avoiding sexual immorality and then, possibly, moves on to avoiding underhanded, self-serving business practices. They have been set aside by God; they have been made holy, so their behavior cannot remain as it once was.

By avoiding the things that might cause their faith to waver, they will certainly escape temptation. Paul tells them that they are already doing things right, they are already loving each other in the way God wants them to, but he suggests that if they want to be certain that they will overcome, then the must philadelphia even more. They do this my loving those outside of the church in the same way that they do each other. AND, they take responsibility for their life in Christ.

So, don’t treat sex the way the pagans do; don’t do business the way the pagans do; don’t treat others the way that the pagans do; live deliberately. You oversee your walk with Christ. This then morphs into a statement about grief and emotionalism. To take control of our faith life, Paul tells us, we not only have to have to reevaluate how we use our squishy bits and our financial needs and our relationships with one another and with outsiders, but we also have to have a handle on our emotions.

“Don’t grieve the way the pagans do,” Paul instructs. “They despair. But you have hope.” He then tells them why they have hope: Because one day, Jesus will return and draw the faithful—those already physically dead and those still living—to Himself.

Phew. Summary of chapter 4: done! You can stop listening to this episode here if you want to. This is a decent summary of the chapter. However…I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t address the pachyderm residing in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. So I am going to pause here for a few seconds and let you decide if you want to continue.

Before I proceed, remember Paul’s instruction to the Thessalonians about being overly emotional and my episode on the subject that is entitled, What Makes a Vulcan Cry? Let’s keep out wits about us.
“17 Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”

To certain Christians in certain traditions and denominations, this is one of the most important verses in the whole of scripture. Indeed, in numerous congregations a person will not be considered a true Christian if he or she doesn’t agree with the meaning that that these congregations apply to verse 17. And that meaning is summed up in one word: rapture.

Paul tells the Thessalonians that just after the physically dead in Christ rise those “who are alive [Paul includes himself in this group] …will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord [Jesus] in the air…”

The apostle uses the word arpagesometha, meaning “will be snatched up”, to describe the event. This is foundational to the prophecies of Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth and popularized by Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series.

To put this as succinctly as possible, the belief is that the Christian faithful will be snatched away from the earth before the tribulations that precede the day of judgement. True believers then don’t have to worry about all that stuff that happens in Revelation—during the time of God’s wrath—because they will have been called up to heaven to be with Jesus there. I guess to be as specific as possible, this is known as the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. But is this what Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Thessalonians?

Now, the rapture of God’s people is a topic that can get a person into the weeds. Just do an internet or YouTube search and there before your eyes and in your ears will appear millions of words both for and against it. And as I have already stated in this very episode, some Christians have made the belief in the rapture dogma. Meaning that you MUST believe in it or you’re not a REAL Christian. They may not state this directly, but to quote Jimmy from South Park, “Come on.”

I do find it interesting that those who make the belief in rapture dogmatic will turn around and criticize Roman Catholics for their church’s position about the belief of Mary’s perpetual virginity by using arguments like, “Believing in Jesus Christ as Savior and letting Him take away your sins is the only thing that is required.” We Christians do have a way of claiming something to be simple and then making it really, really, complicated for others to do?

But I’m going down a rabbit hole. Sorry. My point here is this: The topic of the rapture—like the topic of Mary’s place in our Christian faith—is a very deep one. It is a complex belief and very touchy to some people. And I don’t want to spend hours or multiple episodes on the subject: in this case the rapture, and in later series the extent of Mary’s involvement in our faith. Here, I just want us to consider this one question: Is Pre-Tribulation Rapture what Paul had in mind when he wrote 1 Thessalonians 4:17?

When Paul wrote his letter, only two of the current books of the Bible that are recognized by the vast majority of the world’s Christians were in existence: those being James and Paul’s own Letter to the Galatians. Neither of these letters concerned themselves with the eschaton—the end times or the tribulations and judgement. In James’ case, he was concerned with helping the Church return to its faith from its foray into temptation. In Paul’s, he is trying to defuse a situation that may lead the Galatians’ into falling away from their faith in Christ. Again, the thought of the tribulation is nowhere to be found.
“But that doesn’t mean that Paul can’t be talking about that here,” I hear some say. This is true, but I don’t think that it is that likely. And here’s why: The context and purpose of the letter.

Paul is writing to encourage the Thessalonian church to keep up its faith. It is successfully facing its trials and withstanding temptation. He’s just reminded them that they have been sanctified by Christ in His death and that they can’t go back to living the way that they used to. He says that they are abounding in love for one another and that they should now extend that love to everyone and not just their brothers and sisters if they want to remain strong against temptation.

There is no talk about the end times or about future judgement, and certainly none about the Tribulation. Paul writes about the living being “snatched up” only in response to a question about whether or not any members of the Thessalonian church who have or will die before Christ’s return will be blessed. And this is only after his exhortation not to grieve like the pagans because unlike them, “who have not hope,” the Thessalonians do. “And this is why,” Paul says. (v 14-17)

Paul even gives us his reasoning for reminding each other of verses 16 and 17: It is so that the Thessalonians might “comfort one another with these words.” (18) The apostle isn’t concerned here with the Great Tribulation at the end of time but only with helping the Thessalonians continue to face their trials and hardships in faith.

Macedonia, the province in which Thessalonica was located, had been in a food shortage and in famine conditions for the better part of a decade. We know from the historical record that this is true for Macedonia from c.44-c.51. Talk about trial. Add to that the fact that Thessalonia was a center for cultic worship—as mentioned in the introductory episode for 1 and 2 Thessalonians. It is a large city with many religious alternatives. Yet, these Christians are remaining faithful in these tough times and with all these alternatives, and Paul wants them to continue to do so.

N.T. Wright writes, “The New Testament, building on ancient biblical prophecy, envisages that the creator God will remake heaven and earth entirely, affirming the goodness of the old Creation but overcoming its mortality and corruptibility (e.g., Romans 8:18-27; Revelation 21:1; Isaiah 65:17, 66:22). When that happens, Jesus will appear within the resulting new world (e.g., Colossians 3:4; 1 John 3:2).” (Farewell to the Rapture, 2001) Scripture, then, contradicts the primary tenant of the rapture: that the faithful will be snatched away from coming the coming Trouble, since the point of Jesus’ return is to remake the world that we, the faithful, are already living in. Verse 17 ends with Paul writing, “And so we shall be with the Lord forever.” (Knox Version) He doesn’t specify where.

David Lytle writes, “that this passage is using the imagery of the return of a general or king from battle. The King returns to his people and they go out to meet him and usher him in as part of the victory procession. After all, there is a trumpet call…The other option is that we do literally rise to meet him but descend with him in our glorified bodies. At that point, we are part of God’s new creation and will reign on earth with Christ…” (Five Reasons the Rapture Is Never Going to Happen, 2016)

I am not saying that I won’t happen, but I am saying that we can’t use 1 Thessalonians 4:17 as our proof that it will. Paul mentions this as a means for the Thessalonians to comfort one another and remain faithful in the trials that they are facing and the temptations they are overcoming.

So often we miss the true power of scripture because we misinterpret or misuse it—sometimes intentionally but usually not. We want to believe or prove to ourselves or to others that we are right. We ignore searching for what the Spirit is actually saying to us through scripture and, instead, force scripture into saying what we want it to say.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I hope for the Pre-Trib Rapture to be true, and there may be evidence for it in scripture; it’s just not 1 Thessalonians 4:17.