An Examination Of The Rapture Of The Church – Part 4 Of 4 Series

AN EXAMINATION OF THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH – PART 4 OF 4

This will be the final PART in this series we have been considering about the blessed hope that we know as The Rapture. In the last message we were looking at the two major New Testament passages about the Rapture. We did the Corinthians and today we start with the Thessalonians one.

[H2]. THE LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS:

{{1Thessalonians 4:14 If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, 1Thess 4:15 for this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep, 1Thess 4:16 for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 1Thess 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.}}

When we move to 1Thessalonians we see the order in the Rapture developed much fuller than 1 Corinthians did, and the verses we look at are 4 v 13-18. The purpose of writing this was for Paul to provide comfort as he explained in the final verse – {{1Thessalonians 4 v 18 “Therefore comfort one another with these words.”}} The reason there had to be comfort, was that the Thessalonians let Paul know they were disquieted and concerned, even agitated, about the fate of the ones among them who had died without the Lord returning. When Paul was with them, he explained that the Lord was coming back to gather His own (in the Rapture), and because at that time they expected the Rapture (that event) to be imminent, and some of their number had died, then those alive were thinking the dead ones had missed out because they died. In verse 13, Paul said he did not want those believers to be uninformed and he did not want them grieving. Paul then had to explain carefully to them the order of events in the Rapture and they are these: –

1. Verse 14 – The whole teaching of the Rapture depends of the resurrection of Christ Himself. He is the first fruits. This AGAIN is another parallel with 1 Corinthians cementing these two passages closely as one.

2. Verse 14 – When the Lord appears in the air for His saints, He is going to bring back with Him the spirits of all those who have already died as believers. The New Testament never speaks of a believer dying; it always says “fell asleep. These who return with the Lord are the first to be changed with a new body as in 1 Corinthians 15:53.

3. Verse 15 – The first order is given: “We who are alive shall not precede those who have died.” (We shall not be caught up before them, it means. They go first).

4. Verse 16 - The Lord leads the way (as He shall also do at the second Coming in Revelation 19) and He shouts. I am taking an educated guess that what He says is what is recorded from heaven in Revelation 4 v 1, “Come up here!” 4 v 1 is the Church being taken to heaven at the end of the Church age where the great worship scene then occurs in Revelation 4 and 5.

5. Verse 16 – The voice of the archangel will be heard but we don’t know here now, what he says. Michael comes, but with the angel band also I think. The trumpet is also mentioned in Revelation 4:1, a rapture verse, and is heard at the same time. The trumpet is always a summons for an assembly, and also was used to rouse the army from sleep in the early morning. This will correspond with the Feast of Trumpets (those 7 feasts are a remarkable study). There are those who think when the Rapture happens, it will correspond with the Feast of Trumpets “Rosh Hashana” and it is an interesting thought, but we can’t know for sure.

For those who like to consider things, here is something for you. I AM NOT DATE SETTING AND I DON’T BELIEVE IN SETTING DATES. Seven is God’s perfect number. It is used more than 50 times in the book of Revelation. In the bible seven means not only perfection but completion for if it is complete, it is perfect. I believe God’s completion for the human race in its history before the eternal state of Revelation 20/21, is 7 000 years (whether exact or not I can’t say). There are about 2 000 years between Adam and Abraham; about 2 000 years between Abraham and the Lord Jesus on earth; about 2 000 years from the Lord until now; and there will be 1 000 years in the Millennial reign. In total, 7 000 years. If you want to break it up a bit more, the Lord was born 4/5 B.C. and the crucifixion was in 29 A.D (some say 30 A.D.[He was about 33 when He went to the cross.]). THESE DATES AND NUMBERS ARE ONLY GUIDELINES. I am not date setting, but will draw only one conclusion – The Rapture must be close! It is just an interesting thought.