Since
Nicholas Cage is about to be left behind this fall in his new movie
about the rapture I thought it might be helpful to do a Bible study of
the passage that tells of
a ‘rapture” (from the Latin word for “caught up” in. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)
The
idea of rapture, where believers will disappear and be taken up into heaven so
that they will not face a terrible coming tribulation, comes from Paul’s
letter to the Thessalonians 4:13-18.
Here’s verse 16:
“For
the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice
of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God."
Paul
is using imagery that every Jewish reader would immediately understand.
Every Jew listening to this letter read to them to explain what happens
to believers when they die would first in their minds be “seeing” Moses
coming down from Mount Sinai to the sound of a trumpet blast as described in
Exodus 19. Paul
uses the same imagery in first Corinthians 15 where he writes that at the sound
of a trumpet we will all be changed.
Paul is telling the believers in Thessalonica that Jesus will return to
earth one day with the same authority with which Moses descended the mountain
with the 10 commandments
(note:
the scholar who first put me on to understanding all of this is NT Wright, but
he’s one of many others)
Now
notice the next verse.
Paul is now using another image that citizens of the Roman Empire would
understand.
“For
this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are
left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen
asleep."
When
Paul wrote, “the coming of the Lord”, he used the word, parousia, referring
to the visitation of a king to his province.
As a variety of scholars have noted, In the minds of those hearing
Paul’s letter read to them this word would have evoked a mental picture of
Caesar, for example, coming back to visit a city he had colonized, Corinth for
example. Paul
is comparing this event to Jesus the true King coming back to his world.
The rightful ruler is coming back to rule his world in person.
Jesus would not just be here in spirit, but one day would come back in
full power personally present to rule his world the world he died for.
Notice,
now, this verse:
“For
the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice
of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in
Christ will rise first."
Those
of us who are still alive when Jesus comes back won’t meet Jesus before those
who have died.
Those who died will already have met Jesus.
What then happens when the Emperor comes to rule his territory
personally? Notice
this next verse.
“Then
we who are alive, who are left, 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."
Some
interpreters think that this verse means that one day in the future believers
will be raptured (caught up in the air) out of this world and into heaven.
However, if we stick with the what Jewish listeners would have heard and
what Paul was most certainly doing, we can then see that Paul was using a third
image that Jewish believers would have been very, very familiar with.
It is an image from Daniel where we read of “one like a son of man”,
a Messiah coming to rule every nation, every tribe, every language group.
Daniel 7 sees . . . .
“In
my vision at night I saw in front of me someone who looked like a human being coming
on the clouds in the sky. He came near God, who has been alive forever, and he
was led to God.
He was given authority, glory, and the strength of a king. People of every
tribe, nation, and language will serve him. His rule will last forever, and his
kingdom will never be destroyed."
Daniel 7:13-14 (NCV)
The
picture evoked in the hearers would have a picture of people leaving their city
and going out meet their newly arrived rightful ruler, not to leave with him,
but rather to accompany him back to their city where he would now rule over them
with love and justice.
Perhaps the picture is a little bit like Palm Sunday when the crowds went
out to meet Jesus and then escorted him back into the city.
The clouds are an image from Daniel of the power and Lordship of
the coming Messiah arriving in person to be the rightful ruler of his kingdom.
At
this point then believers are not transported away from earth, rather they and
the earth are transformed and a new heaven on earth world will have been
established.
The earth will be under new management, under the new leadership of the
Messiah.
The
dead in Christ (someone rather sarcastically said this proves that Presbyterians
will be the first to enter heaven)
will be raised and those alive at his coming will be transformed.
Paul finishes chapter 4 with these words.
"Therefore encourage one another with these words."
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 (ESV)
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more:
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