- 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
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- 1 Th 4:15 (KJB)
- For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent
them which are asleep.
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- Prevent - To go before or precede
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- In this verse Paul gives the “ordo raptus,” that is, the order of the
rapture of the Saints. Paul specifically states that the word he is giving
them is coming from the Lord and not him. When the Lord returns to earth to
claim all His redeemed ones, the first ones to be raised will be those who
have previously died because they will be reunited with their bodies and
then changed in a twinkling of an eye into their new spiritual bodies. Then
after this event, those Christians which are alive will then be changed and
raptured into Heaven. Now keep in mind, that this event is going to be a
very quick event. I remember when I was a young Christian around 1981 and
read material on the rapture and in one book it stated that General Electric
did an experiment on the speed of a twinkling of an eye and they measured it
as 11/100 of a second. So all this is going to happen very fast.
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- 1 Th 4:16 (KJB)
- For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the
dead in Christ shall rise first:
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- A shout - Command, order, or signal
- Trump - Trumpet
- Dead - The lifeless bodies
- First - Used of place, order, or time
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- In this verse Paul continues to show how this event will unfold. First,
he tells the Thessalonians that the Lord himself is going to come from
Heaven, this means that He will oversee the entire rapture of all the
Saints. Notice that it states that He will descend from Heaven with a shout.
That shout is going to be a shout of command, where He will dispatch all the
angels of Heaven to gather all the Elect of God from everywhere on the earth
and beneath the earth, that is, those who have previously died. In the
following 2 sections of Scripture we read a little more detail concerning
the rapture of the saints. In Matthew 24:31, it speaks about a great trumpet
and this does not mean that a real trumpet will be employed but could mean
that a trumpet was sounded when there was some type of occasion but here in
1 Cor. 15:52, it is called the last trump which may refer to the last call
on the earth which is the call of the Elect to come home.
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- (1 Cor 15:52 KJV) In a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
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- (Mat 24:29-31 KJV) Immediately after the
tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not
give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken: {30} And then shall appear the sign of the
Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and
they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory. {31} And he shall send his angels with a great sound of
a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds,
from one end of heaven to the other.
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- Here we read in Matthew 24:29-31, that when the Lord returns, the
unbelievers will mourn but He will dispatch all His angels to gather all the
Elect.
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- (Mark 13:24-27 KJV) But in those days,
after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not
give her light, {25} And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the
powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. {26} And then shall they
see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. {27}
And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect
from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost
part of heaven.
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- Here we read in Mark 13:24-27, that the stars of Heaven will be falling
which means that the universe is now dissolving and here too we read that
Christ is going to dispatch His angels to bring His Elect home to glory.
With words such as trumpet, shout, stars of Heaven falling, I fail to see
how this is going to be a secret rapture as the dispensationalists believe.
From the Scriptures, we can see that this day is going to be anything but
secret and silent. These things are being done right in the presence of the
entire world, if it wasn’t, then why would all the tribes or people of the
earth mourn?
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- 1 Th 4:17 (KJB)
- Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall
we ever be with the Lord.
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- Caught up - Snatched away
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- Immediately following the calling of the dead Saints to arise, those
Saints who are alive will then be raptured to the Lord while He is still in
the air and they will join all those Saints who previously died and will be
taken to Heaven and remain there for eternity. The clouds here could have
two possible meanings. The first, is that these are representative of the
second Heaven where the believers will be united with the Lord and then
after that, all will go to the third Heaven, which is God’s abode. The
second meaning could be that there will be millions of believers being
raptured at the same time and it may look like clouds, or clouds of
believers. Just like on a cloudy day, the clouds obscure the sun. Maybe on
the last day, the millions of believers may look like a cloudy day because
of the amount of them. I think the first meaning is more proper because of
the wording of the verse that we are meeting the Lord in the air and that is
where the clouds are.
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- 1 Th 4:18 (KJB)
- Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
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- Comfort - Encourage
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- Since Paul has now fully explained what happened to the believers who
have previously died, they may now take comfort in the fact that just
because they have died, does not mean they have been forgotten nor forsaken.
They will partake in the end time events just as strongly as those who are
alive when the Lord returns on the last day.
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