Please humor me. "The rapture" has so many different notions attached to it - it will help you to process the information below if you jettison the term for the time being. (You may have it back, once we invest it with biblically informed content.) I would like to start with a clean slate. So let's pretend we know nothing about whatever is being described in 1 Thess. 4:13-18. We will call this event "1-T-4" and begin to gather clues about it.
- 1st and 2nd Thessalonians are among the earliest New Testament epistles. They may predate most, if not all, of the books in the New Testament. So other epistles were not available to the original audience to serve as "interpretive keys" for "1-T-4." However, if a term or phrase is used repeatedly WITHIN 1st and 2nd Thessalonians to refer to "1-T-4," this will be very helpful in drawing a composite picture of the event.
- "1-T-4" is called "the coming of the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:15). This phrase or a variant of it appears six times in these two epistles.
- 2 Thess. 2:1 is important because it LINKS the "coming of the Lord" with "the day of the Lord," a phrase that also appears in 1st Thess. 5:2.
- When we say the "coming of the Lord" is linked to the "day of the Lord," we are not saying these are synonyms, two terms that describe the same event. Look at 2 Thess. 2:1-2, for example, where both terms are linked; it appears that the "day of the Lord" represents a period that cannot begin without the "coming of the Lord." Think of the "day of the Lord" as an extended span of time, and the "coming of the Lord" as a specific event that kicks it off.
- We have hit the motherload. There are eight passages connected to "1-T-4" within the Thessalonian Epistles. We should be able to draw a compelling composite drawing of "1-T-4."
Here for handy reference are these eight passages. We will gather more clues in Part 4 - but for now, start with a clean slate, look at all eight passages, and tell me what you see, Grasshopper!
- For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? (1 Thess. 2:19).
- So that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints (1 Thess 3:13).
- 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, will not precede those who have fallen asleep (1 Thess 4:15).
- For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night (1 Thess. 5:2).
- Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:23).
- Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come (2 Thess. 2:1-2).
- Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming (2 Thess. 2:8).
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