The church has been suffering from a spiritual heart attack for nearly 200 years. We are told by Solomon that we should guard our heart, for out of it flow the issues of life. The heart hears, the heart believes and the heart is imprinted with pictures that reinforce our beliefs.
But what happens when the very things we have heard, believed and were reinforced by images, were all wrong to begin with? This is the trouble with the rapture doctrine which is not found anywhere in the Bible. Fiery preaching to “get ready” and movies like A Thief in the Night or Left Behind riveted our hearts with images of unmanned airplanes falling out of the sky exploding into buildings, cars and buses crashing, and little babies missing from their cribs. Inevitably it ends with a guy living under the time of Tribulation threatened with beheading if he doesn’t take the mark of the beast.
There is nothing faith-filled that our hearts embrace with those scenes. In fact, to even consider another viewpoint brings those fears to the surface and often shuts down an openness to hear what the bible actually teaches. False doctrine is not discerned by fear, but by truth.
So as we tackle the “rapture” in Thessalonians, it might be a good idea to remember the words of Luke in Acts 17:11, “These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”
A case could be made here with references to history that the idea of the rapture before a tribulation is a very recent idea in the history of the church. It is only about 180 years old and some say originated first with a young girl in Glasgow who had a vision of it. It was then picked up by a man named John Darby among the Plymouth Brethren who helped spread the idea throughout America. It was never an accepted doctrine of the church until then nor is it found in scripture. Space doesn't permit us to prove the history of this now.
The Passage:
1 Thessalonians 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 will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 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. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is: Audience and Time Relevance
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.
One of the most overlooked concepts of interpreting scripture is the idea of audience relevance. In hermeneutics (the science and art of interpreting the Bible) audience relevance reminds us that the Bible wasn't written to us, it was written for us. If we get this confused, we read the Bible through the wrong lens and end up applying verses to ourselves that were meant for someone else in another time and another place.
It’s like the old story of the person who would try to get a word from God by opening the Bible and taking whatever his eyes fell upon as a message from God. So the first time he opens it, it comes to Matthew 27:5, "Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself." Fearful that God was telling him this, he opened the bible randomly again and it said in Luke 10:37, “Go thou and do likewise.” Not a good method.
Let's look at a more accurate way of interpreting the Bible. To whom was Thessalonians written and what was their situation? Acts 17:1,5 says:
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews…But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
The Christians in Thessalonica were suffering at the hands of the Jews. This is again clearly demonstrated in 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16:
14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own (Jewish) countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans, 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men, 16 forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath is about to come upon them to the uttermost.
Now notice what Paul had to say to them (not us):
2 Thessalonians 1:
"4 so that we ourselves boast of YOU (Thessalonians) among the churches of God for YOUR patience and faith in all YOUR persecutions and tribulations that YOU endure, 5 which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that YOU may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which YOU also suffer; 6 since it is a righteous thing with God to REPAY WITH TRIBULATION THOSE WHO TROUBLE YOU, 7 and to GIVE YOU who are troubled rest with us WHEN (this is a time related word) the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 THESE (people who trouble you) shall be punished with everlasting destruction FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD and from the glory of His power, 10 WHEN He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
The importance of understanding this is vital because of what's at stake: the reliability of scripture, the promises of God and whether Jesus is a true prophet or a false one. Deuteronomy 18:18f says that if a man made a prediction that didn't come true, that man did not come from God.
It is the Thessalonian believers in Paul’s day who are suffering tribulation at the hands of the Jewish unbelievers. Those Jews, according to Paul, will be repaid tribulation at a certain point in the near future. Paul uses this promise to encourage them. Of what encouragement would it be if God secretly meant it would come long after they were dead some 2000 years later? That is encouragement of the worst kind!
Did God lie? Did Paul lie to them? Was he just trying to “keep them and every generation on their toes spiritually” as some have reasoned? Do you see what is at stake?
Of course God didn't lie. He kept his word just as he said he would. How so? In 70 AD the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by fire. Some 1.3 million Jews died. Historians say not one Christian died.
In keeping with the apocalyptic language of all biblical history, God used another nation, Rome, to bring their own self inflicted judgment on themselves, on the law, on the priesthood, and on the sacrificial system and on all the blood that the Jewish people shed. Gen. 9:6-7 reveals that those who shed innocent blood would have their blood shed by man, but speaks of it in apocalyptic metaphor in other scriptures as if it is coming from Him. In fact this judgment would never be repeated (Matthew 24:21; Daniel 12:1) and was one that encompassed bloodshed against righteousness stretching back all the way to the first bloodshed of Able (Matthew 23:35). This was a final judgment on work's based religion!
This coming judgment was promised by Jesus, as Prophet in Matthew 23 as he upbraided the scribes and Pharisees by pronouncing the covenant curse woe’s on them and the city:
"Therefore, indeed, I send YOU (apostate Jews) prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them YOU will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in YOUR synagogues and persecute from city to city, that ON YOU may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to YOU, ALL THESE THINGS will come upon THIS generation." (Matthew 23:34-36)
How would this happen specifically? “Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” (24:1-2)
The earliest Christian historian Eusebius understood that the events that followed in Matthew 24 described the turmoil that was happening in Jerusalem between the cross and the destruction of the city. Interestingly enough, Jesus died in 30AD and the temple was destroyed in 70AD… exactly 40 years…within one generation, just like Jesus said.
Paul says this would be a destruction "(away) from the presence of the Lord." It was that glory cloud presence that made Israel different from the other nations and distinguished them as God's people. The real conflict in this 40 year transition period is the distinction as to who are the true covenant people. Was it the natural Jewish lineage that associated themselves with the Law and temple religious system? Or were the true covenant people those Jews and Gentiles who were of faith in Messiah?
This is why Jesus, referred to unbelieving Jewish gatherings as synagogues of satan, (accusers against the true brethren). He said to the churches in Asia Minor:
Revelation 2:9, “I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
Revelation 3:9, "Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you."
This is also what Peter meant when he said in Acts 3:
22 For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be UTTERLY DESTROYED (cut off) FROM AMONG THE PEOPLE.’ 24 Yes, and ALL THE PROPHETS, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also FORETOLD THESE DAYS.
This coming Great Tribulation would cut off those who were not believing Jews "from the people." How? The "everlasting destruction" of temple and loss of the glory presence would once for all time demonstrate that the temple was to be a people, not a building. All identity built on a city, a temple, an isolated presence in Jerusalem, or natural genealogy would be removed forever.
With that in mind, let’s not be guilty of projecting into our future a message regarding the Thessalonians and the persecuting Jews.
1 Thessalonians 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 will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 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. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
In Part 2 discover where Paul got his "word of the Lord"...