TOM · The Owner's Manual · New Testament

1 Thessalonians 4

Chapter 4 in 30 seconds

Stay sexually pure, love each other and work with your hands. Then the big one. Some believers had died, and the church was worried they would miss out. Paul says no. The dead in Christ rise first, then we are caught up with them to meet the Lord. Encourage each other with that.

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In this chapterField Notes · ArchaeologyWhen the King Comes · after verse 14 The Big Question · Christians disagreeThe Rapture · after verse 18

Living to Please God

¹Finally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live in a way that is pleasing to God, just as you have received from us. This is how you already live, so you should do so all the more. ²For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

³For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality; ⁴each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, ⁵not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God; ⁶and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you. ⁷For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness. ⁸Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.

1TH 4:4[NOTE]CONTROL YOUR BODY. The Greek says your own vessel. Most read it as your own body, keep it under control. Some read it as take a wife for yourself in holiness. Either way, God's will is clear: sex belongs in marriage, 4:3, and cheating on a brother hurts real people, 4:6.

⁹Now about brotherly love, you do not need anyone to write to you, because you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. ¹⁰And you are indeed showing this love to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel more and more ¹¹and to aspire to live quietly, to attend to your own matters, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you. ¹²Then you will behave properly toward outsiders, without being dependent on anyone.

1TH 4:11[NOTABLE]Mind your own business and earn your own way. Some in Thessalonica had quit working, maybe waiting for Jesus to come back. Paul worked night and day himself, 2:9. Later he wrote, if anyone is not willing to work, he shall not eat, 2 Thessalonians 3:10.

The Return of the Lord

¹³Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope. ¹⁴For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.

Field Notes · Archaeology

When the King Comes

Parousia

1 Thessalonians 4:15 to 17 · 2:19 · Acts 28:15

Both sides of a bronze coin of Corinth honoring Nero's arrival in Greece, AD 66 to 67. The ship side reads ADVE AVG, the arrival of the emperor. Bibliothèque nationale de France, public domain.

WHAT IT IS: A coin from Corinth, the city where Paul wrote this letter. One side shows the emperor Nero. The other shows a warship and the words ADVE AVG, short for adventus Augusti, the arrival of the emperor.
HOW OLD IT IS: It was made about AD 66 to 67, when Nero toured Greece, about 15 years after Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians.
THE WORD PAROUSIA: Paul's word for the coming of the Lord, 4:15, is parousia. In Paul's world it often meant the official visit of a king or emperor to a city. Latin called it adventus. Cities minted coins and held parties to mark it.
GOING OUT TO MEET HIM: When a king came, the leading citizens went out of the city to meet him on the road, then walked back in with him. The Greek word for that meeting is apantesis. Paul uses it in 4:17, to meet the Lord in the air. Luke uses it when believers from Rome came out to meet Paul, Acts 28:15.
WHAT IT MEANS: Paul took the words people used for Caesar and gave them to Jesus. The real King is coming, and His people will go out to meet Him.
THE DEBATE: Some teachers say this picture means believers meet Jesus in the air and come right back down with Him to earth. Others say the picture does not settle where they go next, John 14:3. See The Big Question pages that follow.
WHAT IT CONFIRMS: Paul's words in 4:15 to 17 are the same words used for royal visits in his day.

CONFIDENCE: HIGH FOR THE WORDS · THE LINK IS A SCHOLARS' VIEW

¹⁵By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. ¹⁷After that, we who are alive and remain 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.

1TH 4:15[PROPHECY]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. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air → STILL TO COME
1TH 4:15[FIELD NOTES]See the When the King Comes Field Notes page.
1TH 4:17[NOTE]CAUGHT UP. The word rapture comes from this verse in the Latin Bible, rapiemur. When it happens is one of the biggest debates in the church. See The Big Question pages that follow.

¹⁸Therefore encourage one another with these words.

The Big Question · Christians disagree

The Rapture

What the Church Has Believed

1 Thessalonians 4:13 to 18 · 5:1 to 11

WHAT PAUL SAID: Believers in Thessalonica had died, and the church was afraid they would miss the return of Jesus. Paul says no. The Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a shout and a trumpet. The dead in Christ rise first. Then believers who are still alive 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, 4:16 to 17. Every Christian group agrees on that much. The fight is over WHEN it happens and what happens next.
WHERE THE WORD COMES FROM: Caught up is harpazo in Greek. The Latin Bible says rapiemur, and that gives us the word rapture. The question is how the rapture fits with the tribulation, a time of great trouble, Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:21 and Revelation 6 to 19, and with the thousand years of Revelation 20, called the millennium.
THE EARLY CHURCH, AD 100 TO 300: Many early leaders expected Jesus to come back and reign on earth for 1,000 years. This is called chiliasm, or historic premillennialism. The Didache, about AD 100, warns that a world deceiver will come and believers must endure to the end. Justin Martyr, about AD 155, believed in the 1,000 years but said some true Christians did not. Irenaeus, about AD 180, and Hippolytus, about AD 200, taught that the church would face the Antichrist. Pre tribulation teachers point to one line in Irenaeus, when the church shall suddenly be caught up from this, Against Heresies 5.29. Most scholars read him as expecting the church to go through the trouble first.
AUGUSTINE CHANGES THE PICTURE: About AD 426, Augustine wrote The City of God. He taught that the 1,000 years is not a future kingdom but the church age right now, with Christ reigning from heaven. This is called amillennialism. It became the main view of the Catholic and Orthodox churches, and later of Martin Luther, John Calvin and most Protestant churches. In this view there is one return of Christ at the end, when believers rise to meet Him.
JOHN NELSON DARBY, 1830s: Darby was an Irish preacher who helped start the Plymouth Brethren. Around 1830 he taught a new system called dispensationalism, which keeps Israel and the church on two separate tracks. In it, Jesus comes FOR His church in a secret rapture before a 7 year tribulation, and later comes WITH His church to rule. Darby spread it at Bible meetings at Powerscourt, Ireland, 1831 to 1833, and on trips to America from 1862 to 1877.
CYRUS SCOFIELD, 1909: Cyrus I. Scofield learned Darby's ideas from the St. Louis pastor James H. Brookes. In 1909 Oxford University Press printed the Scofield Reference Bible, with Scofield's notes right on the page under the Bible text. It was revised in 1917 and sold more than two million copies by the end of World War II. For millions of readers, the notes and the verses blended together. It is still sold today as the Scofield Study Bible.
THE 1900s: Dallas Theological Seminary, founded 1924, trained thousands of pastors in this view. Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth, 1970, and the Left Behind novels, 1995 to 2007, sold tens of millions of copies. For many American churches, pre tribulation became the only view they ever heard. Worldwide, it is still a minority view.

When Does It Happen?

1 Thessalonians 4:17 · 5:9 · Matthew 24:29 to 31 · Revelation 3:10

PRE TRIBULATION: Jesus takes His church to heaven BEFORE the 7 years of trouble. Key verses: God has not appointed us to suffer wrath, 5:9; I will keep you from the hour of testing, Revelation 3:10; I will come back and welcome you, John 14:3. Best case: Jesus could come at any moment, so stay ready, and after Revelation 3 the word church does not show up again until 22:16. Held by Darby, Scofield, Dallas Seminary and many Baptist, Bible church and Pentecostal churches.
MID TRIBULATION: The rapture comes in the MIDDLE, after 3 and a half years, when Daniel's 70th week breaks in half, Daniel 9:27. Key verses: Paul's last trumpet, 1 Corinthians 15:52, matched with the seventh trumpet, Revelation 11:15. Best case: believers face the first trials but are taken before the worst. Held by a smaller group, like the scholar Gleason Archer.
PRE WRATH: The rapture comes after the Antichrist's persecution starts but BEFORE God pours out His wrath, somewhere in the second half. Key verses: the sun is darkened and then the angels gather the elect, Matthew 24:29 to 31; the great day of their wrath has come, Revelation 6:17. Best case: the church suffers from man but never from God. Made popular by Marvin Rosenthal's book in 1990.
POST TRIBULATION: There is ONE return of Jesus, AFTER the tribulation. Believers are caught up to meet Him and come right back with Him, like a city going out to welcome a king, Acts 28:15. Key verses: Immediately after the tribulation, Matthew 24:29 to 31; that day will not come until the man of lawlessness is revealed, 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Best case: it is the simplest reading and closest to the early church. Held by scholars like George Eldon Ladd and Robert Gundry.
AMILLENNIAL: No 7 year countdown and no future 1,000 year kingdom on earth. The millennium is now. Jesus returns once at the end, the dead rise, believers meet Him, and the judgment and new creation follow. Held by Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran and many Reformed churches, which means most Christians in history.
POSTMILLENNIAL: The gospel will slowly win the world and bring a long golden age, and THEN Jesus returns once. Popular with the Puritans and Jonathan Edwards in the 1700s and still held by some today.
ANY OLDER PRE TRIB VOICES?: Supporters point to a sermon called Pseudo Ephraem, written sometime between AD 300 and 700, that says the saints are taken to the Lord before the tribulation; scholars argue about what it means. Morgan Edwards, a Baptist, wrote in 1788 about a rapture three and a half years before the end. A Scottish teen, Margaret MacDonald, had a vision in 1830; some say Darby borrowed from it, but scholars dispute both what she meant and whether he did.
PRETERISM: Preter means past. Preterists say many of these prophecies already came true when Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70. Key verse: this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened, Matthew 24:34. PARTIAL preterists say the great tribulation happened then, but the return of Jesus, the resurrection and 4:16 to 17 are still to come; R.C. Sproul and Kenneth Gentry taught this. FULL preterists say everything happened in AD 70, even the return of Jesus and the resurrection. To them every prophecy in the Bible has already come true, so every verse highlighted Blue in this Bible as still to come would already be fulfilled. Partial preterists keep a few Blue verses, like 4:16 to 17, in the future; Catholic, Orthodox and nearly all Protestant churches reject that, because the creeds say He will come again. The first full preterist commentary was by Luis de Alcázar, a Spanish Jesuit, printed in 1614.
WHAT WE ALL AGREE ON: Jesus is coming back. The dead in Christ will rise. We will always be with the Lord. Nobody knows the day, 5:1 to 2. Stay awake and live ready, 5:6. And as Paul says, encourage one another with these words, 4:18, not fight with them.

1 Thessalonians 4

Living to Please God

The Return of the Lord

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