1 Thessalonians 4 · a question people ask
"caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (4:17). Does the letter set that meeting before "the day of the Lord" (5:2), or on that day?
First, what the letter says: "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, 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. So we will be with the Lord forever." (4:16-17). "Therefore comfort one another with these words." (4:18). It also says, "But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you. For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night." (5:1-2). Christians read how 4:13-18 and 5:1-11 fit together in two main ways, each resting on verses of this letter, and these notes don't choose between them. All agree on what the letter says: the Lord himself will descend from heaven (4:16); "The dead in Christ will rise first" (4:16); those who are alive will be caught up together with them (4:17); "So we will be with the Lord forever." (4:17); the readers are to "comfort one another with these words" (4:18); the day comes "like a thief in the night" (5:2), and no time is given: "you have no need that anything be written to you" (5:1); "let’s watch and be sober" (5:6); and "God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us" (5:9-10). These notes name no date, year, event, nation or person for any of this, and say nothing more about when.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Caught up before the day
Those who read it this way take the meeting of 4:17 as coming before "the day of the Lord" (5:2). They read "But concerning the times and the seasons" (5:1) as turning to a new subject. They note that the day brings "sudden destruction" on "them", who "will in no way escape" (5:3), while to the readers the letter says, "But you, brothers, aren’t in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief." (5:4). They read "For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ" (5:9), with "Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come" (1:10), as saying that those caught up to meet the Lord (4:17) will already be with him when that day comes.
1 Thessalonians 4:17 · 1 Thessalonians 5:1 · 1 Thessalonians 5:3-4 · 1 Thessalonians 5:9 · 1 Thessalonians 1:10
Caught up on that day
Those who read it this way take the meeting of 4:17 and "the day of the Lord" (5:2) as one: "the coming of the Lord" (4:15), when "the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet" (4:16). They read "But concerning the times and the seasons" (5:1) as going on to say when that coming will be: "the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night" (5:2). They read "But you, brothers, aren’t in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief" (5:4) as saying that the day will come to the readers too, but not as a thief, since they watch (5:6), and they read 5:9 as saying that on that day they will meet not wrath but "the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ" (5:9).
1 Thessalonians 4:15-16 · 1 Thessalonians 5:1-2 · 1 Thessalonians 5:4 · 1 Thessalonians 5:6 · 1 Thessalonians 5:9
The verses
“For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, 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. So we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”
“But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you. For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.”
“so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober.”
“For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.”