The Timeline of Eternity: Rapture Details - GraceLife Church of Pineville

Focus Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:11

Introduction: A Passage Comparison

I teased you in the previous sermon with a comparison of two Bible passages connected at least by this premise: God’s instruction to believers about His return should be a source of comfort, not a source of confusion or argument or ridicule. I gave an assignment about those passages, and while I don’t know whether that assignment was a source of comfort or not, we will begin with that comparison. (And be comforted in this—I’ve done the work for you, color-coding and all!)

The two Scriptures for comparison were from John 14 and 1 Thessalonians 4. These (especially the latter) are passages typically used in talking about the rapture—our topic as we continue to study eternal judgment.[This study of eternal judgment is the sixth and final subseries of a larger series on the elementary principles of the oracles of God based on Hebrews 5:12–6:2.[/mfn]

John 14:1–3 is the passage we looked at most closely in my last sermon. In these verses, Jesus is speaking:

Do not let your hearts be distressed. You believe in God; believe also in me. There are many dwelling places in my Father’s house. Otherwise, I would have told you, because I am going away to make ready a place for you. And if I go and make ready a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be too. (John 14:1–3 NET)

We compared that passage to the one we will look at most deeply in this message, 1 Thessalonians 4:13–17:

Now we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians. For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. (NET)

I have noted the comparisons for you, color-coding each one. You can download it here:

Download the Handout: Comparing 1 Thessalonians 4 and John 14

DOWNLOAD AS A PDF

In this comparison, you’ll see some parts are word for word the same, while others are merely similar in concept. There’s also a similarity of order.

I first saw a chart like this in a work by a man named J.B. Smith. I believe he came from a Mennonite tradition. He wrote a commentary on the book of Revelation. And like many commentaries on Revelation, this one had all sorts of tables and charts and illustrations in the appendixes. This one I’ve developed is not quite the same, but it’s adapted from that one.

Some of the similarities you’ll notice between the passages are as follows:

The John passage says don’t have distressed hearts. The 1 Thessalonians passage says don’t grieve hopelessly.
John says believe in God, believe in Jesus. Paul says believe Jesus, believe God.
John talks about Jesus saying something Jesus would have told you. The 1 Thessalonians passage talks about “we tell you … by the word of [Jesus].”
In John 14, Jesus says “I will come again”; 1 Thessalonians 4 mentions “the coming of the Lord [Jesus].”
John 14 has the phrase “take you”; 1 Thessalonians has the phrase “suddenly caught up” (NET), which is where we get the word rapture.
Both passages have the idea of being with Jesus—one says “to be with me [Jesus],” while the other has “meet the Lord [Jesus] in the air.”
John 14 closes with the idea of “where I [Jesus] am you may be too”; 1 Thessalonians likewise closes with the idea that “we will always be with the Lord [Jesus].”

On the downloadable handout, there’s a footnote about what Smith said of his comparison: “The words or phrases are almost an exact parallel. They follow one another in both passages in exactly the same order. Only the righteous are dealt with in each case. There is not a single irregularity in the progression of words from first to last. Either column takes the believer from the troubles of earth to the glories of heaven.”¹ Smith was trying to establish his argument for the rapture in this chart. He also had some tables that compared other verses; he was trying to prove why other verses didn’t say what others thought they said regarding the coming of the Lord.

What does a comparison like this establish? Maybe nothing, maybe everything. I’m not a mathematician, but the correspondence between the concepts and ordering here is probably statistically unlikely to be coincidental. It is, I think, at the very least, not inconsequential. The link between these two passages is probably not unintentional.

I show you this chart if for no other reason than to spark your curiosity about the kinds of connections that are available in Scripture if you’re willing to study it. These sorts of patterns and observations won’t just jump off the page at you—you won’t get them from a cursory read. You’d have to be familiar with both the Gospel of John and 1 Thessalonians to see this link. And then you’d have to have the dedication and willingness to say, Is there anything in these passages that speaks to one another—words or ideas that are the same?

Of course, this is not the only set of passages in Scripture with which you could do this type of comparison. But I call your attention to this one for a couple of reasons.

For one, I want you to see the fact that our topic of the end times—which is a subset of eternal judgment, which in turn is a subset of the topic of elementary principles of the oracles of God—is a matter of details. It’s a matter of established patterns across multiple books that cover the scope of multiple eras and genres.

I also want to warn you that one pattern is probably not enough to warrant a dogmatic assertion about prophetic certainties. But pursuing evidence and exploring these ideas is of great value for understanding the Scriptures. Making comparisons like these helps strengthen your ability to understand even more. As we’ll see elsewhere in 1 Thessalonians, Paul is writing this letter not just for comfort (1 Thessalonians 4:18) but also for building up/encouraging, strengthening, and establishing (1 Thessalonians 5:11; 3:2; 3:13). No strengthening happens with ease—there is a workout involved; there’s pain and toil.

We’ve established the fact that we have to work hard at understanding the Scriptures. So let’s do that now with Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians.

Why Paul Wrote 1 Thessalonians

What’s the purpose of this letter?

First, you need to know that New Testament epistles (letters) are classified as occasional letters. That is, they were written because of some occasion. That may sound very general, but usually there was a (specific) problem to be solved or question to be answered. There was some reason that the writer put pen to paper and addressed a particular audience.

What was the occasion that prompted the apostle Paul to write to the Thessalonians? We know he wrote at least two letters to them (known now as 1 and 2 Thessalonians). There were two great unknowns in the case of the Thessalonians. The first great unknown was what Paul didn’t know. The second great unknown was what the Thessalonians didn’t know.

Great Unknown #1: Paul was unaware of whether the Thessalonians had proven to be faithful disciples in the midst of bad times and bad news. Paul was undergoing some persecution, some suffering, and he had recently been with the Thessalonians, who would no doubt have heard about those bad times and sufferings, perhaps going through some of them themselves. Paul did not know if the pressure of suffering in this world would cause the Thessalonians to abandon their faith in Christ.

Great Unknown #2: The Thessalonians were unaware of some of the specifics regarding the coming of the Lord.

What Paul Didn’t Know

Let’s talk a little bit more about this first great unknown (what Paul didn’t know).

It was a bad time and bad news—Paul was suffering. He’s concerned that this will be disturbing to the Thessalonians, who are recent converts. They’re very new to the faith. Having heard that Paul was suffering, they could have been thinking, “Is this what we signed up for? Is this Christianity? If so, I’m out!”

Look at 1 Thessalonians 3, where Paul gives the reason for his suffering:

Therefore when we could endure it no longer, we thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction; and so it came to pass, as you know. For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor would be in vain.

But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always think kindly of us, longing to see us just as we also long to see you, for this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith; for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord. (vv. 1–8)

The Thessalonians, as we’ll see in a moment, had been idol worshipers. And if you’ve ever been in a culture of idol worship, you know it’s an environment of trying to curry favor—you’re offering things to an idol in hopes it will favor you and give you a blessing/good fortune in return. That luck could come in the form of good crops, a monetary blessing, a fertility blessing (for oneself or one’s animals), or any number of things. The idea is that you sacrifice to and worship the idol(s), and you then get good things in return or at least appease their wrath.

Those coming out of a culture of idol worship would have observed Paul’s bad “fortune” (suffering) and thought, “This is what the God of Christianity is going to give me? Alright, I’m going back to the old system! Paul doesn’t know if the Thessalonians, whom he loves, show any promise to live as faithful disciples who are expecting the return of the Lord. But Paul finds out from Timothy that the Thessalonians did not in fact return to their idolatry—they had remained faithful!

Paul finds out from Timothy that the Thessalonians did not in fact return to their idolatry—they had remained faithful!

What the Thessalonians Didn’t Know

The Thessalonians didn’t know if the return of the Lord would exclude the people they loved who had already died. We see Paul addressing this concern starting in 1 Thessalonians 4:13:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep,² so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.

This verse gives you an idea of why Paul was writing this letter. Presumably, the Thessalonians were already aware of why he was writing when the letter began, but as modern-day readers who were not in his original audience, we don’t find out the motivation behind the letter until the middle. But once you know that reason, it’s going to shape how you read everything. (By the way, that’s another way to go about studying the Bible; having found the purpose of the book, or of a letter contained within it, you can go back and read the whole thing with that revealed purpose in mind.)

You can read the whole letter on your own time, but let’s read some more of it so you can see how this purpose shapes everything Paul wrote. Here’s chapter 1 (which is only 10 verses):

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father,³ knowing, brethren⁴ beloved by God, His choice of you; for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:1–10)

Let me remind again of the context of this study—a subset of the study on eternal judgment, which is the sixth and final of the elementary principles of the oracles of God mentioned in Hebrews 5:12–6:2 that we’ve been studying for over two years. These six elementary principles are embedded in so many places in Scripture. You see them in 1 Thessalonians 1:9–10: the ideas of repenting from dead works and having faith toward God, as well as resurrection from the dead and eternal judgment. In verse 10, we see that there are two things coming from Heaven to earth: the Son of God and the wrath of God.

Paul’s teaching about these things, he said, should bring comfort to Christians because we will meet Christ when He returns, and we will also avoid God’s wrath. Should we not avoid God’s wrath, there would be little comfort in the words Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. In fact, every chapter in 1 Thessalonians ends with something to say about the return of Christ. Here are the last verses of chapter 2:

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? For you are our glory and joy. (1 Thessalonians 2:19–20)

Now, look at the last three verses of chapter 3:

Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you; and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you; 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 Thessalonians 3:11–13)

Chapter 4 also ends with talking about the coming of the Lord, as we’ve already seen (we’ll get back to those verses again in a moment). Now, skip to the end of chapter 5:

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. (v. 23)

I remind you again that Christians take many different positions on rapture specifics. Despite the various positions, apathy about the coming of the Lord is not an acceptable take.

Apathy about the coming of the Lord is not an acceptable take.

Paul situates his encouragement and commands regarding Christian conduct within the context of the return of Jesus. His desire for the Thessalonians was a more complete view of that return in the areas in which they were ignorant. Now it’s our job to fill in the gaps of our own ignorance regarding this letter. We have clues that are going to help us further our understanding of its occasion.

Clearing Up the Thessalonian Confusion

Let’s talk a little more about the Thessalonian confusion. They misunderstood something about those who had already died: Paul said he did not want them to be “uninformed” believers “about those who are asleep” (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

The term asleep, as I already mentioned, is a euphemism for death. These words are also a gentle way of reminding his audience of a temporary state. This is a sleep from which the believer will awake. It is not soul sleep. Those who have died and are with Christ are not asleep in the sense of being unconscious. They’re fully conscious and very much with Christ. This text indicates as much, as it intimates that the dead saints are with Jesus when He comes back. He’s bringing them with Himself, because that is where the dead believers are now—their souls are with Jesus.⁵

Now, what are some assumptions that we could make about the mindset of the Thessalonians? What clues are there in this passage as to what they may have been thinking?

From what Paul has written, we can probably assume that their question is not one that occurred to them while Paul was with them. Otherwise, they could have just asked it then, and he could’ve answered there. Clearly, their question is about something that they thought of later. When Timothy brings back the report to Paul, he says the Thessalonians are thriving disciples who are remaining faithful but they have this question for you—maybe we can answer it in your letter to them.

So, a possible conclusion is this: The Thessalonians anticipated that Jesus would be returning very soon—so soon that they hadn’t really thought before about “What happens if one of us dies before then?” Paul had been there; he’d been teaching them about the resurrection of Christ and other eternal things. But apparently some of them had died—probably sometime between when Paul had left them and when he was writing this letter. Remember, these were new believers of a new religion, so they’re not asking about faithful Aunt Sue who passed 30 years ago.

The Thessalonians’ grief generally seems to be related to the same thing that we all grieve when a loved one dies: separation from the loved one. The Thessalonians, however, seemed to be grieving the prospect of having this prolonged separation because they thought that participation in the glorious return of Christ was somehow reserved only for those who would, according to 1 Thessalonians 4:15, “[be] alive and remain until the coming of the Lord.” Their idea was that if you had died prior to the coming of the Lord, you were not going to participate in that glorious coming and would have to stay dead even longer; by contrast, they thought that those who were alive and remained (to use Paul’s phrasing) would be participating in the glory that followed the coming of the Lord.

The ignorance that Paul is trying to correct here was not the assumption that the dead stayed dead forever. The Thessalonians wouldn’t have thought that—he taught them the gospel, and the resurrection of the dead is a doctrine they would have understood. But there was something that caused them to think that Christ’s return would be, for those who were alive, a moment of rescue and glory, but also a moment of grief because, in that moment, they would not be with their loved ones. So they thought: Christ came, we were alive and with Him, but our loved ones have not experienced this resurrection.

Why would the Thessalonians have thought this? The text doesn’t explicitly tell us, but we can put together clues; we can start to build a systematic theology by asking “What if” questions—e.g., “What if they’d been taught this timeline? What questions might they have versus if they’d been taught some alternative timeline?

I think a reasonable conclusion is this: The Thessalonians understood that there was still a future time that would come upon the earth in which one or both of the following events would take place:

A period of great tribulation; and
The period of the kingdom.

The Thessalonians seemed to think that these two events were still in the future and would involve resurrections in various stages. Referring back to our timeline, the Thessalonians believed that only those alive at Christ’s return would be resurrected; then, those people would have had to wait at least another seven years, perhaps, to be with their loved ones. If they had to wait for the tribulation⁶ and the Millennial Kingdom, only to have the saints resurrected at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, they were facing the prospect of possibly being separated from their loved ones for a thousand plus seven years!

Here’s where I think some clues to our timeline begin to stack up. The position that I will teach is a pretribulational rapture—a position that is called premillennial.

If there is not a future tribulation that the church is going to be rescued from, and if there’s not a future kingdom, then there’d really be no reason for the Thessalonians to grieve, because those who were dead would have just been immediately raised to life. You see, with the other end-times belief systems, whether it’s amillennialism or post-millennialism, there’s a progression of history, and then everything just sort of appears at the end—the Last Judgment, and everything is settled. Believers go one way, and unbelievers go another way. In the timeline that I gave you, there are multiple and stages of judgments; there are dealings with individuals and dealings with nations. If none of that is true, then the Thessalonians could have expected an immediate reunion with their loved ones, because there would have been no future stages in history that they could have expected to take place.

Now, every position regarding Jesus’s kingdom and Jesus’s coming has some difficult questions to address, but here, any position that denies that there are future, separate stages on the timeline—like a tribulation or a kingdom to come—has to answer the question, Why are the Thessalonians troubled at all? (In the view denying stages, they’d believe Jesus comes back, we participate in His glory, and just like that, there are our loved ones as well.)

The Thessalonians understood that everyone would be resurrected. They were just confused about the order, so Paul clarifies it. He says that not only will those who have died participate in the coming of Christ, but they will actually experience the resurrection at that moment—they will be resurrected first. Look at 1 Thessalonians 4:15–16, where Paul uses a strong term:

This we say to you by the word of the Lord,⁷ that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not 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 the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Paul speaks of a generation that is alive that remains. There is a generation, then, that will not taste death. It would be pretty cool to be part of that generation, right—to not have to die!? We see this idea in another place in Scripture, also written by Paul:⁸

I tell you a mystery;⁹ we will not all sleep,¹⁰ but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51–52)

This passage references two groups: those who have died and those who are present at the Lord’s coming. The dead will be raised, and those who are alive will be changed.

Between these two passages—in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15—we have one that focuses on the order of resurrection, while the other focuses on the nature of resurrection. We talked a lot about the nature of resurrection when we were studying resurrection from the dead.¹¹ Now we’re focusing more on order.

The Settled Order

Back to 1 Thessalonians and the settled order of resurrection. Here’s the order—and this is something everyone can agree on as general principles from this passage, even if you disagree on where it fits within history:

Resurrection
Rapture
Reunion

I’m pretty sure I have those three words written in my Bible, and I encourage you to write them in the margin of your Bible, too. I probably got them from my professor, Dr. Barry Leventhal, who is one of the saints now with the Lord.

Where do we see these three events in Scripture, in order?

Resurrection: This is in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, which says “The dead in Christ will rise first.”
Rapture: We find this in the words about “be[ing] caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
Reunion: We see this idea in the same verse (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

You might think, “How can you say that everybody believes in a rapture?” Rapture comes from a Latin word meaning “the catching up” or “the gathering of the people of God.” So not everyone believes in a pretribulational rapture, or in a rapture in which only part of the world is taken into heaven at a time. But all believers do believe, in some way, that there is a gathering of the saints.

The Thessalonians knew the teaching of the resurrection, and they knew the teaching of the rapture. What they were uninformed about was the issue of reunion; that was the kicker for them.

In his letter, Paul is saying, Listen, be comforted; we will all be together with the Lord at the same time. Just as a side note, if you take up the task of studying 1 Thessalonians on your own, and if you’re looking at the letter’s purpose and how it’s written, there’s an underlying angst in this letter. Paul constantly talks about his desire to be with the Thessalonians. And so this concept of desiring to be together as believers is a foundation throughout this entire epistle.

Let’s talk about some further details now.

Further Details

We’ve seen some of the Thessalonian assumptions. What were some of Paul’s assumptions?

I think Paul assumed, at least at this point in his life, that he’d be part of a group that was alive when Christ returned. He assumed he’d be part of that rapture and reunion. (You see him use the language of “we” in this letter.)

What the Thessalonians didn’t know, but what Paul knew, needs to be contrasted with what we see in the last chapter of his letter:

As to the times and the epochs, believers,¹² you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:1–2)

Remember, there was something about the coming of Christ that the Thessalonians didn’t know: the reunion with those who have died. But the Thessalonians did know something about the return of Christ, and they apparently knew it well. That something that they knew about “the times and epochs,” to use the biblical phrase, was that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

Let’s think about this: There’s something regarding the end times that the Thessalonians didn’t know and there’s something that they knew full well. And Paul says, in essence, I don’t have to tell you anything about this topic. Why would he say that? For one, I think when it comes to times and epochs,¹³ there are parts that no one will know. We’ve seen verses in Scripture that says, “Of that day and hour no one knows,” only the Father knows.¹⁴ No one will ever know the exact time when this Day of the Lord, whatever that is, kicks off.

A second reason they did not need anything written to them was because they knew what they needed to know: that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. And there’s nothing comforting about that. So whatever Paul was writing before about comfort, this seems to fall into a different category. The coming of the Lord in terms of the Day of the Lord is a coming of judgment—it comes as a thief in the night.

Thirdly, they did not need to know about the times and epochs because they wouldn’t be participating in them.

Here’s my key proposal: When it comes to 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul has changed the subject. He’s not giving a further teaching on the rapture. He’s talked about the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18. Then, in chapter 5, he’s not simply saying, “This is what’s going to happen, but you can’t know any of the times of it.” He has actually switched subjects. That being said, these subjects are related, because this Day of the Lord that he’s now talking about, I think, is a period of judgment, that seven-year tribulation that will follow right on the heels of the rapture. This is a teaching of the Day of the Lord, then—a period that would precede and usher in the kingdom of God.

My key proposal: When it comes to 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul has changed the subject. He’s not giving a further teaching on the rapture.

I’ll try to make the case for this view after reading the entire section:

Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore comfort¹⁵ one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:1–11)

Now, why would we be justified in thinking that whatever Paul is talking about in 1 Thessalonians 5 is different from what he’s talking about in 1 Thessalonians 4? I think there are some textual markers or clues, and here’s where the detailed study comes into play.

Markers as to Why 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 Are Talking About a Different Day

There are reasons to think Paul’s talking about one topic in the fourth chapter and another topic in the fifth.

First, there’s a clear division, as we’ve already talked about, as to what the Thessalonians knew and didn’t know. Paul is addressing those things separately. The Thessalonians didn’t know about some of this order in terms of reunion, but they did know about the Day of the Lord.

Another reason to think that this is a different topic is the way 1 Thessalonians 4 ends. Note that 1 Thessalonians 4:18 serves as a conclusion to that section: “Therefore comfort one another with these words.” When he writes in chapter 5, “Now as to the times and the epochs …” (v. 1), Paul seems to be beginning a new thought about a new topic. This thought has its own, similar ending (“Therefore comfort one another and build up one another …”; v. 11). So there’s a closing of two sections, indicating two different topics.

Details, details, details. They’re quite important.

Look at the pronouns as well. In chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians, Paul repeatedly writes of “we” and “you”: “We do not want you to be uninformed … so that you will not grieve …” (v. 13); “for if we believe that Jesus died …” (v. 14); “This we say to you … we who are alive …” (v. 15). “We” and “you” appear over and over in this section because the events described apply to those who were presently alive at the time of Paul’s writing—those who were preparing to escape the wrath of the coming judgment, those who were preparing for the rapture of the church.

But what happens when we get to chapter 5? The pronouns shift to “they” and “them.” For example, he writes, “While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly … and they will not escape” (v. 3). Paul is anticipating that he’s not part of the group that will undergo the Day of the Lord. Neither is Paul anticipating that the Thessalonian believers are part of the group that will undergo the Day of the Lord.

So we have a switch in topics and a corresponding switch in pronouns.

Another reason why I think 1 Thessalonians 5 is addressing a different topic is the phrase “times and epochs” in verse 1. It’s a phrase used in Scripture only two other times. Every time it’s used, it marks the preparation of Christ’s kingdom rule. Both of the other references are related to a future kingdom of God. These are found in the Old Testament book of Daniel¹⁶ and the New Testament book of Acts:

It is He¹⁷ who changes the times and the epochs;
He removes kings and establishes kings;
He gives wisdom to wise men
And knowledge to men of understanding. (Daniel 2:21, emphasis mine)

He [Jesus] said to them [His disciples], “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.” (Acts 1:7, emphasis mine)

In the Acts verse, Jesus is responding to His disciples’ question (recorded in Acts 1:6) as to whether it is now that Jesus is setting up the kingdom. Jesus responds by saying (to paraphrase), “Oh, you want to talk about future kingdom? Okay—you want to talk about times and epochs.”

I argue that Paul, in 1 Thessalonians 5, and in keeping with Daniel and the words of Jesus, is using this phrase about the times and epochs to discuss a period of time that will introduce not the rapture but, rather, the Day of the Lord, the tribulation that must come upon the earth before the Millennial Kingdom.

Summary and Application

When you look at 1 Thessalonians 5:2–5, these verses are an indication that Paul’s audience, and by extension any believers living prior to the rapture (i.e., us today included), will not experience the Day of the Lord, the Day of Judgment:

For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness.

But you can’t check out here. You can’t say, “Okay, well, I’m not part of the day of the Lord. Cool. Nothing to do with me.” If anything, here’s the point where you need to lock in—and you should do so for two reasons:

This is the place where Paul connects Christian living to end-time events.
Here is where I want to make a unique argument.

Regarding reason number two, my argument is, I think, in the text (I wouldn’t make it otherwise). It’s subtle but profound. And if true, it’s something of a proof text of free grace theology.¹⁸

Even though the Thessalonians won’t be present for the wrath to come, which I’m going to equate with the Day of the Lord, Paul’s going to use this Day of Judgment—this Day of the Lord—and the themes of light and dark, and day and night, to make an important point. He’s going to say that since we are in fact born-again children of God, children of light, children of the day, protected against the day of darkness, then we should live out our earthly lives reflecting the light. He says this in verses 5–6:

You are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.

Nothing controversial so far. And here Paul is making yet another play on words using the term “sleep.” In chapter 4, he used the term “sleep” to reference death. But here, when he says, “Let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober” (v. 6), he’s not saying, Let us not die as others do. Rather, he’s saying, Let us not live as others do. So “sleep” here is a term used to denote spiritual sluggishness or indifference, living in the dark, or living in sin.

Our English translations will use “sleep” in both places, and that’s correct; however, in the Greek, it’s two different words—one word meaning “death,” and another word meaning spiritual sluggishness, living in darkness, living in sin. In the first instance, Paul uses sleep as a metaphor for death, while in the second instance, he uses it as a metaphor for sinfulness. Look at verses 7–9:

For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

So Paul is saying this: You are children of light, you are destined for glory, and you’re destined to avoid the wrath that is to come and the tribulation that has come. Because you’re children of light, live like it.

But here’s where you need to pay careful attention. Look at verse 10 (I’ll include verse 9, which began the sentence that verse 10 completes):

God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. (1 Thessalonians 5:9–10)

Remember, Paul uses two words for “sleep,” one meaning death, one meaning living in sin. Which one is used in verse 10? Is Paul saying, “Listen, whether we live or die, we’re going to be together with Him,” or is he saying, “Whether we’re faithful or unfaithful, we’ll be together with Him”? The word he uses in verse 10 is actually the word for living sinfully, living sluggishly, or living unfaithfully.

What does that mean? (Why does it matter!?)

I don’t think Paul is saying is that whether we live or die, we’ll live together with Him one day. That’s a true statement, but it’s not the word Paul used for death just verses before. Instead, I think Paul’s saying that whether we live lives of diligent, faithful obedience, or we fall into a life of sinfulness, we’re one day going to live together with Christ when He returns. Whether we’re spiritually awake or asleep, whether we live faithfully or faithlessly, we will live together with Christ upon His return.

That’s sobering—and controversial.

The point is that people who live lives of sin may still be true believers. Whether you’re living well or poorly, Christ is coming back for you. And if the timeline I’ve presented is correct, you, regardless of how you are living, will escape the tribulation. But we will be headed for the Judgment Seat of Christ, and we should therefore strive to be found faithful when Christ does come back. Because He will come back to gather His church and to judge His church at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

We’ll take up that topic (the Judgment Seat) in the next sermon in this series.

Whether you’re living well or poorly, Christ is coming back for you.

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