But we
do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters,
about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as
others do who have no hope. For since we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God
will bring with him those who have died. For this we
declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are
alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will
by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord
himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s
call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend
from Heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are
alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds
together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so
we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore
encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians
4:13-18 - NRSV)
Paul
says that he will tell us a mystery, meaning that he
will explain to his readers something that had been a
secret, not previously revealed to them. Although Jesus had
already lived, died, and rose again, the Gospels had not
yet been written and circulated at the time Paul wrote
these letters.
What is
the word picture that he paints with these two passages?
-
Jesus will descend out of
Heaven.
-
With the voice of an
archangel and the trumpet of God, Jesus will command
his dead believers out of their graves.
-
The dead will rise to life in
new, immortal bodies.
-
Then, the bodies of those
believers who are still alive when that happens,
will be changed to immortal bodies also.
-
The change will be fast,
happening in the twinkling of an eye.
-
Both
those believers who had been dead and those who were
still alive will then be caught up into the clouds
to meet Jesus and be with him forever.
Notice
in the Thessalonians passage that Paul makes a
distinction between God the Father and Jesus the Son,
and he indicates that Jesus is the agency through which
God will accomplish these things. Notice also that
when he uses the term ‘Lord’, he is referring to Jesus. And lastly, notice
that he declares these things “… by the word of
the Lord…" which would seem to indicate that Jesus
had mentioned them to his disciples. Paul is claiming
that Jesus had actually talked about these things while
he was here on Earth.
That
being the case, it would be reasonable for us to search
the Gospels to see if any of the writers recorded Jesus’
words on the subject. Will
we find any? Yes
we will.
In the
fifth chapter of John, we find Jesus speaking to the
Jewish authorities in Jerusalem.
"Very
truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now
here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of
God, and those who hear will live. For just as the
Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son
also to have life in himself; and he has given him
authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son
of Man. Do
not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when
all who are in their graves will hear his voice and
will come out -- those who have done good to the
resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to
the resurrection of condemnation." (John 5:25-29 -
NRSV)
The
phrase '...the Father has life in himself…' doesn’t
merely mean that God is alive; it means that God the
Father has within him the capacity and power to bestow
life. Jesus
then indicates that God the Father has given Jesus that
power also, along with the authority to decide who to
give life to.
In this
passage, Jesus doesn’t go into as much explanation as
Paul did in his letters, but we do have some of the
elements listed by Paul:
-
Jesus is the agency who will
accomplish these things.
-
The dead saints will be
called out of their graves.
-
The dead saints will be
raised to life, not condemnation.
-
Later
on, in Chapter Six, we find Jesus speaking to a
crowd along the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
"And
this is the will of him who sent me, that I should
lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it
up on the last day. This
is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the
son and believe in him may have eternal life, and I
will raise them up on the last day." (John 6:39,40 -
NRSV)
In this
passage we find that:
-
Jesus is the agency who will
accomplish the feat.
-
He will raise up (from the
dead) those who believe in him.
-
The raised believers will
have eternal life.
In both
of the instances cited above, we have some of the
elements listed by Paul, but not all. Jesus talks about
what he will do about believers who have died, but in
neither case does he talk about those who are still
alive. Fortunately
for us, elsewhere he does.
In
Chapter 11 of his Gospel, John records the death of
Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha. When Jesus arrives
in Bethany four days after Lazarus had died, Martha
confronts him on his way into town.
Martha
said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my
brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will
give you whatever you ask of him." Jesus said to
her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to
him, "I know that he will rise again in the
resurrection on the last day." Jesus said to
her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who
believe in me, even though they die, will live, and
everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe
this?" (John 11:21-26 - NRSV)
The
phrase 'I am the resurrection and the life' mirrors the
comments Jesus made in Chapter 6. He is the agency
through which the resurrection will be accomplished, and
He has the capacity to bestow life. Actually, Jesus
appears to be correcting Martha’s misguided
understanding of the concept. She espouses a generalized belief in a
resurrection, and Jesus, in effect says, “No, I am the one
who will accomplish the resurrection.” He changes the
concept from something, which will merely happen, to
something, which He will personally carry out.
The
first half of the next sentence is rather
straightforward; the dead who had believed in Him will
be brought back to life.
This also agrees with chapter 6.
The
second half of that sentence, however, deserves a bit of
analysis and explanation, because Modern English does
not always use verb tenses in the same way that Koine
Greek did.
"…and
everyone who lives and believes in me will never die."
At first
glance, to the Modern English speaker, this appears to
say that all the people who ever became believers in
Jesus would escape death. But that would contradict the first
half of the sentence, which indicates that some will,
indeed, die. It
would also mean that people like Martin Luther, William
Tyndale, Jonathan Edwards, and Dwight L. Moody would
still be around, collecting Social Security, and perhaps
still teaching at the seminary. But they’re dead. Believers have
been dying for about twenty centuries now, so the
sentence simply must mean something else. What might that
be?
Consider
the following:
If
someone were to ask you how Old Man Smith was, you could
reply, "He lives". But,
your listener would be left hanging by such a reply,
expecting you to complete the thought by saying where Old Man
Smith lives. He
will be expecting a phrase like 'on Elm Street' or 'in a
nursing home'. Even
though the word ‘lives’ is the present tense, continuing
action form of the verb 'to live', we normally don’t use
it that way. The
word ‘lives’ is most commonly used to mean 'resides'. Thus, 'Old Man
Smith lives
on Elm Street'.
If we
merely wanted to express the thought that Old Man Smith
had not yet died, instead of saying, "He lives", we
would more likely say instead, "He is still alive".
Since
'is still alive' means exactly the same thing as the
present tense, continuing action verb 'lives', let’s
make a substitution and compare the second half of the
sentence again.
The
meaning comes through a bit more clearly, doesn’t it?
But now,
the sentence begs the question, 'Still alive, when?' Well, it’s the
second half of a sentence. Obviously it means still alive when
whatever is contained in the first half of the sentence,
happens. Still
alive when those who had died, come back to life. Let’s reprint the
whole sentence with the substitution and compare.
-
"I am the resurrection and
the life. Those
who believe in me, even though they die, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never
die."
-
"I
am the resurrection and the life. Those who
believe in me, even though they die, will live, and
everyone who is still alive and believes in me will
never die."
Suddenly,
what was cryptic becomes understandable.
-
Jesus claims the capacity to grant life.
-
Jesus says that he will accomplish the
resurrection.
-
Dead believers will be brought back to
life.
- Believers who are still
alive will live forever.
Now,
that has to
be the rapture! Jesus
may not have gone into as much detail as Paul did, but
he said enough for us to recognize that they were
talking about the same event. What Jesus said was a flat-out promise
of the Rapture!
What
happened in Bethany that day was an astounding sequence
of events. Martha
confronted Jesus and accused him of letting Lazarus die
instead of healing him.
In
response, Jesus did the following:
-
He claimed the power to grant life.
-
He promised to raise dead believers back to
life.
-
He improved the promise to not just life,
but eternal life.
-
And he included believers who would still
be alive at the time.
Then he
called a dead man back to life out of the grave to prove
that he could do what he promised!
In his
letters, Paul gave a testimony of words when he
explained the Rapture.
In Bethany, Jesus gave us a more powerful
testimony of action