"Caught up . . . in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
This passage is the foundation text for the Evangelicals doctrine of the "rapture of the church", i.e., that at the second coming, Christ will gather the saints together, take them to heaven, and rule over, but not on the earth.
Nowhere does this pasage state that the saints are taken to heaven. The evidence is the other way, since "the Lord shall descend from heaven" (vs. 16).
"And so shall we ever be with the Lord." Where? On the earth, not in heaven. This is the testimony of the Apostle Paul elsewhere in his writings. (Rom. 4: For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. cf. Gen. 13:15 and Gal. 3:27-29
and the teaching of scores of Biblical references (E.g. Dan. 7:18-27 esp. verse 27; Psa. 37:11, 22, 29; Matt. 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
; Rev. 5:10.)
Even if the passage be taken literally, the meeting of the Lord and the saints is said to be in the air. But the air extends upwards for 600 miles (a generous estimate). Are the saints to spend eternity suspended in mid-air? If it is contended that the saints only meet the Lord and are then taken up to heaven, then proof that such is the case is required. It does not come from this passage.
The Greek word, translated "caught up" does not in itself denote direction (either up or down). It simply means, "to snatch away."1 Its usage is illustrated in the following references where the same verb occurs:
"The spirit of the Lord caught away Philip." (Acts 8:39).
"The wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep." (John 10:12).
"No man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." (John 10:29).
What is meant by "the clouds"? Three possibilities exist. These are as follows:
The saints are caught away in literal clouds. Jesus was taken from the disciples' gaze by a cloud. (Acts 1:9). He will return with the same literal clouds. See Rev. 1:7 cf. Dan. 7:13; Matt. 24:30.
The clouds refer to large numbers of saints. The Greek text does not contain the definite article. The passage reads, therefore: "Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught away in clouds" (i.e., clouds of saints). Support for this interpretation is found in Heb. 12:1 where a similar image is used: "1 ΒΆ Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. . . " (i.e., the faithful listed in Heb. 11). Saints are compared with the innumerable water droplets comprising a great cloud. Some have seen the further image of the saints being exhaled from the sea of nations by the powerful beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
The clouds are those of divine glory, indicating the Divine Presence. It is stated in Matt 24:30 that the Son of man will come "in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory", but it is not certain that the great glory refers to the clouds of heaven. One disadvantage with this interpretation is that the divine cloud is invariably one cloud. The parallel passage in Luke 21:27 reads: "And they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory."
And thus the word "clouds" in 1 Thess. 4:17 is plural. It was the cloud which covered Mt. Sinai (Ex. 34:5) and guided Israel during the wilderness journeyings. (Ex. 13:21 14:19). Similarly, it was the cloud of glory which filled the Tabernacle (Nu. 9:15,16) and the Temple of Solomon (1 Kings 8:11).
A destroyer going up against a nation with great forces, is thus referred to by Jeremiah. "Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots as a whirlwind" (4:13).
"like a cloud to cover the land" (38:9).
The apocalyptic "coming with the clouds" is the same as that described in Dan. 7:13: "I was seeing," says the prophet, "in the vision of the night, and behold, there was coming, with clouds of heavens like a Son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before Him." These Clouds of Heavens were the "thousand thousands serving the Ancient of Days; and the myriad myriads that stood before him" -- the flames of his fiery throne, his wheels of burning fire, and the stream of flowing fire that issues from before him. Collectively a Son of man in whom the Ancient of Days, or Eternal Spirit, comes to execute the judgment written; and to set up and possess the kingdom (ver. 22).
And thus, "In the heavens, O YAHWEH, thy mercy; thy truth is to the clouds" (Psal. 36:5); that is, His promised kindness is manifested in the New Heavens; and His truth is for those clouds of witnesses who shall compose them.
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TWINKLING OF AN EYE IS NOT ABOUT SPEED OF RAPTUREby harmono111 views
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