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NASB | 1 Thessalonians 4:17 Then 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 shall always be with the Lord. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Thessalonians 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain [on the earth] will simultaneously be caught up (raptured) together with them [the resurrected ones] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord! [John 14:3; 1 Cor 15:52; 2 Cor 5:8; Phil 1:23; Col 3:4] |
Subject: Will there be a partial rapture? |
Bible Note: A couple things about your post separate from my other reply. Rev. 11:12 refers to the two witnesses going to be with the Lord, not the rapture as we usually think of it. This is not unlike Enoch, Elijah, and Jesus. These cases do show people “going up to be with the Lord.” But this is for a time until Jesus returns. I was just thinking, depending on your view of the way the end times will occur, you might see the rapture as very similar to Enoch, Elijah, and the two witnesses. Next: Paul had “certain people” in mind…. It is true that the Holy Spirit knew that this letter would be read by all generations in all places, but Paul didn’t know this, nor, I am quite certain, did he even contemplate the possibility. However, good interpretation, if I can go back to my college classes for a moment, says that you need to know what a text meant in the “then and there” before you can know what it means in the “hear and now.” Or even better, “The text can never mean what it never meant.” So if 1 Thess 4:17 meant to the original hearers that Jesus would return and stay, then it can’t mean that Jesus would return and then go back to heaven with the righteous to us. Not only that, but it contradicts what Revelations 21:1-3 says and the basic picture of God dwelling with mankind from Gen. 2 – Revelations 22. Galatians 4:9-11 I am going to quote David Stern here because he says it better than I could. “…But when Gentiles observe these Jewish holidays neither out of joy in sharing what God has given the Jewish people nor out of spiritual identification with them, but out of fear induced by Judaizers who have convinced them that unless they do these things, God will not accept them, then they are not obeying the Torah but subjugating themselves to legalism; and legalism is just another species of those weak and miserable elemental demonic spirits, no better than the idols left behind. (An alternative interpretation, however, is that the “days, months, seasons, and years” of this passage …refer…to pagan Gentile feasts, naturally and directly reflecting “those weak and miserable elemental spirits.”)” ---end David Stern quote. One way we can know that Paul was not telling the Galatians (and Jews like himself in particular) to not celebrate the Jewish holidays, is because they kept doing so themselves. Even the Gentiles celebrated Passover as can be seen in Eusebius’s Church History. Book 5 # 23 from Paul Maier’s translation, “At that time (180’s AD), no small controversy erupted because all of the Asian dioceses thought the savior’s paschal (Passover) festival should be observed, according to ancient tradition, on the 14th day of the moon, on which the Jews had been commanded to sacrifice the lamb.” The story goes on to say that two groups, both celebrating the Passover as Gentile Christians, thought the fast should end on a different day. However, they all celebrated the Passover. Also by Eusebius, Book 6 #22, “…Hippolytus…wrote “The Paschal Festival”, a chronology offering a sixteen year cycle of dates for the Passover . . .” Those Historians out there may feel free to dispute my understanding of this, since my only source here is a translation of Eusebius. Also the following texts show Paul celebrating the feasts after he wrote Galatians: Act 18:21 But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus. Act 20:16 For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. 1Co 5:8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival . . . Here in 1 Cor 5:8, David Stern says, “I question [the common thought that this is figurative language]. I see no compelling reason in the context to excise the plain sense (p’shat) from the phrase, ‘Let us celebrate the Seder.’ Instead, it seems that the early believers, Gentiles included, observed the Jewish feast Pesach (Passover). As we will see, their service combined traditional Jewish Passover symbolism with the new symbolism relating to Jesus the Messiah’s central role in Jewish and world history. Evidently the Corinthian congregation observed Passover without supposing that, as many of today’s Christians might think, they were “going back under the law.” End quote. MJH |