1 Thessalonians 4:16 Commentary and Bible Study

He refers to the physically dead – their souls are very much alive with Christ. They have been joined to him; they are in him; they shall rise first. Imagine the scene. The language implies that this is going to be a very public matter. Some people do not think so. Some very earnest readers of the Bible think that this raising of the dead will be a kind of secret affair at first, but the language of the apostle suggests otherwise. This is what we call the Rapture. The Lord himself, in all his great glory and power, will descend from heaven. Paul describes the Lord’. He will somehow come through the skies ‘with a shout’ –a word which speaks of a command, the command of a superior to a subordinate. ‘With the voice of the archangel’ – the command will be transmitted through the archangel perhaps, or they will also join the command. ‘And with the trump of God’ – a mighty, resounding, reverberating sound, somehow heard throughout the world and the skies, not necessarily like a literal trumpet. Are these different ways of describing the same thing? Or are they three distinct phenomena? It is difficult to know, but it is a public occurrence and event. ‘And the dead in Christ shall rise first.’How will this take place? One can only use feeble imagination. The dead in Christ – those bodies have been decomposed and buried in the ground for centuries, decayed, or entirely broken down. Some of course have been burned or cremated or scattered in the sea. They are in a million particles. Perhaps they have been entirely broken down and reabsorbed by plants and other organisms. Yet amazingly and miraculously their bodies will be reassembled and reconstituted in glorified form, vastly superior to their original form. Are we to understand that they will literally be somehow brought out of seas and earth and rise? Well that is what is clearly implied. There will be a visible demonstration of the resurrection and the reconstitution of the bodies of all who have died in Christ. That will be astonishing, phenomenal, unparalleled, amazing.The life of the church on earth is now at an end. It is going to be all the people of God, the church in Heaven. The preaching of the Gospel is over. The saving of souls has been drawn to a close. The infinite patience of a loving God is now finished, and all the elect have been gathered in from every land and nation and every day and age, and now it is only judgement and fear and alarm.