"For the Master himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of
[Yahweh]: and the dead in Messiah shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds, to meet the Master in the air: and so shall we
ever be with the Master."
All Christians and Sacred Name believers understand these verses to
mean that some saints will not see death. Instead, they will be taken
up to the clouds alive and never die.
This view is in direct contradiction to many scriptures that clearly
indicate all men must die at least once. Based on the following study
it seems clear that the common understanding of these verses needs to
be reviewed and interpreted in another way.
Gen.3:16-19, " Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy
sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;
and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of
thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee,
saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake;
in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also
and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the
herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." The curses that
Yahweh put upon the serpent (vs.14), women, and men have not yet been
lifted. The serpent still crawls on its belly; women still give birth
in pain and sorrow and must be ruled over by their husbands; the
ground does not yield as it did prior to sin; man must still work
hard for his food; and, above all, man must return to dust. It is part
of the curse that has fallen upon all, from Adam to the Apostles, and
that will continue until death is thrown in the Lake of Fire.
Rom.5:12, " Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned:" Death passed upon all men as a result of Adam's sin. The
free gift of eternal life has not literally been given yet, so all
continue to die and indeed must die.
Num.16:29, " If these men die the common death of all men, or if they
be visited after the visitation of all men; then Yahweh hath not sent
me." Death is common to all men, no exceptions.
Job 30:23, " For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the
house appointed for all living." The grave is appointed for all the
living, no exceptions.
Ps.89:48, " What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death?
Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah." The
answer to the first question is not, "Those that are alive and remain
unto Yeshua's coming." There is no man that shall not see the first
death.
Ecc.3:1,2, " To everything there is a season, and a time to every
purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a
time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;"
Yahweh's purpose for the death of men is punishment for sin. As we
shall see later, it is an appointed time.
Ecc.3:19,20, " For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth
beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the
other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no
preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place;
all are of dust, and all turn to dust again." Again, there are no
exceptions.
Ecc.9:5a, "For the living know that they shall die:" Those that are
"alive and remain" unto Yeshua's coming know this too.
Is65:20, " There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an
old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an
hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be
accursed." Death will continue to befall men during the millennium as
well.
Jn.6:39,40, " And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that
of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent
me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may
have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day."
Yeshua will resurrect all those that Yahweh has given him. Every
believer, including those that are "alive and remain" will be
resurrected. "The last day" in vss.39,40 is not the particular day of
the week that Messiah returns but pertains to the Day of Yahweh which
begins prior to the resurrection and is an extended "day."
Jn.12:24, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit." Yeshua equated himself with a grain of
wheat that must die to bear fruit. Believers are also symbolized as
wheat and must die to bear the type of fruit Yeshua meant. (See I
Cor 15:35-37).
Rom.6:5, " For if we have been planted together in the likeness of
his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:" If
our symbolic resurrection out of the water will become a literal
resurrection one day, then our symbolic death and burial will also
become a literal death and burial one day. Those that are "alive and
remain" will also undergo baptism so this applies to them as
well.
Phil.3:10,11, "That I may know him, and the power of his
resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made
conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the
resurrection of the dead." Paul's desire was to be conformed to
Yeshua's death and resurrection by undergoing these things himself
though he included himself among "we which are alive and remain."
Heb.9:27, " And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after
this the judgment:" All men are appointed to die the first death at least once.
These appointments are as sure as Yahweh's appointments of the sun,
moon, feast days, etc.
1 Pe.1:24, " For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as
the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof
falleth away:" Once again, there are no exceptions.
The previous scriptures are irrefutable proof that all men must die
as a result of sin. Why, then, do we have a misunderstanding of 1
Thess.4:16,17? There is only one other verse in all scripture that
seems to support such an erroneous belief, 1 Cor.15:51,52. "Behold, I
shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump:
for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed."
The context of this chapter is clear. Paul's intention was to refute
the belief that there is no resurrection of the dead (vss. 12,32). He
states that all die as in Adam (vs.22) and since all must die, all must be
made alive or resurrected. All must follow Yeshua in the
resurrection since he led the way as firstfruits. Paul then states in
vss. 36-38 that unless a person is sown in death he cannot be raised
to life (see Jn.12:24). Unless he is raised from the dead he will not
be given a heavenly body from Yahweh. Verse 42 says the dead are
raised in incorruption; it does not say the living are made
incorruptible. This brings us to verse 51. "We shall not all sleep"
does not mean "we shall not all die." It means, "we shall not all
remain sleeping in the grave." A word study of "koimao," number 2837
in Strong's Concordance will reveal that it refers to people that are
already dead and sleeping in the grave. If Paul had meant living
saints he would have said, "We shall not all fall asleep" which
refers to the act of dying. There is no mention of any living saints
being transformed in this verse.
Paul makes his statement, "we shall not all sleep" as a summation of
his refutation to the false teaching of no resurrection. The false
teachers said "no one resurrects. Everyone sleeps." Paul opposes them
and says, "we shall not all sleep" or "we shall not all remain
dead."
This leaves us with one verse unexplained, 1 Thess.4:17. Notice the
first word, "then." The Greek word is "epeita" also meaning afterward
or next. The Greek word "tote" means; then, at that time. "Tote"
would have been more appropriate if the living were caught up at the
same time as the dead or even shortly after. However, "epeita" was
used instead. This word was also used in Gal.1:18 meaning three years
later; in Gal.2:1 meaning fourteen years later; and in Ja.4:14
meaning an indefinite number of years later.
The proper understanding of this verse, 1 Thess.4:17, is that Yeshua
will come to resurrect the dead when the seventh trumpet is blown
(Rev.11:15). This resurrection of the saints is pictured in Rev.12:5.
Those that are "alive and remain" are pictured in Rev.12:17. They are
eventually killed by the beast and resurrected at some point prior to
Armageddon which takes place years later. Then Yeshua will come with
all the saints to set up the Kingdom of Yahweh.
The current understanding of 1 Thess.4:16,17 is incorrect and must be
changed to understand the truth of Revelation and end-time
prophecy.