I THESSALONIANS 4:16-17: THE RAPTURE?

Sometimes an original Greek word may have a narrower meaning than its equivalent in English. I Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, “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.” 

The word picture here shows Jesus descending from heaven while believers rise to meet him. From that point on, the question is, “Where will all of us be together?” Will we escort him the rest of the way down to earth, or will He turn around and take us somewhere else? And the key word that may decide the question is “meet.”

There are three basic camps of interpretation. Two of them treat this as a description of the Second 

Coming. The historical premillennialists see Jesus coming to earth at this point to set up a thousand-

year reign while the amillennialists feel he will come to earth at this point for judgment and an eternal 

reign in a renewed earth. On the other hand, the dispensationalists (also known as pre-tribulation 

premillennialists) treat this as what is popularly called the Rapture (total removal of believers from the 

earth in safety while everyone else is left behind to suffer during the tribulation). They feel that this 

passage in Thessalonians describes a “secret” coming of Christ to be followed by a later coming 

of Christ that will be universally witnessed.

Any analytical concordance will show that there are about ten different Greek words which could have 

been used here for “meet/meeting.” It will also show that the particular word used in I Thessalonians is 

apantesis, which only appears here and in two other places in the NT: the parable of the wise and 

foolish virgins (Matthew 25) and toward the end of Acts where the Roman Christians greet Paul at the 

edge of the city and escort him back into the city.

“The use of apantesis in I Thessalonians 4:17 is noteworthy. The ancient expression for the civic 

welcome of  an important visitor or the triumphal entry of a new ruler into the capital city, and thus to 

his reign, is applied to Christ. The same thoughts occur in the parable of the ten virgins. The virgins 

leave to meet the bridegroom, i.e. The Lord, to whom they wish to give a festive reception (Matt. 

25:6).” (W. Mundle, New International Dictionary of NT Theology, Vol I, p. 325.) 

 

Kistemaker (The Parables of Jesus) further explains that the bridesmaids were waiting at the bride's 

house for the groom to arrive to take his bride to the ceremonies. They are told that he is on his way 

and that they should go out and meet him with torches to light his way back to the bride's house.

What do commentators say about Acts 28:15? “Apantesis was almost a technical term for the official 

welcome of a visiting dignitary by a deputation which went out from the city to greet him and escort 

him for the last part of his journey.” (F.F. Bruce, The Book of Acts, p. 527) 

 

Thus, these two other uses are much more consistent with the understanding of the historical 

premillenialists and amillennialists. But since none of the above commentators is a dispensationalist, 

maybe they all have an axe to grind and can't be trusted. So I next went to the Bible Knowledge 

Commentary. All of the authors there are professors at Dallas Theological Seminary, which is very 

strongly dispensationalist.

“The noun apantesin, translated as an infinitive 'to meet,' was used in Greek literature of an entourage 

coming out of a city to meet an official going to the city. It is also used in I Thessalonians 4:17, which 

speaks of believers being 'caught up...to meet the Lord in the air.'” (Stanley D. Toussaint, The Bible 

Knowledge Commentary: New Testament, “Acts,” pp. 429-430.) So how does Toussaint deal with the 

fact that the word picture contradicts the idea that the believers will escape from earth at this point?

He continues, “Like an entourage, believers will go up at the Rapture into the clouds to meet Jesus, 

their Savior and Lord, coming from heaven to take them to Himself.” He stops at the point that Jesus 

takes believers to Himself and doesn't say where they go from there. 

 

In the same commentary, Thomas L. Constable (p. 705) states, “The place where the Christians will be 

was not so important to Paul as the Person with whom they will be.”  It is a beautiful thought but again 

completely evades the pivotal question of where we are all going at that point, and the whole concept 

of the Rapture, at least in its popular form today, happens to depend on this one point.