The Nugget:
1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: (KJV)
1Th 4:16 because the Lord himself, in a shout, in the voice of a chief-messenger, and in the trump of God, shall come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, (YLT, Young’s Literal Translation)
1Th 4:16 for the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; (Darby translation)
1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. (NET Bible)
1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. (LEB, Lexham English Bible)
1Th 4:16 Because the Lord Himself shall come down from Heaven with a commanding shout of an archangel’s voice, and with God’s trumpet. And the dead in Christ will rise again first. (LITV, Literal Translation of the Holy Bible)
1Th 4:16 Because our Lord will himself descend from heaven, with the mandate, and with the voice of the chief angel, and with the trump of God; and the dead who are in the Messiah, will first arise; (Murdock NT)
1Th 4:16 For the Lord Himself, at the summons sounded by the archangel’s call and by God’s trumpet, will come down from heaven, and first of all the dead in union with Christ will rise, (Williams NT)
1Th 4:16 Because the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a word of authority, with the voice of the chief angel, with the sound of a horn: and the dead in Christ will come to life first; (BBE, Bible in Basic English)
1Th 4:16 There will be the shout of command, the archangel’s voice, the sound of God’s trumpet, and the Lord himself will come down from heaven. Those who have died believing in Christ will rise to life first; (GNB, Good News Bible)
1Th 4:16 The Lord will come from heaven with a command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the dead who believed in Christ will come back to life. (GW, God’s Word translation)
1Th 4:16 The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And the people who have died and were in Christ will rise first. (ERV, Easy to Read Version)
1Th 4:16 With a loud command and with the shout of the chief angel and a blast of God’s trumpet, the Lord will return from heaven. Then those who had faith in Christ before they died will be raised to life. (CEV, Contemporary English Version)
My Comment:
Our Lord Jesus Christ will return for those who believe and trust in Him BEFORE the onset of the Great Tribulation in an event called the Pretribulation Rapture.
This passage, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, together with the very next verse, 1 Thessalonians 4:17, is the most detailed discussion or presentation about this event found in the Bible. Taking these two passages together makes it most evident that the dead in Christ and the believers who are alive at the time this event takes place together at virtually the same moment in time are taken up to meet our Lord Jesus Christ as He returns to the earth.
There is no discernable time gap between what takes place in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and what transpires immediately after in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 beyond what Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:52 calls “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” where Paul speaks of this same event.
I mention this because I read with great interest just last week a book by a sincere student of the Bible where at the end of his book he suggests that we must insert a time gap of 1000 years between 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 1 Thessalonians 4:17. That, for me, was a most “surprise ending” of his book!
That hardly agrees with these texts themselves or with what Paul expresses in 1 Thessalonians 4:18, that his purpose is to enable the Thessalonian believers to “comfort one another with these words.”
There is much more to learn about what Paul is teaching about the Pretribulation Rapture in this very interesting important text.
I invite every reader here to feel free to post a comment should you have a question, or wish to express agreement or disagreement with what I posted here.
To dig deeper into the truths taught in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, read and study the cross references and notes of explanation from these two important Bible study resources:
from the original Treasury of Scripture Knowledge:
1 Thessalonians 4:16
the Lord: Isa 25:8, 9; Mat 16:27, Mat 24:30, 31, Mat 25:31, Mat 26:64; Act 1:11; 2Th 1:7; 2Pe 3:10; Rev 1:7
with a: Num 23:21; Psa 47:1, Psa 47:5; Zec 4:7, Zec 9:9
the archangel: Jud 1:9
with the trump: Exo 19:16, Exo 20:18; Isa 27:13; Zec 9:14; 1Co 15:52; Rev 1:10, Rev 8:13
and the: 1Co 15:23, 1Co 15:51, 52; Rev 20:5, 6
from the Ultimate Cross Reference Treasury:
1 Thessalonians 4:16
the Lord. 1Th 3:12, *Psa 96:13, *Isa 25:8; *Isa 25:9, *+Mat 16:27 note. +*Mat 24:30, 31; +*Mat 25:31; Mat 26:64, Mrk 13:26, Jhn 14:3, +*Act 1:11, *2Th 1:7, *2Pe 3:10, +*Rev 1:7.
himself. Clearly, the emphatic expression “For the Lord himself” (+Act 2:36) teaches that Jesus Christ will himself return in person in bodily form as a man (1Ti 2:5) for true believers at the Rapture, not as the archangel named Michael, as some most mistakenly teach. +1Th 3:11, 1Co 11:26, 2Ti 4:1.
descend. Gen 18:21, *Php 3:20.
from heaven. 1Th 1:10, Luk 2:15, Act 1:11, Php 3:20, 2Th 1:7, 1Pe 3:22.
with a shout. Gr. keleuma (S# G2752, only here). Jesus will descend from heaven with a shout. There is difference of opinion as to who will hear this shout. Will the unsaved hear it? Only the saved will hear this voice. At Jhn 5:28, 29 we are told “all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, [29] and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” This passage in John has been used by many to mistakenly teach that there is just a single, general resurrection of all the dead. A comparison of the related Scriptures will inform us that the resurrection of the just (**Luk 14:14) is an event that precedes by a thousand years the resurrection of the unjust (Isa 24:22, Rev 20:5). Therefore, there is good reason to believe that the “voice” in each case will be heard only by those to whom it is directed and for whom it is intended. This is not necessarily a “noisy” event which will be heard by the world (2Th 2:2 note). Num 23:21, 2Sa 6:15, Job 14:15, Psa 47:1; Psa 47:5, Pro 30:27 g. Jer 25:30, 31, Joel 2:11, Zec 4:7; Zec 9:9, Mat 25:6, Jhn 5:28, 29.
the voice. Note that “the voice of the archangel” does not affirm that this is an archangel’s voice, but rather is a common figure of speech in Scripture technically named Antimereia (FS24L, +Gen 6:2) which is also found at such passages as 1Ch 12:22 note (host of God, meaning a very great or numerous host); 1Ch 16:42 (musical instruments of God, meaning great or loud instruments); 2Ch 30:21, margin (“loud instruments,” Hebrew, instruments of strength); Gen 23:6, margin (“a mighty prince,” Hebrew, a prince of God); Job 1:16, “The fire of God,” or, A great fire; Jon 3:3, margin (“an exceeding great city,” Hebrew, a city great of God); Act 7:20, margin (“exceeding fair,” or, fair to God). There are many more instances of this figure. Thus, “the voice of an archangel” by this figure would mean a very loud voice. *Joel 2:11, Zep 1:14, +Mat 24:31; Mat 25:6, 1Co 14:7, 8, Rev 1:10; Rev 4:1.
the archangel. Hogg and Vine note that there is no article before “voice” and “archangel” in the Greek, “so that the quality of the voice, its majesty and authority, is intended; but there is nothing to indicate that any particular angelic chief was in the writer’s mind” (Comm. on 1 Thessalonians, p. 142). Jehovah’s Witnesses argue from this text that Jesus is the archangel Michael, since Michael is the only archangel named in Scripture (Dan 12:1, Rev 12:7). This of course is shaky inference indeed, opposed to very clear declarations of Scripture as to the two natures in Christ. The motivation for such identification is to remove the basis for the doctrine of the deity of Christ and the Trinity. But such wresting of Scripture will not stand up to careful comparison of Scripture. In Heb 2:16 it is declared that Jesus “took not on him the nature of angels,” but took on in his incarnation “the seed of Abraham.” As Paul asserts Christ before the incarnation was in the form of God (Php 2:6), Christ could not have been an archangel in time past; Scripture declares that Jesus during his earthly life “became flesh” (Jhn 1:14) and was made in the likeness of men (Php 2:7), and now as man is in heaven (1Ti 2:5). These direct assertions of Scripture leave no room before, during, or after the incarnation for Jesus Christ to have been or to have since become an archangel: He is truly man, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Col 2:9). The Jehovah Witness doctrine regarding the person of Christ also fails in that it requires the discontinuity of the person of Michael the archangel, and is subject to the same fatal objection noted in their doctrine of the mortality of the soul, namely, that not resurrection but new creation must take place in reconstituting the person, so that the same person does not exist before and after (see note on +*Mat 10:28 note. Compare 1Co 15:54 note). The apostle Peter could not truthfully assert, as he emphatically did, that it was “this same Jesus” who is now exalted to the right hand of the Father, if he believed Jesus is now Michael (+*Act 2:36). Perhaps Jehovah’s Witnesses would be helped to perceive the invalidity of their logic if we apply the same logic to the succeeding phrase: since Christ is to return with the “trump of God,” He must be God. While on other grounds this can be proven true, Jehovah’s Witnesses would rightly object to the logical form of such an argument here; and for the same reasons they find it invalid, their own argument identifying Jesus with Michael fails. Dan 10:13; Dan 10:21; Dan 12:1, Rom 8:38, Eph 1:21, Col 1:16, *Jud 1:9, Rev 12:7.
with the. To suggest that this “trumpet” equates to the seventh trumpet mentioned in the book of Revelation (Rev 11:15) to establish a chronology for the Rapture is mistaken. Furthermore, the “last trump” mentioned in 1Co 15:52 must not be understood absolutely as the very last trumpet, for clearly the post-tribulation trumpet mentioned in Mat 24:31 follows the tribulation (Mat 24:29). Not all mentions of “trumpet” refer to the same trumpet, any more than all references to the “elect” refer to the same group(s), entities, or individual(s) called “elect.” The “elect” gathered from the “four winds” of Mat 24:31 are clearly the Jewish remnant who are finally gathered to their own land supernaturally in fulfillment of the provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen 15:18), supported by the fact that all the references in Matthew 24 pertain to the Jews, as reflected by the explicitly Jewish imagery: [Mat 24:13, 14, 15 (temple), Mat 24:16; Mat 24:20 (flight on the Sabbath day), Mat 24:21 (Great Tribulation, the time of Jacob’s Trouble, Jer 30:7), Mat 24:28 (carcass, Ezk 39:4)] used throughout the passage. By this time the living believers were Raptured to be with Christ before the onset of the Tribulation, and certainly do not need to be gathered supernaturally by angels!
trump. This “trump” must not be equated with “the last or seventh trump” in Revelation (where no such expression occurs, but see Rev 8:6 and Rev 11:15), for John had not yet written Revelation; it absolutely must not be equated with Mat 24:31, for Mat 24:29 specifies that takes place “after the tribulation” and the context there pertains to the final complete regathering of Israel to their land in fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant (+Act 7:5), not the rapture of the church. The “trump of God” here spoken of takes place before the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord, for the Rapture is always mentioned by Paul in that order. Paul speaks here of the Rapture before the Day of the Lord mentioned after in 1Th 5:2, the coming of which emphatically is not a matter of comfort (1Th 4:18; Jer 30:7; Ezk 30:2, 3; **Amos 5:18). In 2Th 2:1, 2, 3 the same order is observed, for “our gathering unto him” of 2Th 2:1 is a reference to the rapture of 1Th 4:17; at 2Th 2:2 the “day of Christ,” where significant textual evidence reads “day of the Lord,” follows the mention of the rapture; 1Co 15:22, 23, 24 with 1Co 15:51, 52, 53, 54 again presents the same order, first the Rapture, then events of the Day of the Lord, for Paul places the resurrection of the “dead in Christ” and the Rapture before making reference to “Then cometh the end” in 1Co 15:24. Exo 19:13; Exo 19:16; Exo 20:18, +=Lev 23:24, Num 10:10, Jdg 7:20, 2Sa 6:15, Isa 27:13, Joel 2:1, Zep 1:16, Zec 9:14, +Mat 24:31, **1Co 15:52 note. Heb 12:19, Rev 1:10; Rev 8:13.
of God. FS24L, +1Ch 16:42 note. The “trump of God” by the same figure of speech (Antimereaia) means a loud trumpet. 2Sa 9:3 note. Psa 65:9, Zec 9:14, Rev 15:2.
and the dead. +Rom 4:17; Rom 8:10, +1Co 15:23; +1Co 15:51; +1Co 15:52, 2Th 2:1, +*Rev 14:13; *Rev 20:5; *Rev 20:6.
in Christ. Since the resurrection of the wicked is not mentioned here, this resurrection has exclusive reference to the resurrection of the righteous, a fact utterly opposed to a simultaneous resurrection of all the dead. 1Th 4:14, Rom 8:38, 39.
rise first. FS157, +1Co 15:6. This proves that Scripture does not teach a single general resurrection of the righteous with the wicked at the end of the world (xJhn_6:39), as so often taught. Here reference is made to the resurrection of the “dead in Christ,” not all the dead. Daniel asserts that “many of,” not “many,” and certainly not “all” that sleep in the earth shall awake. While “many” by a figure of speech may sometimes stand for “all” (Mat 26:28 note), such cannot be so for the phrase “many of” which is different (See Peters, Theocratic Kingdom, vol. 2, Proposition 126, Observation 2, who cites Dr. Hody to this effect, p. 245). Clearly the wicked are resurrected at another time, which Scripture elsewhere teaches is after a one thousand year interval, at the end of the millennium (Rev 20:5). Since the resurrection of the wicked is not mentioned here, this resurrection has exclusive reference to the righteous, a fact utterly opposed to a simultaneous resurrection of all the dead (Peters, Theocratic Kingdom, vol. 2, p. 297). Isa 25:6, 7, 8, 9; +*Isa 26:19 note, Isa 26:21; Isa 27:6, Ezk 37:12, **Dan 12:2, **Luk 14:14; **Luk 20:35; **Luk 20:36, Act 26:6, 7, 8, *+1Co 15:23, *Php 3:11 g. Heb 11:35, +*Rev 20:3; +*Rev 20:5; +*Rev 20:6.