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13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 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. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

PART 1: THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTEXT IN ESCHATOLOGY

For over a century, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 has been the golden calf of dispensational eschatology. Ripped from its historical and biblical moorings, it has been paraded before congregations as the ultimate proof of a secret, end-times rapture—a sudden vanishing of millions, leaving behind chaos, empty clothes, and abandoned vehicles. The sheer weight of tradition and repetition has made this doctrine seem unassailable to many evangelicals. But just because a lot of preachers preach it, and a lot of seminaries teach it, does not make it true.

This passage has been hijacked, twisted, and rebranded to fit an eschatological system that did not even exist before the 19th century. The idea of a pre-tribulation rapture is totally absent from the pages of church history until dispensational charlatan John Nelson Darby invented it. The early church fathers, the Reformers, and centuries of biblical scholars never interpreted 1 Thessalonians 4 in the way modern prophecy shamans do. It was only through a combination of speculative thinking, esoteric proof-texting, and a near-total disregard for biblical context that this fantasy gained traction.

The stakes could not be higher. If 1 Thessalonians 4 does not teach a secret rapture, then dispensationalism collapses under its own weight. Without this very passage, there is no pre-tribulation escape, no two-stage return of Christ, no great disappearance before the supposed seven-year tribulation. If this text falls, their entire theological framework crumbles like a house of cards. 

And, what we are going to see today is that it most certainly does fall—utterly and completely—when you read the passage in its proper biblical, linguistic, and historical context.

To grasp Paul’s meaning, we must strip away all modern assumptions and return to the first-century world. Who was Paul writing to? What were they experiencing? What did his words mean to them, in their language, in their context, and in their time? Without this, we will inevitably impose our own modern biases onto the text. And that is precisely what has happened for far too long.

And as you will see, Paul was not penning a coded message to 21st-century Americans obsessed with end-times lore, messy charts, and bestselling prophecy fiction when he wrote 1 Thessalonians 4. He was writing, instead, to real people—first-century Thessalonian believers—who he knew personally, and was speaking into the suffering and persecution he knew they were enduring under the violence of the Jews and of Rome. He was writing to people who knew the promises of Christ, who believed that Jesus would bring the Old Covenant to an end, but who had not yet seen these things come to pass! They feared, like all of us would have feared if we were in their shoes, that their mom’s, dad’s sisters’ brother’s, and friends who believed in Jesus but died before they saw these things come to pass, would somehow miss out on the Kingdom Christ was bringing.  They were looking around and seeing that the temple still stood, the Jews were becoming more violent in their opposition to the church, and many of them were wondering if following Christ was worth the costs. They were wondering if Jesus really was going to bring the entire old covenant to an end, and to fully inaugurate a new covenant world, which would be evidenced by the resurrection of the saints. 

To these men, women, and children, this was not an abstract theological debate; it was real life. And Paul was writing them a very pastoral letter, meant to comfort them in their distress and to give them hope that Jesus and His church was the future of the world, not the Jews, their law, and their temple. To rip this book out of its historical setting and pretend that Paul wrote it with us in mind, is to ignore our suffering brothers and sisters in Thessalonica, and to pretend that we are more important than them. It is a kind of brother hatred to prioritize our context and our time over theirs. Especially when there are no exegetical reasons for doing it!  

So, for the next few moments, I want us to look at this passage, show how Paul is talking to them, about things that will happen in their lifetime, and not about a psychedelic mystery rapture. 

PART 2: CONTEXT AND TIME IN THESSALONICA

The first thing we need to understand is that Paul was not speaking into a normal era of history. He was addressing believers living in the most unique and non-repeatable period of world history. They were living between the years of AD 30 and AD 70, which may not sound that strange to you and I, but they were at the center of two worlds colliding. The Old Covenant world was collapsing; it was waning; it was setting but still standing. The temple still loomed over Jerusalem’s horizon. The priesthood still functioned in the temple courtyard. Sacrifices were still being made on the altar. But, according to Jesus, and Paul, this era was quickly coming to an end. 

Christ had pronounced its doom in Matthew 23. He had told the disciples that not one stone of the temple would be left upon another in Matthew 24. He had declared an end to the old system and had established a New Covenant in His blood. That covenant had already begun to rise; it was already cresting; it was going to be the last and final era of human history. The Spirit had been poured out at Pentecost, inaugurating this final era. The gospel was going to the nations as a sign that the end of the old world had come. The kingdom was expanding. But it had not yet come in its fullness yet, because it was existing alongside that rival world of the Jews. The old order had not yet been torn down, and this is important. Because, this forty-year period, from Christ’s resurrection to the destruction of Jerusalem, is the only time in the entire saga of man, where two eras of redemption were overlapping. And, understanding this, is the key to unlocking Paul’s words in the book of Thessalonians, because it is the reality in which Paul and his audience were living.

This is what makes dispensationalism so absurd. It ignores the utterly unique context these men and women were living in and tries to force the passage and others into a future world that looks nothing like the first century. Paul was not writing to Christians living in a settled, stable church age. He was writing to believers who were standing in the eye of the storm. The old world was groaning in its death throes. It was dying as gracefully as a rabid dog. And at the same time, the new world was emerging, with the dexterity and mobility of a toddler. Everything was in flux. The Jews were desperately trying to hold onto their power, violently persecuting the church in a last-ditch effort to stop what they knew was coming. The Romans, at first indifferent, were beginning to take notice, and persecution was coming from them. 

This caused churches like the Thessalonians to be caught in the crosshairs. They were not living in a normal, repeatable period of history. They were living in the last days of the old covenant world, as Hebrews 1:2 tells us.

That is why Paul’s words are so urgent. That is why he says to them, “We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord.” Paul is clearly thinking that some people in that Thessalonian church would remain until the Lord comes! This would have been meaningless if Paul thought these things were about the end of the physical cosmos. Instead, he wrote to them, telling them to have endurance, to be patient, and to wait like Christians, since some of them would be alive when Jesus returned! You either have to believe that the “coming” of Christ is a judgment coming on Jerusalem that happened in AD 70, or that Paulie has lost his marbles. 

And, as we have repeatedly proven on this show, Paul was not only wicked smaht and knew the seismic shift that was happening in redemptive history, but, as we have seen, it is the dispy’s who really have a hole in their marble sack. The things Paul was describing were not patterns that would repeat themselves in every generation. They were events that belonged to that one generation alone. If we do not read this passage with that in mind, we will never understand it properly.

Also, if we do not read 1 Thessalonians 4, in light of what Jesus said in Matthew 24, we will not understand what Paul is getting at. Why do I say this, because as you will soon see, these passages are inextricably connected! And that leads us to: 

PART 3: PAULINE AND OLIVET CONTINUITY

Today, many dispensationalists have abandoned the idea that Matthew 24 is talking about a rapture, because it so clearly isn’t. This is why now they hang their entire case on 1 Thessalonians 4, as if that approach would help them. And, as it turns out, it doesn’t because these passages are so connected, they not only talk about the same things, but say them in the exact same ways. 

Let me be unavoidably clear. If Matthew 24 was fulfilled in AD 70, then so was 1 Thessalonians 4. If Matthew 24 is not about a future Rapture, then neither is 1 Thessalonians 4. Why? Because Paul covers the same things, saying them in the exact same ways, in the book of Thessalonians, as Jesus covers in Matthew 24. And, as you will see, the continuity is striking!  

This means that if one is preterist, both are preterist. If Matthew 24 was about the judgment of Jerusalem and the end of the Old Covenant era, then so is 1 Thessalonians 4. And now, I am going to prove it to you! 

For instance, Jesus in Matthew 24 and Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4 both describe Christ coming down from heaven. In Matthew 24:30, Jesus says, 

"Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory." 

Paul echoes this exactly in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, saying, 

"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout." 

If one passage is about AD 70, so is the other. 

Both passages also include the voice of an archangel. In Matthew 24:31, Jesus says, "And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet blast," while Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says Christ will come "with the voice of the archangel." The theme is identical—divine judgment and vindication is about to happen in the Old Covenant world, and that judgment will be accompanied by angelic proclamation. There is no justification for thinking Paul is talking about something different than Jesus is in His Olivet Discourse.

Here are more examples. Both passages describe the trumpet of God. Jesus says in Matthew 24:31, "And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet blast," and Paul echoes the same thing, saying: "And with the trumpet of God" (1 Thessalonians 4:16). If the trumpet in Matthew 24 is about heralding the destruction of Jerusalem, then the trumpet in 1 Thessalonians 4 is being use in the exact same way. 

Likewise, both passages describe the gathering of believers. Jesus says in Matthew 24:31, "And they will gather together His elect from the four winds," while Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 writes, "Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds." Jesus’ elect are gathered, and the believers in the Thessalonian church are gathered. Same language, same imagery, same event.

Paul continues borrowing from Jesus' words when he describes believers meeting Christ in the clouds. Jesus says in Matthew 24:30, "They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky." Paul mirrors this in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, saying, "We... will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord." If Jesus was using apocalyptic language to describe His coming in judgment, then Paul is doing the same thing. 

This is reinforced by the fact that both Jesus and Paul use contemporary language, indicating a near expectation of these events. Jesus declares in Matthew 24:34, "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place." Paul likewise writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:15, "We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord." Paul was not writing about something thousands of years away—he expected some of his own audience to be alive when it happened, just as Jesus had prophesied in Matthew 24.

Both passages also emphasize that the time of Jesus’ coming is unknown. Jesus in Matthew 24:36 states, "But of that day and hour no one knows." Paul echoes this in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-2, "You yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord is coming just like a thief in the night." If one passage is preterist, so is the other. Jesus literally says that Christ will come like a thief in the night (Matthew 24:43), and Paul uses that exact same term in 1 Thessalonians 5:2. Do we really think that was a coincidence?

Let’s keep going… Jesus warns that unbelievers will be caught unaware, just like in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37-39), and Paul repeats this in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, describing how unbelievers will be saying "peace and safety" before sudden destruction falls upon them. The warning is the same because the event is the same.

The parallels continue with the imagery of birth pains. Jesus in Matthew 24:8 describes the coming judgment as "the beginning of birth pains," and Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:3 says, "Then sudden destruction will come upon them like labor pains upon a woman with child." Do we expect that Paul is just accidentally using all of the same phrases and terms as Jesus, while describing a totally distinct and different event? Of course not! Paul is applying the teaching of Christ to believers to remind them of the first century coming of Christ! 

Here is another one, Jesus exhorts believers to be watchful in Matthew 24:42, "Therefore be on the alert, because you do not know which day your Lord is coming," and Paul says the same in 1 Thessalonians 5:6, "So then, let’s not sleep as others do, but let’s be alert and sober."

Paul also borrows from Jesus in his exhortation against drunkenness. We know this because Jesus warns in Matthew 24:49 that the wicked servant "begins to drink with the habitually drunk," while Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:7 writes, "For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who are drunk, get drunk at night." This is not a coincidence. Paul is consistently drawing from the well of words, analogies, and phrases Jesus uttered on the Mount of Olives. And since we have proven that the Olivet Discourse is about the destruction of the Jews in AD 70, we can conclude that Paul is mirroring Jesus’ language in Thessalonians for the same intent.

Both passages also use the same light and darkness imagery. Jesus in Matthew 24:27 compares His coming to lightning flashing from east to west, while Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:5 writes, "You are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness."

Jesus in Matthew 24 declares that the faithful will be rescued from tribulation (Matthew 24:13-14, 22), and Paul mirrors this by saying believers are delivered from wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9). Jesus speaks of angelic involvement in the gathering (Matthew 24:31), and Paul describes the archangel’s role in Christ’s coming (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Jesus uses Old Testament Day of the Lord judgment imagery (Matthew 24:29-31), and Paul does the same (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3).

The suddenness of judgment is also the same. Jesus compares it to the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37-39), and Paul compares it to sudden destruction while people say "peace and safety" (1 Thessalonians 5:3). Finally, both passages emphasize that both the living and the dead participate in the event. Jesus in Matthew 24:40-41 describes some as "taken" and some are "left" (referring to judgment, not rapture), while Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 says, "The dead in Christ rise first, then we who are alive and remain will be caught up."

These parallels are too overwhelming to ignore. Paul is not introducing a new eschatological event; he is reinforcing what Jesus already taught and delivering it to a new audience (The Thessalonians). Matthew 24 and 1 Thessalonians 4-5 are speaking about the exact same thing: Christ’s judgment on Jerusalem, the final end of the Old Covenant era, and the full establishment of His kingdom. If we have proven that Matthew 24 was fulfilled in AD 70, then the case is closed. Because 1 Thessalonians 4 (in mirroring Jesus) is saying the same thing!  To separate them is to do violence to the text, which means that the dispensationalist fantasy is over. Paul was speaking of a first-century reality, and that reality was the destruction of Jerusalem and the vindication of the saints. Case closed… 

Well, not completely. Because while I think I have proved the point, I do want to work through the text of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 with you, phrase by phrase, just to make sure we are fully grasping the point. And what is the point? That the rapture is not Biblical. It is a made up fairy tale by an imaginative theologian that has taken hold and crippled the church. So, we want to make sure we cut out all the cancer before we conclude today’s episode! And that brings us to: 

PART 4: “WE DON’T WANT YOU TO BE UNINFORMED”

Paul begins this section with a super pastoral tone, saying: "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren.” He is not talking to you and I. He has real people in mind. People he has pastored. People he knows from the church he planted in his mind. He is writing with love to people he has hugged, greeted with a holy kiss, and comforted in their affliction. To begin the letter that “we” (Paul and the apostolic community) “do not want you” (the Thessalonian Church) “to be uninformed,” he is basically forbidding us from applying a futuristic hermeneutic to his message. Why? Because it is so clearly for them, and not for us. It was addressed to them, postmarked to them, delivered to them, opened by them, and enjoyed by them! 

To think that this applies to you and I would be like stealing someone else's mail out of their own mail box and acting like the sender was speaking to us! If someone did that I would think they are a sociopath. And yet, an entire swatch of Christendom calls that kind of madness Biblical. 

From the outset, Paul is making it clear that this is not an esoteric prophecy about a far-distant event disconnected from the concerns of his audience. This is about them—the first-century Thessalonian Christians—who were facing real grief, real suffering, and real trials that they would need to walk through. And because he does not want his friends to be uninformed, and suffering without hope like the pagans, he gives them the very words of Christ, to comfort them that Jesus’ judgment coming was coming soon.

It would be like a victim of rape, listening to the judge pronounce the guilty verdict on the perpetrator. It would be like the mother getting alerted that the execution of a violent criminal who killed her son, was scheduled for the immediate future. These men and women were suffering at the hands of the bloodthirsty Jews, and Paul is reminding them to hang on, because the coming of the Lord would rescue them! 

Imagine if Paul was talking about us. He would have to look those poor souls in the eyes and say, “I know you are suffering. I know you are beaten and wounded. I know they are executing you for your faith and their temple still stands. I know they killed one of your daughters and their high priests are still offering sacrifices. But fear not, because I want to tell you about a rapture that will not happen for 2,000 years.” Can you imagine how sick and unloving that would be to say such a thing to such a people? And yet, dispensationalists believe that Paul mercilessly ignored the Thessalonian context and spoke right to you and I. 

The very fact that Paul says, “we do not want you to be uninformed” tells us everything we need to know about the context. He is talking to them! He was reminding them that they would not be excluded. The Jews will be punished. The resurrection of the soul is still coming. The New Covenant is still winning. And he was inviting them to simply take a deep breath, wait, and see the vindication of the Lord. That is the first thing I would like to point out in chapter 4! 

Next we will look at: 

PART 5: THOSE WHO HAVE FALLEN ASLEEP

Paul’s next phrase in chapter 4 concerns “those who have fallen asleep.” Now, I am here to tell you that Paul is not talking about everyone in the congregation who has taken a nap. This is covenantal language. A theological term for those who have died but have not yet resurrected. And, if we’ve been paying attention, this should immediately remind us of something.

Think of Adam. God put him into a death-like sleep, only to raise him up to claim his bride. Think of Abraham in Genesis 15—cast into a deep, dark slumber, before awakening to the fiery presence of Yahweh sealing the covenant. These moments were not just personal experiences; they were covenantal turning points—times when God moved from one reality to another.

And that is exactly what is happening here. Men and women in the Thessalonian church had died. Their loved ones were grieving, but their grief was tangled up with a theological dilemma: “If they died before the ‘coming’ of the Lord, will they be left out of the resurrection?” They knew Jesus had prophesied the end of the old age and the arrival of the new (Matt. 24:3). They knew judgment was coming upon Jerusalem, and with it, the final removal of the temple. And yet, as time marched forward and believers began dying, doubt crept in. Would they miss out on the full unveiling of the kingdom?

To say it another way, this was a uniquely covenantal crisis. When we die today, we know exactly what happens—our souls go immediately into the presence of Christ. But for them, this was a new and disorienting reality. They knew that before Christ, the dead went to Sheol, awaiting the resurrection. They understood the shadow of the old covenant, where the dead still waited in the grave for redemption. But what now? With the new covenant dawning, what happened to those who perished before it fully arrived?

Paul’s answer is urgent and clear: Do not fear! Those who have died in this unique moment in history will be the first to rise! They will not be left out of Christ’s coming victory. When Christ returns to put down the old world and establish the fullness of His kingdom, they will rise and reign with Him! Once that old rival kingdom is cast down, every soul who dies in Christ will go immediately into His presence, awaiting the final bodily resurrection. They will live with Jesus in perfected spirit, until the day when soul and body are reunited in glory.

Paul’s message is not about a distant rapture. It is about an imminent reality. The covenantal resurrection of those saints was at hand. And far from being forgotten, they would be the first to be vindicated, the first to be glorified, the first to step into the blessings of the new age.

And yet, modern readers—especially dispensationalists—rip these verses out of history and force them into a speculative end-times fantasy. They ignore Paul’s audience, his urgency, and his covenantal framework. They do not realize that Paul is not describing a general resurrection of all believers across history. He is speaking to the first-generation saints—those who had fallen asleep before the final arrival of the kingdom. And he is telling the Thessalonians, Do not be afraid. These saints will rise first!

This is what Paul means by “those who have fallen asleep.” It is not about us. It was about them. And the moment we understand this, the passage comes into blazing clarity—this was not a blueprint for a future rapture, but a first-century promise of covenantal resurrection.

Now, lets keep moving and go to: 

PART 6: “THOSE WHO REMAIN”

Paul continues his argument:

"For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep." (1 Thess. 4:15)

So far, Paul has assured the Thessalonians that their departed brothers and sisters in Christ would be the first to enter the kingdom’s full glory when the Old Covenant world collapsed. But what about them—the ones who were still alive? What would happen to those who remained?

Unlike the dead, these Thessalonian believers were watching history unfold in real time. They were living through the final days of the Old Covenant era, enduring persecution, and waiting for the promises of Christ to be fulfilled.

They weren’t waiting for a secret rapture to snatch them into the sky. They were waiting for the visible, covenantal coming of the Lord—the moment when the Old Covenant world would finally fall, and the New Covenant kingdom would stand alone.

Jesus had warned that great tribulation would come upon that generation (Matthew 24:21). The destruction of Jerusalem would be unlike anything they had ever seen. But those who remained—the faithful saints who endured until the end—would witness the greatest transition in history.

They wouldn’t experience death before seeing the judgment upon their enemies, the removal of the old world, and the full arrival of Christ’s kingdom.

Paul’s comfort to them is this: they weren’t at a disadvantage. They wouldn’t be left behind or forgotten. In fact, they were the ones who would survive the judgment and witness the triumph of Christ firsthand.

They had not died before the kingdom’s arrival, and that meant they had a mission—to remain faithful, to endure the coming tribulation, and to see the Old Covenant fall with their own eyes.

Jesus had already promised this in Matthew 24:13: “The one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”

Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 4:15 echo that same truth: 1) The dead in Christ would be the first to enter the fullness of the kingdom; 2) But those who remained alive would be the first to witness it.

Modern dispensationalists rip this passage out of its first-century context and force it into an imaginary end-times event. They read “we who are alive and remain” and assume it’s referring to a future generation that will avoid the Great Tribulation.

But that’s not what Paul was saying. He was writing to real people in the first century who were about to go through the most cataclysmic event in redemptive history. To them, this wasn’t about escaping to the sky. This was about surviving the collapse of a world. The old world of the Old Covenant.

When Jerusalem fell in AD 70, those who remained—the ones who endured—would step fully into the kingdom era. They would be the living witnesses of the public vindication of Christ, the destruction of His enemies, and the unstoppable expansion of His reign.

To remain wasn’t just about being alive—it was about being preserved through the fire. It was about standing firm while the wicked were swept away.

Think of Noah. He remained while the world was destroyed.
Think of Lot. He remained while Sodom burned.
Think of the faithful remnant in Jerusalem. They remained while the city fell.

Paul’s words are not about a rapture. They are about survival, endurance, and victory. And that leads to the next question: What does it mean that Christ Himself will descend?

That’s what we’ll tackle in:

PART 7: THE ONE WHO DESCENDS

Paul’s statement in 1 Thessalonians 4:16—

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God”

This has been tragically misread by modern futurists, who see it as a future, bodily descent of Christ at the end of history. But when read in light of the prophets, and in light of the apocalyptic genre, and in light of its proper biblical and historical context, it becomes clear that Paul was not describing the end of the world but the end of the Old Covenant age. This was about Christ coming in judgment against apostate Israel, a reality that was soon to take place in the first century and was prophesied for many centuries leading up to the event.

For instance, throughout Scripture, God’s 'coming' is often described in judgment language, not in terms of a literal descent from heaven. In Isaiah 19:1, God says, 'Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt.' This did not mean that God was going to visibly appear doing an ollie off the clouds, circling down heaven’s vert ramp, en route to Egypt. This was instead prophetic imagery. This was language used consistently to depict His judgment against the nation.

The same is true in passages like Micah 1:3-4, 

'For behold, the Lord is coming forth from His place. He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. The mountains will melt under Him, and the valleys will be split like wax before the fire, like water poured down a steep place.' 

Here, the Lord’s coming is not a visible, bodily descent but a poetic description of His judgment.

Likewise, in Psalm 18:7-15, David describes God's deliverance using apocalyptic imagery: 

'Then the earth shook and quaked; and the foundations of the mountains were trembling and were shaken, because He was angry… He bowed the heavens also and came down with thick darkness under His feet… He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies… The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered His voice, hailstones and coals of fire.' 

This language is clearly metaphorical, describing divine intervention in judgment rather than a literal breaking of the cosmos.

The same interpretive key applies to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, where Paul speaks of 'the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God.' The Lord’s descent here is not a physical event but a covenantal one—a coming in judgment against Jerusalem, echoing the same prophetic motifs found throughout the Old Testament.

This understanding is reinforced by the language of divine warfare used in the passage. Paul says the Lord comes “with a shout,” which is a battle cry like soldiers screaming as they run toward their enemies. When Joshua and the Israelites surrounded Jericho, they raised a great shout, and the walls fell (Joshua 6:20). The same war cry is heard in Joel 2:11, where God leads His heavenly army against His enemies. This imagery fits perfectly with Christ’s coming in AD 70, where He, as the true King, is raising up His voice in judgment, just before the walls come tumbling down! 

This passage is talking about Jesus descending on His enemies, like the Israelites descended on theirs. Any peyote infused technicolor rapture we can dream up, is just that, a dream. 

We see that even clearer in: 

PART 8: THE TRUMPET THAT IS BLOWN

For centuries, men have imagined this as a cosmic siren, a deafening sound that will one day rip through the universe and signal the evacuation of the church from the earth. They see believers disappearing, chaos unfolding, pagans averting and plugging their ears, and the end of all things arriving in an instant.

But that is not what Paul was talking about.

When Paul said, “with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess. 4:16), he wasn’t announcing the end of the world—he was announcing the end of a world. He wasn’t writing about the collapse of creation—he was writing about the collapse of the Old Covenant order.

To understand what this trumpet meant, we have to look back at the pattern of Scripture.

The trumpet was never a random sound. It was never just noise. It was a declaration. A warning. A summons. A battle cry. In the days of Israel, the trumpet was the signal of divine intervention. It was the sound of God stepping onto the battlefield.

Isaiah said a trumpet would be blown to summon the exiles home and judge Israel’s oppressors. Joel said the trumpet would sound before the great and terrible Day of the Lord. Zephaniah said it would ring out before God poured out His wrath on Jerusalem. And who can forget Jericho? The priests circled the city for seven days, blowing trumpets, until on the seventh day, the walls fell in ruins.

This is what trumpets meant. They did not signal an escape—they signaled a reckoning. They were the sound of God’s arrival for war. And that is exactly what Paul was describing.

As we have said, the Thessalonians were not waiting for an otherworldly evacuation. They were waiting for vindication. They were suffering. Their enemies were still in power. The old world had not yet collapsed. And they wanted to know: How long, O Lord? How long before justice is done? Paul’s answer? Not much longer. The trumpet is about to sound.

It was the same trumpet Jesus had spoken of in Matthew 24 when He said, “And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds.” Jesus had made it clear—when Jerusalem fell, when the temple was destroyed, when the smoke of divine judgment rose over the ruins of the old world, then the kingdom of Christ would be fully revealed. And now Paul was telling them that moment was at hand. This trumpet wasn’t announcing their departure. It was announcing their arrival.

Modern readers have twisted this beyond recognition. They rip this trumpet from its first-century setting and fling it into some imaginary future. They believe it speaks of the rapture, of an end-times event where Christians vanish and the world plunges into chaos.

But they are wrong.

Paul was not writing about a future event. He was writing to real believers in a real church, living through a real crisis. They weren’t sitting around speculating about the far-off future—they were enduring trials, they were being persecuted, and they were clinging to the promises of Christ’s imminent victory.

That’s what the trumpet meant. It meant that the old world was about to fall. The persecutors were about to be crushed. The wicked rulers were about to be cast down. And the faithful—those who had suffered, those who had remained, those who had watched their brothers and sisters die in Christ—would see His kingdom rise in power. This was not about an evacuation. It was about triumph.

When that trumpet sounded, it would be the sound of God’s war against His enemies. It would be the sound of Christ putting His foes beneath His feet. It would be the sound of the New Covenant standing alone, never to be shaken again.

The Thessalonians weren’t waiting to leave the earth. They were waiting for their vindication to arrive. And it was coming.

PART 9: THOSE WHO ARE CAUGHT UP

For years, this verse has been ripped from its context and turned into a cosmic evacuation manual. Futurists have imagined Christians shooting into the sky like astronauts, meeting Jesus in midair, and disappearing while the world burns.

But that is not what Paul was saying.

When Paul wrote, 

“Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:17), 

he wasn’t describing an escape. He was describing a victory procession.

The Greek word harpazō means to seize, to claim, to take by force. It is the language of conquest. It does not mean removal from the earth—it means being gathered into Christ’s triumph.

And that’s exactly what this moment was.

Paul wasn’t saying the Thessalonians would leave the planet. He was saying they would be lifted into the full reality of Christ’s kingdom. The dead in Christ had already been vindicated, and now the living saints would be swept into that same covenantal glory.

But what about the clouds? Throughout Scripture, clouds are not transportation vehicles—they are divine enthronement symbols. Daniel 7, Matthew 24, and the entire biblical tradition use clouds to signify God's rule and His presence in judgment. To be “caught up in the clouds” is not about flying away—it’s about Christ’s kingdom being publicly revealed.

And what about the phrase “to meet the Lord in the air”? This has nothing to do with being airlifted. The Greek word apantēsis refers to going out to welcome a victorious ruler. In Matthew 25:6, the virgins go out to meet the bridegroom and escort him back to the wedding. In Acts 28:15, believers go out to meet Paul and bring him into Rome.

The same is true here. The saints weren’t being raptured away. They were meeting Christ in His coming and reigning with Him in His kingdom.

And why does Paul say they meet Him “in the air”? Because the air was enemy territory.

In Ephesians 2:2, Paul calls Satan “the prince of the power of the air.” To a first-century audience, the air was the battleground. The spiritual realm had been ruled by demonic forces. But now? Christ was taking it.

To the Thessalonians, this was not abstract theology. Their city was a hotbed of pagan superstition, enslaved to omens, sacrifices, and rituals meant to ward off evil spirits. They had spent their lives in fear of these unseen rulers. But Paul was telling them: the air, once ruled by darkness, now belongs to Christ.

This was not about going "up" in a literal sense, because heaven is not up. Heaven is not a physical location hovering above the clouds. The biblical concept of “up” has nothing to do with altitude—it has everything to do with exaltation.

Jesus ascended into heaven, not because He went higher in physical space, but because He was enthroned in glory. The same is happening here. The faithful were not being lifted off the ground—they were being lifted into the triumph of Christ’s dominion.

This was not a retreat. This was an invasion. The faithful were not being snatched away to safety. They were being gathered into Christ’s reign, standing in His victory, exalted with Him as He crushed the kingdom of darkness.

Paul’s message was not about leaving the world. It was about overcoming it.

The Thessalonians weren’t being whisked into the sky. They were being sealed into the victory of Christ’s kingdom.And that kingdom was coming in full force in their generation.

PART 10: A FIRST CENTURY COMFORT

Paul was not some detached theologian, locked away in an ivory tower, crafting theories about the distant future. He was a battle-hardened shepherd, a man who carried the scars of persecution, who had bled for the church, who had suffered alongside the very people he was writing to. This was not cold doctrine. This was personal.

The Thessalonians were not debating eschatology for fun. They were grieving—real grief, not theoretical sorrow. Their world was unraveling. Loved ones were dying. Friends were being dragged off, beaten, and executed. They had heard Jesus’ words about the end of the Old Covenant age, but doubt was creeping in. The temple still stood. Their persecutors still ruled. And worst of all—some of their own had died. Would they miss out on the kingdom? Had they perished too soon? Paul refused to let despair take root.

"We do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you will not grieve as the rest who have no hope." (1 Thess. 4:13)

Paul’s words are not a rebuke—they are a father’s hand on a trembling shoulder. Yes, their loved ones had died. Yes, the storm clouds of judgment were gathering. But Paul was lifting their eyes to the horizon of hope. He was showing them that their suffering was not meaningless, that their pain was not unseen, and that their fallen brothers and sisters were not left behind.

"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven… and the dead in Christ will rise first." (1 Thess. 4:16)

This is not an abstract promise. This is a divine decree, a pledge that those who died in faith were not forgotten, not forsaken, not erased from the story of redemption. They would be first—first to enter the full glory of Christ’s kingdom, first to stand in triumph, first to taste the vindication that was rushing toward them like a tidal wave.

And what about those who were still alive? Paul’s answer is simple: Stand firm. Hold the line. The kingdom is coming in your lifetime. The Thessalonians were not to huddle in fear, anxiously awaiting a rapture—they were to lift their heads, steel their spines, and prepare to witness the overthrow of the old world. The persecutors who oppressed them were on borrowed time. The temple system that rejected Christ was crumbling. The covenantal shift was at hand, and they were about to see it with their own eyes.

"Therefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thess. 4:18)

Comfort. Not confusion. Not terror. Not hopeless speculation. Comfort. Because the kingdom was near, because their suffering had an expiration date, and because the enemies of Christ were about to be shattered, and the faithful were about to be exalted. This was the heartbeat of Paul’s letter. He was not warning them about an end-times evacuation. He was arming them with confidence in Christ’s victory.

Dispensationalists twist these words into a message of weakness. They turn Paul’s charge of endurance into a coward’s escape hatch, ripping it out of history, forcing it into a timeline it was never meant for. But Paul wasn’t pointing to a distant future. He was writing to real men and women who were standing in the furnace of first-century tribulation. He was telling them: Your dead are not lost. They will be the first to rise. He was telling them: You who remain—be strong. You will witness Christ’s triumph with your own eyes. He was telling them: Comfort one another. The kingdom is coming. The old world is collapsing. The King is victorious.

Paul was not a man who trafficked in fear. He was not one to peddle uncertainty. He was a warrior who had seen the risen Christ, and he was passing that ironclad confidence on to his people. He knew that in the coming days, some would be tempted to despair. Some would wonder if it was all worth it. Some would stand at a grave and feel the weight of sorrow press down on their soul. And so he leaves them with a charge—not to run, not to hide, but to stand firm in faith.

And now, two thousand years later, these same admonitions apply to us! 

CONCLUSION

For too long, Christians have been told to sit and wait for an escape. They have been fed a diet of despair, trained to see the world as a lost cause, and conditioned to believe that their best hope is to be yanked out before things get worse.Instead of faith, they were given fear. Instead of marching orders, they were handed retreat papers. Instead of a kingdom to advance, they were given a lifeboat to cling to.

But that is not our mission. That is not the gospel. That is not why Jesus left us here. The rapture lie has robbed the church of generations of builders, warriors, and laborers in the kingdom. It has convinced fathers to forsake their post, mothers to give up the fight, and entire generations to abdicate the dominion they were called to take. It has shrunk men’s vision from Christ conquering the nations to themselves escaping the world. But that is not our calling. That is not the faith that turned the world upside down.

Jesus didn’t tell us to bunker down—He told us to build. He told us to make disciples of all nations. He told us His kingdom would be like leaven that fills the whole lump, like a mustard seed that grows into the greatest tree, like a stone that crushes every kingdom and fills the earth. He told us that He has all authority in heaven and on earth—right now, that He is reigning right now, that He is putting every enemy under His feet—right now.

So what should we do? Work. Take dominion. Advance the kingdom. We build marriages that last, families that flourish, churches that stand strong, businesses that bless the world, communities that shine like cities on a hill. We think in generations, leaving an inheritance to our children’s children, fighting battles that we may not see won in our lifetime, but will bear fruit in theirs.

Because this world is not a sinking ship. It is the inheritance of Christ. The nations belong to Him. The kings will bow before Him. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And we? We get to labor in His vineyard until the last enemy—death—is crushed under His feet.

So get to work. Stop worrying about a rapture that will never happen. Stop waiting for an escape that was never promised. Stop wasting your days gazing at the sky when Christ has called you to put your hands to the plow. Take responsibility. Lead your family. Build your community. Shape the culture. Take dominion.

The future belongs to Jesus, and we are here to claim it in His name. And while you’re at it, support the work that is spreading this message. Give money to your local church! Tithe and even give on top of that to see His Kingdom advancing! 

And, if you are giving faithfully to a local church, and you want to help support this show, beyond liking, subscribing, and sharing it with others. Then go to the PRODucts Store at www.prodthesheep.com and check out some epic gear! And, consider joining one of our three membership tiers. 

This movement, Jesus’ Church, is not going to grow by accident. It will grows because faithful people invest in it. We are not here to hide. We are not here to wait. We are here to take ground and I would encourage everyone watching to give to your church, to finance the Kingdom advancement in your area, and if you have left over blessings you want to contribute, consider giving to this show, because that is our purpose! 

With all of this, Christ is King. His kingdom is advancing. AND… It’s time to get to work. Until next time—God richly bless you. We’ll see you next time on the PRODCAST. Now, get out of here.