????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? I realize that some people don't believe in the rapture, but this is the first time I have seen someone claim that 1 Thessalonians teaches that there will be no rapture. "Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:17). Furthermore, we are instructed to comfort one another with these blessed hope.
1 Thessalonians 4 doesn’t teach a pre-trib rapture, Paul clearly says in verse 14 that those who are still alive at the ‘Coming of the Lord’ will be raptured or caught up. There is nothing in 1 Thessalonians that A)limits this to the Church before the tribulation, & B)Tells us where we are going afterward. It simply says: “to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”. To claim we’re going back to Heaven reads into the passage what isn’t in there.
To better understand this passage and its place in prophecy we need to try and find other passages in the Bible that describe the same thing with all (or as many) of the same characteristics as we can. Fortunately we have such a passage in Matthew 24 and here Jesus clearly places this event after the tribulation.
JB
You stopped quoting too soon.
Dr. Lee says, “there would be no rapture of the saints from out of this wicked World -- and no History which would thereafter continue among the wicked on an all-evil Earth.”
When Dr. Lee uses the term "rapture" he means the secret pre-trib rapture of dispensationalism when the Church is removed from the tribulation and wickedness of this world as a distinct event from the Second Coming. He denies the rapture of dispensationalism.
At the Second Coming we are not so much removed from wickedness as the world is judged and the wicked cast into the lake of fire, while the saints enter into the glory of God in the new heavens and new earth. The wicked world ceases to be at Christ's return.
1 Thessalonians does not teach the rapture at all, especially not a pre-trib rapture. This book speaks specifically of the Second Coming, and that is only going to occur once.
The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up & be forever with the Lord. It can’t be any clearer than that.
15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16For 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:
17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
INDEED.
COMFORT ONE ANOTHER WITH THOSE WORDS . . .
Obviously, the NAYSAYERS think THEY are almighty enough to need no such comfort! LOL.
/s