Does 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 Support a Pre-Trib Rapture? Video Transcript
I want to talk a little bit about 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18. This is a passage I often see cited as a proof text of the Pre-Trib Rapture. I’ve studied this passage closely, and I find that this passage says nothing about a Pre-Trib Rapture:
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18: (15) For 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. (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: (17) Then 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. (18) Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
The passage proves that Christ is coming, and the righteous will meet Him when He comes. But it does not tell us that the Rapture will happen before the tribulation. The Rapture cannot happen before the tribulation as 2 Thessalonians 2 tells us that our gathering to Christ cannot take place until after the rise of the Antichrist and him demanding the world to worship him.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4: (1) Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, (2) That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. (3) Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; (4) Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
For more analysis, see my full article on 1 Thessalonians 4:1-18 and the Rapture.
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