My Dear Friend,

Among New Testament epistles, 1 Thessalonians stands out for its unique focus on the rapture – the sudden, secret translation of the bride church to heaven by Christ, the “thief in the night” (1 Thess. 5:2). In fact, it is the only biblical book that is dedicated primarily to the rapture. Remarkably, each of its five chapters ends presenting some aspect of the rapture.

Before examining these aspects, two things need mentioning.

First, the chapter divisions were not in the original manuscripts. They were added by Stephen Langton, the Bishop of Canterbury, in the 13^th century. While some chapter divisions seem misplaced, others, including those in 1 Thessalonians, seem perfectly placed, as we will see.

Second, while I Thessalonians repeatedly describes the rapture, 2 Thessalonians is very different. It focuses on Christ’s bodily return to earth, the blasphemous “man of sin” (Antichrist), the worldwide delusion he fosters, and Christ’s dreadful judgments on him and his followers.

As stated above, every chapter in 1 Thessalonians ends describing a unique feature of the rapture. When combined, these descriptions give us a much fuller and more exciting understanding of this historically unprecedented, epochal event that ends the church age and opens the way for the Tribulation to begin.

Chapter 1 – The Rapture Delivers us from the “Wrath to Come”

Paul reminded the Thessalonians, most of whom were Gentiles, that, when they were saved, they turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God” (1:9). But he doesn’t stop there. Paul adds they also turned from idolatry “to wait for his Son from heaven . . . who delivered us from the wrath to come” (1:10).

Paul was saying that the Thessalonians should patiently and expectantly “wait” for Christ to come. And that He will come “from heaven.” Furthermore, this event will deliver them not in but “from” the “wrath to come” (1:10; see Rev. 3:10). In two out of three references in this epistle, the “wrath” Paul speaks of is the Tribulation, which is the predetermined, End-Times, 7-year period of God’s wrathful judgments on the Christ-rejecting world (1:10; 5:9). In the third reference, he speaks of God’s holy wrath against his Jewish contemporaries for, among other things, their stubborn rejection of their Messiah (2:16).

In 1 Thessalonians 5:9, Paul declares that God has “not” appointed “us” to experience this “wrath,” but rather to “obtain salvation” – deliverance or escape – “by our Lord Jesus Christ.” “Salvation” (Greek, sōtēria) has several definitions: “salvation,” “deliverance,” or “a means of safety.” In this context, sōtēria does not refer to the Thessalonians’ conversion experience, or spiritual rebirth. (However, the bodily glorification of raptured Christians is the last benefit of their total salvation of spirit, soul, and now, body.) They had already been born again. So, they must be waiting to be “saved” from something else. So, Paul identifies this great escape as Christ’s appearing to remove faithful believers from this earth before the Tribulation.

Paul’s exhortation here to “wait for his Son from heaven” was not unique. He also exhorted the Philippian, Cretan and Colossian Christians to wait expectantly for the blessed hope of Christ’s appearing:

• “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” - Phil. 3:20-21, NIV

• “Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” - Titus 2:12-13

• “Seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” - Col. 3:1-4, NKJV

Chapter 2 – At the Rapture Faithful Ministers will be Rewarded

While all Christians share the “blessed hope” of the rapture, faithful ministers have a special, additional hope. When Christ appears, He will reward them for all their faithful labors that have helped prepare His bride – countless hours of teaching, counseling, intercession, watchfulness, and encouragement. Or, in Churchillian language, “blood, sweat, toil, and tears,” offered to the believers under their care for three primary reasons. First, they desire to please Jesus. Second, they desire to obey the biblical charge issued by Peter. Third, they hope to be commended and rewarded by Christ at His Judgment Seat. The following texts reflect faithful ministers’ threefold hope:

• “Lovest thou me? Feed my lambs . . . feed my sheep . . . feed my sheep.” - Jn. 21:15-17

• “I exhort the elders among you . . .shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” - 1 Pet. 5:1-4, ESV

• “The fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward” – 1 Cor. 3:13-14, ESV

Speaking for his own ministerial team, Paul writes, “What is our hope, or joy or crown of rejoicing?” (2:19). This “crown” (Greek, stephanos) was a laurel wreath typically given to the winner of a first century athletic contest. It is used frequently in the New Testament as a symbol for our rewards received at Christ’s Judgment Seat (Jas. 1:12; 2 Tim. 4:8; 1 Pet. 5:4; Rev. 2:10; 3:11).

So, Paul is saying his and his ministry team’s personal joy will be fulfilled when they see the church translated safely to heaven and presented to Jesus: “Ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming” (1:19). Note this occurs “at his coming,” or just after He appears to catch away His church. Why?

Twice Jesus indicated His Judgment Seat occurs just after the rapture. First, His Parable of the Talents, which describes how He will examine and reckon with Christians at His Judgment Seat (Matt. 25:14-30), follows immediately after His Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, which describes the period leading up to and including His Appearing (the rapture) (Matt. 25:1-13). Second, Jesus’ final words to John in Revelation clearly link His Appearing with His Judgment Seat: “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done” (Rev. 22:12, NAS).

Chapter 3 – The Raptured Church Will Abound in Faith, Love, and Holiness!

In 1 Thessalonians 3:10-13, Paul told the Thessalonians he prayed “always” for their faith to be “perfected” (matured), their love to “abound,” and for them to reach this “end” or goal: “your hearts [established] unblamable in holiness.” He then stated the time by which he hoped this end would be reached: “at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints” (3:13). He is referring to the rapture. Why did he add the phrase “with all his saints”? How can Jesus come for his saints and with them at the same time? Was Paul confused?

Not at all! In chapter four he explains that, at Jesus’ appearing, “them who sleep in Jesus will God [Christ] bring with him” (4:14). Or, Jesus will bring with Him the souls of believers who have died to experience two miracles in the blink of an eye: first, to indwell their resurrected, glorified bodies; and, second, to meet the living Christians who will be caught up (4:14-16).

Paul’s focus at the end of chapter three, however, is on the spiritual condition of the bride church when it is caught up. He envisions its members as being mature in faith (3:10), love (3:11-12), and holiness (3:13). They will trust Christ deeply and prove their faith in repeated tests. They will be deeply committed to loving one another, and others, as Christ loves them, just as He commanded (John 13:34-35). And they will be established in a biblically moral lifestyle – so much so, that they will be “unblamable,” or wholly innocent and undeserving of any blame, censure, or charge for immoral living.

Today many may not understand Paul grouping love and holiness together. This generation often sees them as opposing, not complimentary, graces. This is because we have come to see God’s love as permissive love, whereas it is – and Paul understood this – holy love. God’s love has made a provision for sin, but in no way indulges it. “Holiness” describes a people completely separated unto God for His pleasurable fellowship and exclusive use, who no longer live for sinful pleasures or selfish purposes but for Christ’s will and pleasure.

This is not Paul’s only description of the translated church as being holy. He informed the Ephesians that, when Christ first looks on His bride at the rapture, she will be deeply cleansed, free of all “spots,” “wrinkles,” and “blemishes” of habitual sin or stubborn willfulness, “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing . . . holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27).

Chapter 4 – The Rapture will Occur Suddenly - and This Should Comfort Us!

Paul revealed when Jesus appears, His bride will be “caught up” to meet Him in the sky (4:17). Not gradually, but suddenly! The Greek word translated “caught up” (harpazō) means “snatch or seize forcefully,” clearly implying a sudden, not a prolonged, action. He adds that, since this supernatural escape saves us from experiencing the dreadful “wrath to come,” it should deeply comfort us: “Wherefore, comfort one another with these words” (4:18). But this isn’t the only reason the thought of the rapture should comfort us.

Every Christian should long to see Christ, just as a bride longs to see her bridegroom. If we are not comforted by the thought of looking on Jesus’ face for the first time, something is deeply wrong. We don’t love Him as we should. And there’s more.

Many Thessalonians, like many Christians today, were enduring unrelenting persecution and tribulation for their faith and ministries (2 Thessalonians 1:3-4). For them, the rapture would not only spare them from the coming wrath, it will release them from their current afflictions. Millions of Christians today in various parts of the world can identify with them.

This was not the only Bible text in which Paul stated the church’s departure will be sudden. In 1 Corinthians 15:49-53, he was even more specific, revealing the great event would occur “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (15:52). Or, “in a flash” (NIV), “in only a second” (NCV), “in an instant” (GW), “in the blink of an eye” (NLT). Before our amazing cerebral processors, super-fast as they are, can think “We’re going!” we’ll be gone! Changed. With departed believers. With Christ. Free of our earthly trials. In heaven!

This revelation of the church’s sudden translation was a “mystery,” or previously undisclosed divine secret. Prior to Paul inscribing it, only the churches in which he had ministered knew anything of it. Now we all know, and are deeply comforted.

Chapter 5 – The Raptured Church will be Wholly Sanctified and Blameless!

Paul closed chapter five, and this epistle, with a climactic prayer-declaration, calling on God to “sanctify” the Thessalonians “wholly . . . spirit and soul and body” (5:23). This entire sanctification would enable them to live daily in this present evil world in this spiritual condition: “blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:23). It is obvious that Paul believed this not only could, but would, be a reality in them. And in us!

Paul envisioned a corporate church body comprised of individual Christians trained to live in Christlike attitudes, actions, and reactions, and entirely given to the Father’s will:

• Pure in “spirit,” no longer harboring any wrong motives, attitudes, or aspirations
• Remade in “soul,” with a renewed mind that is increasingly spiritually, or scripturally, minded toward every situation it meets; and wrong emotions that are no longer denied, repressed, or indulged but are now under the Spirit-empowered believer’s control
• Clean in “body,” free of degrading immorality and substance abuse, living inwardly and outwardly clean

As if anticipating some would doubt that this is possible in this life, Paul assured us, “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it” (5:24). “Do it” means sanctify the church “wholly.” If we are willing and obedient, God has all the grace, wisdom, and power we need to be wholly sanctified. As individual Christians. As local churches. As the body of Christ worldwide.

In the same context, Paul gives us some practical “nuts and bolts” instruction on how we may do our part to reach this divine goal of entire sanctification. Verses 12–22 are Paul’s unofficial formula for sanctification. They are linked to his prayer-declaration that God will sanctify us “wholly” by the conjunction “and” which begins verse 23. If we obey the various practical charges he gives in verses 12-22 – “highly esteem” our leaders, be “at peace” with others, “warn” the unruly, “encourage” the fainthearted, “be patient” to all, pray “without ceasing,” give thanks in “everything,” and so forth – God will by His indescribably powerful grace sanctify us “wholly.” And that’s not all.

He is able to “preserve” us in this condition until the moment Jesus’ appears: “preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:23).

Paul wasn’t the only biblical writer who envisioned an entirely sanctified church. In His High Priestly prayer, Jesus asked His Father: “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth” (Jn. 17:17). When writing of Jesus’ return “as a thief in the night,” Peter said this hope should inspire us to “holy living and godliness” so we will be found “in peace, without spot, and blameless” when He appears (2 Pet. 3:11, 13). Jesus’ half-brother, Jude, was also convinced God not only can, but will, sanctify the bride church: “Now unto him that is able to . . . present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 24). Were Jude, Peter, Paul, and Jesus all suffering from mere wishful thinking, seeing an ecclesiastical mirage that could never be actualized?

Or is it just possible that they were all right and all sanctification naysayers wrong?

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Summarizing, 1 Thessalonians describes a bride church that is:

1. Expectantly “waiting” for Christ to deliver them “from” the “wrath to come”
2. Led by faithful ministers joyfully anticipating the church’s translation and their rewards
3. Abounding in faith, love, and holiness
4. Deeply comforted by the thought of Christ suddenly taking them to heaven
5. Pursuing, experiencing, and preserved in entirely sanctified, blameless lives

As we reflect on this summary, it is only logical to conclude that Christians who are left behind will generally be the opposite of those who are taken.

Specifically, they will not be eagerly expecting Jesus to save them from the wrath to come. Their ministers will not be feeding, nurturing, and guiding the Lord’s sheep faithfully. Such Christians will not pursue, and thus not abound in, faith, love and holiness of life. They will likely dread or even mock the thought of the rapture, and certainly not find it comforting! And they will not believe they can live entirely sanctified, blameless lives, nor do so. Until Jesus appears.

This, friend, is the message of 1 Thessalonians – the rapture epistle!

Believing, receiving, preparing,

Dr. Greg Hinnant

GREG HINNANT MINISTRIES