What “Word of the Lord”?

In our last post (here), we proposed that Paul meant for his “rapture” passage—1 Thess 4:13–5:11—to comfort the Thessalonians regarding the relationship of their dead to the parousia (i.e., coming/presence) of Christ. Here is the heart of his answer:

We say this to you by a revelation from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming (Gk. parousia) will certainly have no advantage over those who have fallen asleep. (1 Thess 4:15 HCSB)

A literal translation of the phrase “who are still alive at the Lord’s coming” helps us understand the Apostle’s meaning. According to Robert Young, this refers to those “who do remain over to the presence of the Lord.”¹

Inmillennialism, the prophetic model I have developed in this blog and in a recent book,² says this “presence of the Lord” is the state of being that now exists in the messianic age. It was a reality when the temple’s fall in AD 70 ended the Mosaic age; it continued after that event (cf. Heb 12:27). So, the parousia (i.e., presence) of Christ with his churches in the messianic (kingdom) age began in the “last days” of the Mosaic age. It encompasses the temple’s fall (Matt 24:1–3, 27, 34, 37, 39) and the bodily resurrection at the end of the messianic age (1 Cor 15:23).³

Some major prophetic events were in the Thessalonians’ near future: the abomination of desolation (Matt 24:15, 34), the great tribulation (Matt 24:21, 34), and “the Son of man coming (Gk. erchomai) in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt 24:30, 34).⁴ Jesus had connected these events to the end of the Mosaic age and the full establishment of the messianic age (Matt 24:1–3).

Considering this context, inmillennialism suggests Paul is comforting the Thessalonians by reassuring them that those who would live to see these age-changing events would “have no advantage over” those who would not. Jesus had said, “Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:26). John would later say that all the redeemed, even those who have died physically, would live and reign with Christ during the messianic (kingdom) age (cf. Rev 20:4). Paul is using these truths to calm the Thessalonians’ fears. He wants them to know the “dead” saints are still living and that their bodies will rise in the resurrection at the end of that age (cf. 1 Cor 15:22–26). They are at no disadvantage when compared to the saints that would be living when the temple fell.

In my next few posts, I want to give more details of Paul’s answer to the Thessalonians. Here, I want to make a simple, but important, point about the source of Paul’s answer. He says, “This we say to you by the word of the Lord” (1 Thess 4:15). What “word of the Lord” did Paul have in mind?

Paul’s other writings help us understand his statement. In a letter to the Corinthians, he answers questions about several marriage situations. He is careful to distinguish between his own (authoritative) instructions and those the Lord Jesus had given to his disciples. Regarding the former, he says: “I say this as a concession, not as a commandment” (1 Cor 7:6). That is, the Lord had not left a commandment about this situation. But when Paul refers to a situation the Lord had addressed, he says, “Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: a wife is not to depart from her husband” (1 Cor 7:10). He says this because of Jesus’ teaching recorded in Matthew (cf. Matt 19:4–9). So, when Paul bases his teaching on the “word of the Lord,” he is referring to something Jesus said. In most (all?) cases, Jesus’ commandment is recorded in the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

However, commentators often deny that Paul’s “word of the Lord” in 1 Thessalonians 4:15 is in the gospels. F. F. Bruce, for example, says, “If we think of the utterance as a verbum Christi [i.e., word of Christ], then it has not been preserved in the synoptic or Johannine traditions.”⁵ In my opinion, the prophetic models they are using almost force them to make this denial.

Contra most commentators, I suggest there is overwhelming evidence that the gospels contain the “word of the Lord” Paul uses to comfort the Thessalonians; it is the Olivet Discourse, the foundation upon which inmillennialism rests. To support my contrarian view, I submit the following list that compares the Olivet Discourse to 1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:11:

1. Both passages speak of Christ’s parousia: 
   • “So shall be also the presence (Gk. parousia) of the Son of Man” (Matt 24:27 YLT)
   • “For this to you we say in the word of the Lord, that we who are living—who do remain over to the presence (Gk. parousia) of the Lord” (1 Thess 4:15 YLT)
2. Both passages speak of Christ coming from heaven:
   • “The Son of Man coming (Gk. erchomai) on the clouds of heaven ” (Matt 24:30)
   • “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven” (1 Thess 4:16)
3. Both passages describe the ministry of angels linked to the coming of Christ:
   • “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him” (Matt 25:31)
   • “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel” (1 Thess 4:16; cp. 2 Thess 1:7)
4. Both passages mention Christ coming with the sound of a trumpet:
   • “He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet” (Matt 24:31)
   • “For the Lord Himself will descend … with the trumpet of God” (1 Thess 4:16)
5. Both passages mention Christ gathering believers:
   • “They will gather together (Gk. episunagō) His elect from the four winds” (Matt 24:31)
   • “We … shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess 4:17). [Cp., “the coming (Gk. parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together (Gk. episunagogē) to Him” (2 Thess 2:1)]
6. Both passages mention Christ coming in the clouds:
   • “They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matt 24:30)
   • “We … shall be caught up together with them in the clouds” (1 Thess 4:17)
7. Both passages compare Christ’s coming to a thief:
   • “If the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched ” (Matt 24:43)
   • “You yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief” (1 Thess 5:2)
8. Both passages mention that unbelievers will be unaware of Christ’s coming:
   • They “did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” Matt 24:39)
   • “For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them” (1 Thess 5:3)
9. Both passages mention that Christ’s coming will bring judgment like a woman’s birth pains:
   • “All these events are the beginning of birth pains” (Matt 24:8 HCSB)
   • “Sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains come on a pregnant woman” (1 Thess 5:3 HCSB)
10. Both passages warn believers to watch:
    • “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming (Gk. erchomai)” (Matt 24:42)
    • “Therefore … let us watch and be sober” (1 Thess 5:6)
11. Both passages warn against drunkenness:
    • “But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards” (Matt 24:48–49)
    • “For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.” (1 Thess 5:7)
12. Both passages speak of God’s wrath against the apostate Jews:
    • “For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people” (Luke 21:23)
    • “God did not appoint us to wrath” (1 Thess 5:9). [Paul has defined the wrath under consideration: “Wrath has come upon them (i.e., the Jews) to the uttermost” (1 Thess 2:16).]

This list is remarkable.⁶ Both of these passages are literary units clearly marked off from their surrounding contexts. The Olivet Discourse is a conversation between the Lord and his disciples about the temple’s fall. The “rapture” passage is Paul’s answer to a single concern—will believers who live into the parousia (presence) of Christ have an advantage over those who have died? It is difficult to imagine how two self-contained passages like these could have more in common. Paul’s “word of the Lord” in 1 Thessalonians 4:15 is Jesus’ Olivet Discourse.

Another common element between these passages reinforces this truth: the time statements in both are the same. In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus says, “Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place” (Matt 24:34). Earlier he had said,

The Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. (Matt 16:27–28)

Paul adopts this timeframe in his epistles. Therefore, he can say, “We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly have no advantage over those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thess 4:15 HCSB).

These observations will determine how we interpret Paul’s “rapture passage.” Lord willing, I will explore the consequences in our next few posts.

1. Robert Young, The Holy Bible, 3rd ed. (Edinburgh: G. A. Young & Co., 1898), 1 Thess 4:15.
2. For a full-length account of inmillennialism, see Michael A. Rogers, Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days (Tullahoma, TN: McGahan Publishing House, 2020). It is available here. For a summary, see the free PDF here.
3. For more on this definition of parousia, see here.
4. In June 2019, I announced that Bible references in this blog would be from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted. I then suspended the blog from January to August 2020. When I resumed, I reverted to the KJV, forgetting I had announced a change. As of this post, I will again default to the NKJV with apologies for any confusion this may cause.
5. F. F. Bruce, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, WBC, eds. David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1982), 98.
6. For a similar list, see G. K. Beale, 1–2 Thessalonians, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2003), 137.