1 Thessalonians 4:16–17
Bible Verses. Also called 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, 1 Thess 4:16-17, Caught up together in the clouds, Rapture, To meet the Lord in the air, With a shout, with the voice of the archangel.
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.
Scripture quotation from the King James Version (KJV). Read this chapter
This passage states that when the Lord descends from heaven, the dead will rise first, and those who are alive will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. It is the central text for the doctrine of the "rapture," and eschatological views differ over its timing and nature.
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Drafted by AI from the Korean church.wiki article, then translated and adapted for English readers on 5 November 2026.
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Context
1 Thessalonians is a letter that Paul sent to the church in Thessalonica, which he had founded only a short time before. Beginning in 4:13, Paul speaks about "them which are asleep," that is, church members who had already died. The believers appear to have been grieving out of fear that those who died before the Lord's return would be left out on that day. Paul assures them that the dead will be raised first and will meet the Lord together with those who are alive, and he concludes, "Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (4:18). The purpose of the passage, then, is to comfort a grieving church rather than to provide a timetable of the end times.
Interpretations
- The dispensationalist reading: Dispensationalism reads this passage as describing a "pretribulation rapture," in which the church is caught up into the air before a seven-year Great Tribulation. On this view the Lord comes only as far as the air at that time, and his Second Coming to the earth occurs separately after the Tribulation. The view was systematized by John Nelson Darby in nineteenth-century Britain and spread widely in the English-speaking world and in Korea through the Scofield Reference Bible.
- Historic premillennial, amillennial, and postmillennial readings: These views generally regard the meeting in the air and the Second Coming as a single event. Because the word "meet" (Greek apantēsis) was used in antiquity for the custom of a city's residents going out beyond the walls to welcome a distinguished visitor and then escorting him back into the city, they interpret the passage as a picture of believers meeting the Lord in the air and descending with him to the earth.
- Midtribulation and posttribulation rapture views: Other views affirm a rapture but place its timing in the middle or at the end of the Great Tribulation.
Controversies and Issues
The term "rapture" derives from "caught up" in verse 17 (Greek harpazō; Latin rapiemur). The timing of the rapture is bound up with views of the millennium and is disputed even within denominations.
In South Korea in 1992, the Dami Mission and other groups predicted the rapture on a specific date; when it failed to occur, the episode caused a major social stir. Major Korean denominations condemned such date-setting eschatology as heresy, holding that it contradicts the words "But of that day and hour knoweth no man" (Matthew 24:36).
Related Passages
See also 6
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