Many Christians interpret 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 to mean that believers alive at Christ’s return will be raptured into heaven.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (WNT) For the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven with a loud word of command, and with an archangel’s voice and the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Afterwards we who are alive and are still on earth will be caught up in their company amid clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
However, in Luke 17, Jesus advised his disciples to flee when they saw Him coming on the clouds, to avoid being trapped in Jerusalem during the siege. This warning seems contradictory if a rapture were to occur, as Christians would not need to worry about the danger.
Luke 17:26-32 (WEB) As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married, and were given in marriage until the day Noah entered the ship, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, as it was in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky and destroyed them all. It will be the same on the day the Son of Man is revealed. In that day, he who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, must not go down to take them away. Likewise, he who is in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife!
The apparent contradiction can be resolved by understanding the Greek terms for “then” or “afterwards,” namely eita and epeita. “Eita” signifies immediacy, while “epeita” suggests a following action that may occur later. In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, Paul uses “epeita,” indicating that those alive at Christ’s return would not be immediately caught up with the resurrected saints, but would follow at some point thereafter. The same word is used in Galatians 2:1 and James 4:14 where it clearly indicates events to take place a significant time later:
Galatians 2:1 (WEB) Then [epeita] after a period of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me.
James 4:14 (WEB) Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time, and then [epeita] vanishes away.
This implies that Paul was referring to Christians who would live beyond Christ’s return. Unlike those who died before the resurrection, the living believers would not wait in Hades but would be caught up to heaven upon their future earthly death, joining the already resurrected saints.
When Jesus returned, His purpose was to bring the resurrected believers to His Father’s house in heaven, where He had prepared places for them.
John 14:2-3 (WEB) In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, so that where I am, you may be also.
This explains why, in the preceding verses of 1 Thessalonians 4, Christ is said to bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. He is not bringing them back to earth from heaven but is instead fetching them from earth to take them to His Father’s house in heaven.
1 Thessalonians 4:14-16 (WEB) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first.
Thus, it makes more sense that the saints are being taken from earth to heaven rather than descending from heaven to earth, aligning with the idea that Christ is taking His followers to be with Him in His Father’s house.