Questions and Answers - Viewpoint
In reference to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, do these who do not sleep, but who will all be “caught up” die, or do they just not sleep in death?
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”
To answer that
question I feel we need to consider 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 along with 1 Thessolonians.
4:16-17. It reads, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all
be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable,
and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable
and the mortal with immortality.” Those who are “caught up” are the ones
who will all be “changed.”
We also read in 1 Corinthians 15:50, “Now
this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
The process whereby, “we will all be changed” is not clearly spelled out in Scripture. It is another one of those things that remains somewhat of a mystery to us, yet is a part of our faith and hope. One thing is sure; the human aspect of those changed will be left behind in the “change” process. They definitely do not sleep in a physical death as is clearly shown in verse 50 that describes the “change” from human to spirit as “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye.” It will be instantaneous. You might say that at the “change” the humanity of these individuals no longer exists, thus is dead.
We read more of this wonderful hope of our change in 1 John 3:2-3, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” Having this hope, let’s be sure that we indeed purify ourselves, by His grace, for we know “without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14)!
E. Weeks