Page 210 - The Rapture Question by John F. Walvoord

The Rapture in I Thessalonians 5
immediately after the discussion of the rapture of the church.
The fact that the Rapture is mentioned first in chapter 4 be­
fore the day of the Lord is presented in chapter 5 is significant.
The important subject was the Rapture, including the resur­
rection of the dead in Christ and the translation of living
believers. The Rapture is not introduced as a phase of the day
of the Lord and seems to be distinguished from it.
As mentioned earlier, 1 Thessalonians 5 begins with the
Greek particle de, which is normally used to introduce a new
subject. It is found, for instance, when the Rapture was intro­
duced in 1 Thessalonians 4:13. Accordingly, it is clear that
1 Thessalonians 5 is not talking specifically about the Rapture
but about another truth. The introduction of this material at
this point, however, implies that it has some relationship to
the preceding context. Accordingly, while it is not talking
specifically about the Rapture, it is dealing with the general
subject of eschatology, of which the Rapture is a part. Thus it
would be a fair judgment that, to some extent, Paul was con­
tinuing his discussion by dealing with the broad program
of end-time events as defined by the term “the day of the
Lord.”
For this reason Hiebert introduced his exegesis of 1 Thes­
salonians 5 with these words: “This paragraph is an appropri­
ate companion piece to the preceding. It is the second half of
the distinctively eschatological block of material in the epistle.
The former offered needed instruction concerning the dead in
Christ; this gives a word of needed exhortation to the living.”6
The subject of chapter 5 is introduced with the statement,
“Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to
write to you.” In contrast to instruction on the Rapture, by
which he was correcting their ignorance, Paul here stated that
he did not need to instruct them concerning “times” (chronoi)
and “dates” (kairoi). Though these terms are sometimes used
interchangeably and both relate to time, the first seems to
indicate duration and the second the particular time.
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