1 Thessalonians 4:17

17. Then we After the dead have first risen.

Caught up This upward movement is preceded by the change by which this mortal puts on immorality. By that change the glorified body is able to neutralize gravitation by volition. But in this case they are caught up by divine power, the phrase implying great suddenness.

With them The dead in Christ.

In the clouds The passage quoted by Alford from Theodoret, comparing this to our Lord’s ascent upon a cloud, misses the mark. The true parallels are Daniel 7:13, and Revelation 1:7: “Behold, he cometh with clouds;” an image of altitude and misty grandeur.

In the air Simply a designation of locality or region; aerial space. Ephesians 1:3; Ephesians 2:2. The grand congregation of the judgment may be in pure space; for these resurrection bodies, absolved from the power of gravitation, and of power by pure volition, can tread upon a plane of pure space as easily as Jesus trod upon the sea, or as we tread upon a pavement. Of a burning world, a resurrection and condemnation of the wicked, and a new earth, no account is here given; for, as Lunemann well notes, St. Paul does not here profess to give a full picture of the last things, but simply such a glimpse as shall meet the doubt and grief in regard to the late deceased Christians.

Ever be with the Lord Not as limited to this one mid-space region, though it and the new earth may be within their future range; but in the highest heaven, the capital of the great system centred by the throne. And now science demands, Where is the final heaven of the glorious resurrection, as distinguished from the intermediate paradise of the blessed disembodied spirit? And where is the final hell, gehenna, as distinguished from the hades or Tartarus of the intermediate state of the impenitent? See note on 2 Corinthians 12:1-4; Ephesians 1:2; Ephesians 4:8-10.

Astronomers of the present day assure us that all planets are destined, in time, to narrow their orbits, lose their heat, and fall into the sun. The sun, as satellite to a greater sun, is to fall into and be swallowed by its central sun; and finally, the utmost central sun will swallow the whole system of stars and suns, from which all heat will have departed and form a final lifeless, frozen char. It may be, then, that our whole material system of worlds, as well as our earth, is under the doom of sin, sin older than the fall of Adam, and so may be destined to become the eternal abode and monument of sin and wrath. The “everlasting fire” of Matthew 25:41, was prepared for sinners older than man, namely, the devil and his angels. This may be the final Gehenna. But whither goes the energy, which scientists tell us is departing with the heat from the present entire material system, and pouring into immensity? The ingenious authors of the “Unseen Universe” suggest that it goes to crystallize into a future universe, including that Future State, that Heaven of the resurrection, to which our faith is looking. So he who is Lord of all said to his disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you.” That place may be in the present highest heavens; the circumambient zone that girds our starry universe, separating it, perhaps, from other universes, with which our history does not connect. That future state, formed of the pure forces that gave life and power to this dark system, may be the new heavens and earth “wherein dwelleth righteousness.” It may gradually supplant our present stellar system.

The terms distinguishing the regions of the invisible world are so irregularly translated that the English reader may be aided by the following summary: Hades (which should never be rendered hell, but be used in English without change as the generic name of the intermediate abode) occurs in the following passages: Matthew 11:29; Matthew 16:18; Luke 12:15; Luke 16:23; Acts 2:27; Acts 2:31; 1 Corinthians 15:55; Revelation 1:18; Revelation 6:8; Revelation 20:13.

Paradise, (the blessed phase of hades,) Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7. A comparison of Revelation 2:7, with Revelation 22:2 suggests, that as in the eternal state beyond the judgment hades is merged in gehenna, (Revelation 20:14,) so paradise is merged in the eternal heaven. Tartarus, in verb form, (the adverse phase of hades,) 2 Peter 2:4. Gehenna, (hell,) the final opposite of heaven. Matthew 5:22; Matthew 5:29; Matthew 10:28; Matthew 18:9; Matthew 23:15; Matthew 23:33; Mark 9:43; Mark 9:47; Luke 12:5; James 3:6.