Expert: Fr. Michael - 2/10/2009

Question
In Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians vs 17, he describes, what sounds to me like, the rapture.If it it not, what is it?  Secondly, the two verses that precede it suggest that those who have died wait until GOd returns to earth to be judged at the same time as those living at that time.  Pls ecplain these two points.
Thank you.

Answer
       St. Paul, in his First Letter to the Thessalonians 4:16, writes:  "Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be taken up [Greek "hapargesometha"] together with them [the dead in Christ 4:15] in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air: and so shall we be always with the Lord."

       Some Fundamentalist Protestants hold to the error of
Millennialism, believing that Christ will actually reign as king over the entire earth for a thousand-year period at some time in the future.  These Protestants read the passage as meaning that the entire Church would be taken to meet Christ in the air on a cloud ("raptured out") at the start of the Millennium.

       Against this error is the fact that this notion was first taken from a marginal commentary in a Protestant Bible and over time was given a life of its own.  St. Augustine, enunciating the belief of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, held that the thousand-year period allegorically refers to all of time after the death and
resurrection of Christ and that those who are alive at the Lord's second coming (parousia) will be "caught up," that is, changed by the power of God from being corruptible and mortal to being incorruptible and immortal (cf. 1 Cor. 15:51, 2 Cor. 5:2-4).