1 Thessalonians 4:16Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"For the Lord Himself, with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven." Christ Himself said the same in His own time: "the powers of heaven shall be shaken" (Mt 24:29).

Why with a trumpet? Because we see this also at Sinai, and the angels likewise. But what is the meaning of the voice of the Archangel? It is like what was said about the virgins: "The bridegroom is coming, go out to meet him" (Mt 25:6).

Either he is speaking of this here, or of the angels ministering at the resurrection. Then something will take place like what happens before a king. God will say, "Let the dead arise," and this will be carried out, not by the power of angels, but by His word.

It is as when a king commands, "Let the prisoners come forth," and the servants lead them out. They do this not by their own authority, but because of the royal command.

Christ speaks of this elsewhere also: "He shall send His Angels with a great trumpet, and they shall gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Mt 24:31). Everywhere you see angels hastening to fulfill God's command.

Therefore the Archangel, I think, is the leader of those who are sent. He will cry out to them, "Prepare all, the Judge is at hand." What does "at the last trumpet" mean? It means that there will be many trumpets, and that the Judge will descend at the last trumpet.

All this will happen suddenly, and in such a way that no one will know beforehand. Only when they see the earth shaken, and the dust again joined into one composition, will they know. At the same time bodies will rise everywhere, without any assistance from anyone.

This will happen only by the Lord's command, which alone is enough to free the earth from that burden, though it is filled with dead bodies. Imagine all the dead, however many there are, from Adam until the Lord's coming. They will then rise with wives and children.

When, I say, they see such turmoil upon the earth, only then will they know that the end of the world has come. Therefore, as they could foresee nothing about the Lord's birth in the flesh, so then also they will know nothing beforehand.

So, when this takes place, there will be the voice of the Archangel, commanding the angels and crying out. There will be trumpets, or rather the sound of trumpets. What fear and what terror will then seize those who remain on the earth!

"One is taken, and the other left" (Mt 24:41). And again, "one shall be taken, and the other left" (Lk 17:36). What will be the state of their souls when they see others caught up, while they themselves are left?

Will this not terrify them more than any Gehenna? Let us imagine in thought that this is already happening now. Sudden death, the destruction of cities by earthquake, and other dreadful events so deeply strike our souls.

What, then, will be the state of our soul when we see the earth opening, and its surface covered with all the dead? What will it be when we hear the sound of trumpets, and the voice of the Archangel, louder than any trumpet?

What will it be when we see the heavens rolled up, and the King of all, God, coming? Let us tremble, I entreat you, and let us fear as though this were being accomplished today. Let us not comfort ourselves by saying that it will not be soon.

If it must inevitably happen, delay will help us in no way. What fear and what terror there will be then! Have you ever seen men being led to execution? What do you think is the state of their souls as they travel to the place of death?

Is it not more tormenting than any death? What would they not resolve to do or suffer, if only they could be delivered from that gloomy fate? I have heard from many who, by the king's mercy, were brought back from the place of execution.

They said that at that time they did not even recognize people. Their soul was in such confusion, terror, and trembling. If bodily death terrifies us so greatly, what shall we feel when eternal death comes?

But why do I speak of those led to execution? At that time a crowd surrounds them, many of whom do not even know them. Yet if anyone could enter their souls, he would not remain so hard, so merciless, or so fearless.

He would himself be troubled, and would feel fear and grief. Therefore, if complete strangers are so disturbed when others die a death no different from sleep, what will our condition be when we ourselves undergo far greater torments?

Believe me, it is impossible, impossible to portray that suffering in words. True, they say, but God loves mankind, and nothing of the sort will happen. Then was it written about in vain? No, they say, but it is only a threat, so that we may come to our senses.

But if we do not come to our senses, and remain hardened in evil, tell me, will God not send punishment? Then He will not reward the virtuous either? He will reward them, they say, because it is His nature to do good even beyond their merits.

Thus this will truly and necessarily follow, while punishments will not exist at all. They are spoken of only for threat and the instilling of fear. I do not know how to persuade you.

If I say, "their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched" (Mk 9:44), if I say that they will go into eternal fire, if I point to the rich man already enduring punishment, you will say that all this is only a threat.

How then shall I persuade you? Truly, this is a satanic thought. It vainly flatters with mercy and casts men into carelessness. How shall we destroy it? If we bring something from the Scriptures, you will say that it was said as a threat.

One may reason so about what is future, but not at all about what has already happened and been fully accomplished. You have all heard of the flood. Was this also said as a threat? Did it not really happen?

The people before the flood said many such things. For a hundred years, while the ark was being built, the timbers were being joined, and the righteous man was preaching, no one was found who believed.

Since they did not believe the threat in words, they bore the punishment in deed. The same will happen to us if we do not believe. For this reason the Lord compares His coming to the days of Noah.

Just as some did not believe in that flood, so now many do not believe in the flood of Gehenna. Is this only a threat? Did it not really happen? He sent such unexpected punishment then. Will He not send it all the more now?

What is done now is in no way more excusable than what happened then. Why? Because then, it is said, the sons of God went in to the daughters of men (Gen 6:2), and this mingling was a grave offense.

But now there is no form of evil which men do not dare to commit. So do you believe that the flood happened, or does it seem to you a fable? The mountains on which the ark rested bear witness to it. I mean the mountains of Armenia.

Yet from the great multitude of witnesses I will bring another, clearer than the one mentioned. Has any of you ever traveled through Palestine? I will no longer prove this by words, but by events.

Still, words are more trustworthy than events, since what Scripture says is more trustworthy than what we see. So, has any of you ever traveled through Palestine? I think some have. Let those of you who have seen those places be my witnesses before those who have not been there.

Above Ascalon and Gaza, near the very mouth of the Jordan River, there is a certain broad and fruitful land. Rather, there was, for now it is not such. That land truly resembled paradise.

"Lot lifted up his eyes," it is said, "and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, as the garden of the Lord, as far as Zoar" (Gen 13:10).

This land once flourished. It yielded to no country, and in fruitfulness equaled the paradise of God. Now it is more desolate than every wilderness. True, trees grow there and bear fruit, but this fruit is a memorial of God's wrath.

Pomegranates grow there, I mean both the tree and the fruit. They have a beautiful outward appearance and give many hopes to one who does not know. But when someone takes them in his hands and breaks them open, he finds no fruit.

He finds dust and ashes, abundantly stored within them. The whole land there is such. Even if you take stones, you will find that they too have been turned into ash.

But why do I speak of stones, trees, and earth? There even the air and water have undergone the same disastrous fate. When a body is acted upon by fire and burned, it keeps in the fire its former appearance, shape, size, and proportion of parts.

Yet it has no life at all. In just this way you see land there, but there is nothing proper to land in it. All is dust. You see trees and fruits, but they have nothing proper to trees and fruits.

You see air and water, but they have nothing proper to air or water, for they too have been turned into ash. How could air burn? How could water burn while remaining water? Trees and stones can be burned, but air and water cannot.

For us this is impossible, but for Him who created them it is possible. Therefore the air there is nothing other than fire, and the water is fire. Everything is barren. Everything is empty.

Everything serves as an image of the wrath that once occurred, and as a sign of what is to come. Are these also only verbal threats? Is this also an empty sound of words?

For me, what was said earlier is not incredible. What I have not seen is as trustworthy as what I have seen. But one who does not believe can be persuaded only by the latter.

Let him who does not believe in Gehenna think of Sodom. Let him remember Gomorrah (Gen 19:24), that punishment which happened once and continues even until now. This serves as a foretoken that the torments will be eternal.

Is this word harsh? But is it not harsh when you say there is no Gehenna, and that God only threatens by it, when you loosen the hands of the people? By your unbelief you yourself force me to say this.

If you believed the words of Christ, I would not be compelled to lead you to faith by appealing to events. But since you turn away from the former, willingly or unwillingly you must believe the latter.

Indeed, what can you say about Sodom? Do you wish to know the reason for which this happened? There was one sin, certainly grievous and worthy of a curse, yet still one sin. Those who lived then burned with a mad passion for boys.

For this they suffered such punishment. But now there are many sins being committed, both equal to this and heavier than it. He poured out such wrath for one transgression, and did not heed Abraham's entreaties.

Nor did He heed Lot, who lived in that city and gave his own daughters to be dishonored in order to preserve the honor of His servants. Will He spare us when we commit so many sins?

Truly such a thought is mockery and idle talk, error and diabolical deception. Do you wish me to bring you another example? Certainly you have heard of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

Therefore you also know the punishment that overtook him, and how he drowned in the Red Sea with his chariots, horses, and all his army (Ex 14:27-28). Do you wish to know still other examples?

Perhaps he was impious. Indeed, not merely perhaps, but he truly was impious. Do you wish to know that punishment overtakes even those who believe in God and attend to His teaching, yet live unrighteously?

Listen to what Paul says: "Let us not commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell. Let us not tempt Christ, as some of them tempted Him, and were destroyed by serpents. Do not murmur, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer" (1 Cor 10:8-10).

If fornication and murmuring were so destructive, what will our sins not produce? If God does not send punishment now, do not be amazed. They did not know about Gehenna, and therefore were punished immediately.

But you, when you sin, even if you undergo no punishment here, will be punished there. Then will He who subjected those less experienced men, who did not sin so greatly, to such strict punishment, forgive us?

"For the Lord Himself, with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel and with the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven." You do not doubt what I say, he means, and the Lord Himself will command this.

How will He command it? With the voice of the Archangel, who presides over the other angels and cries out: prepare everyone, for the Judge is at hand.

There will be many trumpets, but the Judge will descend at the sound of the last. As with the Father on Mount Sinai there were both trumpets and angels serving Him, so the Son will have this as King.

Or else, the command of God will cause the earth to return the bodies, changed into incorruption. The voice of the archangel, with the ministry of the angels, will bring together into one those scattered everywhere.

Chapter Twenty-One. That the Resurrection Should Be Expected Not So Much Because of the Preaching of Scripture as from the Very Necessity of Things

Vice is not so powerful that it can overcome the good power. Nor is the irrationality of our nature higher or firmer than divine wisdom.

It is impossible for what is perverse and changeable to be stronger and more constant than that which is always the same and established in the good.

The counsel of God is always and necessarily unchangeable. Yet the perversity of our nature is not firm even in evil.

Whatever is always in motion, if it is on the way toward the good, will never cease advancing, because the thing it traverses is boundless. It will find no end to what it seeks, at which it might finally stop its movement.

But if it has turned aside toward the opposite, then, when it has completed the course of vice and reached the farthest measure of evil, its ever-moving impulse finds no rest by nature. As soon as it has passed through the arena of vice, it necessarily turns its movement toward the good.

For vice does not extend into infinity, but is bounded by necessary limits. Therefore, beyond the limit of evil there follows the succession of the good.

Thus, according to what has been said, the perpetual mobility of our nature at last returns again to the good path. It is chastened by the memory of former calamities, so that it may not again surrender itself as captive to such miseries.

For this reason our course in the arena of the good will again be possible, because vice by nature is bounded by necessary limits.

Those skilled in heavenly phenomena say that the whole world is filled with light. Darkness occurs in the place shaded by the obstacle of the earthly body.

This place also, because the earthly body is spherical, is bounded by a conical surface described by the sun's ray.

The sun, surpassing the earth many times in size, embraces it all around with its rays. At the apex of the cone it joins together the converging rays of light.

Therefore, if we suppose that someone could cross the distance over which the shadow extends, he would necessarily find himself in light uninterrupted by darkness.

So, I think, we must understand it also concerning ourselves. When we reach the limit of vice and stand at the edge of sinful darkness, we shall begin again to live in the light.

For the nature of goodness surpasses the measure of vice by countless abundance.

Therefore paradise again, and again that tree which is the tree of life. Again there will be the gift of the image and the dignity of rule.

Yet this rule, it seems to me, is not over what God now subjects to human beings for the needs of life. Rather, there awaits us the hope of another kingdom, about which speech remains unutterable for us.

Chapter Twenty-Two. An Answer to Those Who Object: If the Resurrection Is Something Beautiful and Good, Why Has It Not Yet Occurred, but Must Be Hoped for after Several Revolutions of Time?

But let us keep to the sequence of our inquiry.

Perhaps someone, having winged his thought with the sweetness of hope, will count it a burden and loss if he does not soon enjoy those good things which transcend both sense and human knowledge.

He imagines this extension of time, which separates him from what he desires, to be unbearable.

But let him not trouble himself like some child distressed by a little delay in receiving pleasure.

Since all things are ordered by reason and wisdom, we must necessarily acknowledge that whatever happens is not alien to this reason and the wisdom present in it.

You will therefore say: What is this law by which the passage from a sorrowful life into the desired state does not take place at once?

Why does this burdensome and bodily life wait for the end, for the fulfillment of all things, through a certain appointed and extended time?

Why must human life then, as if freed from a bridle, become independent and free again, and return to blessed and passionless life?

Whether our discourse approaches the truth of what is sought, the Truth itself clearly sees. What has come to our mind is this, namely that first word to which I return again.

God says: Let Us make man according to Our image and according to Our likeness. And God made man. According to the image of God He made him (Gen 1:26-27).

Therefore the image of God, contemplated in the whole of human nature, already existed. Yet Adam had not yet come into being.

For Adam, according to the derivation of the word, means the earthly creature, as those skilled in the Hebrew language say.

For this reason the apostle, who was especially trained in the ancestral language of the Israelites, calls the man from the earth earthy (1 Cor 15:47). It is as though he were translating the name Adam into Greek.

Thus man was created according to the image. This means the whole nature, this Godlike creature.

By almighty Wisdom there was created according to the image, not a part of the whole, but the entire fullness of the nature together.

He who encompasses all boundaries in His hand knew this, as Scripture says: In His hand are all the ends of the earth (Ps 94:4).

He who knows all things even before they exist knew it. He embraced in His knowledge the number in which the human race would come forth from each.

But since He foresaw in us an inclination toward the worse, and that man, by voluntarily losing equal honor with the angels, would draw near to communion with what is lower, He therefore mingled with His own image something from the irrational creature.

For in the divine and blessed nature there is no distinction of male and female sex.

Yet, transferring to man the distinguishing property of the irrational constitution, not in keeping with the loftiness of the creature, He grants our race the means of multiplication.

When He created man according to the image, He did not then impart to him the power to increase and multiply.

But when He had already produced this distinction, male and female, then He says: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth (Gen 1:28).

For this is proper not to the divine nature, but to the irrational one, as the narrative makes known. It relates that God had first spoken this concerning the irrational creatures.

Therefore, if before the division into male and female had been added to nature, God had by this word given man the capacity to increase, we would not have needed that manner of birth by which irrational creatures are born.

By His foreknowledge He foresaw that the fullness of the human race would enter life through a birth more proper to animals.

God, who governs all things in an ordered sequence, therefore also foresaw the span of time proportionate to the constitution of mankind.

For our nature's inclination toward what is low made this manner of birth necessary for humanity. Before it appeared, He who sees the future equally with the present foresaw it.

Thus the duration of time would correspond to the appearance of the appointed number of souls. The fluid movement of time would stop when the propagation of the human race ceased within it.

When this manner of human birth comes to an end, time will also end with it.

In this way the renewal of the universe will be accomplished. With the change of the whole, humanity too will pass from the corruptible and earthly to the passionless and eternal.

This, it seems to me, is what the divine apostle has in mind when he foretells to the Corinthians the sudden stopping of time and the movement of what is in motion into the opposite course.

He says: Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, quickly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet (1 Cor 15:51-52).

For I think that when the fullness of human nature reaches its end in the measure foreknown, there will no longer be any need for an addition to the number of souls.

Then, as the apostle teaches by naming this immeasurable and extensionless boundary of time with the words quickly, in the twinkling of an eye, the change of beings will occur in an instant.

Therefore, whoever has reached this very last and outermost point of time cannot receive this temporal change through death, since nothing remains beyond that edge.

This can happen only when the trumpet of the resurrection sounds. It awakens the dead and instantly transforms those left alive into incorruption, like those changed through the resurrection.

Then the heaviness of flesh will no longer drag it downward, nor will its weight hold it beneath the earth. Rather, it will go upward through the air.

For the apostle says: We shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thess 4:17).

Therefore let them await the time which must necessarily be extended in proportion to the increase of the human race.

For Abraham and the other patriarchs desired to see the good things and did not cease to seek the heavenly homeland, as the apostle says (Heb 11:16).

Yet they still abide only in the hope of grace, according to Paul's word: God having foreseen something better for us, that they should not receive perfection without us, as Paul says (Heb 11:40).

Therefore, if some endure this delay from afar by faith and hope alone, as the apostle testifies, having seen and greeted the good things (Heb 11:13), they place the certainty of enjoying what is hoped for in acknowledging that what was promised is faithful.

What should many of us do, who, judging by our life, perhaps do not even have hope for something better?

The soul of the prophet grew faint with longing. In song he confessed this love burning to the point of passion.

He says that his soul longs and faints to dwell in the courts of the Lord (Ps 83:3), even if he must be cast there among the last (Ps 83:11).

For it is higher and more desirable to be last there than to hold first place in the tents of sinners in this life.

Nevertheless he endured the delay. He blessed the dwelling there and preferred a brief participation in those good things to thousands of years.

For he says: Better is one day in Thy courts than thousands (Ps 83:11).

He was not grieved by the necessary dispensation concerning existing things. He considered it enough for blessedness that human beings possess the good things in hope.

Therefore at the end of the psalm he says: Lord God of hosts, blessed is the man who hopes in Thee (Ps 83:13).

Therefore we too must not grieve over the brief delay of what is hoped for. Rather, we must take care not to become unworthy of the hoped-for good things.

If someone foretells to an experienced man that in the summer there will be a gathering of fruits, that storehouses will be filled, and that the table will be full of food in such abundance, he would be vain if he hastened to desire that time.

For it is still necessary to sow and by care to prepare the fruits for himself.

The time, whether one wishes it or not, will necessarily arrive at its appointed term. Yet those who prepared an abundance of fruits and those who remain at that hour empty-handed and without any provision will see it differently.

So, I think, since from the divine proclamation it is clear to everyone that the time of change will come, we must not be curious about the time.

For Christ said: It is not yours to know times or seasons (Acts 1:7).

Nor should we seek out reasonings by which someone weakens in the soul the hope of the resurrection.

Rather, having been strengthened by faith in what is expected, we should purchase future grace by a good life.

Chapter Twenty-Five. How One May Lead Someone from Outside to Believe in the Resurrection according to the Teaching of Scripture

But perhaps someone, looking at bodies that have dissolved and judging the Godhead according to his own powers, will say that the word about the resurrection is impossible.

He will assert that it is just as impossible for what is now at rest to come into motion as for what is now in motion to come to rest.

Let such a man accept as the first and greatest proof of the truth of the resurrection the credibility of its proclamation.

The words of the wise persuade me: every good and God-loving soul, once released from the body joined to it and set free from here, comes to perceive and behold the good awaiting it.

After the cleansing, or the laying aside, or whatever I should call what darkened it, the soul delights in a wondrous delight. It rejoices and goes gladly to its Master. For it has escaped this life as an unbearable prison.

It has cast off the bonds laid upon it, by which the wings of the mind were dragged downward. Then, in vision, it as though reaps the blessedness prepared for it.

For at the descent of our Lord from heaven, at the sound of the archangel’s trumpet, before the righteous then alive are equipped with new wings, the resurrection of the dead in Christ will first take place.

You ask how the words of 1 Thess 4:15 and following should be understood: 'For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself, with a command, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive, who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord.'

Although the discussion of Acacius given above has very fully unfolded the meaning of this passage, we must also state what others think. I mean Theodore, Apollinarius, and Diodore, who all hold one opinion.

Diodore wrote as follows. The Apostle Paul says 'we who are alive, who remain,' not as though he and others would remain in the body on the day of resurrection. Rather, he says 'we' instead of saying 'the righteous, among whom I also am.' For only the righteous will be caught up to meet Christ, not sinners together with them.

By 'the living' we do not understand, according to the tropological sense, the saints who have not died in sin. We understand all whom the coming of Christ will find in the body.

The following words, 'we shall not precede those who have fallen asleep,' must not in any way be referred to sinners. Sinners will not be caught up with the righteous to meet Christ. Only the righteous, released from the bonds of death, will be caught up.

But why do I explain this, as though I distrusted the Apostle's words, when he himself says very clearly: 'we who remain until the coming of the Lord'? Who these remaining ones are we learn from the Savior's words: 'As it was in the days of Noah, they married and were given in marriage, and the flood came and destroyed them all. So shall it be in the days of the Son of Man' (Mt 24; Lk 17).

By these words it is affirmed that at the end of the world many will remain alive and in the body. Then he says: 'with a command, with the voice of the Archangel, the dead shall rise first.'

The Savior also speaks of this in the Gospel: 'At midnight there was a cry: Behold, the Bridegroom comes' (Mt 25:6). The Bridegroom will certainly find some alive in the body. For 'two will be on one bed: one will be taken, and the other left. Two will be grinding together: one will be taken, and the other left' (Lk 17).

From these words it is clear that the end of the world will come at midnight, amid universal carelessness.

Origen, in the third book of his ἐξηγητικών, or commentaries, on the First Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians, added the following to many varied and wise explanations. Acacius, without doubt, made much use of it.

What do the words of Peter, Silvanus, and Timothy mean, when they write to the Thessalonians: 'We who are alive, who remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep'? Who are these living ones who say this?

Without doubt they are Paul, an Apostle not from men nor through men (Gal 1), Timothy, his beloved son in faith, and Silvanus, joined with them in love and virtue.

Yet not only they can say, 'we who are alive.' So can all who are like Paul in mind and deed. Their body is dead because of sin, but the spirit lives because of righteousness. Their members on earth have been mortified. If they have been mortified, they never lust against the spirit, since by their mortification they have lost such desires.

Those who have departed this present life and passed to a better one then live most truly, when they are freed from the mortal body and all other desires. So also those who bear the deadness of Jesus in their body do not live according to the flesh. Christ lives in them, of Whom it is said: 'The word of God is living and active' (Heb 4:12). He is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Those are alive who have put off every human weakness. The power of God lives in them. The wisdom hidden in God lives in them. Righteousness lives and acts in them. For Christ has become for us not only righteousness from God, but also wisdom and everything that belongs to power (1 Cor 1:30).

Since in the present passage the writers of the epistle distinguish themselves from those who have fallen asleep and died in Christ, this explanation might seem superfluous. A testimony based on one passage alone would have no force.

But now the same thing is said in the same sense and in the same spirit in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: 'We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed, suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed' (1 Cor 15:51, 55).

Compare what is said in the passage we are explaining, in Thessalonians, 'He shall descend from heaven with the trumpet of God,' with what is said in Corinthians: 'At the last trumpet, for the trumpet shall sound' (1 Cor 15:52).

Compare the words in Thessalonians, 'the dead in Christ shall rise first,' with what is written in Corinthians: 'and the dead shall rise incorruptible.' The next words, 'then we who are alive, who remain,' correspond to 'and we shall be changed.'

Both passages may be understood thus. We, the living, who remain until the coming of the Lord, shall be changed. We do not belong to those who are called dead. We are alive. Therefore we await the coming of the Lord not in death, but in life.

For we are of the race of Israel, and from us a remnant is chosen. The Lord once said of this remnant: 'I have left among the Israelites seven thousand men. All these have not bowed the knee to Baal' (3 Kgs 19:18).

Likewise, in the Gospel of John two classes are portrayed, the living and those not living: 'He who believes in Me, though he die, shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die' (Jn 11:25-26).

If we understand the living in the sense just stated, then by those who have fallen asleep and died in Christ we must recognize those who, although they wished to live in Christ, died through sin.

But if by the living one understands the remnant of Israel and those chosen by grace, then those who have fallen asleep and died in Christ must be those who do not believe rightly and do not come from the chosen stock of Israel.

There are others who explain this passage in another way. Those are called living who never died through sin. Those who sinned and died because they sinned, and afterward turned to repentance and wiped out former transgressions, are called dead because they sinned. Yet they are dead in Christ, because they have wholly turned to God.

Furthermore, the living, who have the testimony of faith but have not yet received the promise of the Lord, are blessed in having a good conscience. God had foreseen something better concerning them, that they should not be made perfect without the righteous (Heb 11:40). They live and are left until the coming of the Lord and Savior.

But since God is merciful and wishes to save even those who have fallen asleep and died in Christ, the living will not precede these dead. Nor will they alone be caught up in the clouds. According to the word of the Gospel parable, those who worked in the vineyard from the eleventh hour will receive one denarius, the same reward of salvation as those who worked from the first (Mt 20).

This should not seem unjust to anyone, that unequal labor is rewarded equally. There is a great difference between those healed after wounds and those who never saw the fear of death. Concerning the latter, I think it is said: 'What man is he who lived and did not see death, who delivered his soul from the hand of Hades?' (Ps 88:49).

Here 'what man' is not said in the sense of 'no one,' but as though saying, 'what man do you think?' It is just as when Scripture says in the same sense: 'Who is wise, that he may understand this?' (Hos 14:10).

Elsewhere it says: 'Lord, who shall dwell in Thy habitation?' (Ps 14:1). And again: 'For who has known the mind of the Lord?' (Rom 11:34). Thus a few of the remaining believers will see the coming of the Lord.

They will see Him not in the abasement of the flesh of the incarnate God the Word, but in the glory of the Victor.

We must also consider why the Apostle first called those whom the living cannot precede 'those who have fallen asleep,' and then 'the dead in Christ.' Whoever does not keep what is written, 'Give no sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Save thyself like a gazelle from the hand, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler' (Prov 6:4-5), will fall asleep and grow numb in the sleep of sin.

When he falls asleep, he passes over into death. As one who is awake is in motion, so one who sleeps lies motionless and without sensation, like a dead man.

That death truly follows sleep is clear from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, where it is said: 'But Christ has risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as death came through a man, so through a man came also the resurrection of the dead' (1 Cor 15:20-21).

A little later it says: 'We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed, suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed' (1 Cor 15:51-52).

Therefore, since such things are said concerning sleep and death, and since we read in the Apostle, 'Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light' (Eph 5:14), let us swear to the Lord.

Let each of us make a vow in his heart to the God of Jacob: 'I shall not go up upon my bed. I shall not give sleep to mine eyes, nor slumber to mine eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord,' that is, a dwelling in my soul, 'for the Mighty One of Jacob' (Ps 131). Let God establish His eternal throne in that habitation.

Then follows: 'For the Lord Himself, with a command,' and so forth. He Who was sent from the Father will descend from heaven: the Word of God, and Wisdom, and Truth, and Righteousness.

He will descend not with the power of various miracles, but with the authority of a judge. He will descend to those who are in the earth. Although those counted worthy of His descent have died, they are not strangers to Him, because they are called the dead in Christ.

The living have this advantage, that they form an elect portion among very many. Nevertheless, both the dead in Christ and the living will equally be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ.

They will not wait for Him until He descends into the low places of the earth. Rather, they will enjoy the vision of His face and communion with Him in the dwellings above.

How merciful Christ is! For our salvation He not only became flesh, but also descended even to the dead, and in death itself planted the banner of life. For from His side flowed water and blood (Jn 19:34).

Thus the Word of God descends, preceded by the voice of the Archangel, who prepares His way in those able to endure His presence. To bring this nearer to our understanding, let us consider the mystery of the first coming.

Concerning John, who was the Forerunner of the Lord, it is written that he said in the wilderness: 'I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,' and so forth.

What does this voice proclaim in the wilderness? 'Prepare the way of the Lord. Make His paths straight' (Mt 3:3; Lk 3:4; Mk 1:3; Jn 1:23).

For what recompense and for what reward? 'Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth. And the glory of the Lord shall appear, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God' (Is 40:4-5). This is because 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us' (Jn 1:14).

But now the way will be prepared not by the voice of a prophet in the wilderness, but by the voice of the Archangel. He will prepare the way for One Who comes not in the abasement of the flesh, but as He Who is with the Father, God the Word.

"For the Lord Himself, with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel and with the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven." The Lord of all Himself will first appear descending from heaven, and He will command the Archangel to cry out and raise the dead.

The trumpets will sound everywhere something great and wondrous. The Apostle also said this in the Epistle to the Corinthians: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

"For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Cor 15:51-52). If the people could not bear the excess of fear at the sound on Mount Sinai, which was proportioned to the hearing of those then living, what will happen then?

Then, after many years, Christ our God will come in His dread and ineffable glory to judge the world. Terrified before Him, the heavenly powers will be seized with awe, and all the legions of angels will stand trembling before Him.

Then, at the voice of the archangel and at the trumpet of God, all the dead will rise and stand before His fearful throne (cf. 1 Thess 4:16). Resurrection is the soul's reunion with the body.

The body that was destroyed and dissolved will rise unharmed. Let this not seem incredible to you. There is nothing impossible in a body's rising unharmed again by the Creator's command.

For it was created from the earth in the beginning, and it returned again to the earth from which it was made.

As the divine Apostle says: “The Lord Himself, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven.” And He will take vengeance on His adversaries, separating through the holy angels the unrighteous from the righteous, and the accursed from the saints. Or, to speak briefly, He will separate those led by the flesh from those who follow the Spirit of God. And, as the truth of the divine sayings declares, He will render a righteous recompense to each for endless and unending ages, according to the worth of the life he has lived.

The Eternal One accepted the span of time. Within our nature was found, superessentially, He who surpasses every order of every property, while remaining immutable and without confusion.

And when we become incorruptible and immortal, and are counted worthy of the blessed repose proper to Christ, then, according to the saying, we shall always be with the Lord.

When we are made incorruptible and immortal, having attained the state of Godhead and become like Christ, then, according to Scripture, we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thess 4:17).

Then, in most pure contemplations, we shall be filled with the vision of the divine manifestation. It will shine upon us with the radiance of those rays by which the disciples were once illumined at the divine Transfiguration.

Now we must bring in abundance the pure oil of good works and wisdom, cleansed from every corruption that drags downward. Thus, while awaiting the delayed Bridegroom, our lamps also will not go out.

This delay is the time until the coming of Christ. The drowsiness and sleep of the virgins are departure from life. Midnight is the kingdom of the Antichrist, when the destroying angel will pass through our dwellings.

The cry that rang out, "Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him" (Mt 25:6), is the voice from heaven and the sound of the trumpet.

Then the saints, after the resurrection of them all, will be caught up on the clouds and will go to meet the Lord (1 Thess 4:17).

Let us await and hope that the Lord will come from the heavens upon the clouds. The pious who are alive will be caught up on the clouds. As a reward for their labors, they will receive an honor surpassing man, since their struggles also surpassed man.

That the righteous will abide forever with our Lord Christ we have already testified above, when we turned to the words of the holy Apostle: "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 so we shall always be with the Lord."

Do not marvel that the flesh of the saints will receive such glory at the resurrection that, at the Lord's coming, it will be borne up into the air and lifted upon the clouds.

For the Apostle himself, explaining how closely God draws to Himself those who love Him, writes: "Christ will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to His glorious body" (Phil 3:21).

“The Lord Himself, with a command, with the voice of archangels, and with the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven.” The Apostle depicts Christ’s coming not by his own conjecture, but by divine revelation.

Here he rises to prophetic contemplation. Therefore the opinion of those who see only the Apostle’s guess in this depiction is unjust. What he revealed by the word of the Lord was not the fruit of his invention.

In his depiction, the Apostle takes an image from military action. At the word of the commander and at the sound of the military trumpet, the troops set out for battle.

The Apostle proves that those who remain alive at the Lord’s coming will not precede the departed by presenting the chief moments of that great final event. The Lord will appear, the departed will rise, and they and those left alive will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord.

In this most precious privilege of believers, the living will not be preferred in any special way over the departed.

“For the Lord Himself.” He is the Person in whom all the aspirations and hopes of Christians are concentrated. He is the beginning and accomplisher of the new birth, and the One who decides the final lot of all.