1 Thessalonians 4:16 - Exposition

For ; assigning a reason for the above assertion, "because." The Lord himself ; not merely the Lord as the chief Person and Actor on that day, in contrast to his saints, but emphatic, " the Lord himself," the Lord in his own proper Person. Shall descend from heaven ; where the crucified and risen Jesus is now enthroned, seated at the right hand of God. With a shout ; a word denoting a commanding shout as that of a leader to his host when he leads them into the battle, or of the army when it rushes to the fight. Some refer this shout to what follows—the voice of the archangel and the trump of God; but there are three particulars here mentioned. Others attribute it to Christ himself. With the voice of the archangel ; or rather, of an archangel. There is only one archangel mentioned in Scripture ( Jude 1:9 ); the word denotes, not "chief angel," but "chief or ruler of the angels." Accordingly, same suppose that Christ himself is here meant, as to him alone, it is asserted, does this title belong; but the Lord and the archangel are here evidently distinguished. Others strangely imagine that the Holy Ghost is here meant. Others fix on the archangel Michael ( Jude 1:9 ). Christ is represented as accompanied by angels to the judgment; and it is futile to inquire who this leader of the angels is. And the trump of God ; even as the trumpet sounded at the giving of the Law from Sinai. Also the advent of Christ to judgment is represented as heralded by the sound of a trumpet ( Matthew 24:31 ; 1 Corinthians 15:51 , 1 Corinthians 15:52 ). "We are to recognize three particulars, following each other in rapid succession—the commanding shout of the King himself, the voice of the archangel summoning the other angels, and the trump of God which awakens the dead and collects believers" (Riggen-bach). And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Some suppose that the reference here is to the first resurrection; that the righteous, "the dead in Christ," shall rise before the wicked, "the dead not in Christ;" and that a thousand years, or the millennium, will intervene between the first and second resurrections ( Revelation 20:4 , Revelation 20:5 ). But this is an entirely erroneous supposition. All that is here asserted is that the dead in Christ shall rise before the living in Christ shall be changed; there is no contrast between the dead in Christ and the dead not in Christ, nor any allusion to the resurrection of the wicked.