"Meet" In The Air - Does This Support A Pre-Trib Rapture?
Mar 23, 2024 20:17:02 GMT
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Post by midnightwatcher on Mar 23, 2024 20:17:02 GMT
In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 Paul says that when Christ descends, the dead in Christ are resurrected and then we will be caught up to meet Christ and the resurrected saints in the air. The word “meet” is the Greek word “apantēsis” -- a very special word that only occurs here and in three other places in Scripture. In Vocabulary of the Greek Testament by G. Milligan and James Hope Moulton, “The word apantesis seems to have been a kind of official welcome of a newly arriving dignitary – a usage which accords excellently with its NT usage.”
In Greek culture the word “apantēsis” had a technical meaning to describe the visit of a dignitary or a king or a famous person to a city where the visitor would be formally met by citizens or a deputation that would rush to meet them and then ceremonially escort them back into the city. For instance, when a Roman emperor approached a city, the leading citizens went out to welcome him and had the honor of processing into the city with him. This whole event was described as the “apantēsis.”
In Matthew 25:1,6 it describes the virgins going out to meet the bridegroom, to escort him back into the house. In Acts 28:14-16 it is used to describe brethren from Rome coming out to Appii Forum, to meet Paul and his company, and then escort them back to Rome. In each example of “apantēsis” the escort back is virtually immediate. We don’t have them going out to meet the subject, then going to where the subject came from for years, and then later escorting the subject back. That was not the custom. The subject who was coming is met by those who are already at his destination. And what is His destination? Where we are — Earth! When Christ comes back to Earth, we will go out to meet Him, and will remain in the air temporarily until the indignation (the "orge" wrath that we are not appointed unto) is complete, and we immediately escort Him back:
Zechariah 14:4-5, “And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, [Making] a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south… Thus the LORD my God will come, *And all the saints with You.*”
Scripture NEVER tells us that we are removed from the Earth to conveniently go to Heaven while the wicked remain to unleash global hell. Those of us who are alive and remain (the Greek word means those who survive) are transformed from corruptible to incorruptible, and we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air to then escort the King of Kings back to Earth — ie. Jerusalem — which is consistent with its usage in every single verse of Scripture. The pre-trib position, however, suddenly changes the intended meaning of the "apantēsis." Instead of us escorting the Messiah back to Earth for His Second Coming, pre-tribism has the arriving King making a sudden U-turn to conveniently take us to Heaven instead, which the text does not say anywhere, at any place, at any time.
Proverbs 10:30, “The righteous will never be removed, But the wicked will not inhabit the earth.”
In Greek culture the word “apantēsis” had a technical meaning to describe the visit of a dignitary or a king or a famous person to a city where the visitor would be formally met by citizens or a deputation that would rush to meet them and then ceremonially escort them back into the city. For instance, when a Roman emperor approached a city, the leading citizens went out to welcome him and had the honor of processing into the city with him. This whole event was described as the “apantēsis.”
In Matthew 25:1,6 it describes the virgins going out to meet the bridegroom, to escort him back into the house. In Acts 28:14-16 it is used to describe brethren from Rome coming out to Appii Forum, to meet Paul and his company, and then escort them back to Rome. In each example of “apantēsis” the escort back is virtually immediate. We don’t have them going out to meet the subject, then going to where the subject came from for years, and then later escorting the subject back. That was not the custom. The subject who was coming is met by those who are already at his destination. And what is His destination? Where we are — Earth! When Christ comes back to Earth, we will go out to meet Him, and will remain in the air temporarily until the indignation (the "orge" wrath that we are not appointed unto) is complete, and we immediately escort Him back:
Zechariah 14:4-5, “And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, [Making] a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south… Thus the LORD my God will come, *And all the saints with You.*”
Scripture NEVER tells us that we are removed from the Earth to conveniently go to Heaven while the wicked remain to unleash global hell. Those of us who are alive and remain (the Greek word means those who survive) are transformed from corruptible to incorruptible, and we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air to then escort the King of Kings back to Earth — ie. Jerusalem — which is consistent with its usage in every single verse of Scripture. The pre-trib position, however, suddenly changes the intended meaning of the "apantēsis." Instead of us escorting the Messiah back to Earth for His Second Coming, pre-tribism has the arriving King making a sudden U-turn to conveniently take us to Heaven instead, which the text does not say anywhere, at any place, at any time.
Proverbs 10:30, “The righteous will never be removed, But the wicked will not inhabit the earth.”
