In a previous study I demonstrated that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, telling them that at the coming of the Lord, they, together with the raised dead, would be seized (G726; harpazo) or taken in a cloud (G3507) for a meeting (G529; apantesis) with the Lord (1Thessalonians 4:17). I also demonstrated that, although this is the foundational Scripture for the doctrine of the rapture, there is absolutely no evidence in 1Thessalonians 4:17 for such a doctrine. The Greek word apantesis has the sense of one leaving one’s place to a meeting with another person, usually a dignitary, and escorting that person back to one’s home or city etc. It simply doesn’t support the context of being physically snatched from the earth to go to heaven in order to be with the Lord. Rather, it has the sense of a meeting with the Lord and then escorting him back to one’s home—i.e. earth (cp. Revelation 21:1-3).
This meeting with the Lord at his return is the restoration of fellowship between God and mankind. The ancient Jewish Temple was the place where heaven (God) and earth (mankind) met. God was enthroned in the Most Holy Place, while mankind occupied the Holy Place, or the outer precincts of the Temple, or outside the Temple compound itself, expressing varying degrees of fellowship between God and man. God was within the veil. The Temple was, actually, a picture of the Garden of Eden after Adam’s rebellion. Before the rebellion, Adam was with the Lord in the Garden (viz. the Most Holy Place), implying unhindered fellowship (no veil). After the rebellion mankind was cast out of the Garden into Eden (the Holy Place) and a sword / veil prevented his return (Genesis 3:24). In other words unhindered fellowship with God had been interrupted, and there was nothing man could do to repair the damage he had done.
Apanthesis (G529) doesn’t point to believers being snatched from the earth to go to heaven. Rather it points to the arrival of the Lord in a restoration of fellowship between God and man. Consider for example the relationship between the Lord and the House of Israel (the 10 northern tribes). In Hosea 2:1-4 the Lord is represented as being her husband, but he divorces her because of her adulteries (breaking the covenantal relationship). He says he is not her husband, and she is not his wife. Then we are told that the Lord went away to his place until she repented (Hosea 5:15). Nevertheless, the Lord also said that he would bring her to the point of repentance and make a new (marriage) covenant with her and he will betroth her in righteousness (Hosea 2:17-19). Thus, implying, once the New Covenant was established, he would return to her (mankind) and take her as his bride, and unhindered fellowship would be renewed.
Therefore, 1Thessalonians 4:17 is Paul’s way of saying the Lord had betrothed Israel once again, and bringing in the gentiles with them, and he was about to return for the wedding (viz. Matthew 25:1-13), and those who were ready would be seized into a meeting with him, never to be put away again (“so shall we ever be with the Lord”). Thus, the Lord’s promise of his return (Hosea 5:15; cp. 2:17-19) would be fulfilled at the end of the Old Covenant age (judgment) and the establishment of the New Covenant age (resurrection), which would never end (Daniel 2:44; Hebrews 12:28; cp. Revelation 21:1-3).
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