Those Who Have Fallen Asleep

Paul’s words concerning the return of the Lord were a comfort to the grieving Thessalonians, but they have caused protracted strife among theologians. The solution lies in his use of covenant-literary structure.

PLEASE NOTE: This essay from June 2017 has been revised and expanded.

The apostle’s description of the coming of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 4 seems to defy any attempt to locate the event completely and concretely in either the past or the future. Each explanation fails because in every possible scenario at least one piece of the puzzle he presents refuses to fit: each case requires that at least one factor must be ignored, redefined, or explained away in order to make it work.

Since literary structure is employed by all the biblical authors as a means of allusion, what if an analysis of Paul’s careful poetic arrangement provides a clue? His words recapitulate an architectural form with which his readers were familiar, one which describes history as a process, a pattern of conquest by sacrifice. Such an arrangement confers greater meaning upon each of its parts because it reveals their relationship to each other as members of the whole. The entire epistle follows the covenant-literary pattern common to all of Scripture, which means that the author’s comments concerning the resurrection must be understood in their context as one step in a “liturgical/historical” sequence.

The Structure of 1 Thessalonians

• The heptamerous structure of Paul’s epistle focusses on the sevenfold process of sacrifice. This faithful Church is the blameless animal selected for God (Initiation) and set apart by Paul (Delegation). Timothy’s report exalts them, lifting them onto the altar (Presentation). The fire of the Law of Love tries their hearts (Purification). Paul then describes the Lord’s coming “in the clouds, like the High Priest approaching the veil in a cloud of fragrant incense on the Day of Atonement (Transformation) to indicate that their sacrifice was an acceptable savor to God (Vindication). The faithful Thessalonians would be vindicated in the judgment, and Paul ends his letter with a prayer that they might remain blameless (Representation), matching his commendation of them at the beginning of the epistle’s “sacrificial” chiasm.

• The location within the epistle of the passage in question helps us to interpret it. The themes at step 5 of the Bible Matrix are witness/martyrdom, resurrection, the Incense altar (the heavenly court), and the maturity and wisdom of the elders who serve before the throne of God. We find these themes under the banner of the fifth seal in Revelation where the blood of the Old Covenant martyrs, as sacrificial lambs whose blood had been “splashed against the altar” by their brothers like the blood of Abel, was crying out for vengeance. Later in the prophecy, the altar itself cries out against those who murdered the New Covenant martyrs in Jerusalem.¹For more discussion, see Michael Bull, Moses and the Revelation: Why the End of the World is not in Your Future, 157. This architectural background is crucial for our understanding of this pericope.

Analysis of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

This cycle within the epistle consists of five stanzas rather than seven, which indicates that it is a mystery yet to be opened. It also means that the fivefold cruciform “Tabernacle” architecture of the Torah undergirds it at the deepest level, and, as a result, the “domain” of each of the five stanzas changes as we move through the steps of the covenant process, just as it did in our overview of the entire epistle, only with more subtlety.

TRANSCENDENCE
Genesis

• The Genesis stanza works through the sacrificial thread but in a negative sense. Paul’s use of the standard portrayal of death as a temporary sleep seems to be a deliberate allusion to the deep sleep of Adam in Genesis 2 and the subsequent “covenantal” sleeps of the patriarchs. (In chapter 5, of course, he uses sleep as a metaphor for those who are living so carelessly that they might as well be dead.)
• The heptamerous sequence of sacred architecture is also apparent, beginning with Paul’s authority as the legal representative of God (Ark of the Testimony), the ignorance of the Thessalonians (Veil), the Christian brothers (Altar & Table), and the absence of the breath of life (Lampstand).
• The placement of “those who remain” at the Vindication step perhaps reveals that the grief which Paul speaks of is not merely the sorrow of bereavement but also the distress caused by the ridicule of these saints by unbelievers who disputed their testimony concerning the resurrection of Jesus, and thus of His followers. The stoning of Stephen, the first martyr, an illegal execution over which Paul had presided, may also have been in the apostle’s mind. This interpretation is supported by Paul’s reference to the resurrection of Christ as the foundation for his encouragement. Jesus was vindicated when He rose from the dead, and His words would be vindicated once again—this time in the saints.

HIERARCHY
Exodus

• The Exodus stanza shows that the two approaches of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement were a microcosm of the ascensions of Christ and His Firstfruits Church. Jesus’ second “coming near” would be like the first (Acts 1:11).
• Notice the symmetry of the mentions of Jesus, the first corresponding to the tearing of the Temple Veil and the second to the destruction of the entire Temple.
• The dead appear at step 5, alluding again to the apostolic witness and Revelation’s fifth seal, another indication that Paul is comforting the Thessalonians following the martyrdoms of local saints.
• As the Exodus stanza, the underlying theme is the covering of the saints by the Passover lamb and their rescue—a “bringing out”—from slavery. For a person or an animal, the word used for “bring” has the connotation of being led or guided. The placement of this at the end of a pattern that alludes to first-century history gives us a clue concerning the timing of the event: the blood of all the martyrs—the Old Covenant saints from Abel onwards, and a contingent of New Covenant witnesses—would be avenged upon that generation (Matthew 23:25). These saints would then be enthroned as a heavenly court of human elders with the authority to judge (Matthew 19:28; Revelation 20:4-6).

ETHICS
Leviticus

• The Leviticus section is not “opened” into the three Ethics stanzas that would make the pericope sevenfold, but internally it contains the Triune Office in seed form: the ministry of the apostles (Priesthood), the fate of the living (Kingdom), and the return of Christ (Prophecy). Paul puts “the living who survive” at the center of the stanza, and thus of the entire pericope, as its thesis. Notice also that the earthly promise at Ascension is vindicated in heaven at Maturity.
• The placement of “shall not precede” at Oath/Sanctions indicates that the coming blessing would not only divide between the faithful and unfaithful dead, but also between the faithful dead and faithful living. The word “precede” can also be translated as “come” (Matthew 12:28; 2 Corinthians 10:14; 1 Thessalonians 2:16) and “attain” (Romans 9:31; Philippians 3:16). It indicates not only timing but also priority in importance or sequence. This suggests that Paul’s meaning may be larger than simply a differentiation between the timing of, say, the birth order of Esau and Jacob. Positioned at the Conquest step of the stanza, it describes the arrival of the Old Covenant saints and the first-century martyrs in the heavenly country. Those who died in the era of animal sacrifice would receive their inheritance first, as part of the sacrificial body of the “firstborn from the dead.” As pictured in the Levites under the Old Covenant, they were denied an earthly inheritance as the firstfruits of a greater harvest, attaining the state described in Revelation 21:3-4. Of course, all the saints of all history comprise the Body of Christ, but God works in fractals, in layers or waves bearing the same image but in ever-increasing iterations. This will be described in more detail below.

OATH/SANCTIONS
Numbers

• As in Numbers, the Covenant Sanctions would fall upon the people. However, just as 3,000 were saved at the last Pentecost in contrast to the 3,000 slain by the Levites at the first, here the bodies of the saints would rise from the dead instead of falling in the wilderness. The reversal explains why the dominion pattern is reversed in this stanza, a technique which occurs infrequently in Scripture, sometimes as a reference to de-creation (a reversal of Creation) but usually with reference to resurrection (a reversal of the curse). In this case, Jesus comes down from the heavenly habitation which He had prepared for them (John 14:2-3).
• In the sevenfold sequence, Oath/Sanctions corresponds to Joshua, which is another reason to tie this event to the first-century offering of Jerusalem to God as a city under the ban. But there is other evidence which makes this connection undeniable. The similarity of the events described in this stanza with those described in Matthew 24 and 1 Corinthians 15 means that full preterists (who deny a final resurrection and judgment) are correct when they claim that all three passages clearly refer to the same event, which occurred in the first century. This is why they condemn as “futurists” those who take the period described in Revelation 20 as yet to be fulfilled. However, Revelation works through the same pattern, thus its final sequence concerns Succession, which, by definition, describes a future inheritance.²See Rescuing Revelation. So, this is where we must part ways with them. All covenants have a day of reckoning, including the New Covenant. There is indeed a future judgment, and that puts a lot of history (the current age) between the first resurrection and the second resurrection.³For more discussion of Revelation 20 and the “millennium,” see Michael Bull, Moses and the Revelation: Why the End of the World is not in Your Future. Since full preterists disregard or are unaware of covenant-literary structure, they miss the subtle shift in subject matter between the steps in the sequence. A gap, or, more correctly, a shift from one sacred domain into another, exists between the Oath/Sanctions and Succession steps in this cycle of 1 Thessalonians just as it does in the Revelation. All Scripture is covenantal and thus also architectural. The final stanza shifts us from AD70 to the end of the world.

SUCCESSION
Deuteronomy

• Paul’s Deuteronomy stanza promises a similar inheritance for those who would live beyond the parousia (Matthew 16:28), the final theft of the vessels of the strong man (Mark 3:27) by Jesus. Stanzas 4 and 5 are thus the two resurrections of Revelation 20—the harvest at the end of the Old Covenant and the harvest at the end of the New. (Although Paul includes himself among the survivors, he would be executed before the Jewish War and thus raised in the “first resurrection.”) These events are separated by a long period of time, signified under the symbol of “a thousand years,” an allusion to the duration of Israel’s itinerant tent worship (a thousand years) and its established temples (another thousand years). Paul jumps from one event to the next in the way a farmer records annual harvests. The leaps in 1 Corinthians 15:23-24 are similar, aligning the harvests with the three domains of the Tabernacle as a graduated glorification of the world:

1. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits,
   (Sanctuary / Garden / High Priest / Adam – AD30)
2. then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
   (Holy Place / Land / Israel / Cain & Abel – AD70)
3. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
   (Courts / World / All Nations / Future Global Restoration)

• This is where the nature of fractals comes into play. In the first-century pattern, Jesus was the firstfruits (Head) and the Apostolic Church was the harvest (Body). But for the entire New Covenant era, Jesus and the Apostolic Church together comprise the firstfruits (Land) and the nations of the World are an even greater harvest (World). This greater Land-and-World pattern is what is described in Revelation 20.
• Paul uses the same word for “then” in both passages. It means afterwards but not mean immediately afterwards. Properly, it means “only then,” emphasizing that what precedes is a necessary precursor. In Galatians 1:18 and 2:1, Paul uses this word to describe periods of three years and fourteen years.
• While we are in 1 Corinthians 15, it is worth looking briefly at verses 51-52. Paul says: “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” This appears to indicate that at this first-century resurrection, following the end of the Law (verse 56), some people would be “taken alive.” However, the Greek negative does not modify “all” but instead the verb “we shall slumber,” so the sense would be, “Collectively we shall sleep not, for collectively we shall be changed.”⁴See the discussion in Meyer’s Commentary on the New Testament. Paul is not dividing between the dead and the living but revealing the instantaneous nature of the transformation of all the dead from “perishable” to “imperishable.”
• Returning to 1 Thessalonians 5, the word translated “together with them” can mean “at the same time” but it is also freely used as a preposition of adverb denoting close association rather than time. Some claim that the apostle is describing the ascension of individual saints upon each one’s personal death, but a resurrection is always a corporate event—a “bridal” harvest. Even Jesus did not emerge from the grave alone (Matthew 27:52; John 12:24).
• Paul’s language describes a sacrificial mustering of the hosts of Israel as a cloud of glory around the tent of God. This final stanza lifts the priestly “World” saints from the Altar of the earth and assembles them with the “Land” saints around the tent of meeting in a fulfillment of the Mosaic “human ziggurat.”⁵See Jacob’s Ziggurat. Just as the Spirit given to David was taken from Saul, and the Lampstand was removed from Israel before the destruction of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 7:34; 25:10, Revelation 1:20; 2:5; 18:23; 21:23), the camp of the saints (Moses: priesthood) is glorified as a holy city (David: kingdom), while fire falls from heaven to destroy the wicked (Revelation 20:9).
• The judgment of all the dead which Daniel had predicted would take place as a single event (Daniel 12:2) was now split into two events. On behalf of all nations, Jerusalem bore the punishment for the entire history of murdered prophets since the death of Abel. In this way, AD70 postponed the judgment of the World just as the death of Christ on the cross had postponed the judgment of the Land (John 12:31). Jesus defeated Satan in a “Garden” sense, binding him and preventing him from deceiving the elect; then the first-century Church defeated him in a “Land” sense, binding him and preventing him from deceiving the nations of the World. There is Old Testament precedent for such postponements. In His mercy, God has a habit of putting off judgments until a later date. Adam’s death in the Garden was postponed through the first act of atonement. Likewise, a temporary stay of vengeance was placed upon Cain in the Land. Israel’s failure to go up and conquer Canaan resulted in a threshing of the nation. Likewise, Jesus forgave his murderers, postponing Daniel’s “70th Week,” thus allowing God to thresh the nation under the apostolic witness instead of cutting it off suddenly like Sodom and Gomorrah (Romans 9:29; Revelation 7:1-3). In this case, instead of all those who slept in the dust of the earth being awakened, “some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2), the righteous “came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years [but] the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended” (Revelation 20:4-5). Thus, every tongue, both good and evil, will confess together that Christ is Lord in a universal judgment on the last day, vindicating Him as the king who is both just and merciful.

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