Resurrection - 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18

4:14-15 - In verse 13, Paul told the Thessalonians to have hope concerning the dead, and continuing in verse 14, “for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” It’s a contrast between those who “sorrow” because of the death of loved ones and those who believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And not only should we have faith in Jesus’ resurrection, but also have faith in Jesus’ love and equality for those who died before us who believed. Referring to that equality, Paul teaches them “by the word of the Lord” that those who are alive “unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep.” Apparently, the Thessalonian saints were worried that those who died before the Lord’s second coming were somehow limited in their blessings or ability to progress or that they would miss out on some amazing upcoming event. I guess I just don’t really understand people’s obsession with the second coming, I’m really not super excited for it and I surely don’t want to be here when it happens. I’d like to be long dead when that time comes. But I would imagine that my perspective is shaped by my faith in the amazingness of the next life and God’s promises that all people will be given the same opportunities at some point in their existence. And maybe because it’s because Jesus’ death and resurrection was so much more recent for the Thessalonians than it is for us now, that the people were really excited for him to come back. But maybe it is because of cultural reasons as well. The IM comments, “Elsewhere in his epistles to the Thessalonians, Paul used the Greek word parouisa to refer to the Second Coming. Parousia could refer to the arrival of a ruler or emperor. In the Greco-Roman world, the arrival or visit of the emperor to a community was anticipated with extensive preparation. Paul’s use of this word helped him stress the importance of proper preparation for Jesus Christ’s return to earth.” Maybe it’s because they lived under an empirical system that they were used to the idea of a “King” or emperor among them. They had protocols about what to do in case of a royal visit. That’s just so foreign to me because I don’t have a king in my country, I don’t have royal protocols. And I can’t emphasize enough the difference in perspective 2,000 years makes. If they thought he was “coming back at any moment” then, well it’s been a while since that time. And if it’s already been 2,000 years, then it almost certainly won’t be in my lifetime, though, ultimately, no matter when he comes back, my behavior and beliefs will not change at all. I will still do the same things, I will still believe the same things, and I will still just try my best to keep the commandments. Either way, if he comes back tomorrow or 2,000 years from now, who I am won’t change much. 4:16-18 – When Jesus returns, “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.” The article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com says, “The Hosannah Shout memorializes the pre-earthly Council in Heaven, as ‘when… all the sons of God shouted for joy’… President Lorenzo Snow taught that this shout will herald the Messiah when he comes in the glory of the Father.” I, of course, don’t remember the pre-earthly council, and have only done the Hosannah Shout once, when President Nelson led it in conference last year. But it’s kind of a cool thing to think about because if the plan of salvation was revealed to us and we shouted for joy and here Jesus is returning to bring about the Millennium, then it will kind of be a full circle moment for all of us. Also if we think about it, at the council, Satan revealed himself to be a villain, and when Jesus returns Satan will be bound for 1,000 years. So he’s been wreaking havoc in the entire time between, so maybe now we’ll get a break from him. It’s like a victory party. Paul sets out a sequence of events that will happen when Christ returns, the article says, “The Second Coming of Christ will not be complete until Jesus gathers to himself a celestial gathering. This grand meeting amidst the clouds will involved three different groups of saints. The first group are described as ‘all the holy angels.’ They are those who were resurrected at the time of Christ. They are not an assembly of angels which do not belong to this earth, for ‘there are no angels who minister to this earth but those who do belong or have belonged to it.’ The second group are those saints who have died since the resurrection of Christ. This group was a concern to the Thessalonian saints, but Paul promised that they would be caught up as well. The third group are those mortals who are worthy of a celestial glory. The scriptures clearly promise that these three groups will be part of the heavenly throng.” When I hear statements like this, I think about the prophets and apostles, etc. the big wigs and think that it will just be them. But then again, I certainly anticipate being a part of the first resurrection. But even just beyond that, knowing that the celestial kingdom is reserved for those who want to be there, and that “those mortals who are worthy of a celestial glory,” will be caught up in the first resurrection as well, what a huge number. There’s an excellent book called “Odds Are You’re Going To Be Exalted” by Alonzo Gaskill that talks about sheer number of people who will be in the celestial kingdom based just on infant mortality rates throughout human history. I think it’s something like 50% of all children born will die before the age of 5. That’s hard for us to consider right now because we don’t have those numbers, but for the last several thousand years since humans showed up, this has been the case. Google speculates that 108 billion people have been born since humans showed up. If 50% of them died before the age of accountability that’s 54 billion people who are automatically going to the celestial kingdom. And that’s probably not counting miscarriages, which might be new people as well, depending on how you think about it. I tend to think that miscarriages are children that just die too soon. I mean really, if we believe that stillborns will be resurrected, then why wouldn’t miscarriages, who are just stillborns at an earlier gestational age. That makes sense to me. Parts of my patriarchal blessing have helped me come to this conclusion as well. So doing a little bit more math here, if 54 billion people lived to be old enough to reproduce and half of them are women, and each woman has averaged 1 miscarriage in her reproductive lifetime, which I think it is much higher, but I’m rounding down to be conservative, that’s 27 billion babies that were formed with distinctive DNA but that died before developing far enough to be born. That’s a total of 81 billion people that are not only going to the celestial kingdom no questions asked, but who are worthy to come forth in the first resurrection, and that is a staggering amount. Now I’m not exactly sure how that’s going to work as far as miscarriages and stillborns, etc. but that’s still SO many more people than we have on earth to. Of the 54 billion people who survived childhood, how many of them were worthy of the celestial kingdom? Probably a vast majority. Even though they might not have had the gospel in their lifetimes, how many accepted it in the spirit world? How many tried their best to be good people? How many were obedient to the religion that they had in their lives? My guess is that it’s going to be a very heavy majority. With all this, I always imagined that there would only be a few of us carried up into the clouds to meet Jesus when he came, but it’s looking like it’s going to be a glorious reunion with most of the people who have ever lived on the earth. That’s pretty incredible. Finally, Paul tells the Thessalonians to “comfort one another with these words.” The article says, “The Prophet Joseph, the solver of problems, the comforter of humanity, told a mother who had lost a baby in death that in the resurrection when the Lord Jesus Christ appears, her baby would be resurrected and that she would have the joy, more joy than she could have had in mortality, in the resurrection, of rearing that baby, or the young child, young children, who have died, to manhood and womanhood.” And further questions Joseph Smith as teaching, “Let us not sorrow as those without hope. The time is fast approaching when we shall see (our loved ones) again and rejoice together, without being afraid of wicked men. Yes, those who have slept in Christ shall he bring with him when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired by all those who believe, but to take vengeance upon his enemies and all those who obey not the gospel. At that time, the hearts of the widow and fatherless shall be comforted, and every tear shall be wiped from off their faces.” I’ve heard so many horror stories of people who had children die who were told that those children would burn in hell because they were not baptized, or something horrible like that. I can’t even begin to imagine what that would have felt like. Talk about having no hope, talk about being depressed. I am truly grateful for the gospel and all the hope, knowledge, peace, and guidance that it gives me.