1 Thessalonians 4:15

Did Paul teach that he would be alive when Christ returned?

PROBLEM: Paul spoke here to the Thessalonian Christians of “wewho are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord.” This seems to imply that he was affirming that Christ would come before he died. But Christ did not come before the death of Paul (2 Timothy 4:6-7). Did Paul make a mistake here?

SOLUTION: There are two ways to understand this verse without alleging that Paul made a mistake.

Second, Paul may simply be expressing his own hope here, without affirming that he would in actual fact be alive when Christ returns. After all, Christ’s return is the blessed hope (cf. Titus 2:13) of all believers. Had Paul wanted to affirm that he would be alive when Christ came back, he could have said very clearly, “I will be alive and remain until the coming of the Lord.” But he did not say this. The “we” could have implied a hope he had without making any affirmation about whether he would or would not remain alive until the rapture.