1 Thessalonians 4 Footnotes

4:17 Some critics claim that Paul believed he would live to see Christ’s return but didn’t and that therefore either Paul wasn’t inspired or the Bible contains false statements. But while Paul’s use of “we” may imply that he expected to be alive, it does not require or prove that he believed this. At 1Co 15:52-53, Paul expressed virtually the same idea as he did here, yet in the same letter he wrote, “God . . . will also raise us up by his power” (1Co 6:14). So he apparently considered both options to be possible for him (see 1Th 5:10, “whether we are awake or asleep”). In 5:1-2, Paul implied the same thing that Jesus said about not knowing the time of Christ’s return (Mt 24:36; Mk 13:32; Ac 1:6-7). It would be odd for Paul to contradict himself within a few short verses.