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Eis apantēsin always (and I mean
always!) refers to meeting someone on their way and escorting them in. It is a phrase of hospitality where a happy person or crowd intercepts that special someone who is en route to make his or her way to you. It would be like seeing a guest coming to your home and you decided to meet them in the driveway and walk them into your home. It is not only a phrase of hospitality but a phrase conveying an eager and enthusiastic demeanor. It is when you cannot wait to see someone so when they finally arrive you delay not a second longer of separation! You go to them and meet them as you walk with them for the rest of the way.
This exact phrase,
eis apantēsin (literally: “to meet”) is used two other times in the New Testament. Matthew 25 is full of parables where Jesus speaks concerning His return:
“Then the kingdom of heaven may be compared to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 For when the foolish ones took their lamps, they did not take olive oil with them. 4 But the wise ones took olive oil in flasks with their lamps. 5 And when the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6 But in the middle of the night there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet (eis apantēsin) him!’” (Matthew 25:1–6)
Next they welcome the bridegroom into the banquet. They go meet him, with the purpose of jubilantly accompanying him in to the feast.
And in this way we came to Rome. And from there the brothers, when they heard the news about us, came to meet (eis apantēsin) us as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns. (Acts 28:14b15a)
These eager believers ran to meet Paul and his companions to personally walk him into Rome.
From these examples, we see that the technical phrase
eis apantēsin has an intentional meaning that Paul does not need to spell out in the passage of 1 Thess 4. There is no debate of what kind of meeting takes place. Of course, believers meet the Lord “in the air” as He descends to the earth! What else could we do when we see our king finally coming to restore all things? And it is obvious that our meeting Him in the air implies that we accompany Him for His final descent. (Perhaps we will even be singing
Joy to the World.) The language of 1 Thess 4 is only confusing if we rip it out of its literary environment. Placed within (and exegeted within) we understand precisely what kind of picture Paul is drawing for us.
Keener writes:
Judaism traditionally associated the resurrection of the dead with the end of this age and the inauguration of the kingdom, and readers would assume this connection in the absence of a direct statement to the contrary. When paired with a royal “coming” … the word for “meeting” in the air normally referred to emissaries from a city going out to meet the dignitary and escort him on his way to their city. The contrast that this image provides with the honor thought to be particularly due to the “Lord” Caesar and his emissaries could well have provoked hostility from local officials (cf. 2:12; 5:3; Acts 17:7).
[8]
1 Thessalonians 4:15–17 are cast in language and images depicting the arrival of a grand dignitary. In other words, this is a very common and known picture to them. There is no mystery surrounding the cultural backdrop of this text! When the Emperor comes to Thessalonika, they do not see him off in the distance and wait for him to make his way into the city, no, they run out to him to meet him as far as they could. A parade of people celebrate his arrival and with loud songs and jubilation, they walk with him and escort him into the city. The heralds would announce his coming. You would hear his coming before seeing it. Then crowds surge out of their city to meet him and celebrate his arrival. At this point, such a dignitary would not take the crowd with him and leave.
Paul does not deploy this language arbitrarily. The Thessalonians would know what this means. But Paul now applies this language as a metaphor for Christ’s return. The most likely way to complete the scenario Paul painted is by assuming that after assembling His people, gathering them, and clothing them with resurrection, Christ would not leave but would
proceed with His
parousia, with a parade that outdoes anything Disney could put on! What 1 Thessalonians 4 depicts is not the
removal of the church but the
dawn of the Day of the Lord—the Day when judgment comes to set all things right.
THE CHOICE OF LANGUAGE IS MEANT TO DEPICT A WONDERFUL, CELEBRATORY ARRIVAL OF THE LONG-AWAITED EVENT OF JESUS’S SECOND COMING.
This is victory language. It is Jesus’s victory that we, as believers, are benefactors of.
Speaking of victory language. The reference to “the air” (in 1 Thess 4:17) is probably also symbolic. The air was thought of as the dwelling-place of the powers of darkness.
[9] The fact that the Lord chooses to meet His people in the air, on the demons’ home ground, so to speak, displays His complete mastery over them. Remember, part of what we wait for regarding the return of Jesus is His final sweep and decimation of the devil and his demons. The church gathers in the air—the locale between heaven and earth—clothed with resurrection—to fervently welcome the king back home
to earth.
In summary, 1 Thess 4:13–18 is meant to be an encouragement that whether someone dies before the Lord’s coming or is alive, the hope remains the same. No believer in Jesus “sleeping or awake”; dead or alive, will be left behind or miss out! We will all be gathered to Him, meeting the King of heaven as He descends to secure His final victory on earth. We meet Him in transit (metaphorically) to be the entourage, the parade of people celebrating the arrival of the King and the establishment of His kingdom.
The
parousia is the breaking point between the present age and the promised new age. The claim that Christ will return to bring about the dissolution of the present world and the commencement of the next is a central theme of the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 15:24 talks about the return of Christ, His
parousia, as bringing about “the end” (which really is the new beginning), when the kingdom of God is brought in at full force. All the future promises and hopes are at once being brought into reality!"
https://adventuresintheology.com/20...-4-pictures-christs-return-as-a-royal-parade/
