To be caught up in the air

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
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Giuseppe
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Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:37 am
Location: Italy

To be caught up in the air

Post by Giuseppe »

I read:
, the present passage of Scripture has been interpreted in several different ways; mostly indicating that the return of Christ will be a rapturous moment when God will snatch believers away from this evil world to meet him in the “air” (up in heaven) for eternity. There are several problems with this approach (too numerous to look at for this word study). The current word study exposes one of the fallacies in this interpretive scheme.
Had the Apostle wanted to communicate that Christ coming downward to take us upward was the goal of the 2nd coming, he could have chosen to use a word like οὐρανός. This word, which is interpreted as “air” on some occasions (as indicated above), would have given the impression that going to meet Christ in the “air” was a upward heavenly route. However, what this word study has discovered is that the word Paul chose to use was one that indicates the lower part of the atmosphere. Paul had a grammatical choice to make, and clearly he did not want to misguide his first century audience by making them think that being “with the Lord forever” actually meant going to heaven, away from the creation project. So, in order to keep his metaphorical devices in place without giving the wrong impression, he chose to use ἀήρ to indicate that he was not talking about escaping this world; but rather being part of its redemptive process.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thepangeab ... 7-rapture/

Why the use of ἀήρ and not of οὐρανός ? Surely because it is expected some battle in the air (lower heavens) between the archons of this aeon and the Lord of the glory. A battle where the chosen new people of God would have fight with Christ against the evil spirits.

But if the "redemptive process" happened in the air for the Christians at the Parusia, then even more so the redemptive process of Christ himself has to be done previously in the air.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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