Differences between Mt 24.30-31 and 1 Thess 4.15-17

(Referring to 1 Thess 4.15 (ESV), “15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.”) MacArthur wrote, “Was Paul referring to some saying of Jesus found in the Gospels? No. There are none exact or even close. The only explicit reference to the rapture in the Gospels is John 14:1–3. Some suggest that Jesus had said the words while on earth, their substance being recorded later in such places as Matthew 24:30, 31 and John 6:39, 40; 11:25, 26. Similarities between this passage in 1 Thessalonians and the Gospel accounts include a trumpet (Matt. 24:31), a resurrection (John 1:26), and a gathering of the elect (Matt. 24:31). Yet, dissimilarities between it and the canonical sayings of Christ far outweigh the resemblances. Some of the differences between Matthew 24:30, 31 and verses 15–17 are as follows: (1) in Matthew the Son of Man is coming on the clouds (but see Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27), in 1 Thessalonians ascending believers are in them; (2) in the former the angels gather, in the latter Christ does personally; (3) in the former nothing is said about resurrection, while in the latter this is the main theme; and (4) Matthew records nothing about the order of ascent, which is the principal lesson in Thessalonians. On the other hand, did Paul mean a statement of Jesus that was spoken but not recorded in the Gospels (Acts 20:35)? No. There is reason to conclude this since Paul affirmed that he taught the Rapture as a heretofore hidden truth (1 Cor. 15:51), i.e., “mystery.” Apparently, the Thessalonians were informed fully about the Day of the Lord judgment (cf. 5:1, 2), but not the preceding event—the Rapture of the church. Until Paul revealed it as the revelation from God to him, it had been a secret, with the only prior mention being Jesus’ teaching in John 14:1–3. This was new revelation of what had previously been an unrevealed mystery

John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005), 1 Th 4:15.