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There are many versions of “the going home song” that have found their way into our hearts and hymnbooks. Most of them invoke the use of symbolism to convey their message. We have songs about the crossing, the river, crossing the river, old Jordan, the chilly tide, the gates, flying away, the shore, home, mansions, morning, never growing old, the throne, and so on. However, as wonderful and comforting as these songs may be, I do not recall hearing one about the most significant landmark for the departing saint. It is Mount Olympus and it is not found in Israel but in Greece.

I can hear you now sifting through your cranial notes for a reference to that locale in Scripture. It is not there, yet it is represented in relation to the subject of eschatology. Paul states in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, that the saints who are living on the earth at the time of the return of Christ for His Church will be “caught up” (harpazo, SC 726) together with the bodies of the dead saints and will meet the Lord in the “air” (aer, SC 109). He concludes this discourse by imploring us to “comfort one another” with these promises about the future home of the saints.

Let’s go to the Greek and see what the Holy Spirit is speaking through Paul. Harpazo is an active verb meaning, “To openly strip, seize, capture with force, or catch away.” It refers to what will happen at the appearing of Christ in the clouds. This is indeed comforting to know that there will be a reuniting of Christ with His church. The Holy Spirit said it and that settles it. There will be a meeting in the air.

That brings us to where this meeting will be. Paul tells us it will be in the aer. This unique Greek word is used seven times in the New Testament and is defined as “air, breath, atmosphere, or to blow.” The Greeks were people of detail and that may be the reason the Lord chose to use their language for the delivery of the Gospel. If the Greeks did not have a word that conveyed the specific nuance of detail, they just coined one to fit the need. This may explain why they have four words for love, ten words for sin and two words for air. Obviously, the Greeks knew much more about sin than they did love or air.

The first word for “air” to consider is not found in the Scriptures. It is the Greek word “aither.” Its major importance to us now is that it constitutes a contrast to the word in our text. Paul used the word aer to represent the place of our meeting with Christ. The ancient Greeks used both words to describe what they understood of their atmosphere. The line of demarcation for the two words was Mt. Olympus. The elevation of this majestic mountain was 6,403 feet. Everything above the mountaintop was represented by aither. Everything below 6,403 feet was aer. The Holy Spirit capitalized upon this local knowledge when He informed the Church that Jesus would come into our atmosphere. Since the Holy Spirit did not choose to use the word aither, we must conclude that He wanted us to know that Jesus would come into our aer.

You may recall that when God spoke of Satan He called him “the prince of the power of the air.” He used this same word, aer. It seems that He was telling us that the arena Satan has staked out and tried to control since the Garden of Eden is in for a rude awakening. One day, Jesus is going to break through the clouds, appear right into the middle of Satan’s domain and “hover” while the Church gets on board the “Old Gospel Ship.” Moreover, in a major show of force, Jesus will lead us directly through the heart of “devil country” and Satan will be powerless to prevent it. When Jesus “carries us off by force,” there will truly be a “gathering together unto Him” (2 Thessalonians 2:1).

These words from the great hymn by Fanny J. Crosby “To God Be the Glory” seem to be a fitting epilogue to Paul’s message of comfort for the Church.
“Great things He has taught us,
Great things He hath done,
And great our rejoicing thro’ Jesus the Son;
But purer and higher and greater will be
Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.”

“Maranatha!” (Maran atha, SC 3134, two Aramaic words meaning, “Our Lord has come” found in
1 Corinthians 16: 22)

Keep going for the gold!

****A Personal Word to Our Readers from Dr. Frazier****

There are great insights to be derived from the study of the Greek New Testament. Each month I will endeavor to share a nugget of truth from the Book of Truth, God’s Eternal Word.
These will be concise and should not intrude into your time or opportunity to explore the richness of the vein from which they were extracted. That is for you and the Holy Spirit to excavate together. These nuggets are just to let you know where to begin the digging, if you so desire. They are NOT designed to be an exhaustive commentary providing all the answers on the subject. The Spirit will guide you in how deep to dig. The Greek will be presented in a way that is easy to understand (transliterated) and easy to verify (“SC” refers to Strong’s Concordance). With a little help, you can check the assayers report for yourself. So, pull out this shiny, new nugget and see where it leads you. Please feel free to share your questions, observations or insights with our readers and me.

Website: http://www.donfrazier.com

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