WHY JESUS CANNOT BE MICHAEL!
There are specific groups such as the seventh day Adventists that believe the following passage describes the risen Christ as an archangel:
“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
According to these individuals, Jesus’ descent with the voice of an/the archangel is taken to be a reference to Christ himself. I.e., the voice of an/the archangel is none other than Jesus’ own voice. They further infer from their interpretation of this text that Jesus must be Michael since he is the only archangel explicitly mentioned by name in the NT:
“But Michael the archangel, when he, disputing with the devil, was arguing about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a blasphemous judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’” Jude 1:9
In this post I will show that such is not the case and that this is based on a gross misinterpretation of the inspired words of the blessed Apostle.
HOW SHOULD IT BE RENDERED?
To begin with, the interpretation and/or explanation of this passage is not as clear as these groups would have their followers believe. Case in point:
“because the Lord [= Yahweh or Christ] Himself will continue habitually descending (or: repeatedly descend) from [the] atmosphere (or: heaven) within the midst of (or: in union with) a shout of command, within the midst of [the] Chief Agent’s (or:in union with AN original messenger’s or A chief and ruling agent’s) voice, and within the midst of (or: in union with) God’s trumpet [note: figure of a message or a directive for action], and the dead people within Christ (or: in union with [the] Anointed One) will continue raising themselves up first (or: will one-after-another be standing up again in [the or their] first place).” 1 Thessalonians 4:16 Jonathan Mitchell New Testament (JMNT)
As the readers can see it is debated whether the Lord’s descent is accompanied by the voice of AN archangel, or THE archangel since the Greek word for archangel is anarthrous, i.e., it does not have the definite article preceding it. The same is true for the term trumpet, e.g., should it be a or the trumpet of God? More on this latter point later.
These ambiguities are reflected in the various English renderings of the NT:
“because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” William Mounce Interlinear New Testament (MOUNCE)
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” New King James Version (NKJV)
“Because, the Lord himself, with a word of command, with a chief–messenger’s voice, and with a trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven,––and, the dead in Christ, shall rise, first,” Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible (Rotherham)
“The Lord himself will come down from heaven. There will be a shout, a great angel will speak, and God’s loud horn or trumpet will be blown.” World English Bible (WEB)
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a rousing cry, with a call from one of the ruling angels, and with God’s shofar; those who died united with the Messiah will be the first to rise;” Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)
THE EXPOSITORS
The interpretive difficulties can be further seen by the way various bible expositors have struggled in explaining Paul’s meaning. All emphasis is mine:
Let us then see what he now also says. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in nowise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the last trump.
For then, he says, The powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
Matthew 24:29 But wherefore with the trumpet? For we see this on Mount Sinai too, and Angels there also. But what means the voice of the Archangel? As he said in the parable of the Virgins, Arise! The Bridegroom comes
. From Matthew 25:6 Either it means this, or that as in the case of a king, so also shall it then be, Angels ministering at the Resurrection. For He says, let the dead rise, and the work is done, the Angels not having power to do this, but His word. As if upon a king’s commanding and saying it, those who were shut up should go forth, and the servants should lead them out, yet they do this not from their own power, but from that Voice. This also Christ says in another place: He shall send forth his Angels with a great trumpet, and they shall gather together his Elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Matthew 24:31 And everywhere you see the Angels running to and fro. The Archangel therefore I think is he, who is set over those who are sent forth, and who shouts thus: Make all men ready, for the Judge is at hand
. And what is at the last trumpet
? Here he implies that there are many trumpets, and that at the last the Judge descends. And the dead,
he says, in Christ shall rise first. Then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
(John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Thessalonians, Homily 8)
The Syriac renders it, “with the voice of the prince of the angels.” On an occasion so august and momentous as that of the coming of the final Judge of all mankind; the resurrection of the dead, and the solemn transactions before the tribunal of the Son of God deciding the destiny of countless million for ever, it will not be inappropriate that the highest among the heavenly hosts should be present and take an important part in the solemnities of the day. It is not quite certain what is meant here by “the voice of the archangel,” or for what purpose that voice will be heard. It cannot be that it will be to raise the dead – for that will be by the “voice of the Son of God” John 5:28-29, and it seems most probable that the meaning is, that this will be a part of the loud shout or cry which will be made by the descending hosts of heaven; or perhaps it may be for the purpose of summoning the world to the bar of judgment; compare Matthew 24:31. (Barnes’ Notes on the Bible)
1 Thessalonians 4:16. κελεύσματι = the loud summons which was to muster the saints (so in Philo, De praem. et poen., 19: καθάπερ οὖν ἀνθρώπους ἐν ἐσχατιαῖς ἀπῳκισμένους ῥᾳδίως ἑνὶ κελεύσματι συναγάγοι ὁ θεὸς ἀπὸ περάτων εἰς ὅ τι ἂν θελήσῃ χωρίον), forms, as its lack of any genitive shows, one conception with the φ. α. and the σ. θ. (cf. DC[33], ii. 766). The archangel is Michael, who in Jewish tradition not only summoned the angels but sounded a trumpet to herald God’s approach for judgment (e.g., in Apoc. Mosis, xxii.). With such scenic and realistic details, drawn from the heterogeneous eschatology of the later Judaism, Paul seeks to make intelligible to his own mind and to that of his readers, in quite an original fashion (cf. Stähelin, Jahrb. f. deut. Theol., 1874, pp. 199–218), the profound truth that neither death nor any cosmic, crisis in the future will make any essential difference to the close relation between the Christian and his Lord. Οὕτω πάντοτε σὺν κυρίῳ ἐσόμεθα (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:11; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Php 1:20): this is all that remains to us, in our truer view of the universe, from the naïve λόγος κυρίου of the apostle, but it is everything. Note that Paul says nothing here about any change of the body (Teichmann, 35 f.), or about the embodiment of the risen life in its celestial δόξα. See Asc. Isa., iv. 14–15: “And the Lord will come with His holy angels and with the armies of the holy ones from the seventh heaven … and He will give rest to the godly whom He shall find in the body in this world.” (Expositor’s Greek Testament)
Verse 16. – For; assigning a reason for the above assertion, “because.” The Lord himself; not merely the Lord as the chief Person and Actor on that day, in contrast to his saints, but emphatic, “the Lord himself,” the Lord in his own proper Person. Shall descend from heaven; where the crucified and risen Jesus is now enthroned, seated at the right hand of God. With a shout; a word denoting a commanding shout as that of a leader to his host when he leads them into the battle, or of the army when it rushes to the fight. Some refer this shout to what follows – the voice of the archangel and the trump of God; but there are three particulars here mentioned. Others attribute it to Christ himself. With the voice of the archangel; or rather, of an archangel. There is only one archangel mentioned in Scripture (Jude 1:9); the word denotes, not “chief angel,” but “chief or ruler of the angels.” Accordingly, same suppose that Christ himself is here meant, as to him alone, it is asserted, does this title belong; but the Lord and the archangel are here evidently distinguished. Others strangely imagine that the Holy Ghost is here meant. Others fix on the archangel Michael (Jude 1:9). Christ is represented as accompanied by angels to the judgment; and it is futile to inquire who this leader of the angels is. And the trump of God; even as the trumpet sounded at the giving of the Law from Sinai. Also the advent of Christ to judgment is represented as heralded by the sound of a trumpet (Matthew 24:31; 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52). “We are to recognize three particulars, following each other in rapid succession – the commanding shout of the King himself, the voice of the archangel summoning the other angels, and the trump of God which awakens the dead and collects believers” (Riggen-bach). And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Some suppose that the reference here is to the first resurrection; that the righteous, “the dead in Christ,” shall rise before the wicked, “the dead not in Christ;” and that a thousand years, or the millennium, will intervene between the first and second resurrections (Revelation 20:4, 5). But this is an entirely erroneous supposition. All that is here asserted is that the dead in Christ shall rise before the living in Christ shall be changed; there is no contrast between the dead in Christ and the dead not in Christ, nor any allusion to the resurrection of the wicked. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (Pulpit Commentary)
Some have tried to identify the archangel, and Michael, the only archangel named in the New Testament (Jude 9), is usually favoured (Gabriel is simply an ‘angel’ in Lk 1:19; there are seven ‘holy angels’, usually regarded as archangels, in the Apocrypha: Tobit 12:15; 1 Enoch 20:1-8). But archangelou lacks the article and it seems Paul has no particular archangel in mind. Similarly voice has no article, so that it means ‘a voice of an archangel’ or perhaps ‘a voice like an archangel’s‘. The trumpet is associated with divine activity in the Old Testament (Ex. 19:16; Is. 27:13; Joel 2:13; Zc. 9:14), and is linked elsewhere with the parousia (Mt. 24:31; 1 Cor. 15:22). (Leon Morris, 1 & 2 Thessalonians: An Introduction and Commentary (The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries) [Inter-Varsity Press & Eerdmans, Revised edition 1999], Volume 13, p. 93; emphasis mine)
AN ANGELIC ANNOUNCEMENT/SUMMONS?
This leads me to some additional problems with the verse in question.
Some translators/expositors interpret Paul’s words to mean that the risen Lord will descend immediately after the particular archangel in question shouts or cries out and God’s trumpet sounds off:
“One word of command, one shout from the archangel, one blast from the trumpet of God and the Lord himself will come down from Heaven! Those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise,” J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)
“For the Lord himself, at the summons, when the archangel calls and God’s trumpet sounds, will come down from heaven, and first those who died in union with Christ will rise;” Goodspeed New Testament
“At the trumpet of God, the voice of the archangel will call out the command and the Lord himself will come down from heaven; those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise,” Jerusalem Bible (JB https://bibletold.com/1_thessalonians/)
“At the signal given by the voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God, the Lord himself will come down from heaven; those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise,” New Jerusalem Bible (NJB https://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=59&bible_chapter=4)
“At the word of command, at the voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God, the Lord himself will come down from heaven; those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise.” Revised New Jerusalem Bible (RNJB)
This shouldn’t come as a surprise since elsewhere we are told that an angel will announce to Christ that the time has come for him to harvest the earth with his sickle, i.e., the day when the Lord Jesus judges the world has arrived:
“Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. And another angel came out of the sanctuary, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sits on the cloud, ‘Put in Your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.’ Then He who sits on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.” Revelation 14:14-16
It is even stated in another place of Scripture that a shout will be heard announcing that the Bridegroom, e.g., the Lord Jesus, has arrived to consummate his (spiritual) marriage with his bride (the Church). And those who weren’t prepared will be cast out from attending the Lord’s wedding banquet:
“Then the kingdom of heaven may be compared to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the prudent answered, saying, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. And later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’ But he answered and said, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know the day nor the hour.” Matthew 25:1-12
What the foregoing implies is that the cry of command and the voice of an/the archangel may be referring to the angels heralding the angelic host and/or the inhabitants of the earth that the time of the Lord Jesus’ descent to judge the living and the dead has come.
GOD’S SEVEN ARCHANGELS AND TRUMPETS
Now as far as God’s trumpet is concerned, Paul identifies this with the last trumpet that will sound off immediately prior to the resurrection and transformation of believers:
“Behold, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible must put on the incorruptible, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible puts on the incorruptible, and this mortal puts on immortality, then will come about the word that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;” 1 Corinthians 15:51-56
According to Revelation this is the seventh trumpet which one the seven angels will blow right before loud heavenly voices declare that the reign of God and Christ over the earth has finally been inaugurated:
“When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them… And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them.” Revelation 8:1-2, 6
“Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.’ And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, ‘We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. And the nations were enraged, and Your rage came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and to give reward to Your slaves—the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great—and to destroy those who destroy the earth.’ And the sanctuary of God which is in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His sanctuary, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.” Revelation 11:15-19
These seven angels are the seven archangels mentioned in other canonical writings and Jewish sources such as Enoch, which even names them. They are Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Saraqael, Gabriel, and Remiel. This in itself refutes the fallacious argument that since Michael is the only archangel mentioned by name that this therefore proves there are no others. The fact is that this is nothing other than a textbook case of the logical fallacy of arguing from silence: Argument from silence.
After all, just because the NT mentions one specific archangel by name doesn’t imply that the NT writers were unaware or even denied that other archangels exist. For more on this topic please consult the following post: MICHAEL: ONE AMONG SEVERAL RULERS.
The foregoing merely strengthens the interpretation that the voice of an/the archangel and a/the trumpet of God are referring to specific angels who will accompany the risen Lord when he returns to the earth to judge the living and the dead.
In other words, it is not the Lord Jesus’ voice that Paul associates with that of an/the archangel. Rather, the voice which will be heard is that of an angelic emissary who has been charged with making the announcement that the time for the risen Lord of glory to descend has finally arrived.
In fact, we are told all throughout the inspired writings of the NT that Christ is returning with all of his heavenly host, which includes all seven of the archangels:
“But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.” Matthew 24:29-31
“Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, ‘Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.’ And He answered and said, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the fiery furnace; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.’” Matthew 13:36-43
“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sits on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; having a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself, and being clothed with a garment dipped in blood, His name is also called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the wrath of the rage of God, the Almighty. And He has on His garment and on His thigh a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.’ Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, ‘Come, assemble for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of strong men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.’ Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war with Him who sits on the horse and with His army. And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who did the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sits on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.” Revelation 19:11-21
“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay each one according to his deeds.” Matthew 16:27
“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.” Matthew 25:31-33
“But Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, also prophesied about these men, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.’… keep yourselves in the love of God,waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.” Jude 1:14-15, 21
The blessed Paul himself made this very same exact point:
“so that He may strengthen your hearts blameless in holiness, before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.” 1 Thessalonians 3:13
“This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. Since it is right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give rest to you who are afflicted and to us as well at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, executing vengeance on those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our witness to you was believed.” 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10
Amazingly, these inspired writers have basically identified Christ as that very Lord YHWH whom the OT prophets declared will someday come with all his holy ones to judge the world in righteousness!
“Make a loud shout to Yahweh, all the earth; Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises. Sing praises to Yahweh with the lyre, With the lyre and the sound of singing. With trumpets and the sound of the horn Make a loud shout before King Yahweh. Let the sea roar, as well as its fullness, The world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, Let the mountains sing together for joy Before Yahweh, for He is coming to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness And the peoples with equity.” Psalm 98:4-9 – Cf. Acts 17:30-31
“Behold, Lord Yahweh will come with strength, With His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him And His recompense before Him.” Isaiah 40:10 – Cf. Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12-13, 20
“Then Yahweh will go forth and fight against those nations, as the day when He fights on a day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. And you will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; indeed, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then Yahweh, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!” Zechariah 14:3-5 – Cf. Acts 1:9-12; 1 Thess. 3:13
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Our analysis of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 has shown that this passage is not as clear cult as the cults and others would have us believe. For instance, it is not at all certain that the archangel whose voice the Apostle refers to is Michael or one of the other six archangels which both Jewish tradition and the NT presume to exist. And it is certainly not the case that Paul equated Jesus with an/the archangel since the evidence strongly supports the interpretation that he is not referring to Christ’s voice but to the cry of one of the angelic creatures who will accompany the risen Lord when he descends to the earth.
What the foregoing shows is that these specific cults and groups have built a doctrine on a very difficult text of Scripture, something which the Bible itself warns believers from doing:
“and consider the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” 2 Peter 3:15-16
It is ironic that Peter speaks of untrained and unstable individuals who were already distorting the inspired words of Paul in the epistles, which he wrote with the wisdom given to him God. They did this by focusing on those difficult and hard to understand sections of Paul’s letters.
I say ironic because this is exactly what groups such as seventh day Adventists are doing when they base one of their major doctrines on a specific text from Paul’s inspired statements whose meaning is not as clear as the other sections of his writings, or the other parts of the holy Scriptures.
This means that they happen to be among the very individuals whom Peter condemned for being untaught and untrained, folks who are nothing more than Bible perverts that distort the God-breathed Scriptures to their own shame and destruction.
Ironic indeed!
Unless stated otherwise, biblical citations taken from the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB).
FURTHER READING
Is Jesus Christ the Archangel Michael?
Michael’s Contention With Satan
Answering Islam Blog 
Hi Sam could u pls do a session on suicide.
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