ACC ~ 1 Thessalonians 4 v14

ALL MUST DIE. AUGUSTINE: The apostle’s words show with the utmost clarity that there will be a resurrection of the dead when Christ comes; and assuredly the purpose of his coming will be to judge the living and the dead. But it is continually being asked whether those whom Christ is to find living in this world (represented in the apostle’s picture by himself and his contemporaries) are never to die at all, or whether in that precise moment of time when they are caught up in the clouds, along with those rising again, to meet Christ in the air, they will pass with marvelous speed through death to immortality. For it must not be said that it is impossible for them to die and come to life again in that space of time when they are being carried on high through the air. … The apostle himself seems to demand that we should take his words in this sense; that is, we should take it that those whom the Lord will find alive here will undergo death and receive immortality in that brief space of time. He confirms this interpretation when he says, “In Christ all men will be brought to life,” and by his statement in another passage, dealing directly with the resurrection of the body: “The seed you sow does not come to life unless it first dies.”THE CITY OF GOD 20.20.1-2.

THE MEANING OF SLEEPING. AUGUSTINE: And after this he says to them, “Lazarus, our friend, is sleeping; but I am going that I may awaken him from sleep.” He spoke the truth. To the sisters he was dead; to the Lord he was sleeping. He was dead to men who were unable to raise him up; for the Lord roused him from the tomb with such ease as you would not rouse a sleeping person from his bed. Therefore, as regards his own power he spoke of him as sleeping; for other dead men, too, are often referred to in the Scriptures as sleeping, as the apostle says, “But I will not have you ignorant, brothers, about those who are asleep, so that you may not grieve, even as others who have no hope.” And so he, too, called them sleeping, because he foretold that they would rise again. Therefore, every dead man sleeps, both the good and the evil. TRACTATES ON JOHN 49.9.1-2.

THE NAME OF DEATH ABOLISHED. CHRYSOSTOM: If, however, we are on the alert, these evils that came into life as a result of the sins of our forebears will in no way be able to harm us, going no further than the level of terminology, as they do. While it was the first formed human being who through the Fall brought on the punishment of death and was responsible for spending his life in pain and distress, and it was he who was the cause of servitude, Christ the Lord on the contrary came and permitted all these evils to occur only at the level of terminology, provided we are of the right mind. You see, death is now not death but only carries the name of death—or, rather, even the very name has been abolished. I mean, we no longer call it death, but sleeping and dreaming. Hence Christ himself said, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep.”And Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, said, “About those who are asleep, brethren, I don’t want you to be ignorant.” HOMILIES ON GENESIS 29.7.

JEROME: Thus when we have to face the hard and cruel necessity of death, we are upheld by this consolation, that we shall shortly see again those whose absence we now mourn. For their end is not called death but a slumber and a falling asleep. Therefore the blessed apostle forbids us to feel sorrow concerning those who are asleep, telling us to believe that those whom we know to sleep now may hereafter be roused from their sleep. And when their slumber is ended, they may watch once more with the saints and sing with the angels, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men of good will.” LETTERS 75.1.

1 Thess