Russell E. Saltzman on a strident strength :
In Paul’s eschatology, Christians living at the Lord’s return will be swept up in Christ and the dead in fact will be the first to participate in the grand trumpet-call summons to resurrection. “Console one another,” Paul laconically concludes, “with these words.”I am trying, but what I hear isn’t helping. I was told again a week ago at my father’s funeral—I’ve heard this now in one version or another at four funerals within the last three years and, truly, I am weary of hearing it—that “we all know where X is; he is in a better place.”
