1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Many times have I read this passage, but in my mind I see it as reading "so we shall be forever with the Lord." Why would the verse use the word "ever" instead of "forever"?
I looked up the word, "ever" at Mirriam-Webster on line just to confirm the meaning:
One entry found for "ever."
Main Entry: ev•er
Pronunciation: 'e-v&r
Function: adverb
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English [AE]fre
1 : ALWAYS
The phrase could be read then, " so shall we always be with the Lord." Even though, it could have read "forever" (which means "continually"), the word "ever" (or "always") seems to give this verse a more personal meaning, and more comforting result. A search online of the word "ever" shows it is used over 1500 times in scriptures, either as "ever" or "every", while a seach of the word "forever" came up with four times.
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