“For 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: Then 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. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
This is often confused with the Second Advent or Second Coming.
Matthew 24 describes a rapture in which Jesus returns to meet His elect with “power and great glory” (verse 30).
This rapture of the “tribulation saints” is also found in Revelation 11:12, “And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.”
We know that these are not the same as the Rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4, because of the surrounding events. The pre-tribulation rapture is not when Christ returns with “power and great glory” and the “enemies” of God and Christians do not “beheld them” at the time of the Rapture. These events occur during the Second Advent.
Notice also that “the dead in Christ” do not ascend during the Second Advent. This happens only at the pre-tribulation Rapture.
This is what we Christians are looking forward to. The Rapture that will take us to heaven to have the marriage supper of the lamb before we return with Christ at His second advent to face down Antichrist and Satan at the battle of Armageddon.
Victory will be ours. The Book says so.
If you are unsaved, you will be defeated and eventually cast into the Lake of Fire.
Wouldn’t you rather be on the winning side?
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