1 Thessalonians chapter 4 gives us the most detailed, clear description of the rapture
in the Bible.
I want to point out just a couple of characteristics of the rapture from this passage.
Beginning in verse 15, the Bible reads,
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord,
That we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord
Shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
And 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.
And so the three key points that I want to point out there are that a trumpet sounds,
Jesus Christ comes in the clouds, and all of the saved are caught up together to be
with him in the clouds.
Whether they're the dead in Christ or those that are alive and remain,
it is Christ in the clouds, a trumpet sounds, and the believers are caught up to be with
him.
Listen to Matthew 24 verses 29 through 31 and see the exact same elements.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days, that's a key phrase,
Shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,
And the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken,
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven,
And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn,
And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven,
With power and great glory, And he shall send his angels with a great
sound of a trumpet, And they shall gather together his elect
from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
So again, we have the exact same elements.
In Matthew 24, we have Christ coming in the clouds,
we have the trumpet sounding, and we have all the elect being gathered.
That's exactly what we saw in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4,
and that is because the rapture occurs after the tribulation.