- For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. - 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
- But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. - Matthew 24:29-31
The term rapture comes from the Latin term rapturo, meaning to be caught up. At the Rapture, Christ will literally descend from Heaven and meet His Bride, the Church, in the air. The Rapture of the Church will precede the Tribulation Period. Revelation 6:16 speaks of the Tribulation as the great day of wrath. 1 Thessalonians 1:10 states that believers will be saved from the wrath to come. At the Second Coming, Jesus will again return, physically descending from Heaven after the seven-year Tribulation period. He will then establish His Millennial Kingdom and judge the nations.
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