What Comes Before the Catching Up to the Lord in the Clouds in the Air (1th 4:16-17) and What Comes After This Event?
1) Direct answer
Before the catching up, the Lord descends with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God—this call gathers and readies the Bride, the dead in Christ are raised, and the living saints are changed. After the catching up, the Bride meets the Lord in the air and goes to the Marriage Supper, while the earth enters the great tribulation and God turns to Israel; then the Lord returns with His saints to reign in the Millennium, followed by the White Throne judgment and the New Heavens and New Earth.
2) Scriptural explanation
- The order itself: “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God… the dead in Christ shall rise first… then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up… to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17). “We shall not all sleep… at the last trump… the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51–52).
- The Bride made ready before the meeting in the air: “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him” (Matthew 25:6). “His wife hath made herself ready… blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:7–9).
- Kept from the hour that is to try the world: “I… will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world” (Revelation 3:10). “Watch… that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things… and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36).
- After the catching up: earth’s tribulation and Israel’s sealing and witness (Matthew 24:21; Revelation 7:1–8; Revelation 11). Then Christ returns with His saints (Revelation 19:11–16; note the armies clothed in fine linen, the same linen of the Bride in Revelation 19:8). Then the Millennium (Revelation 20:1–6), the White Throne (Revelation 20:11–15), and the New Heavens and New Earth (Revelation 21–22).
3) Simple clarifying logic
- Now notice the steps in 1 Thessalonians 4: the shout is the call by the Word that awakens and gathers a ready people; the voice raises the sleeping saints; the trumpet changes the living; then comes the catching up to meet the Lord in the air. You see, the meeting is in the air, not on the earth—that’s the catching away of the Bride.
- While the Bride is with the Lord at the Marriage Supper, the earth faces the tribulation. God then deals with Israel, sealing the 144,000 and sending His two witnesses. After that season, the Lord returns with all His saints to reign, and the rest of the prophecy flows into the Millennium, the final judgment, and the eternal order.
4) Reinforcing statement
It’s the same Lord doing it all—He calls, He raises, He changes, He catches away, and He returns with His redeemed. The Bible lays the line, and we simply walk in it.
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Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Jehovah-Jireh, part 1
62-0705 §6
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Church Ages, part 9: The ten virgins, and the 144,000
60-1211M §106
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Faithful Abraham
61-0312 §92
And that's the next thing in order for the church. We which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep, for we shall be changed in a moment to receive the promised Son. Where's He going to come? Down here on earth? No, up in the air. We don't meet Him here on earth, and we couldn't meet Him in these kind of bodies. We've got to be changed and meet Him in the air. Oh, I really feel religious, see. The body will be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, and we shall...
Daniel 9: Daniel's Seventy Weeks
61-0806 §84
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Questions and Answers, Part 1
64-0823M §125
Now, there you are, to the question a while ago. See? At the judgment seat. Jesus, the church, the bride, was raptured, went up into glory, and was up there and was married, returned back to the earth, and lived a thousand years. At the end of the thousand years Satan was loosed out of his prison, is bound by an angel with a chain, not a log chain, but a chain of circumstance; all of his subjects was in hell. All that was resurrected on the earth was redeemed and Jesus with them. He couldn't work on nothing; but at...