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.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
The Rapture
65-1204 §88
Now, the first thing is the sounding---or the first thing is a trumpet or a voice---a shout, and then a voice, and then a trumpet. Shout, a messenger getting the people ready. The second is a voice of the resurrection. The same voice, a loud voice in St. John 11:38 and 44 that called Lazarus from the grave. Getting the bride together, and then the resurrection of the dead (see?), to be caught up with it. Now, watch the three things takes place. The next is what? was a trumpet. A voice---a shout, a voice, a trumpet.
Questions and Answers
62-0527 §94
May we prepare now, Lord. What a wonderful time it will be if we'll just prepare to meet You, Father, and prepare our hearts daily. And if we do make a mistake and fall, like this poor soul wrote in this question today, let them know that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses all sin. That person don't mean to do that, Lord. They're hungering and thirsting, trying to come back up into that fellowship of the Spirit. Bring them up, Lord. Rise them up above this cloudy, dismal world; above, where the sunshine can shine u...
Adoption, part 4: Adoption
60-0522E §23
Now, notice, then the coming of the Lord Jesus is so close at hand until the Spirit ... from way down in here (just barely justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Spirit), and now right into the time of the coming of the headstone. The church has got to be so perfectly like Christ until Christ and the church can unite together, the same Spirit. And if the Spirit of Christ is in you, it makes you live the life of Christ, act the life of Christ, do the works of Christ. "He that believeth on me, the works t...
How can I overcome?
63-0825M §43
and then come forth the general resurrection where all Israel... And also looky there, the twelve apostles, the twelve patriarchs, all represented. And we ain't never got to that yet, maybe the Lord willing we'll get to it in the testament, how that those walls of jasper and twelve stones, twelve gates, twelve foundations, all that's represented. Here they are on twelve thrones, the angel messengers of those days to pass judgment upon those who rejected their message. Amen! There comes forth that great hour. Yeah,...
God's Provided Way
59-0415A §48
Even now, till science is claiming that the earth is bulging out in the middle. You seen that here the other day, and heard them talking of it, that their... The waters in the North has went down so many feet ... in the middle of the earth, rather, and getting deeper in the North and in the South, because the earth is a-bulging out. The sun doesn't go around its orbit like it used to. Everything is indicating that coming of the Lord. We're right at the door. And remember. Before one of those bombs can drop... Don't...