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.
Church Ages, part 2: The Patmos Vision
60-1204E §125
Now, notice. Before Jesus returns to the earth... Now this is a little ahead of time, but the spirit of Elijah will return back to the earth, and turn the hearts of the children back to the fathers. The Bible said so. Jesus saw him here. The apostles saw him here---the order of the coming of the Son of man glorified. He's to be glorified, and coming back. The first thing before they saw Him was what? Elijah. Then what? Moses. Israel returning yonder, the law-keepers, and then the glorified Son of man. Hallelujah! D...
The Angel of the Covenant
54-0301 §6
But we'll be gone at that time. Yes, sir. There's a part of us that's immortal. No atom, no hydrogen or nothing is needed for that. It's spirit. We'll be caught up in a moment, in a twinkling of the eye, to meet the Lord in the air. There's three comings of the Lord; you know that. There's three of everything in the Scripture. Three is God's perfect number. Threes, sevens, twelves, twenty-fours, forties, fifties. But three times... He came, once to redeem His bride. He comes the next time, we meet Him in the air, t...
Abraham and his Seed after him
61-0423 §80
Well, the church has come through justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost, gifts manifested to us, and now what? The Spirit of God moving in the church, doing the same works that Jesus did before He left as a promise. And what's the next thing? The change. The next thing happened to Abraham was a changed body. He had to have it, or he'd never got the son. And the next thing happens to the church is the rapture. We'll have to be changed, and caught up in the air to meet Him. We can't meet Him on ear...
Will the Church go before the tribulation?
58-0309E §24
I want you to notice this now, 'cause we have to cut short here on account of the prayer line. Did you notice what the Angel said, "I can't do nothing till you come hither." What was it? It was a message of deliverance. And before one speck of fire could fall from heaven, Lot had to get out of Sodom. And before one drop of rain fell from heaven, Noah went into the ark. And before the atom bomb can strike this nation, the church will go in the rapture to meet the Lord Jesus. And if the sputniks and the missiles are...
It is the Rising of the Sun
65-0418M §108
You say, "Oh, I wish I lived back..." You live in a better time. Now if you all... I see you're putting down some scriptures. All right, put down I Thessalonians 4:16. Notice how beautiful, see. In the... The saints, "them that sleep in Christ will God bring with Him," see---saints in the grave. Resting---like Elijah was; some like Elisha was, see. Some of them be quickened, some will be taken. Some will be in the grave; they will go with Him. "The trumpet of God shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first...