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.
Hear ye Him
58-0324 §12
And you notice, on the mount there was three come from heaven to witness it, that both heaven and earth would know what God was doing. There was on the mount Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, three heavenly beings to watch this take place. Of course now, it did mean and did represent the second coming, as we find that it was first they looked up and they saw Moses and Elijah, who is to return in the last days before the coming of the Lord ... or, the taking away of the remnant of the Jewish church to preach the three and a...
Questions and Answers, part 2
54-0103E §20
One of these days I'm going to preach my last sermon. I'm going to lay the Bible down like this, and go home. Oh, what a time that'll be. And when this earthly tabernacle is finished here, it won't be one second till I'll be in that one yonder; so will you. Oh, my! No wonder they said: This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise, And seize the everlasting prize; And shout while passing through the air... (Sure, moving on up.) Now, where is that? When do we have it? Now! "Those whom He justified, He also glorified." And d...
Church Ages, part 9: The ten virgins, and the 144,000
60-1211M §112
And I have to stand. Don't you remember in the great translation that He gave me not long ago, that I have to stand there with those people, and I'd be responsible for them? And I seen those millions standing there. I said, "Are they all Branhams?" Said, "No." Said, "They're your converts." And I said, "I want to see Jesus." He said, "Not yet. It'll be a time before He comes yet. But He'll come to you first, and you'll be judged by the Word that you preached. And they are resting upon that." I said, "Will all have...
What shall we do with this Jesus called Christ?
64-0126 §36
All that's written in the book will escape it. Now, we find out the little flock is ready for the dynamics to move it up into the skies, to escape all this tribulation. Someone said the other day, when I was talking, said, "Brother Branham, you don't believe, then, the church will go through the tribulation?" I said, "I believe the church will, but not the bride." The church will go through the tribulation. Yes, sir. But the bride's free from it. She'll go in the rapture, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, sh...
The Queen of Sheba
60-0401E §1
[Pastor introduces Brother Lamsa.] ... he speaks the language and can read the language and read the original documents in which the New Testament was written. So with him, it is so wonderful that he can read directly from the original script the very words that Jesus and the disciples spoke and wrote. He felt that these translations that we have are not always correct and true. And that's where the criticism comes in, because he criticizes the King James version, and some people think that St. Paul preached from t...