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 Seven Church Ages
54-0512 §37
His great, glorious presence shall strike the earth. "He cometh in clouds." Oh, I love that! "Clouds!" There will be wave after wave of His glory will come across the earth, and the resurrection of the saints shall come. When that blessed Holy Spirit that's lived in their hearts, and they died, with their corpse laying there, and the tear stains over their cheeks, and things like that, they're placed out here in a graveyard. A great wave of that same Spirit, and a "whoossh," wave after wave! "He that was last will...
The sudden, secret going away of the Church
58-1012 §5
Now, for a text, I want to take this for a text this morning, "The Sudden Secret Going Away Of The Church." Let me announce it again, because I haven't had very much time to premeditate on any comments, but just hurrying. We were out late yesterday and never got in last night till real late, and rushing down here this morning. But this just come to my mind. And maybe later I might catch something that would do someone good. I love this subject: "The Sudden Secret Catching Away Of The Church." And now in I Thessalon...
Future home of the heavenly Bridegroom and the earthly Bride
64-0802 §59
Notice close now as we take this. The places we are to dwell in... Now, the antediluvian repentance then brought water baptism. Then Christ came and shed his blood upon it to cleanse and to claim it. And then comes the next, the destruction of the world as it is now. All the sin that's in the heavens above ... he's the prince of the power of the air. He keeps off---wards off the blessings from God. In there comes thunderbolts of lightning and strikes the earth, and everything from the heavens, sheets of ice and rai...
Questions and Answers, Part 1
64-0823M §79
Now, this is my own thoughts, minister brethren, in my own way that I feel the Holy Spirit has revealed to me. Now, the next thing is to happen is the Jewish---or the Gentile elected bride to be caught up with the rest of the Gentile elected bride that's been down through the ages---be caught up in the presence of Christ in the heavens. The dead raises; the ones that's alive and remain is changed; and they're caught up together in the air to meet the Lord. Then, because... After the wedding ceremony in glory, Jesus...
Questions and Answers, Part 1
64-0823M §36
Now, the first thing happens when we're resurrected, the ones which are a-living will just still remain. The resurrection will set in first, the resurrection of those that are asleep. There'll be a wakening time, and those which are asleep in the dust now, not those that are asleep in sin, 'cause they sleep right on. They don't awake for another thousand years. But those who are sleeping in the dust will be awakened first, and they'll---these corruptible bodies will put on incorruption in the rapturing grace of the...