The event described by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 is usually known as The Rapture. The word means “to be caught away” or “to be caught up”. Along with an addition description in 1 Corinthians 15 we are able to explain what will happen at the moment the Lord Jesus Christ returns to gather together the Church.
Just prior to the Rapture itself, the Lord Jesus Christ will descend from Heaven. At that moment there will be a resurrection of the saints who have died in Christ, that it, their spirits will be reunited with their bodies, “For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). This shout and trumpet blast is the calling together of the victorious army of God. It is possible that the “shout” includes the names of every believer both living and dead in a similar way that Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb (John 11:43). It is also likely that we will hear this voice calling us, but unbelievers will think it was thunder, “Then came there a voice from heaven … The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to Him” (John 12:28-29). Those who are caught away will be those whose names are in the “Book of life of the Lamb” (Revelation 13:8).
In 1 Corinthians 15:52 we are informed that “and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed”. As the dead are being raised (reunited with their bodies since their spirits have already been in the presence of the Lord in Heaven, “absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” [2 Corinthians 5:8]) believers who are living on earth will be transformed also, “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). This transformation from “corruptible” to “incorruptible” and from “mortal” to “immortality” will take place “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Corithians 15:52-53). Such a thing cannot be explained according to natural reasoning, but it is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. This is why Paul says, “Behold, I show [reveal] you a mystery” (1 Corinthians 15:1). In modern day terminology we would say that the Rapture will take place within a nanosecond [1,000,000th of a second], quicker than we can blink an eye.
1 Thessalonians 5:2 explains that the Lord Jesus Christ will come as “a thief in the night”, that is, suddenly and without warning. Therefore we cannot know exactly when the Rapture will take place, but just as we may know a burglar in the area, so too by watching the signs we can know Christ’s coming is near. The Scriptures tells us that when He does return to rapture His Church that He will make our mortal bodies fit for Heaven. At present “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:50), but at the Rapture we will receive a body “fashioned like unto His glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). The apostle John describes our present and future condition as follows, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
Paul says that all the Raptured saints will be “caught up together … in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). This does not describe some kind of mystical union with Christ, it is not a figure of speech as some would have us believe, but it is a visible and physical event in the visible and physical air (atmosphere) and in the clouds of the visible and physical earth. The word “together” indicates both a uniting and a reuniting. Immediately the Rapture occurs all believers will be taken before The Judgement Seat of Christ (Romans 14:10, 2 Corinthians 5:10), then we will go to the place that the Lord Jesus Christ has been preparing for us for the last two thousand years, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2-3). [Note: There are some who believe that the “Marriage Feast of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9) begins as the believers enter Heaven, but the chronology does not bear witness to this theory. The more obvious position of the Feast is at the beginning of the Millennial Reign of Christ].
The Rapture of the Church will allow God to unleash His wrath upon the world. Therefore the Rapture is important to our understanding of Last Day events. There are several theologians who do not accept a pre-millennial Rapture, to them it is a ‘fairy tale’ or ‘an escapist doctrine’. There has to be much twisting, dismissing or spiritualisation of Scripture to see the Rapture of the Church any other way.
The Rapture doctrine calls for watchfulness on our part, “Lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28), for, “the one shall be taken, and the other left … watch therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matthew 24:40-41).