.jpeg)
How Can The Church Return With Jesus If The Church Is Still On Earth When He Comes Back?
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 2 hours ago
Jude 14-15
Modern English Version
{Paraphrased}
14 Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, also prophesied of these {false prophets}, saying, “Look! The Lord is coming with ten thousand of His holy ones,
15 to execute judgment on everyone, and to convict all who are godless of all their wicked deeds that they have committed, and of all the terrible words that godless sinners have spoken against Him.”
The Rapture
Translated from Earth to Heaven in the Blink of An Eye
1 Corinthians 15:50-52
Modern English Version
50 Now this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17
Modern English Version
The Lord’s Coming
13 But I would not have you ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and arose again, so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who are asleep.
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall be forever with the Lord.
The Lord’s return with His church
Suggests that two distinct events are described within a single verse:
His return and the rapture.
When the Bible says that Jesus will return with the church, it is describing two separate and distinct events. First, Jesus returns (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Then, for Him to return with the church, the rapture must take place, where believers are caught up to meet Him (1 Thessalonians 4:17; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52).
The apostle Paul explains that Christ’s return involves two separate and distinct events. First is the resurrection of the dead (1 Thessalonians 4:16), also called the First Resurrection (Revelation 20:5-6). Second is the rapture of living Christians (1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:17). The resurrection takes place before the rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:15-16), but both events happen in the blink of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).
Thus, at Jesus’ return, the church is able to return with Him because He first resurrects the dead Christians, and then the living believers are caught up (raptured - "rapturo" - Latin Vulgate version) to join them. Together, they instantly meet Jesus in the sky in the blink of an eye.
The resurrection and the rapture both occur at the time of Jesus’ return
There is no pre-tribulation rapture or pre-tribulation resurrection
1 Thessalonians 4:14
Modern English Version
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and arose again, so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
Modern English Version
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall be forever with the Lord.
The apostle Paul explains in verse 16 that Jesus first descends from heaven, signifying the return of Christ. In the same verse, he states that the dead in Christ will be resurrected just before the living believers are raptured, so that all are gathered together in the sky to meet Jesus. Jesus affirms this sequence in Matthew 24:29-31.
Matthew 24:29-31
Modern English Version
The Coming of the Son of Man
29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days,
‘the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’
30 “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
In this passage, Jesus explains that He will first return and, while in the clouds, send His angels to gather His elect from the four winds with the sound of a trumpet. Gathering His church from the four winds suggests that the rapture will be like a powerful storm, with the angels taking the bride from the earth. The angels will bring both the resurrected and raptured believers to meet Jesus in the clouds. In this way, the rapture and the first resurrection will resemble the experience of Elijah, who was taken up to heaven by a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11).
1 Corinthians 15:52 describes both the rapture and the resurrection taking place at the sound of a trumpet. Similarly, 1 Thessalonians 4:16 mentions the trumpet call that gathers both the dead and the living believers together in the sky to meet Jesus.
Thus, Matthew 24:29-31 conveys the same message as 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-52: the first resurrection and the rapture occur when Jesus returns. There is no pre-tribulation rapture.
First, Jesus descends from heaven in His second coming. While still in the clouds, He performs both the resurrection and the rapture in the blink of an eye. Then, He returns with the resurrected and raptured believers to the Mount of Olives to execute the wrath of God on the devil and his followers (Revelation 19; 2 Peter 3; Zechariah 14).
How can the Church return with Jesus if the Church is still on earth when He comes back? This is possible because, at Jesus’ return, the first resurrection and the rapture occur. In this moment, believers who are still on earth, both dead and alive, are caught up to meet Him in the sky, allowing the church to return with Jesus.
World without end. Amen.
