Then we which are alive and remain
(See Gill on
1 Thessalonians 4:15).
shall be caught up;
suddenly, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and with force
and power; by the power of Christ, and by the ministry and means
of the holy angels; and to which rapture will contribute, the
agility which the bodies both of the raised and changed saints
will have: and this rapture of the living saints will be
together with them;
with the dead in Christ, that will then be raised; so that the
one will not come before the other, or the one be sooner with
Christ than the other; but the one being raised and the other
changed, they will be joined in one company and general assembly,
and be caught up together:
in the clouds;
the same clouds perhaps in which Christ will come, will be let
down to take them up; these will be the chariots, in which they
will be carried up to him; and thus, as at our Lord's ascension a
cloud received him, and in it he was carried up out of the sight
of men, so at this time will all the saints ride up in the clouds
of heaven:
to meet the Lord in the air;
whither he will descend, and will then clear the regions of the
air of Satan, and his posse of devils, which now rove about
there, watching all opportunities, and taking all advantages to
do mischief on earth; these shall then fall like lightning from
heaven, and be bound and shut up in the bottomless pit, till the
thousand years are ended: here Christ will stop, and will be
visible to all, and as easily discerned by all, good and bad, as
the body of the sun at noonday; as yet he will not descend on
earth, because it is not fit to receive him; but when that and
its works are burnt up, and it is purged and purified by fire,
and become a new earth, he will descend upon it, and dwell with
his saints in it: and this suggests another reason why he will
stay in the air, and his saints shall meet him there, and whom he
will take up with him into the third heaven, till the general
conflagration and burning of the world is over, and to preserve
them from it; and then shall all the elect of God descend from
heaven as a bride adorned for her husband, and he with them, and
the tabernacle of God shall be with men; see (
Revelation 21:1-3 ) . The resurrection by the Mahometans is
called (hlla aql)
F17, "a meeting of God", or a going to
meet God:
and so shall we ever be with the Lord;
now the saints are with him at times, and have communion with
him, but not always; but then they shall be ever with him;
wherever he is; first in the air, where they shall meet him; then
in the third heaven, where they shall go up with him; then on
earth, where they shall descend and reign with him a thousand
years; and then in the ultimate glory to all eternity: and this
will be the issue and accomplishment of the counsel and covenant
of grace, of the sufferings and death of Christ, and of his
preparations and prayers.