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The Lord’s Coming — Part 1
“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 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 4:15-16).
The Lord Jesus rises up, He descends from heaven, He gives the word Himself, the voice of the archangel passes it on, and the trumpet gives a well-known sound.
This is an allusion to a Roman military practice. As well-trained troops know their commander by the sound of the trumpet, so will the army of the Lord answer instantly to His call. All the dead in Christ shall rise, and all the saved who are living shall be changed; and they shall enter the cloud, and be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air; and they shall be ever with Him. This is the first resurrection, the rapture of the saints. Before the judgments fall, the saints are all gone — gone to glory, gone to be with the Lord forever! What a thought! What an event! All caught up together, and to be conducted by Him to the Father’s house of many mansions.
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