What we tell you now is the Lord's own message. We who are living now might still be living when the Lord comes again. We who are living at that time will be with the Lord, but not before those people who have already died.
The Lord himself will come down from heaven. There will be a loud command. That command will be given with the voice of the archangel F15 and with the trumpet call of God. And the people who have died and were in Christ will rise first.
After that, we people who are still alive at that time will be gathered up with those people who have died. We will be taken up in the clouds and meet the Lord in the air. And we will be with the Lord forever.