Jesus’ Return || 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 || Mid-Week Midrash #49

¹⁶ The Lord himself will come down from heaven. There will be a loud command with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God. And those who have died and were in Christ will rise first. 

¹⁷ After that, those who are still alive at that time will be gathered up with them. We will be taken up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And we will be with the Lord forever.

These verses describe the end-times when Jesus returns to take us all to Heaven. Paul believed that Jesus would come back down from Heaven, and there would be what sounds like a screaming match between the archangel and Jesus. Those who died and we, a believer, will rise first, followed by those who are still alive. Everyone will go back to Heaven via a cloud. All return stories have the same storyline. There isn’t anything to expound upon further. Remember that many stories focus on apocalyptic imagery, hence the war-like screaming match between Jesus and the archangel. John had a vision that told him the storyline in Revelation, and Paul learned from him to share the story further. Paul thought that Jesus’ return would be in like a week or two, but here we are 2,000 years later.