“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 (precede) 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: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever (forever) be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4: 15-17 KJV).
There is an upcoming event in which millions of people will, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” be changed from their mortal bodies into their immortal or glorified bodies likened unto the body of Christ (Phil. 3: 21) and be whisked away from Earth to Heaven so fast that no one will see them leave.
They will leave from all over the Earth, from every occupation, from every walk of life: from houses and factories, from airplanes and trains and cars, from meetings, from battlefields, from forests and deserts and fields, from cities and country villages.
They will be considered missing persons by some, but those who heard the truth but did not receive it and were left behind will know where they are and will weep.
The world will be glad they are gone. The world hated them in the first place and persecuted them (Mt. 5: 10; Jn. 17: 14; 15: 18, 20; Lk. 21: 17; 1 Cor. 4: 12) and would have rid itself of them if it could. But they were left to be the light and the salt to a dark and corrupt world until Christ came for them at the Rapture.
The Christians were blamed for many things for which they were not responsible. Nero blamed the Christians for burning Rome, though he himself did it, and thousands died for their faith. Christians were blamed by the pagans for all manner of natural disasters, and as a result, they were persecuted and killed.
The Holy Spirit “letteth” or hinders the work of iniquity (2 Thess. 2: 7). He does this by influencing men and through the Christians who stand up and oppose evil. But at the Rapture, when the Spirit along with the Christians is removed, there will be no one to stand in the way of the progression of evil.
From then on, the Antichrist, who is empowered by Satan, will be in charge, and things will go from bad to worse so fast that even the worst of men will be surprised at the universal debauchery. And this debauchery will be judged by God (Rev. 6–19), in the midst of which many will be saved, though they too will be persecuted and killed (Rev. 6: 9; 7: 9).
Yes, the world will be glad when the Christians are gone from planet Earth, and the Christians will be glad too. While Heaven is where the Christians will be, those left behind will be on planet Earth, which will be the worst place to be outside of Hell itself.
