The first thing that will happen is Jesus will call believers up and we will meet him in the air as foretold in I Thessalonians 4.
This is part of God's promise of grace. Jesus came the first time to die on a Christ and rose the 3rd day to save us from God's righteous and holy wrath. It is indeed a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. In fact, God warned the Jews not to take too much comfort in the day of the Lord.
Amos 5:18-20 “ Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?”
If we Christians are to be left behind to endure God's wrath on the day of the Lord, this would seem quite inconsistent with what I Thessalonians 4:15-18 says “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: 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 be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
Why would we comfort each other with the fact that we are to endure seven years of God's wrath poured out upon the earth?
Romans 5:9 “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”
I Thessalonians 1:10 “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” The wrath to come seems to be a reference to the tribulation, then in chapter 4:15-18 he explains how this will take place with the verses already looked at.
Another verse to consider is I Corinthians 15:51-53 “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
The events of Jesus second coming in judgment (splitting the mount of olives etc.) do not happen in the twinkling of an eye, but the rapture certainly could.
The other consistency problem is where are the saints at the time of Jesus’s coming in judgment?
If they are on earth and meet him in the air (I Thessalonians 4), they cannot already be in heaven as described in Revelation 19:14-16 “And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords.”
So in conclusion to form as literal as possible and consistent interpretation I conclude we are dealing with two events generally called the rapture, then the tribulation, and the 2nd coming; in that order.
Sorry for such a long response, this is a subject people can and do write thick book ons. To address another point that was raised by the article. This is not to discount the fact that Christians should be prepared to endure hardships. In fact the new-testment time and again lets us know that we will endure hardships of the world, and persecution. Even today for most of our brothers and sisters in Christ are well aware of this fact. Americans are the blessed exception and our time will come soon enough.
I think a clear line has to be drawn between enduring hardships and God's wrath. Our heavenly father may chasten his children, he makes no guarantee to protect us from the consequences of our sin; but he will not pour out his wrath on us for Jesus already took it on the cross.
Can’t be wedding feast till the Lord’s house (banquet hall) is full, then the doors are shut, Luke 14. All belonging to Christ must be present at wedding. Many come to the Lord during 7 years of tribulation, most Jews are still without Christ, they become jealous seeing gentile believers under God’s hand during tribulation.
1 Thess 4 ... comfort (encourage) one another that the Lord is coming. These scriptures fit perfectly with Great Tribulation and then the one and only return of the Lord and us being caught up with Him on His way down.
There will be two groups of those who profess Jesus as Lord during these 7 years. Those who already know living by faith in Lord, connected to Him, abiding in Him and bearing fruit Jn 15, and then those who were careless in their relationship with God and will become offended and fall away during tribulation...Matt 24. Some believe second group were never saved just religious people calling themselves Christians, I think that is most likely the case. We must have our lamps full of Spirit of God before then for there won’t be time to play catch up.