[unread]

Hmmmm....well in "The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians, 1 Thess. 4:13-17, I feel he was talking about the Apostles themselves and such saints...(?)

But...it does say the dead shall rise BEFORE the living...

MHO...

[MHGinTN]

Well, the text does say the ones who have died in Christ GOD will bring with Him to this event int he Air, so the dead getting new bodies fit for eternal living on God's standard would be a first move before transforming all n the twinkling of an eye and being caught away into the clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and return to whee Jesus has been preparing for us

I think of it this way: when the ones in Christ were born from above, God put the spark of the Holy Spirit in their human spirits making them have alive spirits (like Adam had before the fall) within thier human souls; God brings that living portion back to reunited it with a body, to be joined with the ones still alive who have His Spirit in their huamn spirit on Earth, then all those living and living again in Christ are chnaged, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye and snatached away into the clouds to meet The Lord in the air. What Jesus is taking away from thei planet is His True Church seal with His blood. What is left behind are those who are dead without believing in Him and those alive who refuse to allow Him to be God in them.

[Elsie]

But...it does say the dead shall rise BEFORE the living...

An awful lot of folks believe that MANY of the DEAD have already risen..