to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”—I Thessalonians 4:17.

When Jesus ascended, we are told “a cloud received Him out of their sight” and the two angelic messengers who stood by the disciples that day said “this same Jesus, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” But in the parousia the process will be reversed. He descends invisibly wrapt in clouds, and then later bursts forth visibly and bodily as the Sun of righteousness.

As I interpret the words of the Holy Spirit given in the Scripture, the parousia or presence of Christ with His saints above the earth will cover a period of seven years or even longer. United with our Lord in the aerial heavens, we will be safely preserved in the ark. Antichrist may rage and blaspheme the name of God, and Christ, and them that dwell in heaven, but rest assured that the true Church of Christ will be in the secret pavilion with her Lord.

Very likely, Isaiah was thinking this when he wrote these words: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee: Hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”

The rapture of the saints into divine presence will occur suddenly, instantaneously, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” So far as my knowledge of the Word is concerned, I believe that most of the prophecy having to do with the end-time now remaining unfulfilled lies after the rapture.

Nothing stands between us, and the sounding of the trumpet, calling every saint on this earth to meet the Lord in the air. Possibly there may be some premonitions, warnings or signals given those who are accounted worthy to meet the Lord in the air, but the Holy Spirit seems to be silent on this point.

Enoch and Elijah are types of the translated Church and they evidently knew the time of their rapture before it took place, and for all I know the blessed Lord may reveal to His