15 For this we declare to you on the Lord's own authority–that we who are alive and continue on earth until the Coming of the Lord, shall certainly not forestall those who shall have previously passed away.
16 For the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven with a loud word of command, and with an archangel's voice and the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Afterwards we who are alive and are still on earth will be caught up in their company amid clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
18 And so we shall be with the Lord for ever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.