Death, heaven, Christ's return, and hell

Everyone dies. The Bible doesn't leave us guessing about what comes next.

"And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,"

Hebrews 9:27 ESV

Jesus is coming back

Every Christian confesses this hope: Christ will return personally, bodily, and visibly.

"This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

Acts 1:11 ESV, partial

All the dead will be raised, the saved to eternal life and the lost to eternal judgment (John 5:28-29). Before that visible return, He will come for His church, as the next section explains.

What about the rapture?

Adam's Daily Bread holds that Christ will come for His church before the tribulation. He will catch His people up to Himself. The tribulation will follow, then His visible return, judgment, and the eternal state. We set no dates. This hope is not a test of whether someone is a Christian.

"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words."

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 ESV

"Behold! I tell 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 trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed."

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 ESV

Scripture calls us "to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come" (1 Thessalonians 1:10 ESV). "For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," (1 Thessalonians 5:9 ESV). He promised the church in Philadelphia, "Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth." (Revelation 3:10 ESV). And He told His disciples He would come again and take them to Himself:

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also."

John 14:1-3 ESV

Faithful Christians differ on the order of these events. Some place the catching up in the middle of the tribulation, or after it. Some read the thousand years of Revelation 20 as Christ's present reign. Some expect the gospel to fill the nations before He returns. We disagree with those readings, and we still call those brothers and sisters in Christ. The gospel we share is the same: Christ died, rose, and will return. The timing is not a salvation issue.

For more teaching on this timeline, see Grace to You.