What is at issue is not going to Heaven, it is the perfection that is to be brought to God's saints at the coming of the Lord from Heaven. The perfection includes the gift of a body that is incorruptible, filled with righteous desires, eternally youthful and powerful.

God's true witnesses of every age will come to perfection together.

The above passage is referring to the saints of past time, to the cloud of witnesses who are looking forward with joy to the moment when they can return with the Lord Jesus and raise their bodies from wherever they are "sleeping."

The Christians of Thessalonica were awaiting the Lord's return and the rewards of life and glory He will bring with Him. They wanted assurance that their friends who had died in the Lord would be present in that Day.

Paul comforts them: "Don't worry, we who are alive at the Lord's coming will not go before the dead saints or have any advantage over them. All of us will enter the Kingdom together."

The thoughtful student can see that the present-day teaching of the secret "rapture" has completely missed the point of Paul's teaching concerning the saints of all ages coming to perfection together.

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: (I Thessalonians 4:16)

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven."

"With a shout."

"With the voice of the archangel."

"And with the trumpet of God."

Many of the passages of the Old and New Testaments that speak of the coming of the Lord are in a setting of war.

From your point of view, are a shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet of God, suggestive of warfare or of a special, secret "rapture"?

They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. (Isaiah 13:5)

And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? (Joel 2:11)

Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah. (Habakkuk 3:13)

. . . the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. (Zechariah 14:5)

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven."

"With a shout."

"With the voice of the archangel."

"And with the trumpet of God."

Is this a secret "rapture" in which the believers will become invisible and be spirited away to Heaven?

First Thessalonians, Chapter Four fits perfectly the many passages that describe the coming of the Lord. There are several such descriptions in the Old Testament.

However, there is no passage in the Old Testament or the New that states there will be a "rapture" in which the saints become invisible and are caught away to Heaven.

To be continued.