Day 90 – The Lord's Coming

₁₃Our brothers and sisters, we want you to know the truth about those who have died, so that you will not be sad, as are those who have no hope. ₁₄We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will take back with Jesus those who have died believing in him.

₁₅What we are teaching you now is the Lord's teaching: we who are alive on the day the Lord comes will not go ahead of those who have died. ₁₆There will be the shout of command, the archangel's voice, the sound of God's trumpet, and the Lord himself will come down from heaven. Those who have died believing in Christ will rise to life first; ₁₇then we who are living at that time will be gathered up along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. ₁₈So then, encourage one another with these words.

₁There is no need to write to you, brothers and sisters, about the times and occasions when these things will happen. ₂For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord will come as a thief comes at night. ₃When people say, “Everything is quiet and safe,” then suddenly destruction will hit them! It will come as suddenly as the pains that come upon a woman in labour, and people will not escape. ₄But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the darkness, and the Day should not take you by surprise like a thief. ₅All of you are people who belong to the light, who belong to the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. ₆So then, we should not be sleeping like the others; we should be awake and sober. ₇It is at night that people sleep; it is at night that they get drunk. ₈But we belong to the day, and we should be sober. We must wear faith and love as a breastplate, and our hope of salvation as a helmet. ₉God did not choose us to suffer his anger, but to possess salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ₁₀who died for us in order that we might live together with him, whether we are alive or dead when he comes. ₁₁And so encourage one another and help one another, just as you are now doing.