Just as I thought. Many talk the talk like they understand about Christ's future return and gathering of His Church, but they don't understand one of the main Bible Chapters that declares HOW it happens, and WHEN it happens. And the Message is the same in just about all... Bible versions. OK then...
In Isaiah 42:9, God says He declares new things, and He tells us of them before they happen. That includes just HOW, and WHEN Christ's future coming and gathering of His Church will happen. If your preacher is not teaching you about this, then you are in the wrong type of church.
1 Thess 4:13-18
13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
Apostle Paul says for us to not worry about brethren in Christ that have already died (idea of their being symbolically "asleep"). If we believe that Lord Jesus Christ died and rose again, then also understand that when Jesus returns, He will bring those asleep saints with Him when He comes.
So there is the 1st GROUP of saints gathered to Christ. They are already in heaven with Him, because Paul taught in 2 Corinthians 5 that to be absent from the body is to be with The Lord. The asleep saints are with Jesus in their spirit bodies. And Paul here says when Jesus returns, He will bring those saints with Him from heaven, under one condition that is not revealed here until verse 16 below.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
That word "prevent" in the Greek actually means 'to precede, or go before'. Simply we who remain and are still alive to the time of Christ's return will not go to heaven before those 'asleep' saints do. They are already there, with Jesus, which is how He brings them with Him when He returns.
16 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:
When Jesus returns in the future, He descends from heaven, those 'asleep' saints then rise and He brings them with Him from heaven. That is about the future resurrection, so now we are shown WHEN Jesus will return, because Jesus said in John 6:40 that He will raise up His servants on the LAST DAY.
That "last day" of John 6:40 means the very final day of this present world age, and then Christ's "thousand years" reign with His gathered elect will begin.
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
This is about a 2nd GROUP of saints, those of us that remain on earth still alive to the day of Christ's future return. These are "caught up" to Jesus and to the resurrected saints who were 'asleep' on their way from heaven. These still alive that are "caught up" is what some call being raptured.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
KJV
Thus Apostle Paul was teaching about TWO GROUPS of saints being gathered to Jesus at His future return from Heaven:
1st GROUP -- "asleep" saints that Jesus brings with Him when He comes from heaven. These are resurrected first to their spirit bodies, and Jesus brings them with Him when He descends from heaven.
2nd GROUP -- the alive saints that remain on earth. These will be "caught up" to the resurrected saints and to Jesus at their descent from heaven.
