Those Who Died in Christ

¹³ Now we do not want you to be uninformed, believers, about those who are asleep [in death], so that you will not grieve [for them] as the others do who have no hope [beyond this present life]. ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again [as in fact He did], even so God [in this same way—by raising them from the dead] will bring with Him those [believers] who have fallen asleep in Jesus. ¹⁵ For we say this to you by the Lord’s [own] word, that we who are still alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede [into His presence] those [believers] who have fallen asleep [in death]. ¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the ^[a]archangel and with the [blast of the] trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain [on the earth] will simultaneously be caught up (raptured) together with them [the resurrected ones] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord!^{(A) 18} Therefore comfort and encourage one another with these words [concerning our reunion with believers who have died].