³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back^(A) and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.^(B)

¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven,^(A) with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel^(B) and with the trumpet call of God,^(C) and the dead in Christ will rise first.^{(D) 17} After that, we who are still alive and are left^(E) will be caught up together with them in the clouds^(F) to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord^(G) forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another^(H) with these words.

⁹ For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath^(A) but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.^(B)