15 What we’re telling you comes from the Lord: Those of us who are alive and still here when the Lord comes certainly won’t precede those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the cry of the archangel, and with the sound of God’s trumpet, and those who have died in Christ will rise first. 17 Then those of us who are alive and still here will be carried up together with them into the clouds, and we shall meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever! 18 So encourage one another with these words.