In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 Paul prophesied, “The Lord Himself...will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are living, who are left remaining, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” This is a prophecy concerning Christ catching up the majority of the saints to the air toward the end of the three and a half years of the great tribulation. This includes the majority of the saints who died throughout the centuries, those martyred during the great tribulation, and the majority of the believers who are still living. This is also the reaping of the harvest referred to in Revelation 14:14-16.
Toward the end of the great tribulation, the Lord will not be clothed with a cloud but will be sitting on the cloud as the Son of Man, indicating that at that time Christ’s coming is made public in the air. He will openly reap the majority of the harvest that has ripened. God’s people are the harvest of the earth (1 Cor. 3:9). The first-ripe ones will be reaped as the firstfruits to God before the great tribulation. The majority of the saints will ripen with the help of the sufferings in the great tribulation. The suffering of the great tribulation, like the parching sun, will dry up the earthly waters from the believers who are left on the earth in the great tribulation, enabling them to ripen and be raptured.
After all the believers have been caught up to the air, Christ will set up His judgment seat in the air. He will judge all the believers, assigning them either a reward or some kind of punishment. Second Corinthians 5:10 says, “We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done through the body according to what he has practiced, whether good or bad.” Christ’s judgment of the believers at His coming back will not be concerning their eternal salvation but their dispensational reward (1 Cor. 4:4-5; 3:13-15). This judgment will take into account the believers’ life and work after they were saved (Rom. 14:10). The Lord “will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then there will be praise to each from God” (1 Cor. 4:5).
According to the Bible there are two aspects of God’s choosing of His children. The first was before the foundation of the world in eternity past (Eph. 1:4), and the second is the choosing before the judgment seat when the Lord comes to the air. The first choosing is for salvation; the second is for reward or punishment. Those who are saved but fail to pass the judgment will be placed in outer darkness in the millennial kingdom for punishment (Matt. 8:12; 25:30). Christ will then marry the overcoming believers as His bride, enjoy the marriage dinner with them (22:2; 25:1-13; Rev. 19:7-9), and lead them as God’s army to come openly to the earth (vv. 11-16).
After the judgment at the judgment seat in the air, Christ as the Bridegroom will marry the overcoming saints as His bride. Revelation 19:7 says, “Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” His wife in this verse refers to the church (Eph. 5:24-25, 31-32), the bride of Christ (John 3:29). In the context of these verses, during the millennium the wife as the bride of Christ consists only of the overcoming believers, whereas after the millennium for eternity the bride as the wife in Revelation 21:2 is composed of all the saved saints. God’s New Testament economy is to obtain for Christ a bride, the church, through His redemption and the divine life. By the continual working of the Holy Spirit through all the centuries, this goal will be attained at the end of this age. At that time Christ will come to marry the bride who is ready, that is, the overcoming believers. Such a marriage is the issue of the completion of God’s New Testament economy.
After the marriage there will be the marriage dinner. Revelation 19:9 says, “Blessed are they who are called to the marriage dinner of the Lamb.” The marriage dinner of the Lamb is the wedding feast in Matthew 22:2. It will be a reward to the overcoming believers. Not all the saved ones will participate in the marriage dinner; only the overcomers will be invited. The five foolish virgins in Matthew 25:8-12 will miss it. To be invited to the marriage dinner of Christ, which will usher the overcomers into the enjoyment of the millennium, is to be blessed.