Christ will have a church to the end of the world, and some will be found alive at his coming, and will be caught up, or snatched up, to denote its suddenness, it may be in the arms of angels, or by some immediate attractive power of Christ; and it will be together with them that are now raised from the dead; they shall all ascend in one great body, and it will be in the clouds; as Christ himself ascended in a cloud, Acts 1:9, and so will return again, Matthew 24:30, he making the clouds his chariots, Psalms 104:3. To meet the Lord in the air:
1. To congratulate his coming, when others shall flee and tremble.
2. To put honour upon him; as the angels will also attend him for that end.
3. To receive their final discharge.
4. To be visibly joined to their Head.
5. To be assistants with him in judging of the world, and to reign with him upon earth. And whether the last judgment will be upon the earth, or in the air, I shall not determine; but after this Christ and his saints shall never part. Their first meeting shall be in the air, and their continuance will be with him while he is in this lower world, and after that they shall ascend with him into heaven, and so be for ever with him. Augustine imagined that the saints that are found alive shall in their rapture die, and then immediately revive, because it is appointed to all men once to die; but the apostle saith expressly: We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed, 1 Corinthians 15:51.