The Resurrection of the Dead and the Rapture

In I Thessalonians 4:14-17 we find one of the most frequently quoted passages concerning the rapture. We shall begin with this passage in our discussion of the fourth path that shows the timing of the rapture. There we read:
 
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
 
The first truth that we shall look at in this passage is the fact that the rapture will be on the same day as the resurrection of our bodies. God indicates that at His coming He will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. In II Corinthians 5:8 God clearly teaches that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When Christians die, because they were given their resurrection souls at the time of their salvation, in their souls they can go to be with Christ. In this condition they live and reign with Him in heaven.
At Christ’s return all those who have died, that is, who have fallen asleep, and who have been living with Christ in heaven, will come with Him, as I Thessalonians 4:14 teaches. Then the graves are to be opened and the bodies of those who have died will be resurrected. At the same time, all the believers who have not died will be given their resurrected bodies. Immediately following this, the resurrected bodies from the graves, together with the believers who have not died but who have been given their new bodies instantaneously, will be caught up in the air to be with the Lord forever. Only the unsaved will remain on the earth to face the wrath of God, which will be poured out upon them because of their sins.
We want to look more closely at the fact of these resurrected bodies. The Bible teaches the precise time when these bodies will be resurrected, and since, as we have just seen, the rapture will occur simultaneously with the resurrection of the bodies of the believers, the determination of the time of the resurrection of the bodies of the believers will give us the timetable of the rapture. In John 6 Jesus declares four times that the resurrection of believers’ bodies will occur on the last day.
 
John 6:39 And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
John 6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up on the last day.
John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
 
The phrase "the last day" is quite significant. It is found only eight times in the Bible . Since God chooses words very carefully, we know this phrase has been selected to signify important truth.
Let us look at this phrase for a moment. As we have already seen, it is used four times in John 6. The other four references are as follows:
 
John 11:24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
John 7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Nehemiah 8:18 Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the blood of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.