". . .caught up together. . .in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" does. (1Th 4:17)
The "gathering together to Him" is the "caught up together. . .to meet the Lord" in the air.
Nope. They are separate events. Christ returns with a select group called His ELECT. God returns with ALL SAINTS. They return to different places at different times but both with wrath. There are signs which precede the Return of Christ. There is no warning when God comes. Both come by surprise to those not watching and nobody knows the hour.
Christ:
Rev 20:4-5:
Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And
they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 But
the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Jude 1:
14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold,
the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints,
Mat 24:
29 "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will
gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
2 Thes 2:1-3:
1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our
gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition...
Rev 14:
1 Then I looked, and behold,
a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father's name written on their foreheads.
Rev 6:
15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the
wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"
God, the Father:
Zech 14:
4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two,
5 Then you shall flee through My mountain valley, For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall flee As you fled from the earthquake In the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Thus the
Lord my God will come, And
all the saints with You.
1 Thes 4:
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so
God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
Rev 16:
1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go and pour out the bowls of the
wrath of God on the earth."
14 For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them
to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15 "Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." 16 And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew,
Armageddon.
Rev 20:
7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. 9 They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And
fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
We all meet together at the end.
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
9 And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be-- "The Lord is one," And His name one.
28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed-- 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.
