The following sermon is by John MacArthur, pastor, author, and Bible teacher with Grace

to You.

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And now unleashing God's truth one verse at a time.

Here's Grace to You, Bible teacher John MacArthur.

Open your Bible if you will, the first Thessalonians 4, and we're looking at verses 13 to 18.

We're doing a bit of a study in the future, the plans that the Lord has for us, prophetic plans related to the return of our Lord.

And taking them from these particular sermons, from Paul's letters to the Thessalonians, will spend a little more time in the first letter and then look at the second one as well.

But we're starting where we have to start, and that is with the next event on God's prophetic timetable.

The next event is what we have called the rapture of the church, the catching away, the snatching of the church out in the morning.

The next event is the twinkling of the church out of this world.

And as we read in 1 Corinthians 15, it will happen in a moment in the twinkling of an eye.

That's not a blink, but that's the time it takes for light to flash off the pupil of the eye.

Just that fast, all true Christians across this planet will disappear instantaneously.

It's a very difficult event, and it is the next event on God's timetable.

As we said last time, it is a sinless event. It can happen at any time.

Nothing prophetic needs to happen before this happens.

There are no anticipatory signs or signals.

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