The Coming of the Lord for His Saints, and the Day of the Lord

IT is very important to distinguished between these two lines of truth, because Scripture does. To speak of the Lord’s coming for us, and the day of the Lord, as if they were the same things is to confuse the both. Our hope, strictly speaking, as Christians, is the Lord Himself; we look for other things afterward, but He is our proximate hope. The day of the Lord is the true Jewish hope; hence you often real of it in the Old Testament. But the coming of Christ for us, when those who are Christ’s shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, is not found in the Old Testament. It is a New Testament revelation. Hence, Paul says, “This we say unto you by the word of the Lord.” And again, “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”
When the Lord comes for us, those who see Him will be transformed into His likeness—we shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye: “When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” But when He comes with us, to bring in the day of the Lord, “every eye shall see Him;” and, instead of those who see Him being changed, “all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.” When the Lord comes for us, He descends to meet us in the air; but when He comes with us, “His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives.”
When He comes for us, there will be some looking for Him―“to them that look for Him, shall he appear” (Heb. 9:28); when He comes with us, it will be as a thief in the night: “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” (1 Thess. 5:2.)
When Christ comes for us, He will separate His saints from the wicked, and raise the dead saints, and all will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, without any action on the wicked; they are simply left behind. But when He comes with us, He will sever the wicked from the just; take the bad away in judgment, leaving the righteous for blessing in the earth, and not raising the dead till a thousand years afterward. (Rev. 20:5.) Who can say how near, how very near coming of the Lord for His saints may be!