For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 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. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)

Jesus Returns With A Lot Of Noise

The first time Jesus came to earth, He was conceived in the womb of a woman. There was no fanfare, no trumpets blowing, and only one person who knew He had come. It would not be until later that Joseph found his wife pregnant. The angel Gabriel had told Mary she would be with child of the Holy Spirit, and Joseph was told by an angel the pregnancy of his wife was according to the divine will of God. During the first thirty years of His life, Jesus lived in obscurity, with few people taking notice of Him. He was the son of a carpenter with brothers and sisters. When He began His ministry, the religious leaders began to take note of Him as multitudes flocked to Him for teaching and healing. At Golgotha, the only noise came from the mockers who hurled insults at Jesus hanging on a cross. As far as the world was concerned, the man in the middle of the two thieves was a criminal and deserved to die. The soldiers bartered for His garments with no knowledge that He was God’s Son. Few people cared that Jesus of Nazareth died on the cross. No mournful trumpets blew at the death of Jesus, and the world continued as it always had.

When Jesus died, the veil of the Temple rent from top to bottom. It was during the offerings of midday Jesus died, and the priests would have heard the incredible sound of the huge veil ripping. An earthquake shook the earth, and the rocks were split with graves opening of the saints who had fallen asleep. Then the world went silent. Life continued as usual. There have been loud noises piercing the world, but only in a local sense. What may happen in one part of the world will not be heard by someone in another. Life goes on. And one day, all of that will change.

A day will come when there will be a noise that will fill the vacuum of space and time. It will echo in the heart of every human being living on the face of the earth. Those in the northern hemisphere will hear what those in the southern hemisphere will hear. Every person in every country will hear the sound. The cities filled with millions will hear as well as those villages tucked away in the Amazon jungle. Those on the top of mountains will recognize the same sound as those in the lowest valleys. It will be instantaneous. The earth will seem to shrink to an atomic level when every man, woman, and child hears the same sound at the exact moment. This is the day Jesus returns a second time; and His final time.

Jesus Christ will ascend from heaven with a shout. No definitive human reasoning can describe what the shout of deity will be like. Every inch of the earth’s circumference (24,901 miles) will reverberate with the sound of God. It is unclear what the voice of an archangel sounds like, but it will be something everyone will know. On one occasion during the ministry of Jesus, God spoke to His Son to glorify Him, and those who heard said it was like thunder. The voice of an archangel is going to be louder than thunder. As if the shout of Jesus coming and the voice of an archangel would not fill the earth with a sound beyond imagination, the trumpet of God will also be heard. A trumpet is a shrill and loud sound piercing into the souls of men. Every human being on earth will hear God’s trumpet.

The coming of the Lord will not be a quiet affair. For those who follow the false teaching of the rapture, they will hear the same sound. Jesus is not coming back to establish a kingdom on earth but to bring a noise all humanity will hear. And then, as quickly as the noise blasts across the depths of the universe, it will all go quiet. Judgment begins, and another sound is heard in eternity. For the saved, the sound is rejoicing, praise, and honor to the Lamb that was slain. To most souls, it will be the crying, gnashing of teeth, and horrific cries of torment as they languish in an eternal flame. The sound of the lost will fill the emptiness of eternal darkness. Heaven will burst forth as saints sing the praise of the day Jesus returned and took them home. You will hear that sound. Are you ready?