When Christ Returns

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

Question 37: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
Answer: At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory, (1Cor 15:43) shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, (Mat 10:32) and made perfectly blessed both in soul and body in the full enjoying of God (1 Jn 3:2) to all eternity. (1 Thess 4:17)
 
When Christ returns, believers who have died in Christ will be bodily resurrected from the dead and their souls will be re-united with their bodies, then those who are still living upon the earth will be raptured and caught up in the air with the Lord (1 Thess 4:16-18).  At that moment the earth and all its inhabitants will be destroyed in unquenchable fire (1 Thess 5:1-2; 2 Pet 3:10-13), there will be the Great Day of Judgement (Mat 25:31-46), God will re-create the earth to restore it to its pristine state before the fall of Adam and Eve (Rev 21:1-4), death and Satan and all unbelievers will be cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev 20:14-15), then believers will live upon the new earth in their glorified bodies forevermore with the Lord, where there will be no sin or suffering or pain or death, and never the possibly for these things (Rev 22:1-5).  The wonderful encouragement of knowing this truth is that regardless of how difficult this life may be, in comparison to eternity, this life is but a blip on the radar screen and someday we will spend all of eternity, in bodily form, in the presence of our God and King worshipping him day after day forevermore!  What a glorious time that will be!