When the Lord returns in His second coming, the Bible describes the events to place immediately in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NIV) - "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever."