The living righteous are translated, and, together with the risen saints, are taken to heaven, as the apostle says:
"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4:17.
This was the Saviour's promise:
"In My Father's house are many mansions.... I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:2, 3.
The Destruction of the Wicked
At Christ's second coming the wicked are slain. The unbelieving left without shelter in that day, cannot endure the presence of such glory as will burst upon the world:
"The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thess. 1:7, 8.
The Binding of Satan
With the saints in heaven, beyond the reach of Satan's wiles, and with the wicked dead, not to live again till the thousand years are finished, Satan is "bound"—confined by divine power to this earth, which becomes his prison house, there being neither saint nor sinner upon whom to ply his arts of deception. No prisoner was ever more effectually chained. The symbolical language of the prophet pictures the scene:
"I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." Rev. 20:1-3.