Dear in Christ,
Google for "rapture scriptures" and most of the results would contain "1 Thessalonians 4:15–17" (or 4:13-17). Even while we think of the term it's the same passage that would pop up in our minds.
Let me draw your attention to some of the important points in the passage.
1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:1Th 4:17 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.
Let me list out those points:
- trump (trumpet)
- the resurrection of the dead.
- the destiny of those who remain alive.
In this passage, the destiny of those who remain alive, whenever this event has or had to take place, is to be caught up into the clouds, physically and biologically, and not after they are dead, buried, raised from the dead, and judged. The passage doesn't warrant any change to their status or state once they are caught up in the clouds. (The Greek word translated as "so" in "so shall we ever be with the Lord" is οὕτω, G3779 in Strong's, means "in this manner" or "in this way". It's thought to imply that those who are caught up in the clouds would remain in whichever state they were, forever.)
Though the passage doesn't say that being caught up into the clouds imply that they are being taken to heaven, it's generally believed to be one of the stages of being taken to heaven (akin to one of those stages in the launching of a satellite).
The same event, narrated by the same author, in another epistle.
Now I like to draw your attention to another passage which has all the three points mentioned above.
1Co 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,1Co 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Here in this passage, those who remain alive (who shall not sleep) would be changed. Though the passage doesn't specify as to what they will be changed into, it's generally thought that their physical bodies would be transformed into spirit bodies, like those of the heavenly beings.
Unless it could be proven otherwise, both these passages talk about the same event.
- While 1Thess 4:16-17 talk about the coming of Our Lord with the trump of God, 1Cor 15:51-52 talk about the last trump,
- Both the passages talk about the resurrection of the dead,
- And the destiny of those who remain alive.
The difference is in the destiny of those who remain while the event takes place, the believers in Thessalonica are told that such believers would be caught up in the clouds and would continue to exist in the same form they have been, and those in Corinth are told that they would be changed. [Only two times in the first epistle to Corinthians do the world "cloud" occurs, (1Cor 10:1, 2), but they are nowhere in the vicinity of 1 Corinthians 15th chapter. So, there's no question of those who are thus changed being caught up into the clouds.]
Given that both these passages talk about the same event, which one of the two (those who remain alive ① would be caught up in the clouds, or ② they would be changed) should take place, literally?
Is it that the faithful in Thessalonica would be caught up in the clouds and those in Corinth would be changed? (Paul hasn't written anything similar to any of the other of the addressees his epistles, to the best of my knowledge. Had he written to them something else as the destiny of those who remain alive, things would have been all the more complex.)
While we don't or even can't know the linguistic and cultural reasons why different versions of the destiny of those who remain alive, we can be sure that neither would take place literally. While I don't want to jump into any kind of conclusions regarding the implications of the terms "caught up together in the clouds" and "changed", I'm sure that you will agree with me that there can't be different destinies for the faithful who remain alive whenever the event in the passage has or had to take place.
In Christ,
Tomsan Kattackal