Scripture says that those alive at the time of the resurrection will not precede those who have died, and all of it will happen in a twinkling of an eye. Well, eye twinkles happen pretty quickly and, even if the events are separate and happen in some sequence rather than simultaneously, there's no reason to think the resurrection of the dead doesn't happen within a similar twinkle. So, there are two twinkles in the same momentary frame of light. This is the first resurrection which puts on incorruptible which even the dead do (I mean, what's more 'corrupted' than the dead?), and this putting on the incorruptible is comparative to entering the ark in Noah's time, when 8 souls where saved 'out of the water.' Well, again, they were 'in the water' for 40 days and 40 nights, and 'kept' in the water by a water resistant (incorruptible) vessel... This time, the wicked won't be taken away by water, they'll be taken away by fire, and those that remain, those who are left, will have done so by having been given an incorruptible vessel.
I keep missing how the rapture and the resurrection is not the same event.
Yes, the Resurrection and the Rapture are indeed the same event. We are told that again and again. And all the references go back to Dan 7, where the Son of Man returns from heaven to save his people, Israel. Jesus told the same story. Paul adds the international Church to this rescuer of God's People.
So, the 2nd Coming is for Salvation. In Jesus' day, the Romans were coming to "take some" and *leave some,* both groups being under judgment by the Romans. Those taken away were being deported into exile. Those left were left to serve as slaves for the Romans to maintain the fields and the harvests for the Romans.
But just as the Flood took away the wicked in Noah's day, and just as the Romans took away the Jewish rebels in Jesus' day, so also the Son of Man is coming on the clouds to take away the abusers of Israel and the abusers of the international Church.
The notion of Jesus returning, seizin his Church, glorifying them, and these things all taking place in a moment is true. 1st, it is encumbent upon us to become like Jesus in order to return with him. Since he was glorified after he was taken up to heaven, so also we must be glorified in heaven in order to be like him and return with him.
But it isn't so much a U Turn that we make when going to heaven and returning as an instantaneous event, describing the glorification of the Church as synchronizinh with Christ's Return. In order to return with him from heaven we must instantly be in heaven in order to return with him. We are intrinsically linked to Jesus, and so it is we must return directly with him.
The glorification event is instantaneous and originates from heaven. And so, we are instantly there so that we may return with Jesus. Calling this a "U Turn" ignores the reason for the description and focuses on externals that really have no bearing.
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