As for the rapture I believe it is happening right now. We are being gathered together to Jesus Christ and people are being raptured in their own timing.
It is commonly believed that when it says we will be caught up to meet our loved ones in the air that it means only our spirits are caught up but nowhere does it say that only our spirits are caught up to meet in the clouds. Therefore, it is an interpretation that only our spirits are caught up in the air. Since there is not much difference between the physical and spiritual there is absolutely nothing to prevent houses, churches, communities, buildings, roads, land, states and countries, etc from being caught up as well.
Hello RevelationMan!
Just fyi, 1 Thess.4:13-17 does not support an individual gathering of the church, but a group event of both the dead and living in Christ. Below is the scripture:
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16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and
the dead in Christ will be the first to rise.
17After that,
we who are alive and remain will be
caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.
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The dead in Christ = Everyone who has died in Christ from the onset of the church till the time of the resurrection
We who are still alive = All believers in Christ who will be alive at the moment that the resurrection takes place
So, according to the scripture above, the dead in Christ rise first. Immediately following that, those who are still alive will be changed and caught up. The key to understanding that this is a group event of the entire church, is found in verse 17 which says that those who are still alive will be caught up with those who will have just resurrected. At that point, the entire church from beginning to the end will be gathered in the air in the same place at the same time. There is nothing in the scripture that states that believers are individually caught up at the time of death. Also, the scriptures states that those who are still alive will be caught up to meet those who resurrected in the air, which would demonstrate that it is group event. To be clear, if you have people individually being caught up a different times over a 2000 year period, you be saying that those people would just be hanging around in the atmosphere waiting for rest of the church to be caught up.
The word Harpazo which is defined as 'snatched up, caught up, force suddenly exercised' is referring to the living, not the dead. When the resurrection takes place, it is specifically speaking about those who will have died in Christ, where God will reanimate their bodies immortal and glorified, with their spirits being reunited with those resurrected bodies. Those in Christ who are living when the resurrection takes place, will simply be changed immortal and glorified and will be caught up with them. This event will take place in the twinkling of an eye, or Nanosecond as Nehemiah stated.
The word 'anastasis' translated as 'Resurrection' is derived from two words 'ana = up again and histemi = to stand, properly, to stand up again in the same physical body. Therefore, the Resurrection always refers to a bodily standing up again and not a spiritual rising. Jesus is our example of this. When the women went to the tomb, they did not find His body. Why? Because He was back in it. It will be the same when the church is resurrected, changed and caught up. We will all be in our immortal and glorified bodies, all gathered in the air, where the Lord will take His entire bride back to the Father's house.
Those who have died in Christ, their spirits departed and went to be in the presence of the Lord, where they are awaiting the resurrection from heaven-side. We who are currently alive, are waiting for the resurrection from here, because according to scripture we know that will be changed and caught up with them. Of this scripture is very clear.
When we are "changed" as scripture says we will be in the twinkling of the eye it separates our fleshly bodies from our spiritual bodies into two beings. If we are a believer then when we are raptured, we leave our fleshly bodies behind and go with our spiritual bodies.
I'm afraid that you are very mistaken regarding your claim above. If we use Jesus as our example of the resurrection, it was in the same body that He was in prior to His death. In further support of this, after Jesus appeared to His disciples, they were afraid because they thought they were seeing a spirit. But Jesus said to them "look at my hands and my feet. Touch Me! A spirit doesn't have flesh and bone as you see I have." So as proof that it was Him in the flesh, as proof, He showed the disciples the nail marks in His hands and feet. So the resurrection is not a spiritual resurrection, but a bodily one.
if we are an unbeliever then we leave our spiritual body behind and we go with the fleshly body. There will be two in the field one is taken and the other left just as scripture records
The 'one taken and the other left' which you are quoting from above, has nothing to do with the gathering of the church. Those who are taken in the scripture, are being compared to the wicked who were 'taken' away in the flood. Therefore, the comparison is wicked to wicked. Also, this is in reference to those great tribulation saints who will have made it alive through the entire tribulation period, as well as the wicked who are still alive. When the Lord sends out His angels, they will go throughout the entire earth and 'first' gather the weeds/wicked. Then following that, they will gather the wheat and take them to where the Lord is. When the angels gather the 'ones taken' they will be brought to the area of Armageddon and will be killed by that double-edged sword that proceeds from the mouth of the rider on the white horse, which is the Lord Jesus. Then the birds which the angel will have gathered in Rev.19:17, will gorge themselves on their flesh.
Humans are made up of body, soul and spirit. When we are resurrected and the living changed, our souls and spirits will reside in that immoral and glorified body.
To be clear about the resurrection, if a believer say, was to die the day before the resurrection took place and his body was lying on a table in the morgue, when the resurrection takes place, that body would no longer be in the morgue, but will stand up again and will rise to meet the Lord. Anyone in Christ who is buried the day before the resurrection takes place, their body will no longer be in the grave.
This is what scripture teaches regarding the resurrection of the dead and the living being changed and caught up.
