"""And so, it is at this precise moment that we are caught up to him, if we are still living. It will be just as he prepares to make his descent. Those already with Christ--the departed--will at the same moment of time receive their own glorified bodies, and participate together with us in his descent from heaven"""
Show me anywhere in the bible this is found. (The 2 nd coming on billions of white horses , originating in heaven,with mounted saints, in c0njunction with rev 14 gathering by Jesus sitting on a cloud, and reconcile how the bible is wrong in acts 1 "like manner".)
I view Rev 14 like any other vision in the book of Revelation, simply as a vision. It is, I think, a depiction, among many, of Christ's coming on a cloud to deliver his people.
Rev 14.Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
This seems similar to Zech 14, when God is pictured as coming to save Israel. It is fulfillment of God's eternal promise to deliver Israel, never more to be uprooted from their land. It is also a promise to the Church that if God will in this way save Israel He will also keep His promises to all of His people. Please note how these same people on Mt. Zion are also before the throne in heaven:
Rev 14.
3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
There is no effort to explain the logistics of them being on earth, on Mt. Zion, one moment, and in heaven, before the throne, the next moment. It is simply a vision of the future, indicating God's promise to Israel will be fulfilled, thus encouraging the whole Church that all of God's promises will be fulfilled.
How do we know that? Because, in the very next few visions we see the rest of God's promises coming to pass, as well. I would have to assume that all this takes place in an instant, as Paul indicates "in the twinkling of an eye." The resurrection is an instantaneous event, a revelation from heaven. The resurrection of the saints, the rapture of God's people, and our descent with Christ from heaven, all take place in an instant. The appearance of Christ on earth with the 144,000 Israelites is a prolepsis of what happens the instant Christ comes with his people to establish their place on the earth, on Mt. Zion.
Three Angels of judgment appear to assure that all of God's People, who suffer in the reign of Antichrist, will be delivered. God's judgment will bring them deliverance. And this appears to make us rest assured that this is the 2nd Coming, the coming of the Son of Man with the clouds, as written in Dan 7, the same terminology is used.
Dan 14.14 I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man[b] with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
But if you try to treat this like it's a chronology of events, instead of a series of visions, giving assurance to the Church, you will be unable to understand it. The judgment of God at Christ's Coming brings assurance not just to Israel but also to the entire Church during the reign of Antichrist, and even at the present time, when present antichrists oppose the Church.
The only chronology we have of this deliverance of the Church comes from Dan 7, where the Son of Man appears to descend from heaven, to judge the Man of Sin and to deliver Israel, God's People at that time. Of course, today, we know that added to Israel as God's People are many nations, including many people from pagan nations.
And so, when we read of the resurrection of the Church, as indicated in Dan 12.1-3, we attach that event to the descent from heaven by the Son of Man, as recorded in Dan 7. And that takes place in the context of Antichrist's judgment.
And alls I'm pointing out is: that the word "armIES [plural]" is never used (in the PLURAL) when speaking of the "angels" ALONE... so obviously this "the armIES [plural] who were IN the Heaven" *includes* already-glorified/-perfected humans/saints... following Him out of Heaven. I think you and I are in agreement on this point.
