A short post into 1 Thess. 4:13-18 the central passage on the ‘secret rapture’. The biggest issue is the question that Paul is seeking to answer – ‘what about those who have died’. The answer certainly would not be ‘no worries we will escape what is come’! Makes no sense at all, but of course if we have a Hebraic world view Paul’s answer makes sense. The resurrection is the answer. Those who have died will not miss out on the great day when restoration arrives here. Those who have died will rise first – and the others (those who are alive on earth) changed. To go to a parallel Scritpure:
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed (1 Cor. 15:52).
Everything happens instantaneously. There is no time gap… but back to 1 Thessalonians.
We will meet him (and the resurrected saints) in the air. This phrase is within Scripture (2 other occasions in the NT) and a common phrase in the era and context. It was used of the visit of the emperor to a city and in the process the various dignitaries would go out of the city to meet the emperor and together they would travel back to the city.
We see the same with those who welcomed Paul to Rome:
And so we came to Rome. The brothers and sisters from there, when they heard of us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us (εἰς ἀπάντησιν) (Rom. 28:14,15).
Same word as in 1 Thess 4:17
Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet (εἰς ἀπάντησιν) the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever.
The dignitaries do not end up outside the city, but return to the city; Paul’s friends did not stay at Appius but came with Paul to Rome. The same understanding – and the only way to make sense of the answer to the question of ‘what happens to those who have died’. It is clear we who are alive will not miss out on the transformation, but what about the righteous who have passed away. We are all coming here with the Lord who has already ‘departed’ his location (‘heaven must hold him until…).
Is there a literal going up (into the air)… maybe. But it is instantaneous, hence I think that question is pretty meaningless – Paul is using language and a totally understandable parallel story to illustrate.