I have always thought that these things were literal, too, @Hugh Manely . It was what I was taught by all of my Sunday school teachers, complete with a picture of Jesus coming down on a fluffy cloud, and people floating up out of their graves. Other scriptures talk about Jesus coming on a white horse with his army. I remember watching the clouds in the sky , looking for his coming. Now, I have thought about what I was taught, and how we look at the Bible. I no longer think that it means that Jesus is going to come riding out of the sky on Pegasus with angels dressed in shining armor, and wings flying. I don’t think that there is actually going to be a monster (beast) with multiple heads and horns. There are a lot of Bible scholars who say that the rapture ( a word that is not actually in the Bible) is different than we have been taught. The Bible says that the wheat shall be separated from the tares when it is ready to be harvested. They get rid of the weeds and keep the grain, so this could just as easily mean that the wicked are gone and the righteous person is left on earth, and then it would fulfill the statement about the meek inheriting the earth. I don’t know the answers, I am looking at everything , and trying to find what is possible and could be the truth. I am not trying to change anyone else’s mind about what they believe, (or do not believe) just discussing about what people think will happen at the last days and the Millennium.
I'm on the same page as you, Yvonne. I believe in a literal rapture, and I believe it will happen in a flash, so fast that the world will not know what happened, or they may not realize what happened for days. I don't necessarily believe all that I read about from high profile bible teachers, or in volumes of books such as the Left Behind series. As far as the rapture is concerned, there is very much debate among most pastors, theologians, and teachers. Coming from the Greek harpazo (=to seize, catch up, snatch away, rapture; e.g. in 1Thess 4:17). The word means being taken hastily or with haste, as if a child were hastily taken away (raptured, protected) from an approaching car, or quickly snatched or torn out of a flowing river. Most believers believe it comes before the 7-yr tribulation period, at the mid-point (the abomination of desecration by the antichrist), or at the endpoint of it. However, you mentioned separating the wheat from the tares. It is my belief that that is a different event, and happens after the Millennium Kingdom at the Great White Throne Judgement period, before believers enter into the New Jerusalem and unbelievers go to their just reward elsewhere. After studying the bible carefully, I'm of the opinion that no proposals about the rapture that I've read are totally correct. It would be long a post to go deeply, but my view is that the rapture occurs in the first several months after the temple desecration. That is because the antichrist has declared himself to be God, requires worship, and persecutes believers. Those days will be very, very terrible, beyond our imagination. Just read chapter 9 of Revelation. Jesus said that if those days weren't shortened, no one would survive. Also, toward the close of Chapter 9, after the Trumpet woes, we see that verse 20 says that after thousands were subjected and killed by all these plagues, NO One left would repent of their deeds. So clearly, the believers are gone.