When are we caught up into the air?
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, 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. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
When the dead in Christ rise — are resurrected, we will be “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air”. This is at the resurrection. This is when Jesus returns.
But what about the Luke 17 passage, which many believe describes the “rapture” of believers?
Luke 17: 24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. 25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— 30 so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. 34 I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. 35 There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” 37 And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”
Comments: Those left behind were saved from the destruction. Those who were “taken” were destroyed. This happens on the day of the Son of Man which is Judgment Day or Resurrection Day — the day when Jesus returns.
There is no indication that it will be a two-part event with a “rapture” occurring many years before His return as some teach. Notice, again in I Thessalonians that the “dead in Christ rise” and then “we who are left” join them. All in one event. This is “the coming of the Lord.”