1 Thessalonians 4:17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. ...
I understand that the Futurists claim that this is the infamous Rapture passage. Sorry, it is not. No where in the passage does it talk about retreating from the Earth to some remote garden spot where a seven year wedding feast takes place. There is no U-Turn made by our LORD here nor is it implied. In fact, the Futurists have never given an explanation for why our LORD even has to appear! Can not the LORD, who made all things, simple beckon for the saints to immediately come in His presence? Is this not the pattern of a king to have His subjects come to Him? Do not the millions of Christians who have died go to Heaven in a manner that does not required a secret visit by our LORD? Is there anywhere, in all of Scripture, any example of our LORD appearing for the gathering up of the saints? Did our LORD appear for Enoch or for Elijah? Not only is this claim by the Futurists clearly denied in the parable of the Wheat and the Tares; not only is there a remarkable absence of Virgins as is in the Parable of the Ten Virigins; but the Futurist version completely contradicts, and is the opposite of the foreshadowing of the Parousia seen in all of the Gospels in the event of the Triumphal Entry.
John 12:12-13 The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out:
"Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' The King of Israel!"
It would probably serve you well to read the parallel passages in the Synoptic Gospels. The people went out of the city, met Him at the Mt of Olives and ushered Him into the city and to the Temple. I sincerely hope that it is not necessary to point out the significant symbolic foreshadowing and types being demonstrated here. The "meet" in 1 Thess 4:17 is the same as Matt 25:6 and Acts 28:15. In the latter, when the people went to meet with Paul, it wasn't to follow him into Rome.
Most of the claims of the Futurist are made up out of thin air and many words and ideas alien to the context need to be shoved into the isolated passages to even approach any sort of support for the Futurist's version of events. When viewed holistically with the Scriptures, the Futurist's claims are found to actually contradict the Bible.