I think you just don't understand what the writers meant... They were writing in the context of first century Judaic belief, their work is now being read and interpreted thousands of years later without such context.
Thessalonians 4:15-18
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
...this is an assertion (on God's authority) that those who survive (alive) till the actual Judgement Day don't get into heaven first, so you don't have to worry about dying before the actual (assumedly imminent) Final Judgement.
(Remember, Christinity was originally a millenarian apocalypse cult... real "End is Nigh" shit)
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
...the actual arrival of God the Creator on Earth would have a very specific meaning to contemporary readers that is lost today. God's arrival means an immediate end to death. Everyone on Earth is immediately rendered immortal by the presence of God, after all, this is the end of the Earth.
But those faithful who died a mortal death prior to the Jugement Day (presumably believed to be the 1400ish year Moon/Venus/Sun cycle synchronisation congruent with a heliacal rising of Mercury which was coming in 70 AD), would be bodily resurrected in order to be counted among the living (now immortal) witness to God's triumphal return.
The "Voice of the Archangel" and the "Trump of God" are presumably some sort of astrological signs/convergences lost in the translation. Probably just thunder and lightning.
then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up [G726 harpazo] together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:
...those who have either survived till the Judgement Day (presuming only the faithful survive the tribulations) or been resurrected bodily through their faith, are then lifted up into the Heavens (remember, the clouds and Heaven are the same place... only in modern times has Christianity morphed Heaven into some sort of otherworldly paradise... two thousand years ago, Heaven meant the actual clouds in the actual sky where the actual shouty Thunder God who brought the rain lived. )
In this version (not all the New Testament references to the End Times agree about this) there are no other (non-believer) survivors. Just the faithful who will survive the pre-Judgment Day tribulations and those true believers already dead who will be brought back to life so everyone gets into Heaven (the clouds) at the same time... no miserable masses waiting in the dank shadows of Hades till the Last Day.
"Them in the Clouds" means either the four Cardinal Seraphim; the Host of Angels; or the twelve Zodiac Gods... most probably it means the both the angels and more specifically the Cardinal Serphim as they were closely associated with the cardinal winds (which move the clouds). It's... eh... Michael... Gabriel... Uriel... can't remember them now.
and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
...this means exactly what it says.
If you're good and faithful, you get to either:
-become immortal on the Last Day then be lifted bodily into the clouds where the shouty Thunder God lives
-die faithful, be bodily resurrected on the Last Day. Then become immortal, and be lifted into the clouds.
Remember, those reading this two thousand years ago understood this to mean they would be physically whole (healthy) living (yet immortal) flesh and blood human beings... living actual normal (albeit immortal) lives living; sleeping; working; farming; eating and pooping in the sky forever more. That's why both Christians and Jews continued to keep and inter with them severed fingers, amputated limbs, even lost teeth... so as to be made whole on the Judgement Day.
Only the Gnostics had a concept of the soul (the "Divine Twin") as we understand it today... early Christians expected both bodily resurrection and an eternal continuation of THIS physical corporeal life... not what we think of today.
Just God (maybe Jesus); the angels; the faithful survivors of the tribulations and the resurrected faithfully departed... on a cloud... bored out of their fucking minds... for infinity.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
...this is one of these "So why grieve?" refrains. This verse was probably intended to be read at funerals or deaths.
See... no people disappearing leaving the sinful heathens behind. Nothing like the "Left Behind" series.
"The Rapture" as Evangelical Christians understand it today is nothing more than the misinterpretation of misunderstood and poorly translated writings by the impulsively literalist and deluded.
The Luke
