Rapture means: rap·ture (rpchr)
n.
1. The state of being transported by a lofty emotion; ecstasy.
2. An expression of ecstatic feeling. Often used in the plural.
3. The transporting of a person from one place to another, especially to heaven.
tr.v. rap·tured, rap·tur·ing, rap·tures
To enrapture.
You are a gimmick, right? No one is wilflly this dumb... it's an attention thing, right?
The verse you quote does not contain the word "rapture" (or anything that could be translated as such, considering we are discussing translations).
This "Rapture" meme began in the 1800s when splintered American Protestant groups were vying for novelty when competing for donations/followers.
It is just another cancerous thought tumour produced by the syphilitic loins of Christian literalism: the mistaken application of the meaning of the word "rapture" to the physical world... far beyond it's metaphysical/emotional perview.
Prior to this (mistaken) misinterpretation of the word "rapture" by millenarian Christian fundamentalists (ie: prior to the 1800s)... prior to this, the word "rapture" had only a metaphysical context.
You could
capture a physical object, but you
rapture or enrapture the soul/spirit/feelings/emotions.
So, I (my physical being) might be "caught up" or "captured" (in a physical spacial sense) by either a physical force/event/person or an immaterial non-physical force/event/emotion.
But if I am "
raptured or enraptured" then it is only my metaphysical component (my thoughts/emotions/spirit) which are transported or "caught up", and this non-physical/metaphysical component can similarly be "caught up" by either a physical force/event/person or an immaterial non-physical force/event/emotion.
But generally speaking,
capture is used when something physical is caught up by someting either physical or non-physical... and
rapture or enrapture is used when something non-physical or metaphysical is caught up by something similarly non-physical or immaterial.
This is the convetion by which the word was used from 800ish AD till 1800ish AD.
"Rapture" has only taken on the mistaken meaning of PHYSICAL transportation since large groups of misinformed Christians came to think it had a physical connotation.
If you want me to explain what that verse from Thessoloians actually means... in the context of the worldview espoused by the early Christian writers, I can certainly explain that.
But one thing is sure... "Rapture" in the sense that Evangelical (American) Christians understand it: DOES NOT DERIVE FROM THE BIBLE.
Neither the New Testament nor the Old Testament either detail or prophesise any such event.
Like most of Christianity, it is a product of the delusions of those incapable of comprehending metaphor.
Sorry.
But this is akin to claiming a "light-year" is AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN a measure of time... just because a large contingent of the misinformed mistakenly believe it to be. Then using this "new" ignorance-derived definition to validate the prophetic rantings of L Ron Hubbard.
The Luke