Resurrection:

You do know that 1 Thess. 4:13-18 is not about a rapture. Right?? It is about the Resurrection of the Dead. There is only the coming of the Lord. When the resurrection happens, we who are alive and remain until that day will not precede those who are the Asleep in the ground. For the Trump will sound and the Dead in Christ shall stand back up on their feet out of the grave and draw breath into their lungs for the first time since they died. That is what it means to meet the Lord in the air. To draw breath and be alive again, just like Yeshua Resurrected and was made alive, in that he drew breath again. Once that happens, we who remain will be caught up into that same life and receive a Glorified body. Those who are not in Christ will be raised unto eternal damnation. That is all Paul was trying to establish in the new converts who did not understand what would happen then. He wanted to comfort them by letting them know that their saved loved ones would resurrect one day. But everyone in their order. Christ, the First Fruits, then everyone else who has the promise of salvation. Marie, You, and I are of the First Fruits. I have already resurrected. What that means is that I have overcame my flesh and because of that I am the first-Born from among the dead. It will take a while for my physical body to catch up, like another 38 months, but I am now guaranteed salvation. Those who are being saved only have the promise of complete salvation to come. He who endures until the end, shall be saved. The end of what?? The end of their flesh. Up until that time, we are being saved from glory unto glory so as by the Spirit of the Lord. Each experience lifting us higher and making us more like him. Dying to ourselves more, in order that we may live. The church likes to tell you that salvation was a done deal when you got saved. But that is not even the case. The reason that lie was sown into the church was that people would not even try to be perfect. Because perfection is the goal. The prize for which we seek. To become perfect, just as he is perfect, in Christ Yeshua. So, let us go on unto perfection. Not laying again the ordinances of salvation. Not laying again that same foundation. But let us go on, unto a mature and capable member of Yeshua's Kingdom.