1 Thessalonians 4:17 is clearly a rapture event and is clearly not about us returning back to Earth with Him at His Second Coming.
Jude 1:14
“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,”
It is obvious that each person only needs to be resurrected once.
This is where not knowing Koine Greek messes up your theology. In fact:
"ἔπειτα ἡμεῖς οἱ ζῶντες οἱ περιλειπόμενοι ἅμα σὺν αὐτοῖς ἁρπαγησόμεθα ἐν νεφέλαις εἰς
ἀπάντησιν τοῦ κυρίου εἰς
ἀέρα· καὶ οὕτως πάντοτε σὺν κυρίῳ ἐσόμεθα." 1 Thess 4:17
The key issues, are:
1. that heaven is not mentioned in the verse! ἀέρα or "air" is the air around us. Ouranos is heaven, and does not appear in this verse! So, we are not going to heaven with Jesus.
2. "secret" is not found in this verse. There can be no "secret." In fact, elsewhere it says of the Second Coming of Jesus:
"Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen." Rev 1:7
This is the Second Coming talked about in 1 Thess 4:17. Every eye will see him! Nothing secret at all!
3. ἀπάντησιν. This word means "to meet" as your translation correctly says. However, the translation neglects to mention the rest of the meaning. Cleon Roger's Jr & Cleon Rodgers III scholarly book, "The
New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament," (which we used in Baptist seminary), gives the complete definition. It refers to the return of a conquering hero. The people go out to meet the victor and accompany him back to their city. This word is found only in 3 places on the NT. In Acts 28:15, it refers to the people going out "to meet" Paul, and then return with him to the Rome.
In 1 Thess 4:17, it refers to Christians meeting Jesus in the air around us, and then returning to earth for Judgement Day. Heaven is not where we go, apantesin means the people "meet and return" to earth with Jesus. Paul used that word on purpose, just as Luke did in Acts 28:15.
4. Finally this supposed rapture! Only one Bible contains a transliteration of "harpazo" into rapture and that is Jerome's Latin Bible, translated in the 4th century AD. So 400 years after Christ, and Jerome did not know Koine Greek well, as it was starting to die out. Harpazo means "to snatch, grab!" This refers to the suddenness of the Second Coming! Jerome transliterated, not translated harpazo to sound like a similar Latin word. That being rapiere, which means "abduct" according to one source. Will Jesus abduct us? Not likely. But he will suddenly grab us, so we can meet him in the air.
Further, hermeneutics or Bible interpretation requires we do not make a major doctrine out of one verse in the Bible. There must be many references, for anything to become a pivotal doctrine, which rapture does not have. In fact, the word "Rapture" does not appear in the Bible at all, but the Second Coming does!
1 Thess 4:17 is a reference to Jesus Christ's Second Coming! We are waiting for Jesus to return, not a nonsensical "secret rapture to heaven." Not one of those words is present in 1 Thess 4:17, in Koine Greek or English!