So the Second Coming of Christ is not a 'secret rapture' or just a 'few that disappear here and there, everyone will see it.
Exactly. Well said. The resurrected saints will also be seen ascending into the air with clouds, even as the two witnesses and the Lord Himself:
Rev 1:7
Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
Jde 1:14
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
Rev 11:11
And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
The resurrection of the dead in Christ, and the immortal changing of the saints alive on earth, is in a moment and twinkling of an eye, even as the two witnesses. However, the earth will see their ascension to meet the Lord seen in the air:
1Co 15:51
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
1 Th 4:15
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: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
You have to study Gods Word beyond a surface reading to see what scripture tells us about Christs Second Coming
Actually, it's more just simple reading and taking God at His words. The problem is injecting one's own predetermined ideas and traditions.
Now some can argued that many of the events shown have always existed on the earth, but never has there been a time when all these events were evident in the world simultaneously or the intensity we will see and Gods Word shows us....
Heb 1:1
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
1Jo 2:18
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
While the last days have been since Jesus ascended into heaven, and the churches of the apostles. And such things are cyclic in nature. You are correct, that there will be the last cycle of the last ac just before the second coming of Jesus Christ.
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Matthew 24:7
To the Christians of the Roman Empire, they believed the Scripture was being fulfilled with the invasion of migrating barbarian tribes, and the destruction of the Pax Romana.
Some later tried to identify the Mongols as the fiery horsemen of Rev 9.
So when we look at the nations of the world today, there may be talk of peace, but it seems the destruction of peoples and lives continues. Numerous additional signs of the imminent return of Christ are given in the Scriptures which testify that the time is near.
And so has said every generation of their own perilous times.
However, there is one certain identifier: The last ac will truly own churches all over the world. And there will be a worldwide great falling away to him from the Christian churches of God:
2Th 2:2
That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Rev 13:7
And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And yet, many believed that was the Roman papacy, which however was only over the known western world.
The last great worldwide ac, will be seated in that greatly corrupted city Jerusalem:
Rev 11:8
And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
