1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (KJV)
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 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. 16 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: 17 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. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Rapture supposedly is the event described here by the highlighted words. This is the most anticipated event in Christianity's calendar; meeting the Lord, mortality clothed with immortality to borrow the words of 1 Corinthians 15.
Okay. You have here the catching up of the saints to meet the Lord in the air after the dead in Christ raise up, right?
Revelation has the first resurrection as happening AFTER the defeat of Satan and the world's armies in Revelation 20th chapter.
But Zechariah prophesied that He will return to set foot on Mount Olives with the saints to THEN defeat the world's armies.
Zechariah 14:1 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. 2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. 4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
So then readers are reading "first resurrection" wrong.
Revelation 20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
So then Satan and the world's armies have bee defeated and Jesus has already set foot on earth with the returning saints as testified in Zechariah's prophesy and then comes this resurrection;
Pay attention to the kind of saints that are being resurrected as these are ones as coming out of the great tribulation.
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Now discern with His help why the word "first" was used in relation to this resurrection mentioned above.
5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
So what verse 5 is saying is that the resurrection that happened in verse 4 is the first resurrection before the rest of the dead are resurrected later on after a thousand years as verse 5 says.
Verse 5 was not saying that this was the only resurrection, but that the resurrection of the saints coming out of the great tribulation happens first before the rest of the dead happens later on about after a 1,000 years.
6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
They that be Christ will be reigning as kings and priests with the King of kings which means for the entire world, they have to be spread out all over the world in serving Him for the coming generation of the milleniel reign of Christ.
The vessels unto honor in His House lives in New Jerusalem that comes down from Heaven. They shall testify to the wonderful works of God to all generations that comes to visit the city.