Forgive me, my friends, but I don't there's any point in me discussing this further, and trying to argue 'my' case. Clearly we have entirely different interpretations of God's Word, and all the scriptures I could quote could be interpreted by you in a different way.
I can only state the understanding that God has seen fit to give me, based on my earnest enquiry into the Scriptures, relying on the guidance of the Holy Spirit:
There will first be a Rapture, and all the saints will be taken up to be with the Lord in the twinkling of an eye, and for a brief moment in time, those saints who have died will stand on the Earth before ascending. This is a matter between the Lord and those who love Him, a great blessing and privilege which is to be accorded to us, to see Him in His glory before it is revealed to the world. We have suffered with Him during His time of rejection and we will reign with Him, and thus He accords us this immense privilege.
Then, the Lord will return to reveal Himself. As Acts 1 v 11 would assure us, He will return in the manner in which He departed. We, all those who have believed from Pentecost until the Rapture, will appear with Him, sharing in His glory as we have shared in His rejection.
The Appearing will be heralded by signs. The Rapture will not. We don't know when the Lord is coming, and Scripture would tell us that much, that we don't know the day or the hour. Surely, that should be enough to establish in our minds that the Rapture is to come first, then the Appearing.
To deny the truth of the Rapture as a separate occurrence is to deny fullness of God's thoughts and outpouring of blessings which He has in mind for us. The believer should be looking to the Lord's coming to us first, not to the world. This is His desire, that He might be united with His people, that He might take His bride, the Assembly, to be with Himself before He is to be revealed, resplendent in glory and majesty.