Jesus said that truth had been hidden in parables from the foundation of the world: this was to fool the foolish clergy He called hypocrites by pointing to speakers, singers and instrument players.  BE CAREFUL or we ALL may miss the PRESENT PERFECT FULFILLMENT OF THE VIOLENT SNATCHING AWAY OF HIS PEOPLE FROM THE CENTERS OF WORLDY RELIGION.

God always gives us a way of escape. This is most often in the clear definition of words left in their original context.  For instance, the boast of praise teams to LIFT YOU UP or bring you into the presence god, means "to create mental excitement" and Jesus called the BURDENS or types of songs as creating "spiritual anxiety through religious rituals."  In Romans 15 this is outlawed as SELF-pleasure which points to all of the performance arts which Jesus identified as the role of the purpose driven Scribes and Pharisees as HYPOCRITES.  The word also connects to KLEPTOMANIA.

    1Th. 4:16 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:
    1Th. 4:17 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.

The word has nothing to do with the RAPTURE THEOLOGY.  If you follow the "Locust" thread in Revelation it is clear that they are the Muses of Apollo, Abbadon or Apollyon as the "Having Falen star."  Their task is to "rapt" the faiithful out of churches so that they can enjoy the rest of the Lord in a faithful church. At the same time the locusts or muses hold the "world centered" people captive by music which John called sorcery.   Because the Jews had all of the clear prophecies but did not recognize the First Advent until Christ had been there and gone: those who were baptized were in effect "raptured" out of Jerusalem meaning DRIVEN OUT so that none of them died while a million citizens of Jerusalem were burned up in a place called Topheth.  So, be careful to think about how Jesus uses the enemies to force out true believers into a spiritual kingdom while the world self destructs even burning themselves up with their own words.

G726 harpazō har-pad'-zo From a derivative of G138 ; to seize (in various applications):—catch (away, up), pluck, pull, take (by force).

The word RAPTURE has no GOOD Biblical reference so it may be a MARK God wants you to observe of those who create the mental anxiety of the sacrificial operatives meaning to "make them dumb before the slaughterer" and meaning to "lift them up to cut their throats" so they cannot even BLEAT an objection. So while they are causing you to LIFT UP God just remember that God cannot be LIFTED UP or aroused to be seduced.

The Latin word does not simply mean that we will "float into the air."  Even the Greek speaks of a violent yanking out of the evil society.

Rapio Charis. p. 39 P.), v. a. [root harp; Gr. harpê, a bird of prey, harpagê, harpazô; Lat. rapidus, rapax, rapina. lupê] , to seize and carry off, to snatch, tear, drag, draw, or hurry away, = violenter sive celeriter capio  Nasonis carmina rapti, i. e. torn from his home, borne far away, Ov. P. 4, 16, 1 ; cf. id. H. 13, 9

    [Olympian 7 For Diagoras of Rhodes Boxing-Match 464 B. C.
    [1] As when someone takes a goblet, all golden, the most prized of his possessions,
    foaming with the dew of the vine from a generous hand, and makes a gift of it to his young son-in-law,
            welcoming him with a toast from one home to another,
    [5] honoring the grace of the symposium and the new 1 marriage-bond, and thereby,
            in the presence of his friends, makes him enviable for his harmonious marriage-bed;
    [7] I too, sending to victorious men poured nectar, the gift of the Muses, the sweet fruit of my mind,
            I try to win the gods' favor [10] for those men who were victors at Olympia and at Pytho.
            That man is prosperous, who is encompassed by good reports.

    Grace [Charis], which causes life to flourish, looks with favor now on one man, now on another,
             with both the sweet-singing lyre and the full-voiced notes of flutes.

The Harpe or Siren is a figure in Greek legend used to take men captive.

http://www.piney.com/sirenelyre.jpg

Carmen a song, poem, verse, oracular response, prophecy, form of incantation, tune, air, lay, strain, note, sound

    Example

    Hor. C. 1, 7, 23;Q. Horatius Flaccus, Odes (ed. John Conington)
    Let others Rhodes or Mytilene sing,
    Or Ephesus, or Corinth, set between
    Two seas, or [Baccho] Thebes, or [Apollo] Delphi, for its king
    Each famous, or Thessalian Tempe green;
     
    There are who make chaste Pallas' virgin tower
    The daily burden of unending song,   Jesus died to remove thse laded burdens
    And search for wreaths the olive's rifled bower:
    The praise of Juno sounds from many a tongue,
    Telling of Argos' steeds, Mycenae's gold.

        Juno was the god/goddess of the AIR they were speaking to in 1 Cor 14.

        Juno was the protector and special counselor of the Roman state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister (but also the wife) of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Juventas, Mars, and Vulcan.  as a mother goddess, queen of the gods.
        As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman empire she was called Regina ("queen") and, together with Jupiter and Minerva, was worshipped as a triad on the Capitol (Juno Capitolina) in Rome.
        Juno's own warlike aspect among the Romans is apparent in her attire. She often appeared armed and wearing a goatskin cloak, which was the garment favoured by Roman soldiers on campaign. The name was generally taken to have the sense of "she who brings children into the light" (Latin: lux "light"), but may actually have been derived from lucus ("grove") after a sacred grove of lotus trees on the Esquiline Hill  This cloak is the Caper which gave its name to Cappella as in the castrated harmony singers in the Sistine.

    Horatius Flaccus
    For me stern Sparta forges no such spell,
    No, nor Larissa's plain of richest mould,
    As bright Albunea echoing from her cell.

Echoing is Resono Musical   sonos citharae, musicorum organa. Organum a musical instrument Gen 4:21 Jubal's musical instrument which he used without authority.

Further example of echoing in the Greek literature
       
Horace 1.3. THIS is a fault common to all singers, that among their friends they never are inclined to sing when they are asked, [but] unasked, they never desist. Tigellius, that Sardinian, had this [fault]. Had Caesar, who could have forced him to compliance, besought him on account of his father's friendship and his own, he would have had no success;
       if he himself was disposed, he would chant Io Bacche over and over, [the laded burden]
       from the beginning of an entertainment to the very conclusion of it;
       one while at the deepest pitch of his voice,
       at another time with that which answers to the highest string of the tetrachord.
       There was nothing uniform in that fellow

     Horatius Flaccus Latin
     O headlong Anio! O Tiburnian groves,
     And orchards saturate with shifting streams!

    Latin

    Laudabunt alii* claram* Rhodon aut Mytilenen*
    aut Epheson bimarisve Corinthi**
    moenia vel Baccho Thebas* vel Apolline* Delphos* insignis aut Thessala Tempe*;
    sunt quibus unum opus* est intactae* Palladis urbem*
    carmine perpetuo* celebrare et

    The laded burdens or carmen:

    [b[Carmen[b[ , ignis, n. (old form cas-men , Varr. L. L. p. 86 Bip.) [Sanscr. çasto [p. 293] declaim, praise; cf.: camilla, censeo], a tune, song; poem, verse; an oracular response, a prophecy; a form of incantation (cf.: cano, cantus, and canto).

    I. In gen., a tune, song, air, lay, strain, note, sound, both vocal and instrumental (mostly poet.; in prose, instead of it, cantus; Also the sound of waves,

    II. Esp., a composition in verse, a poem; poetry, verse, song, whether in a broader sense, of every kind of poetic production, epic, dramatic, lyric (opposite to prose, the melody)

    4. A response of an oracle, a prophecy, prediction: 

    5. A magic formula, an incantation : : polleantne aliquid verba et incantamenta carminum, Plin. 28, 2, 3, § 10 : carmina vel caelo possunt deducere lunam; Carminibus Circe socios mutavit Ulixi,  Using voice and citharazue (guitar), Lyre, playingon the cithara

        Circe is CHURCH: Circus , i, m., = kirkos [kindr. with krikos; Dor. kirkos, and korônê; cf.: kulindeô, kullos, cirrus, curvus].
        In or around the Circus many jugglers and soothsayers, etc., stationed themselves;

    6. On account of the very ancient practice of composing forms of religion and law in Saturnian verse, also a formula in religion or law, a form:

The only definition of LEGALISM is the NOMOS used to teach the laws of Apollo using the muses--dirty adulterers.

Carmentis , is (Carmenta , ae, Liv. 1, 7, 8 Weissenb. ad loc.; Hyg. Fab. 277), f. [carmen, q. v.] , a Roman goddess of prophecy, acc. to mythologists, the mother of Evander, who went with him from Arcadia to Latium... , and uttered oracles on the Capitoline Hill,

more RapioC. In partic. 1. To carry off by force; to seize, rob, ravish; to plunder, ravage,
     lay waste, take by assault , carry by force, etc. (very freq.; cf. praedor),

    (a). rapta , ae, f., the ravished one, the seduced : gratus raptae raptor fuit,
    (b). raptum , i, n., the plunder, that which is stolen: rapto vivere, to live by robbery,
                         In TITHES and OFFERINGS

2. To cut off, mutilate [the castrated priests of Cybele]
3. To carry off suddenly or prematurely by death, to snatch away (poet. and in post-Aug. prose

B. In partic. 1. To carry along or away with passion, to transport, ravish, captivate ; and with a designation of the limit, to carry or hurry away, to attract strongly to any thing (usually in a bad sense): impetu raptus,
          2. Seize by violence

    Tacitus 3. XLI. He wrote to Vitellius asking for aid. Three cohorts with some British cavalry arrived,
    a force too numerous to elude observation, too small to force its way. Even amidst such perils
    Valens could not keep himself clear of the in- [p. 562] famous reputation
           of grasping at unlawful gratifications,
           and of polluting the houses of his hosts with intrigue and violation.
           He had power, he had money,
                 and he indulged the lusts that are
                 the last solace of desperate fortunes.

    Horace Odes 2
    On me the Muse has laid her charge to tell
    Of your Licymnia's voice, the lustrous hue
    Of her bright eye, her heart that beats so well
    To mutual passion true:

    How nought she does but lends her added grace,
    Whether she dance, or join in bantering play,
    Or with soft arms the maiden choir embrace
    On great Diana's day.

    While to your burning lips she bends her neck,
    Or with kind cruelty denies the due
    She means you not to beg for, but to take,
    Or snatches it from you?

Based on the PRECURSORS including the Babylon Mother of harlots using "lusted after fruits" as speakers, singers and instrument players who "snatch you up with passion" whom John called sorcerers, you should anticipate that the RAPTURE (raped) will be TRUMPETED by a giant outburst of "musical worship" to SILENCE the voice of the victim.[/font]

The "rapture" is what happens when we die. In the spiritual realm- the dead are transformed as Jesus receives us.

16For 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:

This is history. The corporate resurrection of the dead at the end of the Jewish age. All fulfilled. And no one was "caught up" in the flesh like the fantasy of the little Catholic girl (the prophetess) dreamed.

17Then 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. 

"Then" is the key word here.  Afterward, when we individually lay down our tent, our spirits get caught up to God too so we can be together with the Lord & our dead loved ones.

What did Stephen say just before he died?  "Lord receive my spirit!"