The Difference Between the Rapture and the Second Coming

Christ's Appearing:(1) at the Rapture  
and (2) at the Second Coming of Christ  
are two completely separate things.  
They happen at two different times.  
 
The Rapture happens when the Antichrist is "revealed as the Destroyer,"(2 Thessalonians 2.3)  
BY the mass destruction (implied) produced by "the war against the saints [the Christian West]"  
which he launches, by which he gains power over "every..nation"(Revelation 13.7).  
 
So the Rapture comes at the START of the Antichrist's ownership of the world.  
Whereas, the Second Coming occurs at the END of the Antichrist's reign.  
 
For Christ's purpose in Appearing over Jerusalem (Zechariah 14.1-4,7)  
is to end the reign of terror by "destroying the Wicked One"(2 Thessalonians 2.7-8),  
By which single act Jesus Christ takes back the whole world,  
Fulfilling the prophecy that He would become the Savior of the world.  
(That prophecy has gone unfulfilled heretofore.)  
 
Again, the Rapture occurs as "sudden destruction" comes (1 Thessalonians 4.16-5.3)  
which destruction is implied in these words,"the stars will fall," (Matthew 24.29-31).  
The day of the Rapture will be, "Just like" "the day that Lot left Sodom  
and fire..rained from [the sky] and destroyed them all"(Luke 17.29-34 NIV).  
Lot experienced a sort of Rapture on a day of judgment by fire.  
That serves as a prefigure, a template, of the Rapture/Judgment combo  
Confronting us, our world, today by which i mean the immediate future.  
 
But on what basis can I claim that "the day of the Son of Man" (Luke 17.29-34)  
= the day of the Rapture of (a representative portion of) the Church?  
Well, we read that on "the day of the Son of Man..He will send His angels to gather  
His Elect from the 4 winds, from one horizon to the opposite horizon"(Matthew 24.29-31).  
Doesn't that sound, to you, like the Rapture of the Church,Christ's "Elect" (1 Peter 5.13)?  
Yes, based on Matthew 24.29-31, we can assert that the day of the Son of Man  
is synonymous with the day of Christ at the Rapture of the Church, without a doubt !!  
 
PS:that the day of the Rapture will also be a day of judgment  
is shown where it speaks of the angels coming with fire(2 Thessalonians 1.7-10).  
PS: my next work will answer this question: Which is greater,more glorious,  
the Rapture of the Church or the Second Coming of Christ??  
 
PS: in the 4th verse I say that "By that single act [of appearing over Jerusalem]  
Christ fulfills the prophecy that He would become the Savior of the world."  
Just how does He save the world by merely appearing over Jerusalem(Zechariah 14.1-7)?  
No Bible passage about the Second Coming explains how.  
But we can go by the precedent set by the miracle in Acts 9.3.  
Christ merely appearing to Saul turned him 180 degrees.  
Using that as our model we can safely assert that Christ's Appearing  
will move the Russian troops invading Israel into mutinying,  
switching over to His side(Ezekiel 38.21;Zechariah 14.13).  
Then He sends them home to "proclaim God's glory"(Isaiah 66.19)  
which Light they will have personally seen(Zech 14.7).  
Revolution against Gorbachev follows, the Beast aka Gog,  
aka the King of the North aka the Antichrist is overthrown!!!  
 
LSS: Christ gets humanity to participate in saving itself.  
PEOPLE are who overthrow the Beast!!  
To paraphrase Christ's words at His trial,  
"When My kingdom is of this world,  
THEN shall my children fight" (John 18.36).  
The Book of Revelation speaks of that day,  
"Now have the kingdoms of the world become  
the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ"(Rev 11.15).  
The implication is that the Church is Christ's tool at the Second Coming.