This is not the rapture of the saved.  This is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the Tribulation Period, coming with the saved to begin His millennial reign.  It is identified as the Second Advent.  I never doubt the Word of God, but I do doubt the ability of myself, and others, to correctly interpret it.  I know that the Word of God is infallible, but I know that men are not.  If the Bible says something, I believe it even if I do not understand it, but I enjoy it a great deal more if I understand what I believe.  This verse of Scripture says, “And every eye shall see him.”  How is that possible?  This means that survivors in England, Russia, China, Africa, North and South America, and everywhere else will all see him.  How is that possible?  I know it will happen because the Word says it; but is it possible to understand how within the laws that God has established in his creation?  In order to answer these questions, let us examine this verse point by point.  We are told “he cometh with clouds.”  This means all across the earth he will be seen with the clouds.  This is certainly consistent with the manner in which he departed from the earth in the Book of Acts.                          

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and A CLOUD received him out of their sight. [10] And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; [11] Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall SO COME IN LIKE MANNER as ye have seen him go into heaven. Acts 1:9-11

I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. [12] As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. [13] I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man CAME WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. [14] And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.  Daniel 7:11-14

Please note that the Son of man comes with the clouds of heaven.  The meteorological conditions of the great day of the Lord will be similar to the clouds, and their associated gloom, described in the following Scriptures.

The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. [15] That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, Zephaniah 1:14,15

For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen. Ezekiel 30:3                                     

As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. Ezekiel 34:12

Just how will the heavens appear when Jesus returns at the end of the Tribulation Period?  Matthew paints the picture of His return in graphic form.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: [30] And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man COMING IN THE CLOUDS of heaven with power and great glory. Matthew 24:29-30

I have already described in Birth Pang Numbers 9 and 10 how the gradual building of the great cloud in the stratosphere will engulf the entire outer portion of the earth’s atmosphere.  This will cause the sun to be darkened and the moon not to give her light.  In verse 30 the “sign of the Son of man” will appear in heaven.  What is this sign?  As the Son of man approaches the outer limits of the earth’s atmosphere, His “great glory” of verse 30 will light up the stratospheric cloud around the entire earth, and his glorious light will spread through it by God’s laws of refraction, scattering, and reflection.  Every eye on the face of the earth will behold the blinding light of the glory of God in this great cloud.  This is the sign of the Son of man in the heaven the Hebrews identified as our atmosphere.  The closer Christ moves to the earth, the more brilliant will be the illumination of the cloud band around the entire earth.  There will be no night as he returns to reign.  He will break through the great cloud over the holy land, and, by the effects of light created by scattering, diffusion, reflection, refraction, inferior mirage, superior mirage, light inversion, and looming through air of differing temperature densities, His bodily presence image will be seen around the globe as he descends towards the Mount of Olives.  The Shekinah Glory of God, in the bodily presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, will descend on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, and the prophecy of Zechariah 12:9-14 will begin to be fulfilled. 

And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. [10] And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. [11] In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. [12] And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; [13] The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; [14] All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.  Zechariah 12:9-14