The rapture Paul wrote about was those who were alive and remained through the trib until Christ returned. Only those people are part of what we know as "the rapture"....a bodily catching up of the trib's saved survivors....they are also "changed" (allasso in the Greek) which changes the mortal body into immortal.
Paul was not raptured. He died and his spirit returned to God as is written. He will be of those who return with Christ and meet those who are raptured to also meet them.
It would be inclusive of those who depart, since the living cannot hinder the departed from attaining their Crown of Life.
Jesus is pictured as coming with those who had departed before the living.
It introduces a deeper meaning to the term rapture than what meets the eye. Since rapture had to have been applied to the departed in Christ, as Jesus said be faithful onto death and I will give you a Crown of Life.
Rapture implies the getting of a believer out of the context of situation within this temporal realm.
If Paul addressed it only to the Living then he would not in a matter of a few versus say the following
1 Thessalonians 4:14-17
14For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that
God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
15According to the Lord’s word,
we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and
the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we
who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
The catching up with them who are departed like Paul on that Day and the remnant who are alive will
certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
This means that the departed are raptured first before the living implying they are sealed to receive their immortal resurrection bodies before those remaining alive.
It makes no sense to exclude the departed as being the first cab of the rank so to speak as far as the resurrection is concerned.
We need to bring the above in harmony with
1 Corinthians 15:51-52
51Listen, I tell you a mystery:
We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—
52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at
the last trumpet.
So where are those who died?
52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound,
the dead will be raised imperishable, and THEN we will be changed.
I put then purposely to highlight a conjunction and statement showing priority of who is raised first which implies the dead are raptured first before the living.
Rapture definition becomes inclusive of the departed and the deeper meaning of catching up seems to imply of being transfered from the temporal realm to the eternal realm within the eternal heavenly resurrection body. The implication is that the dead in Christ must be caught up first before the living.
