...they will face death like the wicked at that time. Not just some of them but all of them...
Note that in Luke 17 and Matthew 24, the parallel point between the 2nd coming on the one hand and Noah's flood and Sodom's destruction on the other, can't be the destruction of all the wicked, but rather their obliviousness to the disaster that was about to come upon them, for unlike the flood, which "took them ALL away" (Matthew 24:39), at the 2nd coming not all will be taken away, but "one shall be taken, and the other left" (Matthew 24:40). The ones "left" at the 2nd coming will be survivors of the heathen nations that came against Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:16), who will be forced to worship Jesus in the millennium (Zechariah 14:16-18), and whom we will rule "with a rod of iron" during that time (Revelation 2:26-29, 5:9-10, 20:4).
...No one but the righteous will be spared when Jesus returns...
Would Jesus need to force the righteous to come up to Jerusalem to worship him? (Zechariah 14:16-18) Would we need to rule over the righteous with a rod of iron? (Revelation 2:26-29)
...We will be in heaven...
Note that no verse says the rapture takes us any higher than the clouds.
...we will be caught up in the clouds...
I believe we will be caught up to meet Jesus in the air on his way down to set his feet on the earth.
Because 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 shows Jesus "coming," but doesn't show him landing on the earth, some believe it refers to a part-way coming of Jesus whereby he comes down only as far as the clouds and then returns to heaven. But note that Matthew 24:29-31 doesn't show Jesus landing on the earth either. Do some then believe that Matthew 24:29-31 is also not the 2nd coming?
Note that 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 doesn't show Jesus returning to heaven. Acts 1:11 says Jesus will "come" just as he left: he won't come only as far as the clouds and then return to heaven again, just as he didn't leave only as far as the clouds and then return to earth again. He went from the Mount of Olives to the clouds to heaven, he will come from heaven to the clouds to the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4). There's no 3rd coming of Jesus.
Note that Jesus simply said "I will come again, and receive you unto myself" (John 14:3). He didn't say he would take us into heaven.
Jesus said "I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:3). Note that he says we will be where he is after he comes again. He doesn't say he will turn around and go back into heaven. And indeed we will be where he is after he comes again: on the earth during the millennium (Revelation 20:4-6, 5:10, 2:26-29).
I believe Jesus said "In my Father's house are many mansions... I go to prepare a place for you," to show why he was going, not why he was coming back, and to show that he still has great and eternal plans for us in New Jerusalem, where the Father will dwell with us after the millennium: "I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God" (Revelation 21:2-3).
...John saw a vision of Gods people living in heaven...
In Revelation 19:14, "heaven" is the 1st heaven, the sky, where Jesus is revealed to the nations, as in Matthew 24:30's "heaven."
I believe the purpose of the rapture is to gather the resurrected dead and the transformed living (1 Corinthians 15:51-52, 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17) all together in the sky with Jesus so that we can be judged (Psalms 50:4-5, Mark 13:27) and married (Revelation 19:7) in the clouds, before Armageddon.