Are not the resurrection and the catching up virtually the same thing? They are not the same thing at all!

The resurrection of the physical body is the overcoming of the last enemy.

Paul was seeking to attain the resurrection, not the ascension. Paul's "mark" toward which he strove with such fervor was the resurrection that will take place when the Lord appears.

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection [Greek, out-resurrection] of the dead. (Philippians 3:11)

Can you imagine Paul saying, "If by any means I might attain unto the catching up into the air"?

Paul was pressing toward the redemption of his body so he would be free to behave righteously.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)

The believer of today is waiting for the catching up so he will not suffer.

The difference between the desire to behave righteously and the desire to escape suffering is infinitely great. The one is the hope of the saint. The other is the hope of the believer who is living in the appetites of the Adamic nature.

Paul groaned for the redemption of his body. Paul never once groaned for the ascension, as today's believers do because of the incorrect teaching they have had.

And not only they [the material creation], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)

The redemption of the body is the hope of the saint.

For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? (Romans 8:24)

Nowhere in the Scriptures is ascension presented as the hope of the believer. Christ is our Redeemer, that is, He came to reclaim that which mankind lost because of sin. What we lost because of sin was immortality in the body. We did not lose eternal residence in the spirit realm.

Enoch and Elijah were carried into the spirit realm. But they were not raised from the dead. Christ is the Firstborn from the dead. Therefore the translation of Enoch and Elijah was significantly different from that which the remnant left alive on the earth will experience.

The seven feasts of the Lord (Leviticus, Chapter 23) portray in type the major acts of redemption, beginning with the Passover and extending through the feast of Tabernacles.

The Lord Jesus was crucified on the Passover, was in the prison under the earth's surface during the feast of Unleavened Bread, and was raised from the dead on the day of the feast of Firstfruits. The Holy Spirit fell from Heaven fifty days later in fulfillment of the fourth feast, the feast of Pentecost.

As we have stated, the Lord was caught up to Heaven forty days after His resurrection. There was no feast of the Lord ten days prior to the feast of Pentecost. This is because the catching up into the air is not a part of the Divine redemption.

To be continued.