You have said that the rapture is “a number specific event, not a date specific one.” I absolutely agree. But since more people are being born every day, some of whom may become born again in their lifetime, it’s hard to wrap the mind around “number specific” (even though I believe it). In other words, will the world grow so dark that no one will be saved from some unknown point in time and then at that juncture, the rapture will take place? I’m 72. I would prefer to “fly” than to “die.”
I think most of us would prefer to fly than to die. To be part of such a unique event would be incredible, to say the least.
Here’s the way I see it. Since Paul said the rapture will take place in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor. 15:51-52), I believe in one moment we’ll have the last one in the Church to be born again, then we’ll have the rapture, and then in the next moment we’ll have the first post-Church believer give his or her heart to the Lord.
Many post-Church believers will come to faith because of the rapture, perhaps in the first moments afterward, as they realize that the event their Christian friends tried to warn them about has just taken place.