Here's the thing. For Idealists, it's fully within our hermeneutical principles to, as you say, have figurative language with literal meanings. In fact, it happens more than you think. It's also in our wheelhouse to go strictly literal if the text demands it, as it often does.
The problem with Dispensational interpretation that I'm trying to point out, is that they are not consistant. They demand a literal hermenuetic, but don't follow through. They say that there are times it's okay to do symbolism, but Revelation always tells you when. But then there are times when it doesn't, and they still fall back on symbolism, because it clearly can't be literal.
This is my big drive, what i'm really trying to highlight, because it's a serious problem. And it should be a serious problem for you to, as someone who follows this system. Do you want to follow a system that is wildly inconsistent?
And it's not just a problem of "deciding who calls what figurative", its about the very basis of HOW people make that determination. If you cannot have an interpretive system that leads you true, then you'll wobble off course.
So you say, but consistently you don't present bible verses to support your position. Shouldn't that be a priority?
See...you say you are biblically literal, but then this.
Let's see:
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming (ἔρχομαι - erchomai) on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. -Matthew 24:29–31
“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. -Matthew 24:36–37
Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming (ἔρχομαι - erchomai), he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. -Matthew 24:42–44
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats...
And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” -Matthew 25:31–32, 46
For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming (παρουσία - parousia) of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. -1 Thessalonians 4:15–17
Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. -1 Thessalonians 5:1–2
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. -2 Peter 3:10
Okay, what am I trying to say with these verses? In the Matthew verses, we can see that even though the "coming" of Christ is referred to as "erchomai", we can see from the context that the passage is still talking about the 'Rapture'. We know this because the text says that at this 'erchomai' the elect will be gathered to Christ at the blast of a trumpet. The text then goes on to clearly say that NO MAN can know the day or hour of this event, and uses the "thief" description we are familiar with. Christ then moves on, in the same Discourse that describes his 'coming' and the 'Rapture', and talks about how, when he "comes", he will sit on his judgement throne. Nowhere does it say that this is a different coming.
We can also connect all this to Christ's "coming" (parousia) in 1 Thess 4, which is undoubtably a Rapture passage. The similarities between it and the Olivet Discourse are unmistakable, and it goes on to use the "come like a thief in the night" description right after the description of the event itself. The passage also calls this event "the day of the Lord".
Which brings us to 2 Peter 3, which helps tie it all together. Peter uses the "thief" label, calls it "the day of the Lord" and also tells us that the heavens will pass away in a roar and be dissolved. All in all, this passage of cosmic destruction links "the day of the Lord" to the Rapture, and to the judgement seat. I could loop in 1 Cor 15 to show that the Rapture is the end of death, which, Paul tells us, is "the end".
Basically...none of the things you just said can be biblically supported. All the scriptures Dispensationalists usually use to support their case, in point of fact, only link them all together as a single event.
