Before we get into this, it must be noted that some preterists, like Ed Stevens, do believe in the flying around of Christians in mid-air. He explicitly states that these Christians disappeared off the face of planet earth. It was not just a few Christians, either, but a whole host. In his book (Expectations Demands a Rapture), he briefly mentions Rev. 7 where the saints that "come out of the Great Tribulation" are now seen "in heaven before God". However, this number is "numberless" (7.9). One can almost feel Stevens squirm at this point when reading pages 17-18 with 52-53. Stevens wrote that the number of Christians raptured "might have been less than we think", but then writes, "there was a sizable multitude of Gentiles included in the rapture" (Stevens, 53 Expectations). He does not attempt to solve this problem. Walt Hibbard, an ardent supporter of Stevens' position, argued that there would not have been that many Christians around at that time. Rev. 7 says that there was "a number in which no one could count" and Stevens is aware of this, too. You cannot have it both ways: there was either a little, or a lot, and if there was a lot (in which no one could count, to speak biblically), then you would have to explain another "silence": the silence of the people who witnessed a "sizable multitude" of their population disappear!