God gave Paul revelation of a snarching away of those who are born again / have been born again. [ 1 Thess 4:13-17, 2 Thess 2-5, and 1 Corinthians 15:52 and following ] This group of people are 'the Bride of Christ', the Body of Christ. There are Biblical reasons for the Rapture of the Ekklesia. A couple are, 1) to remove those regenerated individuals who are alive in Christ (or the deceased who were in Christ and died), and 2) to reveal Messiah to a group of 144,000 JEWS who will spearhead the final evangelization of all humankind but especially the alive Jews.)
The seven years of tribulation are GOD'S dealing with Israel and those upon the Earth who have rejected The Grace of God in Christ, an age during which those 'in Christ' are supposed to be doing the evengelizing.
During the seven years it is Jews who will be doing the evangelizing, because JESUS is coming in the air to snatch away His Bride before GOD begins pouring our His wrath in ever increasing degrees during the seven years.
I agree MHGinTN.
I think an important part of understanding prophecy is deciphering who the message is intended. We need to take into account that Paul is the Apostle unto the Gentiles. Without Pauls Epistles, we would be hard pressed to understand the Word of God.
To the Jew first, then to the Gentile. And since Israel, as a nation has yet to receive Jesus as their Savior, the Jews will go through Great Tribulation. The time of Jacobs troubles. Especially specified as Jews is the 144,000 written in Revelations. 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. Hence, Johns recipients in the Book of Revelation for the most part.
The church is described in Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation, and then in 4:1 “Come up hither” (referenced to the Rapture.) From that point on, the church is rarely referenced but for returning with Jesus at the end of the tribulation period.
Then there are also those that are beheaded and washed in the Blood of the Lamb, having come out of the Tribulation. This speaks of those which were not Born Again prior to the beginning of the Tribulation (and the time of the rapture) but when faced with receiving the mark of the beast and receiving his mark, they chose eternal life instead.
Note, in Thessalonians 5, Paul is speaking to the church (Believers) and he states:
5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
“Cometh upon them”-those left behind-”as travail upon a woman with child”-an obvious reference to the Jews.
Again, Paul speaking to the Church writes:
1 Thessalonians 5
9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
That Trumpet is about to sound!
“In John 14 Jesus tells His disciples that He is going away to prepare ‘a place’ for them, in the Father’s House where there are many rooms and that He will come and take them to Himself and return ‘there’ to the Father’s House.”
John 14:1-3
Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
“There” is with Jesus. There is wherever He is. I think the evidence supports the eternal dwelling is the New Jerusalem.
Galatians 4:26
but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Hebrews 13:14
For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.
Revelation 21:1-2
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
This dwelling place is going to be brought down to earth and will become part of a new ecosystem during the millennial reign.
The place our Lord said He would prepare was not ready when He spoke the words of John 14 to His disciples. Is it ready yet? “Only My Father knows,” Jesus would say (in Matthew 24:36). This is part of the wedding / marriage analogy according to Jewish wedding customs.
Currently, Satan accuses us before God day and night. He has not yet been cast out of Heaven. Part of preparing the place for us is the removal of Satan permanently from Heaven. This will occur in precisely the middle of Daniel’s seventieth week. It will be done by Michael, who is the restrainer of 2 Thessalonians 2 (which is an exposition of Daniel and is alluding to Daniel 12 in which Michael is the one who stands at the specific moment antichrist is revealed at the abomination of desolation).
“God gave Paul revelation of a snarching away of those who are born again / have been born again. [ 1 Thess 4:13-17, 2 Thess 2-5, and 1 Corinthians 15:52 and following ] This group of people are ‘the Bride of Christ’, the Body of Christ.”
Almost. Peter, James, John, and Andrew heard the Olivet Discourse, which includes living saints being gathered. The mystery revealed to Paul (a Biblical mystery is something hidden in the Old Testament but revealed in the New) was that living saints would be transformed and receive glorified bodies in an instant. This mystery includes the fact that the last generation of believers will not experience death.
1 Corinthians 15:50-52
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
“This group of people are ‘the Bride of Christ’, the Body of Christ. There are Biblical reasons for the Rapture of the Ekklesia. A couple are, 1) to remove those regenerated individuals who are alive in Christ (or the deceased who were in Christ and died), and 2) to reveal Messiah to a group of 144,000 JEWS who will spearhead the final evangelization of all humankind but especially the alive Jews.)”
All of this is speculation based on a pre-tribulational rapture perspective rather than any specific Biblical text. I’m not arguing that this alone makes it false, but it is very important to distinguish between man-made theological positions and the actual scriptures.
I consider the idea that Old Testament saints not being part of the body of Christ to be, what I would describe as, hyper-dispensationalism. Yes, there are different dispensations. Yes, God is not done working through His earthly people, Israel. No, the Church did not replace Israel. However, the true spiritual Israel was always a a subset of the external nation of Israel, just as those who are truly born-again believers are a subset of the external, visible Church today. Yes, the Church and the Church age (as it has been labeled) began with the coming of the Holy Spirit. But remember that the Church includes all nationalities, including Israel. The Church has been grafted into the vine (Christ), but Israel will be grafted back into the same vine. Jesus said there will be one fold and one Shepherd.
In terms of the rapture, this means that the “dead in Christ” includes Old Testament saints. There are too numerous of passages to cite to address this without making my post even longer than it is.
“The seven years of tribulation are GOD’S dealing with Israel and those upon the Earth who have rejected The Grace of God in Christ, an age during which those ‘in Christ’ are supposed to be doing the evengelizing.”
Again, this is simply stating the pre-trib position rather than providing evidentiary support. But there are numerous problems with the timeline you are putting forward. And many of these issues revolve around the distinction between Daniel’s seventieth week, and the Day of the Lord. Christ’s second coming (and to be clear, the rapture IS the second coming and there will not be a third) coincides with the arrival of the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord follows the Great Tribulation. the Great Tribulation begins in the middle of Daniel’s seventieth week.
To provide a satisfactory defense of any theoretical timing of the rapture, there are certain questions that must be answered:
Why does Christ mark the End of the Great Tribulation with signs in the heavens, including the darkened sun and moon, while Joel indicates this sign precedes the Day of the Lord?
If Daniel’s seventieth week begins with deception and false peace, why is the Day of the Lord described as “sudden destruction”?
How can the “restrainer” of 2 Thessalonians 2 be the Holy Spirit when Peter describes Pentecost as a fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit before the Day of the Lord? How can this prophecy, given to Israel, be fulfilled by the Church if the Church is removed? (See Joel 2:28-32, which Peter and Paul both quote and apply to salvation in the “church age” as we call it.) How does the greatest evangelism ever (uncountable multitude in Heaven in Revelation 7) occur without the outpoured Holy Spirit?
When does the strong delusion of 2 Thessalonians 2 occur? What specifically is “the lie” referred to there?
How can the Day of the Lord encompass the Great Tribulation if it cannot not come (according to 2 Thessalonians 2) until after the antichrist is revealed by setting up the abomination of desolation which occurs in the exact middle of Daniel’s seventieth week?
How can antichrist “exalt himself” at the abomination of desolation and afterward (causing the whole world to worship him) if the time period is the same as or overlaps the Day of the Lord, if the Day of the Lord is a time in which ONLY the Lord is exalted?
Isaiah 2:10-12
Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust,
From the terror of the Lord
And the glory of His majesty.
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,
And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
For the day of the Lord of hosts
Shall come upon everything proud and lofty,
Upon everything lifted up—
And it shall be brought low—
“JESUS is coming in the air to snatch away His Bride before GOD begins pouring our His wrath in ever increasing degrees during the seven years.”
Yes, Jesus is going to take His bride out before the Day of the Lord / Day of Wrath. But this is NOT Daniel’s seventieth week, as I’ve provided some evidence to support. Daniel’s seventieth week culminates in Israel’s repentance and restoration; it does not begin with it. God will continue to operate in and through the Church (including Jewish believers) during the first half and part of the second of Daniel’s seventieth week. The Church will face her arch-enemy, the antichrist. We will endure times of deception, war, famine, disease, natural disaster, and persecution, just as God’s people have endured in the past. We will not endure ANY of God’s wrath which includes fire poured out from Heaven, and torture by demonic beings, etc. that are described AFTER the Day of Wrath begins.