See The Rapture Series here
God has promised three significant, overarching ‘next events’ on His calendar for His faithful saints – people who embraced Him by faith before Christ, and we who embraced Him by faith in Christ. These three next events are:
1. A great falling away of the unfaithful (fake believers) from among our ranks,
2. The resurrection of deceased saints, transformation into immortality and rapture into Heaven of all saints, deceased and alive,
3. A co-reigning on Earth for a thousand years with Jesus as global King.
Paul assures us the first event will precede the third. He clearly defines the sequence of the second event, but gives no clarity regarding its timing, neither does the rest of The Bible. As a result, opinions among believers today literally run the gamut on every aspect of each of these events.
While there is no Biblical clarity on the timing of the rapture, this is what we do know:
a. The Bible records several historical raptures. 1
b. Each historical rapture followed a period of intensive testing of the person(s) raptured. I imagine even Enoch was tested intensively, and thus qualified to ‘walk with The Lord’ before being raptured. Ditto for Elijah!
c. The Lord alone set the timing and parameters for testing these individuals.
d. The parameters included martyrdom for some.
e. Based on the patterned decline of faith in ancient Israel, it is apparent that God’s testing may be the strongest when faith toward Him on Earth is weakest, resulting in a major shaking and falling away of fake believers.
f. God personally selected kings of Assyria and Babylon (many decades apart) as His ‘battle axes’ to inflict punishing assaults, first on Israel (the scattered 10 northern tribes) and later on Judah (2 southern tribes) and to burn Jerusalem and tear down its temple. Captives were made slaves and carried off to Assyria (regarded as the 10 lost tribes), and also to Babylon.
g. The Lord uses sinful people to judge sinful people. His four, strategic, preferred judgment tactics are noted in Deuteronomy 32, and are summarized in Ezekiel 14:12-23. As noted in other posts, righteous folks are caught in the judgment processes, but not for judgment sake, per se. They (we) are ‘relatively’ protected, and even blessed for their (our) righteous faithfulness. (See: Collateral Damages or Blessings? (Poem). For more on this, search this blog for ‘collateral damages’.)
As you ponder the recorded, historical raptures, ask this question:
Did those who were raptured likely know in advance
the actual timing of their rapture?
I believe only Jesus knew the timing of His ascension into Heaven.
The above points reveal a relatively clear strategic pattern that God has applied to historical raptures, and to the fall of Judah/Jerusalem, as recorded in The Bible. Given the numerous parallelisms between ancient Israel and The Church, writ large, this same strategic pattern may well apply to The Church, namely:
(a) More than just one future rapture! All past and future raptures, except the last one, are defined as ‘the first resurrection’, or the resurrection to eternal life. Don’t get caught in the deception of perceiving the word, first, numerically! Just like we don’t get caught up in perceiving the word, One (as in God is One), numerically, like Jews and Muslims do. There are broad sets of definitions for both of these words. Look them up in a quality dictionary!
(b) Each preceded by a period of intense personal/corporate testing.
(c) God alone establishing the timing and parameters of our tests.
(d) Strongest testing when our individual/corporate faith is weakest.
There are considerable strategic benefits in not revealing the specific timing of raptures, past and future. Principle among these benefits is the test of whether/how professed believers will remain faithful and ready. In a parable, Jesus spoke of a slothful servant who believed his master might not return soon, so he was caught undone, and was severely punished. 2
So very sadly, the deceptive teaching, ‘once saved, always saved’, has wreaked havoc across many Christian communities. And it has caused folks to let down their ‘rapture watch’! They fail to understand the significance of Isaiah 13:10 & 13, about the strategic, ‘drip, drip’ manner in which The Lord shares with humanity, from His unlimited storehouses of knowledge, wisdom and understanding about EVERYTHING, not only, but especially spiritual things! Ergo, it is crucial to pay utmost attention to His latter shared insights, in general, and especially what He personally revealed about spiritual LUKEWARMNESS in Revelation 3:14-22!!!
**Similarly, could it be today’s slothful servants who are so concerned about the timing of the rapture??**
As I pondered this question, it became even more clear that a far better question to be concerned about is:
…The Millennial Reign – what, how, where, who,
my likely roles, etc.?
And what can I do now to enhance
my eternal reward(s)??
Tell me...
--Would a football team likely win the game if its consistent focus was on the next yard line to capture?
--Would a small, rural farmer plow a straight row with a plow hitched to an animal if he kept his eye on the plow shovel below?
--Would a business owner ever become successful if he focused only on the next customer?
Lesson: The best and perhaps only way to please Father God is to keep our eye on His next, biggest, longest event prize or goal ahead for us – The Millennial Reign and our co-reign with Jesus over all the tribulation surviving world and over all offspring who will be born during that, the 5th age of humanity on this current version of Earth. At that time, we will be immortal. Mortals over whom we will co-reign, will be the toughest, roughest, meanest humans ever, because they will have not only experienced God’s most punishing blows ever on humans, but will have survived! (See: The Worst of the Worst (Poem)) Thankfully, their life spans will dwarf the lifespans of their descendants born during that age.
The Bible has a wealth of clues for us to ponder and imagine about this awesome, pending era on Earth, and I explore many across this blog. Keeping our eye on this goal is our best preparation to pass all tests, and to be raptured whenever God says, ‘Let’s go!... Come up hither!'
Are you aware the Bible predicts several more raptures, not just one?
See: Bible Raptures (Q&A)
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1 See: Bible Raptures (Q&A)
2 See: Matthew 24:45-51
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