The Bible, The Lord’s Multi-millennial Strategic Plan for Human History, indicates 6 group rapture-type events that occurred/will occur on the cusp of His 6 predicted age-transitioning global judgments. The Bible does not use the word, rapture. Paul uses the phrase, ‘caught up’, to signify how The Lord’s bona fide saints, those deceased first, then those alive, will, in a nano-second, be transformed from mortal-to-immortal, to meet The Lord on a cloud and transferred to Heaven. We will this be spared from The Lord’s apocalyptic judgments during the last half (42 months) of that short age. The phrase, ‘caught up’, is cited 4 times in the New Testament (New King James Version) 3 times in Paul’s writings, and once in The Book of Revelation, referring to Jesus, The Lord God. (See: Ages Transitions Global Judgments (Poem) and Mid-ages Musings (Series).)
Here are the first 4 group rapture-type events:
#1. Noah and His Family
During the global flood, Noah and his family were raised high above, from destructions below. In the ark, they were lifted up above the heights of the mountains, as The Lord judged all un-repentant sinners. When the ark settled on Mt. Ararat, this crew of 8 people disembarked, along with the animals who were also spared, to a quasi-new, restructured Earth, in which, possibly unknown to them, there were oceans and continents. Though the Earth was transformed, they were not. Nor were they resurrected from the dead, nor raptured into Heaven. The Lord’s pre-flood decision to not destroy all of humanity, was based on allowing Grace to Noah to be a ‘quasi-Adam’, from whose seed (his 3 sons), humanity would be re-populated. So thank God this crew was saved, and were not raptured into Heaven! Thus, this constitutes the 1st group, non-resurrection, rapture-type, event.
References: Genesis 6 -8, 1 Peter 3:18-22 and 2 Peter 2:4-5.
#2. 1st and 2nd Ages Saints
Matthew 27:51-53 record the 1st combined group resurrection, and 2nd rapture-type event. Context: During the crucifixion of Jesus, Father God spiritually cast upon Him, the global judgment of every sinful human act that had occurred, and would occur throughout our history. This judgment came with a Grace proviso: forgiveness of sins would be applied to people, past and future, who would, by faith, believe and receive His forgiveness. The immortal twins (soul and spirit) of every deceased saint from the 1st and 2nd ages (who had died in faith in/toward the unseen/unknown God), BELIEVED as the spirit of Jesus, after Hew was crucified, reportedly preached His Gospel of saving Grace to them in what The Bible refers to as the protected, upper region of hell. (Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 3) Sadly, the overwhelming majority of us since then, did not and don’t believe. Thus, we reject(ed) this exceedingly generous Grace proviso. Embracing this Grace proviso is the only way available for us to receive what The Bible calls ‘eternal life’, defined as spending our eternity in two massive, GLORIFIED/lit-up) zones (the new Jerusalem and surrounding nations, per Revelation 21-22) on the new eternal Earth.
Debates swirl in Christian circles about the likely size and extent of this group resurrection and rapture event The Lord revealed to me when He was resurrected, He globally fulfilled David’s prophecy in Psalm 68:18, resurrecting ALL 1st and 2nd ages bona fide saints from the upper region of hell/hades, to the new, eternal Earth He had, centuries earlier, promised to Isaiah. Some of you might retort, ‘But in Acts 1:9, Jesus visibly ascended ALONE into Heaven!’ Yes, He did, with no visible humans, and possibly with invisible angels. That verse refers to His second, post-resurrection ascension. Together, John 20:17-20 an Acts 1:9 affirm He ascended into Heaven twice. For some unknown reason, many pastors and Bible teachers might overlook this fine point. Ergo, folks ‘in the pews’ miss it. The Missed Insight topical series below further exposit the contextual details of this global, group resurrection.
References: Matthew 27:51-53, Psalm 68:18, Ephesians 4:7-10, 1 Peter 3:19, 4:6, Isaiah 65:17 and 66:24, Missed Insights from Matthew 27 (Series), and Earth’s Next Versions (Series).
#3. Third Age Saints
The 3rd group rapture-type event will be of all 3rd age, bona fide, sustainable Christians, us who will have deceased and who are still alive. It will be the 2nd combined group resurrection, and the 3rd rapture-type event. Paul indicates this event will occur prior to the uncloaking of the anti-Christ man. He further reveals all sustainably faithful saints who will still be alive at the time of this event, are not appointed to The Lord’s wrath against all un-repentant sinners. This raises the question, what explains the presence of Christians in the apocalypse, many or possibly all of whom will be beheaded by the anti-Christ’s regime? (See: Christians in the Apocalypse (poem), and Christianesque (Poem).)
References: Romans 1:18, 2 Corinthians 5:8, 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 4:13-18, 5:9, 2 Thessalonians 2:3, and Missed Insights from Revelation 20.
#4. 4th Age Saints
The 4th group rapture-type event will be of all 4th age, bona fide, sustainable Christians, those who will have deceased and who will be still alive. It will be the 3rd combined group resurrection, and 4th rapture-type event. This will be The Lord’s ‘harvest’ reaped from the great tribulation - the apocalypse, pictured in Revelation 7. This is the event Jesus described in Matthew 24:29-31. Unfortunately, it is too often conflated and confused with the resurrection/rapture event Paul described in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, referring to the 3rd age event. This confusion might result from Paul’s use of the phrase, ‘the coming of The Lord’, in verse 15, and Matthew’s use of a similar phrase in chapter 24:30. A contextual, strategic reading of these passages reveals they are referring to distinctly separate events.
The possible timing of this event may be either sometime prior to the Marriage Supper of The Lamb (Revelation 19), or just prior to The Lord’s landing back on Earth after that event, with all His angels, and all His saints from the first 3 ages of history. I intuit it will most likely occur after the supper event pictured in Revelation 19. If so, this infers all 4th age saints will (a) have deceased, and (b) will participate in the supper event in their immortal bipartite (spirit and soul) form, whereas all 1st - 3rd ages saints will have been raptured in their tripartite (spirit, soul and body) form.
The purposes of The Lord’s physical return will be to (a) end the apocalypse via the Armageddon War, (b) cast the anti-Christ and his prophet (prime minister?), as immortal beings, into the lake of fire (likely somewhere on the new Earth), (c) lock-up-and away satan's entire kingdom into an abyss/bottomless pit for a thousand years, and (d) initiate His long-promised, long-awaited global Millennial Reign. Whew! That's quite a list for a short, intense period!
Speculations vary regarding whether The Lord's physical return to Earth will include ending the Ezekiel 38 invasion into Israel, or whether this will be done previously from Heaven. Ezekiel 38 does not indicate His physical presence. Zechariah 14 does indicate His physical presence. Ezekiel 38 seems to refer to a smaller, distinctly different war, than the wars described in Zechariah 14 and Revelation 19. It is clear the events described in Ezekiel 39 will occur during the first few months and years of The Millennial Reign.
The group of 4th age saints will very likely include a combination of new saints, plus many 3rd age former saints who will have become lukewarm, backslidden, then fully apostate (falling away from the faith, per 2 Thessalonians 2 and 1 Timothy 4) during the closing years of this current, 3rd age of history. (Perhaps you are aware of the significant extent to which this happened during and after the Covid 19 pandemic!) Many apostate believers will likely return to strong faith, possibly when they realize they missed the group resurrection-rapture of 3rd age believers, and will/must, therefore, face the wrath, not of The Lord, but of the anti-Christ.
Friends, I trust this point will deeply inspire, then move you to resist all forms of lukewarmness, backsliding and apostasy during what certainly appears to be these closing years of the current, 3rd age of human history! Moreover, I hope it will also inspire and move you to help warn others, especially people who have already left the faith, about what lies ahead for those who will survive the pending transition to the 4th age of history!
Tip: Sharing some relevant posts in this blog might help to open the eyes and hearts of saints and former saints on this extremely critical matter.
Several historical and cultural factors indicate Christian lukewarmness, backsliding and full apostasy are spiking across the world, especially in the west. For example, the spike in Christian nationalism is very likely the results of folks’ growing impatience and frustrations that the ‘demonstration effects’ of their ‘salty and light’ righteous lifestyles, have had little-to-no impacts on the spiritual degradation across the world. Yet, The Bible explicitly predicts the spiritual degradation we see all around us! The Lord never encouraged His bona fide saints to seize the levers of governments, in efforts to force sinners to live righteously!!! Believing such is believing an horrible, satanic deception. Our test is only to be faithful to what He called us to be, and to do, and to leave the results to Him! Ergo, I repeat, Christian nationalism is a clear devilish deception for which many former believers, sadly, have fallen. As a result, they sin by directly dis-obeying The Lord's commands to His saints, and thus, are blindly fulfilling Paul’s apostasy predictions in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 and 1 Timothy 4:1! Imagine that...
Christian nationalism:
I find it strikingly curious that saints are willing to sin,
in order to force sinners to live righteously.
Imagine that!!!
Revelation 20:5-6 indicates this particular resurrection/rapture event will be the END of what is defined as ‘the FIRST resurrection’. From this, we should discern the word, first, is definitely NoT a numerical reference, since there will have been several resurrections prior to this one. This is akin to the non-numerical reference in Revelation to ‘second death‘. Folks who think sinners who will be cast into the lake of fire, will instantly be just another death as we currently understand death, are severely mistaken! That's simply another devilish deception.
References: Revelation 7:9-17, 20:4, Audacious Christians (Series), Tribulation Age Precursors: Roads Beckoned, Then Taken (Poem), Laodicean Lackadaisicalness (Series), and Lake of Fire: A Preview (Series).
See Part 2
