FIVE RAPTURES

Rapture is the only avenue for man to enter heaven in a perfect state in this dispensation of grace. There are five raptures in the Scriptures.

Of the five raptures one has taken place. It involved Jesus. “Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel.” (Acts 1:9-10 NKJV)

The remaining four raptures will take place during the last seven years of this era of grace. It is called the seven-year tribulation period or 70th Jewish heptad. A heptad is seven years.

The next event is the rapture of the true church of Jesus Christ involving eligible dead and living saints. It will be followed three and a half years later by the rapture alive of 144,000 Jewish Evangelists chosen by divine action immediately after the rapture of the church. “And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed.” (Rev 7:4)

During the second half of the Tribulation Period two translated men will return to earth to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. I think the two men are Moses and Elijah. They will be assassinated by the Antichrist a few days to the end of the period and raptured in time to appear at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb to take their ordained place at the right and left of Jesus as He presides over the Marriage Supper.

The final rapture will happen on the last day of this dispensation. It will involve all those who will be martyred during the seven-year tribulation period. They will be guests at the Marriage Supper.

Tribulation martyrs will form part of the Body of Christ but will never be part of the wife of Christ. This is because the marriage of the Lamb to His Bride would have taken place before the arrival of the martyrs in heaven.

They will be raptured just in time to appear at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, ride on horses with the Lord His saints and holy angels back to the earth and function in the similitude of the Nethinim of the old Israeli kingdom.  During the millennium they will be domiciled on earth whereas the wife of Christ will live in renovated mansions in heaven and transmute daily to earth to carry out millennial assignments.

Re 7:13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”

 14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

 15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.

 16 “They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat;

 17 “for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”  (NKJV)

There are many privileges attached to being a part of the Bride and wife of Christ. It is up to the individual saint, not God, to make himself or herself ready for the rapture of the church.

Rev 19:

6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!

 7 “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”

 8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. (NKJV)