The Great Round-Up:
Even The Rapture

The word Rapture is not a Biblical word. It is used to title the action of the Lord when he catches up his body, (the church, his Bride, those saved in him -- both dead and alive) to meet him in the air, that is, in the clouds. We could liken it unto the western round-up of today. The cowboys round-up their cattle for branding and such. Of course those who are saved are already branded with the holy Spirit of promise and are guarantied our place in this "great round-up!" Note in Acts 1:9-11 that the Lord will return for us in the like manner that he left, a cloud received him:

Acts 1:9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. 1 Thessalonians 4:17

Below you will find the main text that describes what will take place at the Rapture which I believe and hope is nigh at hand:

1 Corinthians 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Notice that he does not touch ground in this return. Let's compare this with the Second Advent in Zechariah 14:1-4:

Zechariah 14:1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. 2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. 4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

Just a subtle little difference there, huh? You are looking at a full scale war there brethren -- the Lord is going to break up the Mount of Olives either literally by landing on that bad boy or the text is figuratively speaking and there will be a great earthquake. This is hardly the same peaceful manner that he left in Acts 1:9! The return in Zechariah is when the Lord is returning to reign in HIS kingdom that HE sets up in Jerusalem for 1000 years! There ain't no way on this God given earth that any depraved pope is going to set up the Lord's kingdom for him and you can tell the most hellish father I said so and if you bring that Wicked One to me I'll tell him to his face. He is the bloodiest murderer that ever lived on the face of this earth! He is a liar and the truth does not dwell in him at all!

Anyhow, we see that the Lord will return in the same manner that he left. He will shout like an archangel with the trump of God! This is not to be confused with the trumps in Revelation where the plagues come down over a long period of time compare to a "twinkling of an eye." We are going up at the last trump (this is it, baby, the last one, we're going up, up, and away!) and will be in glory in our glorified bodies before you can say, "Jimmidy Cricket!" On the other hand the trumps will sound in Revelation (while we're up there preparing for the marriage) pouring out the wrath of God downward to Earth on the unsaved and those who are getting saved during the great tribulation.

Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 that, "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." Two thirds of the earth's population is going to be destroyed during the great tribulation, that is killed. Others are going to suffer all kinds of wrath. How can we stay during the great tribulation and not be effected by this. Don't get me wrong -- I believe God is able to perform miracles of any sort, but I believe there are more saved Christians right now that outnumber the amount that will be left to be killed and suffer wrath! I find this passage in Isaiah to be interesting. Sure looks like a Rapture of the church to me and not to suffer the wrath of the tribulation either:

Isaiah 26:18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. 19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. 20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. 21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

There are about six billion people on the face of the Earth now, after the plagues there will be about two billion that will suffer. Look at 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 again, especially how it ends:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

The plagues do not sound too comforting to me, how about you? Am I to comfort you by saying we will go through these plagues, a lot of us getting killed, and others suffering? Everything will be OK because the Lord will come and get us both dead and alive! I trow not!

Anyhow, we see that there will be a Rapture of the saints. We need to find out now exactly when this will take place. Of course we can't date it, but we can get an approximation time and also when it will take place, dispensationally. Let's start of with Book of Revelation to place the event that we hope will take place soon:

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:8)

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (2 Timothy 4:8; Colossians. 3:2-4)

Better get on with it before I get chasing a rabbit. Chapter one of Revelation sets up the Book for us. Notice that John is setting us up for when the majority of the Book takes place in verse ten:

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.

My, my, there's that 'ol trumpet again! Remember the trumpet makes certain sounds for certain events. Notice that John is, "in the Spirit on the Lord's day." This is not to be confused with what we call Sunday! Nay, it is the Day of the Lord! We are now going to cross over to chapter four, verses one and two to see where John is at:

After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

What's this, a Rapture I behold? "Come up hither, a trumpet, a voice, in the spirit, a throne!" So, we see John sitting up in heaven on the Lord's Day. He is now looking back at about 2000 years of church history in chapters two and three. The churches were literal churches in John's day, they show a history of the church age over 2000 years, and they will be literal churches again during the great tribulation! The Rapture of the church is right here in chapter four. You say wait a minute brother, John got raptured -- not the church. Hold on and bear this out and you will see that it is what will happen to the church at this point in time. The church itself will not be mentioned again until Revelation 19:7-9, 14:

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints....And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

We have a lot of sequential ground to cover before we get way over there though. Next we'll look at chapter five, verse nine:

And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

This can only be the church that is redeemed by his blood. We are the on dispensation, age if you will, that is redeemed solely by his blood and not by works and faith, works, or fear, like the other dispensations. (That is another study all together!) How did, "every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation," get there to sing, "thou art worthy?" Had to been over there in chapter four with John, and the rest of the saints that were not resurrected yet. So, our next question to follow is when did this take place? Well, it's after the roughly 2000 years of the church age which comes to an abrupt end when we are raptured up. Let's go on to see what it is before.

Chapter six tells us it is before the first of the six seals are opened by our glorious Saviour! Amen? Note that the Book of Revelation takes four main passes through the great tribulation, each looking at it from a different angle and two of the chapters being in parenthesis sort of speaking, which are seven and ten. The passes are the seals, the trumpets, the antichrist, and the vials.

So, chapter seven is in parenthesis. Chapters eight and nine are the second pass through with the plagues this time. Chapter ten is in parenthesis and chapter eleven brings in the "two witnesses," Moses and Elijah with a post-tribulation Rapture of the saints saved during the tribulation (vss. 12-13) which line up with the "wise virgins" of Matthew 25:1-10.

Since we are mainly looking for the Rapture in Revelation I'm not going to go any further except to say that chapters one through three deal with the church. Chapters four through nineteen is the great tribulation, and twenty through twenty-two goes into the Millennium and Eternity!

Do be aware though that the church has been sitting in glory all this time and shows up at the marriage in chapter nineteen. We WILL RETURN with the Lord in his glory for the Day of his wrath:

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints....And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. (Revelation 19:7-8, 14)

Notice there is a marriage and a return to the Earth of the Lord with us, "clothed in fine white linen." How did we get up here in chapter nineteen? Way back there in chapter four before the, seals, plagues, literal appearing of the antichrist, and the vials!

When christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory....Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. (Colossians. 3:4; Titus 2:13; See also Matthew 16:27, 25:31-32; Philippians 3:20-21 about his glory.)

We have seen that there will be a Rapture of the church before the great tribulation starts. One thing we haven't looked at though is the length of the tribulation. We need to go over to the Book of Daniel for that:

Dan. 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

To understand how much time a week is we need to know that a day is equal to a year:

Num. 14:34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

Ezekiel 4:6 And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

So, one week is equal to seven years. Seventy weeks (verse 24), therefore would be 490 years. From the decree that was set in Nehemiah 2:1-8 to the time of Christ rode into Jerusalem on an ass 69 weeks passed, exactly to the day (verse 25)! This leaves one week, seven years, for the great tribulation also known as Jacob's trouble (Jeremiah 30:7).

Scofield notes, "The 434 years reckon, of course, from the end of the seven weeks so that the whole time from "the going forth of the commandment to restore," etc., "unto the Messiah" is sixty-nine weeks of years, or 483 years," which again leaves us with seven years. Seven plus 483 equals 490 years. The church age is kind of like in parenthesis between Daniel's 69th and 70th weeks. The one week in Daniel 9:27 is the "great tribulation" spoken of by Christ Jesus in Matthew 24:21:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

Now let's look at about when this is to take place:

2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Psalm 90:4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

In this case we see that a day is equal to a thousand years. Some say that it is only figuratively speaking. I trow not and hope to point that out. The context of both chapters is the Lord's return. I do not believe it to be coincidence that the Lord put those verses in those chapters when he had a whole book to put them in. At any rate, we have 6000 years from the time of Adam to 2000 AD given the calendar is correct which it is not.

In the very first Book of the Bible, even the first chapter we see that each day of creation ends with, "the evening and the morning," except the seventh day. On the seventh day it reads in Genesis 2:2:

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

Cross referencing this over to Hebrews 4:3-5 and context we read:

For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.

God is not talking about a literal seventh day of rest here. We see that after the six days (2 Peter 3:8) there will be a day (1000 years) of rest, a seventh day! I also do not find it coincidence that a form of "enter into my rest" is mentioned six times in Hebrews four -- there's that six again! Notice also Isaiah 60:19-20 (60 -- there's that six):

The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

Remember on the seventh day there was no evening or morning like there was on the first six -- no need for it! The Lord himself will be our light by day and night. Amen, amen, and amen!

That's not all. Again in Matthew 17:1-7 (there's those numbers again) after the sixth (6) day Peter, James, and John went UP into the "Mt. of Transfiguration" (a type of Rapture) and in verse "7" the Lord says, "Arise," kind OF like, "Come up hither!

In verse 16 of Exodus 24 Moses goes up into the clouds on the seventh day. The clouds covered Sanai for six days.

In Revelation 20, "thousand years," is written seven times in the first seven verses -- the context is the "great tribulation" bordering the day of the Lord!

In Matthew 24 the context is the "great tribulation." Jesus gives the disciples the parable of the "fig tree" in verses 32-34:

Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

What saith this parable? The fig tree is a picture of Israel (Jeremiah 24:2,5,8). Israel became a nation again in 1948. Jesus could not of been talking about the generation he was talking to because they have been dead for quite some time. So, he must of been talking about the generation that sees the things of the tribulation which, again, is the context of Matthew 24. Anyway, a generation can be 42 years (Matthew 1:17), 70 years (Psalm 90), or 100 years (Genesis 15:13). I'd have to go with 70 years for two reasons. First it is about the average age of man now as we near the Rapture and second, it is in Psalm 90 which is written by Moses who exited the Israelites out of Egypt, a type of the world (Revelation 11:8). It has some other stuff in it too such as Psalm 90:4 compared with 2 Peter 3:8, plus more! We missed the 42 year generation if you tack that on to 1948, but not the 70 year. We can also cross reference Matthew 24:32-34 this over to Song of Solomon 2:10-13:

My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

That is the Rapture of the church. Don't mistake me to mean that we won't get caught up to meet the Lord in the clouds before the great tribulation because I'm comparing it with Matthew 24. I just want you to notice about when he might come in reference to a guesstamated year, decade, etc!

In Hosea 6:1-3 we can apply 2 Peter 3:8 again:

Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

The Jews were carried off to Babylon in 606 BC Two days would put it at about 1405 AD. which makes it anytime after that up to 2405 AD to stay within "the third day."

Here is one of my favorites:

Luke 10:30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho,...But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,...And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

It's a two day (2 Peter 3:8) trip on foot from Jerusalem to Jericho. Jesus says, "when I come again, I will repay thee," for our works. When is he coming again? In two days, 2000 AD or there about -- remember that our calendar is messed up. (Jerusalem is where the Lord will reign from and Jericho is in the Book of Joshua, a type of Second Coming. Joshua just happens to be the sixth book in the Bible and the type of Second Coming just happens to be in the sixth chapter with all them there trumpets -- I know, just another coincidence! This is also the rest that JESUS did not give them in Hebrews 4:8 which is corrupt in the new versions!)

So, you see my beloved brethren. We will not go through this time that has never been like it before nor shall there be a time like it again. With such grace poured out upon us in this dispensation, how much more should we work to serve the Lord:

For unto whomsoever much is given,
of him shall be much required

He which testifieth these things saith,
surely i come quickly. amen. even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved!