I fairly recently began studying Revelations and I was surprised to learn that "Rapture" is nowhere in Scripture - yet many Christians believe in it. We're not to "add one jot or tittle" to the holy book and yet that's what it seems pastors have done.
One thing I do hope is that the end will happen soon. I was upset after reading the news last night - we do not live in a democracy anymore. Everything that was foretold about the last days has come to pass. I just wonder how long God is going to allow it all to go on. So I am very much looking forward to the new heaven and new earth.
Soverign Grace said >> "I fairly recently began studying Revelations and I was surprised to learn that "Rapture" is nowhere in Scripture - yet many Christians believe in it."
You haven't found it in the Bible, because you are just "beginning" to study Revelation. And perhaps that is also n2thelight's problem, but it is all in there, Rev 6 & 7.
In Rev 6, a period of martyrdom transpires with the opening of the 5th Seal:
"When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also."
So, clearly the saints will remain on earth until the number of those who are to be killed is complete.
Then just before the 7th seal is opened God says to the Angels Hold on!! “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.” Rev 7. Everything is put on hold until the 144,000 have been sealed, protecting them from the 7th seal when God's wrath is poured out in full measure.
And as the Times of the Gentiles ends, all the saints are taken up: "I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb" . . “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come **OUT** of the great tribulation. Rev 7:9
Note that John was not told 'these are ones who came before the Tribulation, but they who come "OUT of the great tribulation". That was the last event to take place before commencement of the **GREAT** tribulation, when God unleashes His full fury upon the remaining Godless inhabitants of the earth, with the opening of the 7th Seal.
