Shalom, oliver.
veteran, you reveal the reason for your errors about the rapture's place in the end-times sequence: that you don't understand the role of Israel.
Israel is elect as a nation, not as individuals. Israel is not the same as the church and the promises to Israel, which are nearly all ones concerned with this earth, must be fulfilled to Israel, or God would be forsworn.
The church continues until the full number of the Gentiles is come in, and then the focus switches back to Israel. Ezekiel prophesied their return to their land in unbelief, which has begun and is still continuing. The tribulation of the last 7 years of this age is designed to bring them to repentance. When that finally occurs, Israel will be in their land, on this earth, in the millennial kingdom as chief of the nations, free of all sin.
You're right about veteran not understanding the role of Isra'el in the end-times sequence, but do you?
Isra'el is more than "elect as a nation." They are "chosen" because
THEY ARE MISHPACHAH! THE ARE FAMILY! YaHuWH said of Isra'el,
Malachi 1:1-3
1 The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
2 I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob,
3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
KJV
Psalm 47:1-9
1 O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
2 For the Lord most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.
3 He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.
4 He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.
5 God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises.
7 For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.
8 God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.
9 The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.
KJV
To whom did God say would be His son?
Hosea 11:1
11 When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
KJV
Furthermore, not every promise to Isra'el is a physical one about the earth (although a great many are). Consider this one, for instance. It is NOT written to the Gentiles or to the "church!"
Jeremiah 31:31-37
31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
35 Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name:
36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.
37 Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.
KJV
The true beauty of it all is that Gentiles were grafted in
among the natural branches when other natural branches were broken off to make room for the branches of a thorny oleander bush (a Russian olive).
Romans 11:11-32
11 “In that case, I say, isn’t it that they have stumbled with the result that they have permanently fallen away?” Heaven forbid! Quite the contrary, it is by means of their stumbling that the deliverance has come to the Gentiles, in order to provoke them to jealousy (Deut. 32:21). 12 Moreover, if their stumbling is bringing riches to the world — that is, if Isra’el’s being placed temporarily in a condition less favored than that of the Gentiles is bringing riches to the latter — how much greater riches will Isra’el in its fullness bring them!
13 However, to those of you who are Gentiles I say this: since I myself am an emissary sent to the Gentiles, I make known the importance of my work 14 in the hope that somehow I may provoke some of my own people to jealousy and save some of them! 15 For if their casting Yeshua aside means reconciliation for the world, what will their accepting him mean? It will be life from the dead! (RESURRECTION!)
16 Now if the hallah (a portion of bread broken off from the loaf used as a wave offering) offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole loaf. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you — a wild olive — were grafted in among them and have become equal sharers in the rich root of the olive tree, 18 then don’t boast as if you were better than the branches! However, if you do boast, remember that you are not supporting the root, the root is supporting you. 19 So you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 True, but so what? They were broken off because of their lack of trust. However, you keep your place only because of your trust. So don’t be arrogant; on the contrary, be terrified! 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he certainly won’t spare you! 22 So take a good look at God’s kindness and his severity: on the one hand, severity toward those who fell off; but, on the other hand, God’s kindness toward you — provided you maintain yourself in that kindness! Otherwise, you too will be cut off! 23 Moreover, the others, if they do not persist in their lack of trust, will be grafted in; because God is able to graft them back in. 24 For if you were cut out of what is by nature a wild olive tree (Greek: agrielaiou = "of an oleander") and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree (Greek: kallielaion = "into a domesticated olive tree"), how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree!
25 For, brothers, I want you to understand this truth which God formerly concealed but has now revealed, so that you won’t imagine you know more than you actually do. It is that stoniness, to a degree, has come upon Isra’el, until the Gentile world enters in its fullness; 26 and that it is in this way that all Isra’el will be saved. As the Tanakh (the Old Testament or Covenant) says,
“Out of Tziyon will come the Redeemer;
he will turn away ungodliness from Ya‘akov
27 and this will be my covenant with them, . . .
when I take away their sins.”
28 With respect to the Good News they are hated for your sake. But with respect to being chosen they are loved for the Patriarchs’ sake, 29 for God’s free gifts and his calling are irrevocable. 30 Just as you yourselves were disobedient to God before but have received mercy now because of Isra’el’s disobedience; 31 so also Isra’el has been disobedient now, so that by your showing them the same mercy that God has shown you, they too may now receive God’s mercy. 32 For God has shut up all mankind together in disobedience, in order that he might show mercy to all.
CJB
Now, in light of all this, how is Isra'el inferior to the "church" in any way? No, we are to be a "church" - a "gathering" - of believers, both Jew (Isra'elite) and Gentile. However, the Gentile believers are grafted in CONTRARY TO NATURE! The believing Jews are grafted INTO THEIR OWN OLIVE TREE! Thus, it is the Gentile believer who is put into the Olive Tree of the Messiah's Kingdom! It is NOT Jews grafted into the "church!"
Your focus on the indwelling of the Ruach haQodesh Elohiym (the Holy Spirit of God) is insufficient to divide these peoples! In fact, the "MIDDLE WALL OF PARTITION IS BROKEN DOWN" between them within the Messiah! It is only OUTSIDE of the Messiah that Isra'el and the Gentiles are separate groups of people!
Dispensationalism, which is different than the pretribulational rapturist point of view in particular but often goes hand in hand with it, is an error! God has NEVER dealt with human beings in different ways after the Fall! They (We) have always been "saved" (or rather, "justified by God") on the basis of His grace, through faith, and by blood! Nothing else would do! So, there's no such thing as a "dispensation of grace" versus a "dispensation of the Law (the TORAH)!" The ONLY difference is that they were looking forward to the Messiah while we look backward to the Messiah and know His name is Yeshua` Natsaret, haMashiach Elohiym l-Melekh Yehudiym, l-Melekh Yisra'el, l-Melekh haMlakhiym! Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of God to be King of the Jews, to be King of Isra'el, to be King of Kings!
Thus, it is GENTILE BELIEVERS (to which most refer as the "church") who are given the shot of being added to His Kingdom! The Isra'elites merely must have the "blinders" removed! Once they can see that Yeshua` haMashiach is
THEIR PROMISED MESSIAH, everything falls into place for them! It will be GENTILE believers who must re-learn what they think they know when the time of Resurrection, Transformation, and "Rapture" comes and we fly off with the Messiah - not to "heaven," but THROUGH the "heavens" - THROUGH the skies - TO ISRA'EL as the Messiah arrives for the Rescue and the time of His Kingdom (which shall NEVER end, not just for a thousand years) begins!
The Millennium is just the time haSatan ("the Enemy" in Hebrew) is incarcerated in the bottomless pit! And, it is DURING the Millennium in which the parables of Matthew 13 will be fulfilled.
I know that this is a LOT to digest, but there is MUCH that pretribulational rapturists do not understand about their own Jewish roots! I hope this doesn't push you away; I only bring it all up in love, exposing you to truths I have had to learn one piece at a time and hoping that God will give you the grace to see and understand your destiny WITH ISRA'EL!
