The Barrd said:
Okay, now I'm curious. Marcus, do you believe in a "rapture"?
Yes. It is written in Bible prophecy in several places. Jesus taught it. Paul wrote about it, and John saw it take place from his vantage point when he was transported to Heaven.
Jesus taught that it happened on the Last Day [John 6:39, 40, 44 & 54]. (Many people teach in error that no days can come after this, but they misinterpret based on their own straitjacket definition of "last" as 100% absolute.)
Martha knew the Dead in Christ would rise on the Last Day [John 11:24]
The Last Day is also the "unknown Day" of His Return, and that is what Paul taught in 2nd Thessalonians 2:1 where he puts Jesus' paraousia and our being gathered to Him (1-2 in that order) together.
Now I can say that because of the Olivet Discourse where Jesus details His Return.
He says that He will return after the
sun/moon/star event [Mt 24:29] -
that precedes the Day of the Lord [Joel 2:31] - which abruptly ends the time of the Great Tribulation [Mt 24:22] I think we will experience.
Jesus said that He will come with the Sign of the Son of Man [Mt 24:30], which is a euphemism that He used to refer to Himself.
WHEN He Returns - He subsequently gathers us up! [Mt 24:31] This is commonly called the "Rapture", which is the Latin for
rapio (because the RCC used Latin to convey the Bible for so many centuries) for the Greek word:
harpazo, which Paul used which means:
to seize, to catch up, to snatch away. There are other rapture verbs used in the Bible as well, but this is where
rapio comes from that we get our word: rapture. (Being a good student, I can give you a list of the other verbs if you like.)
Likewise, in talking about when He would Return, Jesus calls this Day the unknown Day [Mt 24:42]. So we can call the Day of the Lord the unknown Day as well. This has ties to Rosh ha-Shannah, a "Festival" or "appointed time" (with God). (I might suggest that if you have an appointment with God, that you keep it! LOL)
Now - unlike what Keras teaches, which is why I warn to watch out for false teachers - we can peg our Rapture to the Day of the Lord.
Not only do we have the evidence for it in the Olivet Discourse, but
the sun/moon/star event also happens when the sixth Seal is broken by Jesus.
Subsequent to that (and the 144,000) - we see a Great Multitude arrive suddenly in Heaven! I put it to you that John sees the result of the Rapture. AND it happens 1-2 fashion - ON the Day of the Lord.
Furthermore, to add weight to this evidence being concluded it is linked to Mt 24:29-31 in the Olivet Discourse, no less an authority than an Elder tells John that the Great Multitude
comes out of the Great Tribulation! Revl 6:12-14 & 7:9-17 are another view of Mt 24:29-31. This is called a multiple account where the same event is seen from another vantage point.
We can link the Rapture to the Day of the Lord based on these two witnesses -
unlike what Keras says. Beware false teachers.
However, there is more.
In a parallel account to the Seal/Scroll chronology of Revelation chapters 4-11 (parallel because they are in the same book by the same author) - John sees yet another vision of the "end times" and here we get the same image of Christ Jesus coming on the clouds, gathering the harvest (another analogy of the Rapture) in Revelation 14:14-16.
Notice here that it
follows the rising of the 144,000 - and immediately afterward - comes God's Wrath in Revelation 14:17 when another Angel takes the other "grapes" and puts them in the winepress.
Rescue then Wrath. The story of Noah and Lot. That is the lesson of the Day of the Lord.
I put it to you as my conclusion, that
the Day of the Lord begins with the sixth Seal and concludes 24 hours later (at sundown) with the first Trumpet. When this Day is over, you can see our Lord returning to Heaven in Isaiah 63:
4
It was for me the day of vengeance;
the year for me to redeem had come.
Notice upon His return to Heaven that the redemption had come. He removes us first to the safety of the barn of Heaven and then the tares are burned in the field of this earth. (Do not confuse their ultimate removal from God's Kingdom which encompasses both earth and the spiritual world of the hereafter and mix up the order. Ultimately at the second Resurrection, the wicked are done away with entirely before we go to the New Jerusalem.)