And now we know the "rest of the story".
The Resurrection of the righteous dead will be an epic singular future event.
The Resurrection of the dead in Christ will explode into Holy History.
Christ will raise His people up at His coming, on the "last day" of this present evil age.

. . . . . . . And so will the Rapture.

When the Bible speaks in 1Cor. 15 of the Resurrection of those who are Christ's at His coming we are talking here about a specific point in time, a certain future day, hour, minute, and split second. This will be a blockbuster event in the history of this world! The graves will open up! The sea will give up its righteous dead. Dear saints, this will be a real event! And it will happen on a real and specific future day in history. Oh yes, this will all come down "in a twinkling of an eye."

And where in the latter days might "that day" be placed on our timeline of the final seven years? As we have seen, Four times Jesus tells us precisely when He will "raise" His people "up". He says that He will raise His people up at the "last day".

There is nothing vague and imprecise here.
We are not talking of the "last days."
Jesus told us it would be the LAST DAY.
Beware of those Bible teachers who would obfuscate the truth and try to say that the "last day" is a general reference to "the last days". thereby denying this is a discrete blockbuster future 24 hour day in time. Do not let anyone stretch out the "last day" like a piece of soft gooey taffy and thereby twist and destroy the Message This is God's Holy Word! And God's covenant people need the true and correct information concerning this very important matter of the last day.

So we know from 1Thes. 4:15-17 and 1Cor. 15:51 that the Rapture of the living is Biblically welded to the Resurrection of the righteous dead under the saving blood of Christ.
So if the Resurrection comes at the last day of this age then we can say this with 100% assurance.
The Rapture is bundled in with the Resurrection as a single "harpazo" event that will flash into history "in a twinkling of an eye".. And the Rapture, tied in with the Resurrection of the righteous dead will come at the "last day" of this age.

Are there other places in Holy Scripture that tell us plainly when Messiah will return to gather and to glorify His saints? Yes, there are many of them. For example, in Matthew 24:29,30,31 Jesus tells us when He will gather His Elect. He lays it out clearly for us in the Olivet Discourse. He said,

And then He goes on to describe a time when the stars will fall from heaven. This awesome event involving major cosmic and atmospheric disturbances will herald the SIGN, (singular), of His coming. Remember, the disciples specifically asked Him about this SIGN (singular). And in the following verse, Mat. 24:30 He answered their question!

And Christ will gather His Elect from the four winds of space-time.

Oh yes, the tribulation comes first. Then "immediately after the tribulation of those days" or we might say, "immediately post-tribulation the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood." So After the Great Tribulation is terminated by Messiah come the cosmic disturbances of the 6th seal with the sun turning black as sackcloth and the moon to blood. Then the "SIGN" of the Son of man will be seen in the heavens.

We have no idea what this SIGN will be. But it will be unmistakable to all those who are alive on earth at that time and witness this spellbinding event. This SIGN in the heavens, (singular), will herald the coming of Messiah. The cosmic signs of the 6th seal, when they occur and what will be happening is described in this YouTube video.

after having seen the Antichrist and the False Prophet thrown into the Lake of Fire will see the casting down of the angelic rulers who currently have dominion over the principalities and powers of this fallen cosmos. These stars will fall!

This epic climactic cosmic event involving the sun, moon, and stars is associated in Revelation 6:12,13 with the 6th seal. This epic latter day atmospheric or cosmic disturbance is spoken of in many places in Holy Scripture. Let us take a look at what Jesus tells us in the Olivet Discourse. Here below is Matthew's account from Matthew 24:29,30,31.

Putting the jigsaw puzzle pieces together in careful Berean fashion we see the connection of the cosmic signs Jesus spoke about in Mat. 24:29 with the very same 6th seal cosmic signs spoken of by the prophet Joel in Joel 2:30,31,32. God speaks through Joel to tell us that the very same cosmic disturbances of the 6th seal precede and herald the rolling back of the heavens, the unzipping of space-time, and the opening of the Day of the Lord to execute the Judgment.

So with these cosmic disturbances of the 6th seal with the sun turning to darkness and the moon to blood we are looking at some awesome events that will occur as a prelude to the end-time harvest. Remember from what Jesus told us in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13:30 that the end-time harvest of the wicked and the harvest of the righteous are both involved here and the plucking up of the wicked comes first. Then, on a day and hour unknown, inside the Day of the Lord we can expect to see the glorification of the saints, the "blessed hope", that great yet to be seen mystery, the Resurrection-Rapture in which Jesus gathers His single undivided Elect.

Yes, there is no doubt about it. People are being saved right up to the very end of the age. And is this not when Our Commission as born again believers expires? Check the wording on the document. Consult a lawyer if necessary. Do our popular Bible prophecy teachers ever speak of this wondrous period of God's grace extending beyond the Great Tribulation? The Word of God is here in black and white, telling us the "rest of the story". The SIGN of the Son of Man is seen in the heavens. And then throughout the 6th seal Messiah is pleading with the nations and pleading with men to repent and be saved. As we shall see, this goes on for 30 days after He has terminated the Antichrist with the brightness of His coming and Messiah has ended the Great Tribulation.

From Dan. 12:11 we hear mention of 1290 days. "Then comes the end". So we can say with good assurance that the days of the cosmic disturbances of the 6th seal roll on for thirty days with the sun black as sackcloth and the moon as blood. Spectacular meteor showers will probably occur in this time period as well with the stars and heavenly principalities being cast down in Judgment. What can we say about this? Surely this must be a thirty day Grace period for mankind to consider their options. The thirty days extend from day 1260 when the Great Tribulation ends to finish up on day 1290 and Judgment Day, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. See the graphic below. Click on the image to go to the article on the Fall Feasts of Israel.

Yes, it seems that right up to "the end" of the age people are being saved. What a merciful God we serve! How patient He is with wayward mankind. Truly, He is "not willing that any should perish" and go to a lost eternity.

Here is another issue. The "harpazo" glorification of the living and the dead in Christ relates to the Seven Feasts of Israel. The Resurrection-Rapture will come on the heels of a special holy day in our future. It is a special high holy day Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. The future glorification of the saints involves the completed Body of Christ, the entire Commonwealth of Israel. And even though the world and the present day Church does not want to hear about the final Day of Reckoning the return of Messiah in judgment and in deliverance and the glorification of the saints is an execution of the Final Judgment of Christ. So the Resurrection-Rapture, the harpazo snatch of the Elect simply cannot come before the gavel falls on this final Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, at the "last day".

At sunset on that final wrap-up Day of Atonement at the "last day" the Day of the Lord will open up. The heavens, space-time, will be rolled back to take us into the Day of the Lord. The current principalities and powers fear and dread this day above all others. That is why they want to stop the end-time witness of the saints. They are pulling the strings of their human underlings and trying by every means they can to tell Christians that their final witness, the 5th seal witness of the saints, will not be necessary. They know that if this final witness of the saints goes on as planned it will be curtains for them. The 6th seal will follow and at the Second Coming of Christ the hierarchical angelic rulers will be cast down. When Messiah comes back the whole earthly creation and its ecosystems, will be revamped. The entire cosmos, in heaven and on earth, will come under new and better Ownership.

So the Resurrection-Rapture of 'those who are Christ's' will occur after the Day of Reckoning in the Day of the Lord which immediately follows it.

The raising of the dead by Christ at His coming is a very real future holy event. In Revelation 20, (which is clearly post-tribulational), the Apostle John sees and labels the "first Resurrection". This first Resurrection we see spoken about in Rev. 20:4-6 is certainly embarrassingly late in coming, since it contains tribulation martyrs. But that is no reason for the future glorious First Resurrection of "those who are Christ's" to be treated like a dob of relativistic theological taffy and stretched back to include the resurrection of Christ. The First Resurrection of the righteous dead is a discrete one day event! It should not be some theological thing we tease out and pull all the way back 2,000 years to include the resurrection of Christ as our popular Bible teachers have done. The Resurrection of Christ, our sacred Head, and the Resurrection of the Body of Christ are two separate events in holy history. This is laid out very clearly in 1Cor. 15:22-24. The Resurrection of Jesus, our sacred Head, came 2,000 years ago. Jesus in His resurrection fulfilled the third Hebrew feast, the Feast of Firstfruits. The other Resurrection, the general Harvest Resurrection of the Body of Christ, follows on as a legal consequence from the resurrection of Christ this is true. But this resurrection of the Body of Christ comes in an entirely different time, 2,000 odd years later than the former Firstfruits Resurrection of Christ our Head which came back in the summer of 32 A.D.. The Resurrection of those who are Christ's, the Body of Christ if you will, will come on the heels of the 6th feast, the second of the Fall Feasts of Israel. The "Last Day" of this age will be the ultimate climactic epic fulfillment of the Day of Atonement. This blockbuster future Yom Kippur will be the Day of Covering that will cover all the Yom Kippurs that have gone before it.

Dear saints. The first resurrection we see in Revelation 20 obviously comes at the end of the age. It should never have been spirited away from view and shuffled off into some theological category and filed away with the Resurrection of Jesus 2,000 years ago. But this is precisely how the end-time Resurrection has been mis-treated. The First Resurrection has been obfuscated by our dispensationalist theologians.

This is so sad to have to report. This blessed First Resurrection event which our Apostle Paul tells us will come '...in the twinkling of an eye', has been vaporized into a broad theological "resurrection category".

The Resurrection, that Day when the righteous dead come up out of their graves and the sea gives up its dead should not be a mystery to us. It is a critical part of the blessed hope.

The Resurrection of the righteous dead is yet to come. The End-time Harvest Resurrection of the Body of Christ follows that earlier Resurrection of Christ. Each resurrection is discrete. The resurrection of the Head and the Resurrection of the Body are separate. Each Resurrection comes in its own order. See 1Cor. 15:22-24. Our Apostle Paul explains all this very clearly.

Resurrection Day, the Resurrection of the Body of Christ will be a stupendous future event. If it opens up "in a twinkling of an eye", as we see in 1Cor. 15:51-53 then we must assume that this will unfold in a moment, in a very special "nick of time". This future blockbuster Resurrection of "those who are Christ's" will erupt into holy history at an instant, at a moment in time and during a single day.

We now know that this Resurrection-Rapture will be a late event. It will open up on the Day of the Lord. Heaven and earth will be shaken to its very foundations. On that Day the heavens will roll back as a scroll, space-time will be unzipped and the cosmos will roll back to reveal the coming King of kings. It will be a day like no other. The Resurrection-Rapture will happen on a day and hour that cannot be known. The Resurrection of those who are Christ's will be just as spectacular as the New Covenant fulfillment of the Feast of Firstfuits. This awesome past feast day saw the Resurrection of Christ. He is the Head of the Body of Christ. So His resurrection comes first. This Firstfuits Resurrection of Jesus, celebrated in the spring Feasts is the resurrection and the conquest over death effected buy Jesus our sacred Head. This awesome event occurred 2,000 years ago on the day after the regular seventh day Sabbath of Passover in 32 A.D..

The Rapture of the living saints at the close of this age is a well established Biblical truth. But this "harpazo" "snatching up from the ground" involves not only the living saints but the dead saints as well. So the Rapture of the living saints being the second part of this magnificent "harpazo" event includes and, (as we shall see), follows the raising of the righteous dead. Our scripture passage above tells us that the living saints will be caught up -"harpazo" along with the saints who have been dead but are now being raised to eternal life. So the Rapture and the Resurrection are both featured in this combined "harpazo" event. So they should be considered and spoken of together just as we see them spoken of together scripturally in 1Thes. 4:16,17. The "harpazo" or "catching away", or "snatching up" of the quick and the dead is the "blessed hope" for all the saints, those who are living at that time and those who have passed on before.

Is the Rapture important? Should Christians think about these things and study the apocalyptic Holy Scriptures? If we open our Bibles it is pretty hard not to. A quarter of the Bible is Bible prophecy. And it is certainly not "irrelevant" or "negative" or "none of our business" as one prominent purpose driven preacher has said. Titus encourages us to speak openly of these things, both exhorting believers in this blessed hope and rebuking the error being wrongly taught in these holy matters, doing so with all authority. See Titus 2:11,12,13,14,&15. So this blockbuster event, a consequence of the Apocalypse/unveiling of Messiah, is important. And as we are beginning to see, the Rapture should really be referred to in a Biblically correct way as the Resurrection-Rapture.

The Olivet Discourse bears witness to this combined Resurrection-Rapture as well. Jesus declared in no uncertain terms that He would return at the grand climax of this age to gather His (single) Elect from the four winds of heaven, from across the wide expanses of space-time. He will be gathering His saints from both sides of Calvary The returning Christ/Messiah will gather all those who are "in Him". A huge Congregation, Nation, and Company of nations will be saved under the blood of Israel's promised Sacrifice Lamb.

So the Rapture involves a much bigger story of regathering than we have been told. Our returning Messiah will be reaching across our theological dispensational barricades as well. He will be gathering the saints of the former times in the Old Testament story. And yes, contrary to what we have been told, He will also be gathering those faithful Tribulation Saints, many of them martyrs as we see in Revelation chapter 7. They cannot and will not be "left behind". See Rev. 7:9. Those blood bought Tribulation Saints have come out of the Great Tribulation and washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. See Rev. 7:13. They are also seen by John standing before the throne of God serving Him in His temple and being ministered to by God forever. See Rev. 7:14,15.16.&17.

This is a very strange affair. But many dispensationalist Christians are insistent that these saints do not belong to the church. Really? These dear people of future times have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. Why wouldn't they qualify for Church membership? Is it just because they are not in the dispensationalist time slot assigned to them as belonging to the Church Age? Have these saints been illegally shut out of God's Grace or the Age of Grace by these same dispensationalists? What if these people could get on a time machine and turn up at our present day dispensationalist churches. What if they were presented for church membership at such a church? What would be the verdict? Surely any sane and reasonable Christian would agree that the Tribulation saints certainly qualify for Church membership.

Dispensationalist lore has placed the "Church Age" and the "Age of Grace" to run up to a point 7 years before the end of the age and come to a sceeching halt. But is this true to the Holy Scriptures? As we read Revelation 7 and Revelation 20:4-6 and Joel 2:28-32 we see that the witness of the saints in the latter days is certainly not wrapped up until we come to the 6th Appointed Time/moed/feast. This is the Judgment at the Last Day, the final wrap-up Day of Atonement, Day of Reconciliation, Day of Accounting, Day of Pardoning, Day of Sentencing, Day of Covering, Yom Kippur,. On this Day, at the end of the final seven years of this age, the gavel of the Ancient of Days will fall and the heavenly court will adjourn. Since the rapture is an execution of the final Judgment there can be no Rapture before this final Judgment Day has been brought to a conclusion. Only after this huge all encompassing legal matter for every person is concluded for this age can the EXECUTION of that Judgment proceed. This execution of Judgment involves the directing the wrath of God on the wicked and the glory of God upon the Elect to bring them up into the Resurrection-Rapture.

So here is a question for Pre-Trib Rapture folk. Can a judgment be executed seven years before the Judge has finished summing up and making a final judgment on the person in question? We are told that we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ. There we shall give an account of ourselves and the things done in our body both good and evil. On that day, the last day of this age, we will either be covered by the blood of the Lamb or we will not be covered. Yom Kippur is the Day of Covering, covering by the atoning blood of Israel's Sacrifice Lamb. Everyone must go up before the Judge of the earth on this, the final Day of Reckoning. Here Christian believers will receive their ultimate pardoning and restoration and be set up with new spiritual bodies for all eternity. Can this Rapture, this glorification in Resurrection or Rapture, this release from earthly bondage and promotion to eternal glory, be carried out seven years before the last day of this age, the day when we are ALL due to appear before the Judge?

The Bible tells us that people will be saved right up until the last day of this present evil age. How do we know that? We know this because of what Jesus and the prophet Joel have told us. Jesus said that after the tribulation will come the late cosmic signs of the 6th seal involving the sun, moon, and stars. Then, after after these post-tribulational cosmic signs He will gather His Elect. The prophet Joel goes on to say that during these same end of age post-tribulation cosmic signs of the 6th seal "whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved".

Oh yes, we serve a merciful God. The Good News of the Gospel will be preached right up until the very last day of this present evil age. And right up until that time people will be calling upon the Name of the Lord and being saved. Joel reports to us that this will be the very peak of the Holy Spirit outpouring, the same outpouring that began in earnest at Pentecost 2,000 years ago and our Apostle Peter commented on at the time will max out in a blaze of glory right at the end of the age. See Joel 2:28 and Joel 2:31.

The reason this information is so contested and obfuscated by evil angels and deceived men is very easy to understand. The angels of darkness dread the final Judgment at the last day. They know that the "final witness" of the saints must come. And when that final witness is wrapped up in the 5th seal the cosmic disturbances of the 6th seal follow and after the SIGN of the Son of Man appears in the heavens Messiah will be loosing them for their final run, to gather up the wicked human beings that belong to them and then they will be dismissed. The evil angelic rulers over the regions of this world also know that when Messiah does come their rule over this fallen cosmos will be terminated. They will go off to the fires of Hell along with the wicked human underlings that they will be plucking up off the earth as tares for the fires. (See Mat. 13:30)

Oh yes, the angels of wrath know the score! They know the importance of the end-time witness of God's Chosen ones. But not our Western churchmen, it seems. The angelic principalities and powers know full well that when the tribulation ends and the final witness of the saints is concluded there will be the return of Messiah and the Judgment. Every single human soul who is alive and all the righteous dead who have ever lived will go up before the Ancient of Days at this final Judgment at the last day. For the wicked, the Day of Atonement will not be a Day of Covering, (Yom Kippur), a Day of Blood Covering for sin. For them, (and all those godless wicked human beings who continue to join them in their rebellion against God), it will be be a Day of Sentencing. And the sentence will be death. That Day will be "curtains" for the angelic principalities and powers. And they know it! That is why they are stirring up the heathen nations and there is all this raging of wicked men and nations as we approach the end of this age.

The 5th seal witness of the covenant people of God is the testimony of the saints to their Jesus. It is the testimony of a Bride to her Bridegroom. It is an essential part of the end-time proceedings under the gavel of the Ancient of Days. The Book of Revelation is in fact a divine court case. The Ancient of Days oversees the end-time events. We need not fear. He is sovereign over all of holy history! And, as Job declared in Job 38:11, He sets the limits on the tumultuous seas, the raging of godless men and nations. He says,

"This far, . . . .
and no further!!!"

There is no running away from this truth. The Holy Scriptures declare that the testimony of Jesus is the very essence and spirit of prophecy. (See Rev. 19:10.) This is the true and faithful Bridal witness. This is the normal blood covenant commitment that any true and worthy bride knows, and understands implicitly.

So God is in the process of wooing His Bride. He is "calling out" His Church again and again, away from the harlotry, causing church split after church split. He is drawing His Elect ever onward. Occasionally He calls on His covenant people to "Come out of her my people". "Come up higher". Come out of this world. Like our father Abraham we walk away from the city of idolatry and rebellion. We find ourselves drawn into the Tabernacle of God's Presence. Coming in through the Door we behold the brazen altar. There we find salvation as we behold the Sacrifice Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Our service takes us onwards to the Brazen laver. Here at this much neglected place of washing we find the cleansing and sanctification we all need. At the brazen laver we wash our feet from the unclean places we have journeyed. We wash our hands dirtied from the unholy things we have done. Only then can we go on to worship. Leaving the noisy crowds in the the outer court we enter into the Sanctuary. There we find ourselves and in the holy place. The table with the bread of fellowship with God is there before us. The golden lamp-stand shines forth with the Light of God's Word and His Presence. And from the incense altar goes up the praises and the prayers of the saints. This is what Blood Covenant Christianity means. It is a journey into the heart of the Shepherd of Israel. The commitment we are drawn to in Him is total and absolute. There is no compromise with the ways of this world. This is the blood covenant implicit in our faith. And this is the faith that was first delivered to the saints.

Unfortunately our Church in the West is not "buying" into these deeper issues. The weightier matters in the faith of our fathers are not being addressed. Christian faith is not being presented as a "blood covenant" by our churchmen. Instead the eternal covenant is re-engineered and re-worked to be presented as a "seeker friendly" business style "church contract".

And what of the parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins?
The wise virgins knew that they would be going out to meet the returning Bridegroom in the midst of a coming night of deep darkness. They knew they couldn't make it alone. They would burn out, and they knew it. So they sought to ensure they had oil outside their own souls to fuel their lamps against the night. Is this haunting parable not a warning? Is it not a warning against those who have not considered it important to prepare themselves spiritually for the end-time drama. The wise will go out to find that eternal spiritual supply outside of themselves against a future coming night, a midnight hour of great darkness. Is this not a devotional matter of exceedingly great importance?

The issues of God's grace are badly mishandled by dispensationalists. We are told that the "Age of Grace" began at Pentecost and will strangely come to an abrupt end seven years before the end of the age. God's grace is narrowly defined as "unmerited favor". Is grace just an exoneration? In a legal sense grace is certainly a covering of sin. But God's grace is far more than the provision of a legal covering in the atonement of sin. Christian believers today are bringing forth the Bridal witness to their Bridegroom. And they are doing this under persecution. This is also a major expression of God's grace. The testimony of the saints could not go forward at all without the ministry of God's grace. God's divine enabling empowering grace is showcased every day before men and angels. Grace for the trials is both a witness to Christ's sufferings and also a 'witness in the fellowship of Christ's sufferings'. This is "grace under fire". It is a sacred and precious thing in the eyes of God.

But time after time we hear that witnessing for Christ under fire is not done under grace but is "works" and something spurious and unnecessary that Christians with a martyr complex want to "add to the finished work of Christ". But is the end-time witness of the saints really just something we can write off as "works"? This, dear saints, is a grievous lie. Let us consider our own marriages. Christians can accept that marriage is a blood covenant relationship, "unto death". This is not a grievous thing as a bride declares her love for her betrothed. A bride will state this publicly in proclaiming her marriage vows before witnesses. Let us consider our own marriage. The true and genuine marital response between two lovers or two marriage partners has never has been, nor ever will be something we would consider as merely "works" or a "duty". So why are we lowering the heavenly bridal standard we have with Jesus Christ and placing it below the earthly bridal standard we have with our spouse? Is not our Bridegroom the Lord Jesus Christ Himself? Is He as the Beloved and our Bridegroom in the relationship not also worthy of our total commitment? Is this level of devotion too much to ask of Western Christians sitting comfortably in their padded pews? Is not Jesus/Yeshua our "Ishi/Beloved", the One who died for us, worthy of us giving our all? And will He not be with us to preserve and keep us "ek" "in through, and out of" our hour hour of trial?

God's true covenant people do in fact bring in the witness to their Bridegroom, sometimes under trial and tribulation. They have done it in times past without flinching. And many of our fellow Christians are bringing in their testimony before hostile princes and rulers right now. This is happening every day in many places around the world. A brother or a sister in Christ dies for the faith every three minutes. 500 every day. In spite of this and because of this we are in the greatest period of evangelism and Church expansion this world has ever seen. The Great Commission advances under fire, not by works, but by grace through faith in Christ. This grace comes in by God's election, by mans free will response to the God he loves, and in the mystery of Godliness.

It can be perplexing to realize that we may never get good solid Bible teaching on the End-Time from the present day religious denominations and church hierarchies. In fact it may not be politically possible. And the people we have currently have in churches are flatly intolerant of this information even when the Bible verses are laid out before them. In fact it may be actually detrimental to the cause of Christ to broadcast this information on the Post-Tribulation Resurrection-Rapture to the Christian crowds. They may act out in carnal politico-militant ways that could be quite harmful. Christian zealots are all around us, with their swords and guns. Remember that Jesus gave the Olivet Discourse to just Peter, James, and John. These were His closest disciples. He could trust them.

So yes, we are getting a lot of disinformation from the organized churches. And yes, the saints need good Biblically sound information as they approach the thresholds of the latter days. And yes, the saints need to be warned to make it a priority to prepare their hearts spiritually. But perhaps we need not be too concerned about this lack of clear direction from our church leaders. It may be for the best. The Shepherd of Israel will search for His sheep, even on a dark and cloudy day. He said that He was going to find every last one of His true Elect. Not one of them would be lost. 100 million saved Christians in Communist/Capitalist China testify to this encouraging fact. God can still bring His Message through to save and preserve His people without a single steeple to be seen on the horizon. Our Anabaptist and Baptist friends championed Christ as the one Mediator between God and man. He is able. Then we have the wonderful liberating doctrine of "the priesthood of all believers". This high calling of God's Elect to be a "royal priesthood and a holy nation" was written of by Moses in Exodus 19:6. This was echoed by the our Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 2:9. God was always concerned about His people down at the grassroots of the nation in the family unit and at the individual level.

And He finds those people! 3,000 years ago King David heard God the Father declaring to God the Son that His covenant people are destined to emerge in a wonderful way as volunteers in the day of Christ's power. The prophet Joel prophesied a Great End-Time Revival right inside the Great Tribulation period. Why not let that great revival begin right now, . . . . . with us!

So the Redeemed of the Lord are not just people under some sort of contract with God, be it personal or denominational. They are in a personal unconditional mutual blood covenant relationship. They do not serve their Bridegroom under compulsion. They walk with Him willingly and gladly, out of their own volition. As Servants of the Most High God they count it a privilege to be invited into this Kingdom/Priesthood and service. And so it is with great joy that they bring in this witness to Jesus/Yeshua. They do this for one main reason. Because they love Him!!!

As we saw in the case of Gideon and the Midianites, God just needs a few good men to perform this service. In times of trial and testing there will be those who press in to Christ the Breaker, and to the high calling. They will be the ones who finish the race.
The God of Israel will find His witnesses,
. . . even if He has to go to China and Indonesia and other places to get them.

saints to know about their vital role in the end-time witness. They want Christians continue in the entrained emotional response that they are used to receiving. For evangelicals it is "who cares? We are 'outta here'" before anything uncomfortable comes along. The older denominations give eschatology the "silent treatment" and this is especially true of Ecumenical churchmen. Those in the post modern church are often treated to either motivational speeches or raucous rabble rousing by 'Kingdom Now' crusader churchmen. Many sermons we hear today are a warmed over psychological dainties cooked up by money-making motivational speakers pretending to be men of God. Above all else the principalities and powers pulling the strings of Church leaders want Christians to respond to the end-time challenge with the spirit of fear and in the flesh. They do want to see any spiritual preparation for witness. Nor do they want to see Christian believers respond to this challenge by grace through faith and in the divine comfort-strength of the Holy Spirit. They want us to continue to react in the flesh with either the fear and hiding of pre-trib rapturism or in the crusading jingoism and anger of Dominion Theology. Anything, rather than responding to the clear call of God in faith believing.

Sadly, many Christians right now entertain and pursue this unfaithful line of thinking.
"The final seven years of this age and the great tribulation = the wrath of God.
As a Christian the Bible tells me I am not subject to God's wrath.
Therefore, since tribulation = wrath, I am not subject to tribulation and trials.
The reasoning would be quite sound if the presupposition, "tribulation = wrath of God" was not all wrong.

Then there is the emotional issue. Unfortunately it often seems to trump the Word of God.
We say, "My witness before kings and rulers is too terrible and too fearful a prospect to even consider.
Surely the Church, (and I), can't be there!"

Religious hirelings stand ready to sell these reassurances to the nominal Christian masses on this score.
Many Bible teachers stand ready to market their modern day indulgences to the increasingly worried Christian crowds.
They join Jeroboam of old who declared among God's rebelling people,

Modern Churchmen are in effect announcing the very same thing.
They proclaim,

Then in our present unrefined state we as evangelicals are happy to say,

Many Bible teachers are going even further by teaching this,

This, dear saints, is unscriptural. It is a lie.
It is a blatant denial of God's Word.
It is the way of Jeroboam.
And the 'sin of Jeroboam' is "to lead God's covenant people astray".

But what saith the scriptures?
Quite the contrary.
We as Christian believers do belong to Israel.
This is clearly stated by our Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:11-13.


Something we are not likely to be taught by Bible teachers is this. When we are saved we are no longer Gentiles. We cannot be Gentiles any longer. And why not? Because the word Gentile means "heathen".

Paul tells us that when we are born again we are no longer strangers, aliens, gentile heathen, or goyim. We are no longer strangers to the covenant of Israel. Through the blood of Christ we have been brought near. We as Christian believers are new creatures, even a new creation. Our Apostle Paul tells us straight out what happens. We now belong to the Commonwealth of Israel.

Yes, Christian believers, (if they can receive this), are a new creation, belonging to Christ. When we are saved we are named in the Anointed One, Christ, and thus we are identified in the Seed of Abraham.
See Galatians 3:29.

Some will ask, which tribe do we belong to? This is an excellent question. All who are saved have their inheritance in Joseph. All those born again in the Spirit of the God of Israel will bow down to Christ Jesus, even Messiah ben Joseph. Remember it was Joseph who fed the world the Bread of Life bringing salvation to all who will receive this.

And so we as Christians are in a spiritual war. But it is not the drum-beating crusade of carnal jingoistic
religion, of religious Dominionism with all its empty hype and noise. Nor is the Christian called merely to a war of nationalism waged in politics and weapons of war. These aberrant Crusading behaviors of the Church were, (and still are), diversions from the real agenda. They are dalliances and delaying tactics fostered by an enemy who fears and dreads the coming of the faithful witness of committed Christian saints more than anything else. The powers of darkness loathe and dread the day the Christians begin to take their faith seriously and boldly take the stage for witness to their Messiah.

Of course these crusading preoccupations of the medieval style warrior monks still persist inside our Western Church. The cult of Dominionism still finds a home within the carnal elements of the Church. Dominion Theology still expects to rule the world and crusades towards its hopelessly flawed Utopian dream a worldly Christian dominion. If they have their way Dominionists will do incalculable damage to the Christian faith and witness. They will return Christendom to its shameful bloody crusading past. These are diversions, distractions from the real task at hand.

Dear saints, the spiritual war and the testimony of Jesus in the Word of God is the real war. This is the "good fight" to which we have been called. Like all wars it is an information war. This is why we must read our Bibles for ourselves and come to know our Redeemer personally in Word and Spirit. Like the five wise virgins, we too must make it our business to find the oil of the Holy Spirit for the lamps of our soul against the emptiness and darkness of the coming night. The real war focuses upon the Living Word of God as a Bride to her returning Bridegroom. A true Bride understands and accepts the essential end-time bridal witness of the saints. A small company of truly devoted saints will go up on the stage of history. And like Gideon's small band of devoted Light bearers who were willing to see the vessels of their Light broken as a witness for the God of Israel this small company, the few, the chosen, the saints, will bring in the final witness. And yes, the saints who finish the race will be the true Overcomers. This will be the epic "testimony of the saints". And at the conclusion of this end-time witness Messiah with fury poured out upon His enemies and with outstretched arm will return in a glorious victory.

The powers of darkness know all about the end-time witness of the saints. They know it very well. And they are terrified as they begin to see it come to pass. They want to keep Western Christians in the dark concerning this vital role of witness in the latter days. That is why they want to keep Christian believers locked up in their own Church-centered diversions man-centered thoughts and plans of dodging the end-time witness.

The Pre-Tribulation Rapture agenda is simply this. It is to abandon our brethren, (including our Jewish brethren), and to pull ourselves away from the spiritual needs of others and abandon those who need to hear our witness. The lessons of the Titanic come to mind here. Many of the lifeboats were lowered half full. Yet in fear they rowed away from those about to perish in the cold water. It seems many have been Christians have been talked into the idea of just getting into our own personal salvation lifeboat and just rowing away. We know that the multitudes who are in the water and crying out will perish without the salvation message of Christ which we have. But alas, we have been brainwashed into accepting that it is OK for us to just row our Church lifeboat away and leave these people, many of whom are precious in God's eyes, to die in the cold waters. If they don't have Christ well then it is just too bad. These people can be 'Left Behind'!

And so as the Western Church runs away from her responsibilities what do we see?
We have a Western Church with a deadly morale problem.
She has in effect become a runaway bride..
The Church in the West, unlike the Suffering Church abroad, is not moving forward in faith believing.
Instead we are going around in circles with the ying and the yang, wasting our time and money on material pleasures, consoling our egos with Psycho-babble, mulling over the minutia, and trying to pump up some godless Luciferian notion of "self esteem" instead of being esteemed in the witness of Christ Jesus. More and more western evangelical Christians are stewing over the loss of our children to the world, the flesh, and the devil even as we see downward moral spiral of our "nation under God". We gather for our Christian dialogues around our earthy round-tables and as we talk endlessly of politics and the insidious encroachment of a treacherous anti-Christian agenda we check our true Christian faith at the door. So what we bring to the round-table is of no lasting consequence. It is little more than "the sum of all our fears".

But why are we worrying? We have a big God who is the Sovereign God of the Universe. He is a God of great loving-kindness. And He does exploits. In the former times His covenant people were hemmed in by the way of the wilderness with no place to go. With their backs to the waters of death they stood helplessly, (or at least it seemed that way to them at the time), facing the chariots of Pharaoh. It seemed that they were about to be destroyed by the might and martial law of the world order of that time which was Egypt. But the God of Israel took them by the Hand and bore them on "wings of eagles" in a great Exodus, crossing the Red Sea on dry land. Our God has promised to do an even greater deliverance in the latter days!!! See Jeremiah 16:14,15

Dear saints, we serve a God who covers His holy people with His Abiding Presence. We can also take courage in this. This epic latter day spiritual conflict and the "final witness" of the saints will not last a minute more than God has ordained. And once the 70th Week opens with the 7 year covenant by "many" we shall know when the ensuing seven years will end at the Judgment at the last day and the Day of the Lord, (and a time unknown), will begin. We shall know about the 3.5 years/1260 days under the harlot of Revelation 17. And we shall know about the mid-week abomination of desolation wherein Antichrist will be revealed in His Beast role and attempt to institute 666 throughout the world, with some but limited success. The end-time witness will then go on during the final 3.5 years/1260 days. The testimony of the saints will be delivered before God, angels, and men right throughout the great Tribulation under the united sticks of Joseph and Judah. A great and glorious company, even a royal priesthood and a holy nation, will bring in the dual testimony of the two witnesses. The ministry of the two witnesses will last precisely 1260 days or 3.5 Biblical years. That is all.

So we can be encouraged here. The book of Revelation shows us that the Ancient of days will be presiding over the end-time from the courts of heaven. These trials will not last forever. Life here on earth is not an endless dualism of good vs. evil as we see in eastern mysticism. Nor do we have to live under the spell of the Dragon, being jerked around indefinitely and having to endure an everlasting bondage under the ying and the yang. God forbid that we become pawns of the empty eastern mysticism shipped in from the orient.

Here we see the final word from Western Christendom. And it will happen when a small company finishes the race for the glory of God and on behalf of all the saints who have run before them. Holy history is not cyclical. It is teleological. It does not just go around and around in circles forever like the rising and falling of the Nile or the annual monsoons and funerals at the Ganges River in India. There is a grand conclusion to it all. The true and faithful Judeo-Christian expectation sees life as a pilgrimage on a highway of holiness that ends up at the gates of glory. For the spiritual progeny of Abraham, the people of faith, it is walk of faith, a journey with God. The entire saga from Abraham to the last Tribulation saint will end up stretching out over 4,000 years. Seven waypoints have been logged in by our Sovereign God and showcased for us in the Seven Feasts of the Lord. But nevertheless, there is a single storyline, with a beginning and an ending. The climactic final seven years of this age will unfold precisely as prophesied. The story will wrap up with a grand climax. The entire saga will unfold precisely as prophesied. And the saga of the saints will end in a blaze of glory!

The history of this age is God-ordained. It is an orderly unfolding of a new and living Way. Through it all Our God is progressively drawing us to Himself in a stepwise linear teleological process towards the gates of the Holy City. The pilgrimage of saints of this evil age marches on across the centuries to end in a sure and glorious conclusion. The Seven Feasts of Israel map out the journey of the people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The saints of the true Church are being gathered in the latter days just as they were at Pentecost. They have always been the Congregation of Israel's Messiah and this will become manifest in the end-time drama. They are the covenant people of God of Israel. God's covenant people began this journey in earnest when Abraham walked out of Ur 4,000 years ago. They will certainly finish the race. And precisely at the set time.

End-time world history is not as totally black and horrific and out of control as some Bible teachers have led us to believe. They painted it as a chamber of horrors for a reason. They wanted to sell their Pre-Trib rapture fable. Holy history is laid out for us by Someone who is greater than our fears. He in Himself is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And by His Holy Spirit He guides, strengthens, and comforts His people. Yes, they will enter a valley. But there will be no death for them, only the shadow of death. A Biblical world view sees a sure passage and a glorious destiny for the single Elect of God as they pilgrim on through their histories on this planet. We saw the beginning laid out in the creation story back in Genesis. Then we saw the unfolding of a great drama where God's covenant people as protagonists met their antagonists, namely the world, the flesh, and the Devil. The heroes of the faith met the human agents of these three great evils on many occasions and defeated their foes by God's power. The epic drama really opens up in the national history of Abraham and the establishment of national Israel at Sinai. The saga goes on to see the unfolding of the New Covenant Jeremiah spoke about in Jeremiah 31:31-33. Then after the First Coming of Messiah the saga moves on into Church history at Pentecost. The Gospel and he Holy Spirit outpouring overflowed Israel and began to be preached towards the ends of thimpossibly heavy e earth. Eventually Messiah the testimony of the saints will become heavy and black as the end-time church enters into its ultimate crisis. The end-time witness will become black and heavy like a star going into a super-nova. It will seem like everything is lost and going down into a black hole. But then BAM!! Christ will return. and this present age will end in a blaze of glory.

Of course there will be many surprises in this final seven years. The initial 3.5 years of world rule under Harlot religion is laid out for us by John in Revelation 17. John saw an amazing sight. He saw a harlot church, a woman of compromise with a defiled cup actually riding the New World Order beast with ten horns. She was up there, taking dominion, and actually believing she could pull this off! John was absolutely flabbergasted at what he saw. And so will we.

Many will be the mysteries that will unfold before our eyes in times to come. The final 5th seal witness of the saints will come to a victorious climax. Then comes the magnificent 6th seal intervention by our returning Messiah. His Second Coming will break forth right at the end of this age. Christ, the expression and manifestation of God we see in this cosmos, will return. He will judge the wicked, deliver His saints, and glorify all His Elect at the Resurrection-Rapture. The woman will be delivered of the Manchild right as the Body of Christ is delivered and resurrected at the end of this age. Here is the broad sequence, just as we see it with the birth of a baby. The delivery and Resurrection-Rapture of the Body of Christ will come 2,000 years after the Head is delivered. Jesus was resurrected as the Firstfruits from the dead. And He as our sacred Head is the firstborn of many brethren, those many who come after being the Body of Christ, even a great Nation who will be born in One Day. See Isaiah 66:8.

So we need not fear. We have a God who covers His saints by His Holy Spirit. And we have a God who remembers His own. He will be returning to this earth. And He will come to His covenant people as a Deliverer.

The reign of the 666 Beast, (and his False Prophet), will not last longer than God has ordained. Both of them will be terminated right at the 1260 days. And we have this assurance as well from Micah 2:12-13. The saints will be delivered. The Breaker will come and spring them out from their exile at mystery Bozrah. And the Holy City of Jerusalem will be delivered from the armies mustering to the north at Megiddo. At the end of 1290 days the Day of the Lord will open for judgment. Messiah will return to terminate this evil age. The last day of this age will be that awesome final Day of Atonement or Day of Reckoning. On that day, the tenth day of the Tishri moon, the trumpets of Jubilee will sound to announce and to bring in the ultimate Year of Jubilee. of this we can be sure. See the video below.

The Day of the Lord will be an unzipping and a rolling back of the very space-time Nature worshipers always thought was eternal. The skies will be rolled back to reveal Messiah. This will be a terrible day of sheer horror for the rebels. The wicked who belong to Antichrist will see the evil angels above them. They will be plucked up first, even as tares for the fires. (Mat.13:30) Then the Elect will be gathered. Al the saints, the living and the dead, will be glorified together in the Resurrection-Rapture. The Prince of Peace will then judge the unsaved, the nations. He will separate the sheep from the goats in the Sheep-Goat Judgment. He will reach out to save the little ones and minister among to those who mourn. That long awaited Millennium of Messiah will be established at last. Messiah will restore this poor toxic sin-damaged creation to the beauty it once knew.

Never fear dear saints. Our God is alive and well. He is coming back again. And He means business. Life is not just an endless series of cycles of ying and yang carrying good and bad Karma from one generation to the next in a meaningless merry-go-round of sex and death, marriages and funerals. The God of Israel is calling out a Holy People, bringing them ever higher into His ekklesia, His Pilgrim Congregation, His Church/synagogue. He takes them through the wilderness, onwards through their histories in a sure direction. They are the People of the promise, the Pilgrim Company of Abraham. As such they walk on by faith towards a sure destination, even a City with foundations not made with hands.

And so the Redeemed of the Lord shall return.
And come with singing unto Zion.
And everlasting joy, shall be upon their heads.

So the final outcome of this divine drama is assured.

The end-time scenario is a triumph for the returning Messiah. It is a glorious victory for His single undivided Elect. The Great Tribulation is traversed by the saints. They are on the Paradise Road. All this has been written in The Book. The God of Israel is the Sovereign Ruler in this cosmos. He is also the Breaker, the final Victor over the powers of wickedness that guard the present status quo.

In the Book of Revelation we see that God the Father is the Ancient of Days. He presides over the courts of heaven. And he judges righteously. He oversees all the covenant dealings of Israel upon this earth during the 70th Week of Daniel. He is in total control of events as the history of this present evil age comes to its appointed climax. And so we need to remember this. YHVH-God sets the limits on the raging of nations. The Holy Spirit will not be deserting us as we have been told. The God of Israel sends us His Holy Spirit to be our Comforter and our Guide. Even in the midst of a Great Apostasy there will in fact be an End-Time Revival among God's people. This will be a revival of epic, even Biblical, proportions. This spellbinding end-time drama will all come to a magnificent climax in a blow-out blaze of glory with the Arrival of Messiah.

So the Bible brings us much positive and encouraging information concerning the Apocalypse, or the unveiling of Messiah.
And if we ask him, our God will also give us the strength to receive what He is telling us here. Because the Presbyterians are correct. Without God's sovereign grace we cannot receive the Word of God. We are just never going to interest ourselves in God by ourselves. And the years are passing by.

Of course the Western Church, as Sleeping Beauty, is asleep right. For the most part she is oblivious to these things. But at some point we shall wake up and remember what we are all about. The medieval fog will lift and we shall remember who we really are. We are the saints of the Most High God. We are His witnesses!

Yes, we have been given a ticket to heaven, - if we can keep it. Pray God we abide in the Vine, remaining true to our Lord Jesus Christ. But at some point we must hear "the rest of the story". We are definitely in the loop here. Accordingly we should be as diligent in the Scriptures as the noble Bereans were. Let us dig a little deeper into the pages of our Bible. We need not fear. God is with us! So as we go forward in this study let us boldly go where we have never gone before. Let us take our investigation on faithfully to where the Biblical evidence is leading us.

So first and foremost we must understand this. This Rapture matter is not an intellectual or theological pursuit. Rather it is primarily an issue of devotion, a matter of the heart. So right up front it is important for us to know that God dearly loves His covenant people. He died for us and took away our sorrows. The suffering and misery that often attends pain comes from our separation from God. When we are saved all that changes.

God cares for His saints as a mother hen cares for her chicks. Through His Word He informs and guides His special agents as He speaks and operates in and through them. This is especially true as they approach the thresholds at the climax of the age. He informs us that some of us will go up before kings and rulers. And yes, many will suffer in the witness. But Jesus/Yeshua has promised to keep and preserve each member of His Congregation (Gr. "ek") 'in, through, and out of' the hour of their trial. Spiritually speaking, He tells them that not one hair of their head will be lost. And so in this devotion and with an open Bible and an open heart and mind our God makes it His business to "tell us of things to come". The prophecies will be unsealed. And Daniel's question will be answered. The Holy One of Israel will strengthen and guide His called, His chosen, and His faithful saints. It will be in that obedience that they will come into a clear understanding of their essential role of witness in the latter days.

Christians who do not understand the necessity and the seriousness of the testimony of Jesus are not interested in these matters. God has blinded their eyes. And this is just and righteous of God to do this. Such people have no business inquiring into Bible prophecy. Because the true Christian faith that was first delivered to the saints, is as private a matter as a marriage covenant and as secret as orders presented to a commissioned military officer going out on a mission. All this is part of the blood covenant relationship we ahve entered into in Christ. The one who signs and seals the agreement knows the full implications of what they are doing. They have just entered into a realm of total and absolute devotion and commitment.

This is absolutely vital information. Unless believers understand the necessity of the end-time blood covenant witness they will not be able to comprehend Bible prophecy. Nor do they deserve to know about it. Carnal Christians are in this category. They will turn away from the truth. They will be content to accept a mere approximation to the truth or a twisted version of the Biblical facts. They will prefer to listen to worldly wise men who are telling them, (and selling them), fables fashioned by figments of their own human fancies.

But the truth will eventually come out. And as the prophet Daniel declared in Dan. 12, the wise will know the truth), and will understand. The Lord of Hosts, (like any Army Commander), is sovereign in the spiritual war which engaged the faith of our fathers. And the Holy One of Israel gives out His confidential information only to those who are committed and vitally involved in the spiritual war. These people can be trusted with the truth. Information is given to the agents of God on a "need to know" basis. The called, the chosen, and the faithful, are in this category. They are prepared to go up to the witness. And so they most certainly deserve to be in the know.

And they will.

The others will not.

Meanwhile, even now, the woman of wisdom is crying out in the street.
Shall we stop and listen to what she has to say?

The video below video contains a very important message to the Western Church.
This message is for Christians today.
And it comes to us from Corrie Ten Boom.

So this matter of the Rapture is more than good exegesis and a faithful interpretation of Holy Scripture.
Bible prophecy is more than sound doctrines and rightly dividing the Word of Truth.
Loving God is the key here, even the Key of David.
And it will be in this devotion that our God will "guide (us) into all truth.
. . . . . . . and tell (us) of things to come." (John 16:13)

The Bible does not explicitly give us the timing of "the Rapture" as such. So that is why is this big accompanying event to the Rapture needs to be looked into. Take a close look at the Scripture passages below and ask yourself these two questions.

Is there another very important event that accompanies the Rapture?
And if so, what is that other epic event?

So what is that awesome end-time event that erupts into holy history right alongside and immediately before the Rapture?
As we can see in the Scriptures above, it is the Resurrection of the righteous dead.

OK, lets stop and take stock of what we have just heard. The Rapture is Biblically cross-bolted, chained, and padlocked to another epic accompanying end-time glorification event. And what might that awesome epic climactic event be? It is the Resurrection of the righteous dead. And as we can see in verse 15, the Resurrection of the saints who have passed on before us must immediately precede the Rapture. Only then will the living saints, ("those who remain") be "caught up" (or Raptured) "with them to meet the Lord in the air" .

Here in this passage of scripture we can see that our apostle Paul is clearly showing us a combined Resurrection-Rapture.
"The dead in Christ shall rise rise first." Then we who are alive at that time, (the living saints), will be "caught up" or Raptured.
Paul nails down the 1 -> 2 sequence in no uncertain terms.
He tells us that the Rapture will "by no means precede" the Resurrection.

Now pause for a moment and ask yourself this question.
Have you heard Bible prophecy teachers murmur one word about the timing of the Resurrection of the righteous dead?

Of course the answer is "no", you haven't heard then speak of this.

Now, let us stop and ask ourselves this question.
Why not?

Oh yes. We have only just begun our study.
And already we are beginning to see that the plot is thickening.

So what are the consequences to all this? The sheep of God's pasture are not being fed. They are not being nurtured in the faith that was first delivered to the saints. They are not being cared for. Instead, God's people are being exploited. Our modern evangelical Christian leaders are committing the sin of Jeroboam. They are spoiling God's covenant people and leading them into error. These leaders are drawing Christians away from their Biblical roots and leading down the garden path into ecumenism and a harlot Church. They are refusing to address the vital end-time blood covenant issues of the faith. See this YouTube video. All this is to our shame. And so this is why we as Christian believers need to open up the Holy Scriptures, seek the leading of the Holy Spirit, and do our own homework. Then we can teach our children to avoid these snares.

Back to our study.
As we can readily see, the Bible does teach a Rapture at the end of this age.
That Rapture is accompanied by another magnificent event.
The Rapture is time-linked to the Resurrection of the righteous dead.

Let us revisit our earlier question on the timing of the Rapture. We do not have Scripture specifically spelling out for us when the Rapture will occur. But we are given very direct and specific timing for the other big event that accompanies the Rapture. The Bible does show us the timing of the Resurrection of the righteous dead. The timing of the Resurrection of the righteous dead is the crux of the matter.

So why is this matter of the Resurrection of the righteous dead so important?
The answer is quite obvious.
The timing of the Resurrection will also give us the timing of the Rapture.

Dear saints, this matter of the timing of the Rapture is not difficult. A little child can understand this. And why? Because they have an open heart. And they are without guile. Jesus had something to say about this. He said,

Here is the other passage from 1Corinthians 15.
This scripture also proves the veracity of the combined Resurrection-Rapture.

So there we have it. Another Biblical proof of a Resurrection-Rapture. All the saints will be going up together, in one big happy party. And this happens, Paul says, "in a twinkling of an eye". All the saints, both the living and the dead, will be glorified into new spiritual bodies together as one single Elect. (See Jesus words on this in Mat. 24:29-31). The Resurrection and the Rapture will occur at the same time, at the last trumpet.

So there we have it, a Resurrection-Rapture at the last trumpet. And here is the major truth that under-girds this hush-hush untaught unspoken doctrine. The Elect of the God of Israel, the children of Abraham's Seed, are undivided. God's covenant people are not to be chopped up and put in boxes as evangelical dispensationalist Bible teachers have done. They had no Biblical authority to commit that travesty. No, not at all. The saints are "all one in Christ Jesus". (See Galatians 3:27-29)

So from both sides of Calvary we see the passing parade of the saints.
They are Jew and Greek, male and female, free and bond.
And even in death God's covenant people are undivided. God would never allow such a thing. They are His Bride.

"And what God has joined together,
let no man put asunder!"

OK, now here we come to a key question. To Biblically establish and confirm the Biblical truth of a Pre-Tribulation Rapture we must find Biblical proof of an accompanying special early Pre-Tribulation Resurrection. Such a Resurrection must be found and time pegged 7 years or 3.5 years before the end of the age depending on your definition of the Tribulation. This necessitates pegging the Resurrection to the time of the seven year covenant of Daniel 9:27 which fires the starting gun for the 70th Week of Daniel. Alternatively those trying to establish an early Rapture could attempt to peg the accompanying Resurrection to the midweek Abomination of Desolation. This initiates the Beast phase Antichrist, 666, the trampling of Jerusalem, and the exile of the saints at Bozrah.

Dear saints. We are looking here for Biblical evidence of a Resurrection of the righteous dead that will come some years before the end of the age. Does such an animal exist in Holy Scripture?

The answer is a loud resounding "No!"

Let us remember this as well. As Pilgrim Christians the war we are engaged in here below is not carnal but spiritual. The prophet Zechariah was told how the victory is finally achieved. It is

Every day should begin and end with prayer to God, even as the sweet savor of the morning and evening sacrifices went up to God back in the Israel's earlier times. We part company with our Puritan friends here. Our battle is not with sword and gun. The battle is over the Word of God and the preparation of the saints for witness before men. And in this war we deal with information that is spiritually guarded, cloaked, and smoke-screened. This critically important Biblical information concerning the saints in the latter days is contested all the way by evil spirits. These religious spirits trying to limit the flow of God's Holy Word are trolls at the gate, denizens of disinformation, shysters of religious shlock. This comes as a bit of a shock to us. Because we had never even imagined that religious spirits even existed, let alone encountered them and dealt with them before.

We return now to our subject of the Resurrection-Rapture. We can call it that because that is what the Bible is showing us. Yes, the second coming of Christ is a glorification of all of God's covenant people at the same time! That is the way our God is. The Holy One of Israel is not going to wrap things up until the last lost sheep is found. And when we come to that grand celebration at the end no-one will be 'left behind'.
Everybody will be there!

We are 21st Century Christians. We live in the most sophisticated society this world has ever seen. We go to Church, we read our Bible, and we watch Bible prophecy teachers on TV. We imagine ourselves to be fully aware of what is going on and what will go on. But do we? Do we really have a good well founded Biblically correct handle on the Resurrection and the Rapture?

Even peasants in the middle ages knew about the Resurrection-Rapture. They knew from the Apostle's Creed that Christ would come for the quick (the living), and the dead. So this glorification into new spiritual bodies involves not only the Rapture but the Resurrection as well! At Christ's coming the righteous dead are going up as well. They are going up with us! They too will be "putting on immortality" in the very same end-time Second Coming of Messiah! In fact, as we look at our scriptures above we see that the righteous dead are glorified into new spiritual bodies right before the Rapture! All those who are Christ's, saved by His blood, all those who have passed on in the faith, from both sides of Calvary, are all raised up in the Resurrection. Then, immediately after this, in the very same process of putting on immortality comes the Rapture.

This is not a difficult question. The Bible gives us the answer four times in in John 6, then in Matthew 24:31, Revelation 20:4-6 and many other places. It is like the game "pin the tail on the donkey". Only here we seek to "pin the Resurrection of the righteous dead, on the final seven years of this age."

Can we do it?
We look up the verses with the answers. Then we get the facts. It is easily done.
But we are having a hard time bringing ourselves around to pursuing this matter it seems.
And now we are beginning to understand the spiritual war and the foes that try to make us turn away.

OK, let's cut to the chase. Lets look up the Bible passages and see for ourselves.
When is the Resurrection of the righteous dead?
Does The Bible give us a specific timing for the Resurrection?
Yes, it certainly does!
But there is a problem.
The information is guarded and contested.

Yes, this is a very strange and mysterious business. If you ask Christians who know the Bible well and can quote the well known passages on the Resurrection and the Rapture to tell you when the Resurrection occurs a very strange and mysterious phenomenon occurs. Their eyes glaze over. They most often cannot tell you.
Why not?

As we shall show in the next section the answer is right in front of them.
It is right there on the pages of their Bible.
Has the Church been put under a spell, like black magic?
Now that is a very interesting question.

When a Biblical truth, such as the Resurrection of those who are Christ's, is set upon by religious blocking spirits we must assume that something very important is being "cloaked" by the powers of darkness. Something very significant is being hidden from us. And indeed when we succeed in answering this highly contested question of the timing of the Resurrection it is as if we break through a heavy wall of darkness. The spell is broken. Suddenly it is as if we are lifted up above the mists to see the true lay of the land. The religious fog begins to clear. Suddenly we begin to get a clear view of the end time. And we "see" the "last day" timing of the Resurrection-Rapture. Then we realize in a flash that this event comes at the end of the 70th Week of Daniel right at the end of this age.

So then, just when will this mysteriously hidden Resurrection of the righteous dead occur?
Is it to be a Pre-Tribulation Resurrection? Or will it be a Post-Tribulation Resurrection?

Well, let's stop and pray and ask God to rebuke the powers and open our eyes. The Bible is telling us very plainly and openly. Here below are the very words of Jesus Himself giving us the specific timing of the Resurrection of the righteous dead.

Four times in John chapter 6 Jesus refers to the Resurrection of His Elect people.
Then, probably after hearing these words from Jesus herself we see in John 12 that Martha, has her say on this matter as well.

As we have seen, the timing of the Resurrection of the righteous dead is well established in Holy Scripture as being at the very end of this present age. After the final Day of Accounting, Day of Reckoning, Day of Atonement Messiah will have all the information He needs on everyone and all will have been said and done. As we saw in the sequence of events in the parable of the wheat and the tares the tares, (the wicked), will be gathered first. (Mat.13:30) Then after Messiah has poured His wrath on the wicked He will then gather His Elect, glorifying both the living and the dead in one swoop. Here in 1Cor 15 Paul tells us that this will happen in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. He tells us that this last trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible and then we (those of us who are alive and remain) will be changed, (in the Rapture). Here in this passage our Apostle Paul is showing us once again the close relationship in time of the Resurrection and the "catching up" or Rapture.

Most Bible believing Christians are quite familiar with this passage here in 1Cor. 15:51-53. and the earlier passage from 1Thes. 4:15-17. They quite rightly rejoice in the fact that the living saints will be "caught up" in the Rapture. But they fail to see that their glorification in the Rapture will occur immediately after the Resurrection of the righteous dead.

To illustrate this point see this little skit which we might call 'BIG AWAKENING ON THE GLORY TRAIN'.

This one time total all encompassing glorification of the saints will happen in a flash. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, we shall find ourselves changed, glorified, into new incorruptible spiritual bodies. Our new spiritual bodies will be like the one Jesus had after His resurrection that enable all who belong to the Body of Christ to walk through walls and travel through space and time. How glorious is that!

This future instant in time is a 'mystery', which means it is a future reality yet to be revealed and seen. We cannot yet fully grasp or comprehend it. Nevertheless the Holy Spirit tells us that this magnificent moment is an instant in time, a mere "twinkling of an eye". This future total body upgrade is out there in our future somewhere. We have good evidence that this will all come down during the Fall or Autumn Season of some future year.

In Revelation 20 John saw the Resurrection of the Tribulation Saints. These saints are the overcomers who had rejected the "mark of the Beast" during the Great Tribulation. They had died for their faith in Christ during the 666 economic regime, the final 3.5 years of this age. The 666 economic identification system will be instituted by the Antichrist in his Beast role during the final 3.5. years of the age, the final half of the 70th Week of Daniel, or the final half of the final 7 years of this age. Now in Revelation 20 John sees the Tribulation saints. They have come through the trials of their faith victoriously. John sees the Tribulation martyrs being raised up after the Great Tribulation. John is clearly told that this end-time Resurrection of the righteous is the "First Resurrection". This will be the Resurrection of all the righteous dead who belong to Israel's Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. And the list of saints being gathered here is a full list with no dispensationalist divisions or compartnents or theological boxes. The parade of the saints coming up out of their graves here is a glorious company of saints that goes all the way back to righteous Abel and perhaps even to the Garden of Eden if Adam and Eve were saved by grace through faith under the blood covering God provided them.

But the end time Tribulation saints are there as well. In fact the Tribulation Saints get special mention here! They lead the procession into the glory! The Tribulation martyrs are special saints. From what we are reading here in Revelation 20 they are at the head of the whole First Resurrection party of all the saints!

Revelation 20 spotlights the Resurrection of the righteous dead. And let us make no mistake here. We are told by John that this is the 'First Resurrection'. Quite obviously there is not, nor can there be, an earlier Pre-Tribulation Resurrection. There is no evidence whatsoever for the existence of some other splinter group rapturing earlier than this and separate from this First Resurrection. John saw a Post Tribulation post 666 Resurrection which he called the First resurrection. There can be no "special separate "Church resurrection" coming seven years before this Post Tribulational "First Resurrection" John saw. No other resurrection can precede this First Resurrection we see here in Revelation 20.

So is there a Pre-Trib Resurrection? No, there is not. It is not to be found anywhere in Holy Scripture. Nor can there be without adding to what God has spoken or twisting Holy Scripture. People who knowingly set out to do this are in great peril.
They are under the curse of God. See Revelation 22:18,19. Like Bigfoot and King Kong, the thing may be big in our imaginations. But the animal does not exist in reality. It is a figment of man's fertile fevered religious imagination. A "pre-tribulation resurrection", like the easter bunny and the tooth fairy, is a crafty piece of work sold in the religious bazaars of Mammon. It is an non-scriptural man made hoax, something "the Joker" would be proud of pulling off. The thing is the work of illusionists. It does not exist. A Pre-Tribulation special early Resurrection or Rapture for that matter, simply cannot be found anywhere in the Bible.

So Revelation 20 is describing the Resurrection of the righteous dead. And as we see these precious saints are certainly resurrected. But since the company prominently includes martyrs of the Great tribulation they are necessarily resurrected at the end of this age. Special mention is being given to a special group of overcomers within the Resurrection company. The same company is being primed and encouraged to finish the race in Hebrews 12:1. They are the end time heroes of the faith. And many of them are the tribulation martyrs.

The very existence of the Tribulation Saints as John sees them in Revelation 7 and Revelation 20 is a huge embarrassment to those who teach the Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine. These are the saints who bring in the climactic 'final witness' of the 5th seal. These faithful witnesses who died for the faith will usher in the 6th seal appearance of the sign of the Son of Man in the heavens. These are the faithful runners we who break the tape to finish the race on behalf of all the saints who have run before us. The Bible says that these Tribulation martyrs are given white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb. They are in the "First Resurrection", the glorified dead who are raised up at the end of this evil age. (Rev.20:5) In fact they head up the Resurrection of all the righteous who have died in the faith. They are in there amongst all the saints gathered from both sides of Calvary. They head up the procession of all the saints as the Elect, (a single company), ascend up into the mansions of glory. This "First Resurrection" event clearly comes at the very end of this age, not seven years before!

Then we recall this passage.

So as we see from this passage above, the Rapture of the righteous living saints
is fixed, chained, and padlocked to the Resurrection of the righteous dead saints.
Our Apostle Paul tells us that there cannot and will not be a Rapture before the Resurrection.
The single Resurrection and the single Rapture are a combined event.

The Bible tells of one transport into glory, one 'Glory Train'.
When all the saints are here the Archangel Michael will get the Word and call out, "All aboard!"
Then Messiah's train will pull out right on schedule, at the very end of this age.
Not one minute before!

Quite clearly, the Rapture cannot and will not precede the Resurrection. Dear saints, we must face the Holy Scriptures honestly here. This First Resurrection John mentions includes the Tribulation martyrs. So this Resurrection must come at the end of the Great Tribulation.

STEP 1 (foundational Biblical truth #1) We read Revelation 20:4-6 and see that martyrs of the Great Tribulation, overcomers of the 666 era, are given prominence as they come into the glory. They head up the parade of all the saints who belong to Christ who come up from their graves in the Resurrection, which John is clearly told is the First Resurrection. So the Resurrection of the righteous dead comes after the Great Tribulation.

STEP 2 (foundational Biblical truth #2) We read in 1Thes. 4:15-17 and in 1Cor. 15:51-53 that the Rapture will be immediately preceded by the Resurrection of the righteous dead. So there can be no Rapture without the accompanying Resurrection which immediately precedes it. So there is to be a Resurrection-Rapture of all the saints. And this is what our Bible teachers really should have been speaking of all along.

STEP 3 - CONCLUSION The combined Resurrection-Rapture obviously includes the Resurrection which as we have seen in STEP 1 above comes after the Great Tribulation.
So the Rapture comes after the Great Tribulation and is a Post Tribulation Rapture.

The Resurrection of the righteous dead is the big all inclusive "First Resurrection" mentioned by John in Revelation 20:4-6.
John refers to it as the first Resurrection. So we must not dicker with the Holy Scriptures and presume to insert a separate earlier resurrection of the just just to suit our fancies. There can be no resurrection of the just before this First Resurrection of Revelation 20! The warnings against adding to the Bible are given at the end of the Book of Revelation. Bible teachers, myself included, we must beware! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.

No other resurrection of the saints can precede this Post Tribulation "First Resurrection" of Revelation 20:4-6.
So there cannot possibly be a Pre-Tribulation Resurrection!
From a Biblical perspective such a notion is absolutely and totally impossible.

Now let us look at some more solid Biblical evidence of a late Resurrection-Rapture.

We know from the Olivet Discourse that the Elect will be gathered to the returning Christ at the Second Coming. A Freemason directed church hierarchy has ordained and decreed that dispensationalist churchmen will speak of two elects and two Second Comings, - or lose their job. But one Elect. And the Bible only speaks of one Second Coming of Christ.

So when is this epic gathering of the Elect? And yes, Jesus only spoke of one single unified Elect, not two.
Will the gathering of the Elect come before the Great Tribulation?
Or will Christ our Messiah be gathering His Elect after the Tribulation?

Again, the Bible speaks.
And Jesus Himself gives us a plain and simple answer.

Here are Jesus' own words on this important matter.
In the passage below He is talking to His trusted disciples including Peter, James and John.
There on the Mount of Olives Jesus tells them plainly when He will come to gather His Elect.

Jesus tell His disciples that he will be coming to gather a single Elect. Notice He makes no division of His covenant people into those dispensational theological boxes we hear about, namely a Church Elect and an Israel Elect. Nor does He divide His Elect into an "Old Testament Elect" and a "New Testament - Church Age" Elect". Nor does He speak of a Jewish Elect and a Gentile Elect or a Church Elect and a "Left behind Jewish Elect saved by martyrdom, works, and the keeping of the Law". This matter of "who is the Elect" as it is dealt with by the western Evangelical is a travesty against the Holy Scriptures. The poor inquiring believer has to try to make some sense of this confused mess. This matter of the Elect is the most muddled conflicted twisted bamboozling web of religious disinformation the Church has ever coughed up and sputtered on.

A plain reading of the Bible regarding the Elect is very straightforward, simple, and elegant.
Jesus tells us in the Olivet Discourse that He would send His angels to gather His one Elect, singular.
He also tells us in Matthew 24:29 above that this gathering of His Elect will occur after the Tribulation.
Our Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 3:28 that His Elect are 'all one in Christ Jesus'.
See here in Galatian 3:28.

In this same passage Jesus also tells us about the SIGN of His coming and the timing of that SIGN which would herald His coming to gather the Elect in the Resurrection-Rapture. The SIGN of the Son of Man would be seen in the heavens. This was THE SIGN about which the inner circle of Jesus disciples, Peter, James, and John specifically inquired about when Jesus was at the Temple and later on the Mount of Olives. See the Olivet Discourse. The SIGN, (singular), will be the SIGN OF THE SON OF MAN IN THE HEAVENS seen in those epic future days that would unfold with those awesome cosmic disturbances of a darkened sun, a bloody moon, and stars falling, probably in an unprecedented meteor shower of Biblical proportions.

Then after the coming of these cosmic signs we have the gathering of the Elect at the last trumpet.

The darkened sun and bloody moon are the key signpost to the post-tribulation days. These are in fact the cosmic signs time linked to the sixth seal. They occur late in the 70th week, towards the very end. What will have happened?

Apparently our present day man-centered God rejecting human government will have come to its final day of infamy. Nuclear weapons will have been detonated. And Messiah is coming back to His creation to put a stop to it, lest all flesh is destroyed. Jesus Himself spoke of this awesome time in future world history.
He said

Joel describes the awful scene in very descriptive poetic language. "Blood, fire, and pillars of smoke". Fire and pillars of smoke. Take a look at that well known image of a nuclear bomb up above. Isn't this an accurate picture of a mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion with hot smoke going up to fill the upper atmosphere? And would not this be expected to cause bloodshed on a scale never seen before in all of human history? And wouldn't we expect Messiah to intervene sovereignly in human history to, "cut short, (amputate) the days? To put a stop to this infamy!

Thank goodness most of the saints, especially the women and children, will be safe in exile when this great international calamity happens. Because this prophecy will surely unfold to destroy the cities of the nations. See Revelation 16:17,18,19. These will be awful days for unregenerate mankind as human history rocks up towards the end of the 70th Week of Daniel and as we come towards the close of this present evil age.

These are the cosmic signs that mark the 6th Seal. The sun will be darkened. All that smoke will be going up into the stratosphere to be carried east with the jetstream. A bloody moon will be seen by people all around the earth. These are the epic cataclysmic 6th seal post-tribulational cosmic signs seen by the prophet Joel 2600 years ago. (Joel 2:31-32)

These cosmic disturbances are also associated with the Battle of Armageddon. This epic battle will be fought at the very end of the final 7 years of this age. These 6th seal cosmic signs indicate that 5th seal witness of the saints has ended. The Great Tribulation in the latter half of the 70th Week is now over. We are in the days between day 1260 and day 1290. From our studies of the Fall Feasts of the Lord it is now becoming clear that this day 1290 spoken of by the prophet Daniel and counted out from the mid 70th Week Abomination of Desolation is the very last day of this age. It is in fact Judgment Day, the Day of Reckoning, Day of Reconciliation of Accounts, Day of Sentencing, Day of Pardoning, the Judgment seat of Christ/Messiah, Day of Covering, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the final day of this age. And God is pleading with the nations for those final 30 days.

On this 10th day of Tishri the trumpets of Jubilee are sounded, announcing the Year of Jubilee, the first year of the Millennium of Messiah. See this YouTube video.

Yes, this will be a blockbuster day in holy history. Then what happens?

At sunset the Day of Atonement ends. All legal issues have been wrapped up. As the sun sets on that day the Day of the Lord will open up for execution of Messiah's Judgment. The heavens will roll back on this unknown time period, the Day of the Lord, to unveil Messiah at His Second Coming.

It is an axiom of law that there can be no execution before there has been a sentencing. Now that the legal affairs of the Day of Atonement have been concluded and the courts of heaven adjourned holy matters will move on to execution of the judgment. As we saw in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares/Weeds the tares are gathered first. See Matthew 13:30. Jesus was very clear about this. He said that the angels of wrath will go first. These grim reapers will be loosed upon the wicked, plucking them up from the ground amidst much kicking and screaming, to terminate the existence of wicked men here on earth. Then at some unknown day and hour the holy angels of God's redemption and salvation will be sent to gather God's Elect from the four winds and across to the far corners of this planet.

Will there be people left alive here on earth at that time? Oh yes. See this article which addresses the question, "Who will populate the Millennium of Messiah?" People left alive at the end of the age who are not saved and not wicked rebels against God will then be subject to the Sheep-Goat Judgment. This is a judgment of mortals for entry into the Millennium of Messiah. Some, (the sheep), will be given passports into the Kingdom of God. And some, (the goats) will not. Remember too what Jesus said about the little children who came to Him? Remember His disciples wanted to exclude them? Remember too what Jesus said in the Beattitudes concerning those who mourn? Are these people to be damned for all eternity just because in this wicked world they never got a proper chance to hear God's Good News of the Gospel?

Further light is shed on this subject by the accepted Levitical sacrifice of the two turtledoves.

be gathered as a single Elect. They are glorified into new bodies from among the living and from among the dead. They come from all races, from among both the Jews and the Gentiles, and from both sides of Calvary, and from all around the world. Jesus Himself said that He would return to gather His Elect from "the four winds of heaven", from across space and time. He gathers His own from across the racial divides of Israel and out from the clutches of the heathen gentile nations. He gathers His people from beyond the gates of Sheol and brings them home. He draws them out from across the very borders of life and death.
What a magnificent harvest this will be!

Well this is a strange business. Are we therefore left to suppose that God lays out seven different covenants for the redemption and salvation of His people?
What saith the scripture? Are not all saved by grace through faith in the atoning blood of Israel's Sacrifice Lamb?

So these theologians, (if they actually were theologians), failed to recognize and respect God's covenant people as a single Elect. They refused to acknowledge that the Old Testament saints and New Testament saints were all part of one passing parade. All are saved by grace through faith in the atoning blood of Israel's Sacrifice Lamb, Jesus Christ, Yeshua Hamashiach. The Holy Scriptures set forth no such compartments to divide God's Elect, not even between the Church and Israel or Jews and Gentiles. Our Apostle Paul calls the children of Israel at Sinai the "Church in the wilderness" does he not? (See Acts 7:38) All the saints from both sides of Calvary were the Elect of the most High God, the Holy One of Israel. Each one was bringing their witness to the Eternal Covenant as one of the myriad company of Abraham. One day, at the close of this age we shall all be sitting at the same table at the same Marriage Supper of the Lamb. All these dear and precious saints of former times will be there with us. We see them showcased here in Hebrews 11. They were shining lights in their day, even as the stars in the vault of heaven. Their lives shone brightly as they made their passage through the dark centuries here on earth.

It is important for Christians in the West to know that dispensationalists have taken over the leadership of the American evangelical family. They have also re-engineered the eschatology to deliver up a Pre-Tribulation Rapture to please the merchants and the masses.

It is important for Christians to know that the evangelical theology we have today is not all bad. In most ways it is quite sound. One very faithful work they 19th Century evangelical churchmen did was lay out Daniel's 70 Weeks prophecy with a true and correct timeline. They went with Sir Robert Anderson's wonderful work on Daniel's prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Quite correctly they have the first 69 weeks of years terminating on Palm Sunday of the passion year. Dispensationalists correctly teach a future 70th Week, and for this they should be given enormous credit. The older Reformed Churches are still in the Amillennialism of the Roman medieval Church. But unfortunately popular Dispensationalist teaching insists on placing a special early Rapture into the time line just as that final 70th Week of Daniel begins. This Pre-Trib Rapture doctrine, popular though it might be with the church-going masses, is hopelessly flawed. Many of the jig saw puzzle pieces of the end time picture are missing or twisted around. Other pieces of the puzzle are jammed into the wrong places.

This attempt to force a Pre-Tribulation rapture seven years before the last day at the end of this age is most unfortunate. It is throwing up a confusing mess of quasi-biblical disinformation. As we shall discover from the Holy Scriptures we have highlighted in this article, a separate early rapture coming seven years before the "last day" has been forced upon the Holy Scriptures. It is without any Biblical foundation whatsoever.

Dispensationalists began their dividing asunder of the holy people back in the 19th Century. This was happening just as the machine age was building up a lot of steam. During this time the German theology schools were being set up within the universities. Naturally they came under the influence of the secular thinking that was then extant in the universities, namely a secular humanistic rationalism. The popular culture was also imbibing this heady rationalistic potion as well. They were looking at the wondeful engineering progress that man was achieving and rejoicing in the triumph of human reason exhibited in literary characters like Sherlock Holms. The names Nelson Darby and C.I. Scofield are well known as movers and shakers of that era. Both of these men were instrumental in advancing an attempt to rationalize the Apocalyptic Scriptures using human reason.

These were the men who gave birth to dispensationalist theology in the American Church. The Scofield Reference Bible came out quite early in the 20th century, bundled as it was, and still is, with a heavy dispensationalist commentary in the footnotes and study guides. The Scofield Bible has been very popular with American and other English-speaking evangelicals ever since. Scofield's footnotes themselves were, (and still are), revered as "Gospel truth" by a large body of Christians in America. For many Bible readers those Scofield footnotes, (like the Jewish Mishna and Talmud commentaries on the Old Testament), have been considered to be virtually inspired.

Who were these men? And what was the agenda behind all this division and splitting up of the holy things of God? Why did they consider it necessary to compartmentalize God's covenant people of Grace into seven ages? Is God's house a vaticanized house with bricked in rooms? By whose authority and by what scriptural basis have these dispensationalists, (and not a few of them rough riding Texas cowboy preachers), herded up the saints into seven corals? Are not all of the saints redeemed by grace through faith in the same atoning blood, the blood of Israel's Sacrifice Lamb, even our Lord Jesus Christ? Will not all of us be sitting down together at one table the Marriage Supper of the Lamb?

Dear saints, we are not to judge people before the time. But we must be responsible and discern the spirits at work, even among ministers we trust. This, after all, is one of the gifts we are given in the Holy Spirit. Jesus called us to be "as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves".

The facts are plain. Deceiving religious spirits pulling the strings of compromised Christian churchmen, have craftily disconnected and unhitched the Rapture of the living saints from its proper place which is immediately following the Resurrection of the righteous dead. Then they have "submerged" the Resurrection of the righteous dead in a confused sea of theological discussions concerning the broad general topic of "resurrections".

There is no Biblical basis for this subterfuge. None whatsoever.
So we are left with one conclusion.
The reason it was done must have been for some hidden non-Biblical purpose.

So let us ask ourselves this question. Why was it necessary to separate off the Resurrection from the Rapture? Why was it expedient to hide the resurrection of the righteous dead away from Christians in their Bible study and away from Christian conversation? Apparently this "spiriting away" of the Resurrection from the Rapture had become a matter of some expedience.

Let us look at what happened again. The dividing asunder of the Resurrection-Rapture was job #1. Then this "vanishing act" performed upon the Resurrection of the righteous dead was job #2. This then completed the obfuscation of Biblical truth concerning the combined Resurrection-Rapture at the last day.

So why was this Resurrection hide-away such a big deal?
Why did all Evangelical conversation about the Resurrection of the righteous dead have to "go away"?
Why was the whole subject of the Resurrection made to vanish, like stardust under the wand of Tinker Bell?
Why was it necessary to hide the Resurrection of the righteous dead under a religious smokescreen?

Well this is where the plot thickens. It was necessary to do this "spiriting away" of the Resurrection in order to promote a new doctrine. The new doctrine being floated in the 19th Century was the notion of an isolated early Rapture, namely the Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine.

So, you see, these Anglo-American churchmen wanted desperately to launch this Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine. And they probably had some very good socio-political reasons for doing this. But there was a problem. Most sincere Bible believing saints would know from their Bible reading that the Resurrection comes at the "last day". So in order for the Rapture to be pulled forward seven years the Rapture had to be cut loose from its last day Resurrection moorings. The Rapture had to be avulsed. It had to be chopped off from the Resurrection. Then, to complete the illusion of this early Pre-Tribulation Rapture the Resurrection with its "last day" baggage had to be made to "go away".

Is this why the Resurrection of the righteous dead had to be shipped out into a theological no-man's land? Is this why, to this day, the subject of the Resurrection of the righteous dead has been "cloaked" in religious resurrection gobbledygook?

Oh yes, the Resurrection had to be religiously "cloaked" and never brought up into end-time Biblical discussions.
If it had not been hidden away then there would have been a lot of embarrassing questions.

Like this one.

When is the Resurrection of the righteous dead?
Will it come before the tribulation, (bundled up with a Rapture coming seven years early)?
Or will it come after the tribulation,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . like at the last day?

For a good Biblically accurate answer see this wonderful sermon by faithful 19th Century English preacher Charles Spurgeon.

See also this article on the Resurrection of the righteous dead by Paul Phelps.

Of course these questions concerning the timing of the Resurrection of the righteous dead would have been very awkward questions for Pre-Tribulation Rapture Bible teachers to answer. So this separating off and spiriting away of the Resurrection of the righteous dead became quite necessary as the doctrine of an early Rapture was being re-engineered, crafted and prepared to go public. This is why the magnificent last day glorification of the saints, the Resurrection-Rapture, has been given the chop. Dispensationalist theologians have quietly split the glorification of the saints into two disconnected events. for a purpose.

As we shall see from the Scriptures we bring out in this article these men were not Holy Spirit led in their dividing of the end-time Elect. But the evidence indicates that they were truly "purpose driven". That is, they did on purpose and for a purpose.

You will notice that popular Bible prophecy teachers talk unendingly about "The Rapture". But they studiously omit any reference to the accompanying Resurrection, the raising up of "those who are Christ's". (See 1Cor. 15:20-23)

Please note, we are not sitting in judgment of people here. Only the Master of us all is authorized to do that. People are still in the process of learning about themselves and the hidden motives of the heart. It is only the Holy Scriptures and the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit that brings home to us as Christian believers the reality of spiritual seductions and religious witchcraft. Most people are completely unaware of the way they are being brainwashed. But in the devotion and lovingkindness of God we enter into spiritual warfare as faithful agents and witnesses to the God of Israel. And so in Christ our Messiah we come to discern the spirits, spirits that inhabit and energize doctrines and direct human beings into certain modes of thinking. As Christian believers we are in a spiritual war and all wars are information wars. So our warfare is heavily involved with God's holy revealed Word. We can all bow to God in humility here. None of us has the whole picture. And all of us are being deceived to varying degrees and in different ways.

So with that said let us make one point very clear. There is every reason to believe that the vast majority of those who teach the Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine are quite sincere. Most of them are beloved Bible teachers to whom we owe much. And this is what make this matter so strange and surreal. Their Pre-Tribulation Rapture scenario for the latter days is unquestionably flawed. But in most cases the other doctrines they teach are Biblically well founded.

But we must square with the Bible here. Their Pre-Trib Rapture teaching, while it may be the accepted church tradition, is in direct conflict with the Holy Scriptures. So we are bound to conclude that these Bible teachers are under some sort of spiritual, social, or economic coercion to toe the party line. In many cases it appears that they are under a spell. They do not realize that they have been deceived. And when the Scriptures are laid out in 1Thes. 4:15-17 to show a combined Resurrection-Rapture and then Revelation 20:4-6 is opened to show the obviously late Resurrection of the Tribulation martyrs who died refusing 666 and then with the Holy Spirit telling them that this is the FIRST RESURRECTION they still don't "see" it.

And why don't they "see it". It appears they are under a spell woven by very cunning highly intelligent religious spirits. They do not realize that they have been deceived. They have been drawn into a complicated conflicted web of religious chicanery.

Pre-Trib Rapture teachers virtually always refer to the Rapture to the exclusion of the Resurrection.
Without even realizing it they give the timing of the Resurrection of the righteous dead the "silent treatment".
And yet this magnificent epic Resurrection event accompanies and actually precedes the Rapture!
What is going on here?

A good indication that the religious spirits are trying to foist a "cover-up" is as follows. Whenever the truth is pointed out to a teacher under religious witchcraft they exhibit certain behaviors. Typically they jump off the point being discussed. They do not respond to the question at hand as the Bereans did and dig into the Scriptures to see if these things are so. Instead, people under a spell or guarding an uncomfortable hidden truth become uncomfortable, white knuckled, and defensive. Sometimes they withdraw from the conversation. Sometimes they become angry and strike out against the messenger.

This sort of response is well know to those who have debated on Bible prophecy forums. These visceral types of reaction to the unveiling of an uncomfortable truth is also something with which police investigators and psychiatrists are quite familiar.

But we are talking here of Christians, devoted to Christ! This is why it is so amazing. And it is so disconcerting to see Christians showing this evasiveness and this discomfiture with Biblical truth. But we saw it on the forums day in and day out. And you can test this for yourself. Bible teachers who promote the Pre-Tribulation Rapture scenario always become very uncomfortable when they are asked about the timing of the Resurrection of the righteous dead.

It was surreal. This was a simple straightforward question. But instead of an answer in the Light of God's Word I could feel a dark cloak of disinformation descending down upon the whole discussion. I was appalled. Dumbstruck would be a better word for it. It was as if I had stepped off the planet and stepped into the Twilight Zone. It was one of the spookiest experiences of my entire Christian life.

This experience, along with what we had earlier encountered on the Bible prophecy forums, clearly indicated that in this matter of timing of the rapture we were not engaged in merely an intellectual discussion of "the facts". The issue we were dealing with was highly charged from an emotional perspective. So this was more than just a Biblical discussion and a rational search for truth. It was very much a matter of the heart. It was then I began to realize that we needed to approach the subject from a devotional perspective. Because this whole subject hinges around the issue of blood covenant witness under trial in the latter days.

The Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine has chopped up things so much that it has left us with many points of disconnection. Here is an important blood covenant issue that calls for our attention. Who gave dispensationalist splitters the authority to begin their so called "Age of Grace" or "Age of the Church" at the cross or at Pentecost? How were the saints in Old Testament times drawn to YHVH-God, if not by the Ruach Hadesh, the Holy Spirit? And by what right do they then proceed to terminate their "Age of Grace" seven years before the end of this age? Will God really yank out His Holy Spirit from off the planet during that final seven year time period? He has never exited any part of His cosmos before. We know as a matter of basic Christian doctrine that our God is omnipresent. According to the Psalmist in Psalm 139 God's Presence is readily accessible throughout the entire universe, even in Hades itself. Here is what King David declared in his song.

Does grace "fall short" and end seven years before the consummation? Will the work of the Holy Spirit terminate seven years before the runners finish the race? Will God by His Holy Spirit abandon us even as in Him we strain towards the prize of the high calling? Will God absent Himself from His creation and His people? Will He "go AWOL"? Will the Holy Spirit really desert God's yet to be saved end-time Jewish remnant? And what about the Tribulation saints we see in Revelation 7? Will the Holy Spirit absent Himself from His saints during their time of trial and witness?

God forbid that we even think of such a thing!

Dear saints, we need to be extremely careful of accepting this notion of a seven year "dead zone" or "no responsibility zone" for the Congregation of Messiah at the end of this age. When He was departing 2,000 years ago Jesus charged His disciples with a certain commission, even the Great Commission.

Is He not still commissioning His disciples today?

Let us take a careful look at this.
Here below are our Commissioning Papers!

Have we taken a close look at our Commissioning Papers?
Have we taken Jesus's Holy Word to heart here?

Now, go ahead and take a deep breath.
And let us ask ourselves this question.

Just when does our Commission expire?

Right there in our commissioning papers does not Jesus Himself declare that He will be with His His covenant people, always, even right through to the very "end of the age"?

Is there any hint here that our Commission will be expiring earlier than the end of the age?
Is there one scaric of evidence that our Commission terminates seven years before the end of the age?

Many Christian investigators are now looking into this question of the sectioning of the Resurrection-Rapture.. Some have begun to piece together what probably happened here. Who was behind all this? Can we discern the spirits at work here?

Of course we must remember that we now live in a democracy. Some even speak of it now becoming a mobocracy. We also live in a merchant society. Whatever sells goes. Is this Pre-Tribulation Rapture, (with a smoke-screened ecclesiastically "cloaked" Resurrection), something that the "middle of the road" Christian crowds wanted. Are they buying into this just as they would purchase any other thing they fancied?

Thank goodness we no longer live in the 16th century and have to endure domination by the Church of Rome or the Church of King Henry. But what has replaced the state churches of Europe, the Churches that dominated Christendom in former times? Is Biblical Christian faith advancing as we have been led to believe that it is?

It seems that the American style religion of the merchants is now in the place of prominence.
But are we lifting up Biblical truth as we claim to be doing?

Let us consider this dissecting away of the Rapture from the Resurrection. Was it a necessary compromise? If so what for? Does the end justify the means? Was all this done just to present a Pre-Tribulation Rapture? Do we bend the Holy Scriptures just to tickle the ears of the church-going masses? Was this merely another ecclesiastical indulgence, a merchandising of popular eschatology for the religious masses? Was God's Holy Word being reprocessed, sugar coated, and repackaged as a sort of "Eschatology Lite"? And what are we to say about our Christian writers, Christian film-makers and Christian bookstores? Are they compromised too, and primarily interested in the "bottom line"? Have the holy things of God now been brought down low to become just money making entertainment for carnal Christians?

We might wonder about this when we see the huge "success" of the present day "Left Behind" religious lore. Do we realize that the doctrine does not exist in China? (See Corrie Ten Boom's message to the Western Church).

So who constructed this early escape Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine? And were these religious leaders just motivated by mammon? Or was there a political agenda important for the latter days that we are not being told about? Did these churchmen have Freemason connections? What was going on here?

When we stand back and have a close look at what dispensational Bible teachers have done here we cannot help but be impressed with the sheer brashness of these men. This dividing asunder of the last day glorification of all the saints was a highly presumptuous act before God. And why did these theologians find it expedient to divide God's saints into seven boxes? There was no solid Biblical basis or reason for doing this. Did God make seven different deals with His covenant people which changed abruptly as the centuries and time segments clicked by? Or did this division into seven ages make it theologically easier for churchmen to go on and put a cleaver between the Resurrection of the righteous dead at the Last Day and their specially crafted early Rapture coming seven years before God wrapped things up?

As we see, there is something happening here.
And what it is is not exactly clear.

But the facts are there for all to see. The Last Day glorification of the saints has been divided asunder. There is no good Biblical reason for doing this. But nevertheless, the deed was done, and very deliberately by dispensationalist theologians. Apparently they had a lot of money to popularize and present their views. How did this happen? And Why?

As we begin to look into this matter we can begin to see this. The last day glorification of the saints was split in two for a specific purpose. It was chopped up in order to unhitch the Rapture from the Resurrection and bring it forward seven years.

We know that the Christian crowds have wanted it this way. And they are buying it. There is a huge money trail here with billions of dollars per year going into the till. But is there more to the story? Was the Pre-Tribulation Rapture crafted for another specific "purpose". Could it be that this was done for political reasons?

Americans sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Deep in their collective psyche Biblical Christians know that their present day superpower, the Pax Americana, will probably abut into a New World Order and the last seven years of this age.

So let us pause here and ask this question. Has a certain quieting of evangelical concerns about the last days become important? Is it necessary for the sake of civil peace? Is this syrupy end-time theology part of some secret social engineering? Was it considered necessary to keep the crowds "quiet" and off the streets. The crafting of a "seeker friendly" eschatology could well have been a part of all this. Had this development of a soporific 'feel-good' doctrine of the latter days become a matter of politico-theological expedience?

This is not a matter to dismiss lightly. And we must not be too hasty to judge. Disturbed carnal Christians can be among the most dangerous, even deadly, people on earth. Just take a look at the new video, 'Luther'. Do we remember the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the terrible Reformation wars? For those who know Church history this concern of the powers over Christian anger and Christian ultra-nationalism is quite understandable. The dangers of Christians with swords or Christians with guns is very real.

So we are left to answer this question. Did God, in His sovereign oversight, allow this Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine, false though it may be, to be established in the English speaking world? Was this the lesser of two evils?

Perhaps this was the way it had to be. Perhaps carnal Christians do not deserve to have the inside scoop. The carnal Christian crowds are clearly not preparing themselves for the end-time witness. They have voted with their feet and wallets. Apparently their pursuit of happiness and their desire to have a nice day is their agenda. Someone is knocking at the door. But they do not want to be disturbed. And like the Shulamite in her dream she did not want to get up from her comfortable bed of ease. It seems that most evangelical Christians in the west want the Pre-Tribulation Rapture teaching right now.

But as we are beginning to see, this doctrine of a special early Rapture is not Biblically correct.
So even if it is a popular belief it cannot be God's perfect will for His covenant people.

But here is the crux of the matter.
Could this teaching have been His permissive will for rank-and-file Christians?
Did God actually allow this deception to go out for the middle of the road Christian crowds?

This is an awesome possibility and we should approach it in the fear of God.
Remember what Jesus told His true disciples concerning the hidden information concerning the Kingdom of Heaven?
He said that He spoke in parables so that only His true followers would ponder His words and come to understand.
Click here to see the passage in Matthew 13.

And do we not remember what God told the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6?
Here is the mp3 for your iPod.
And here is the wma for your Windows Media Player.

Of course for committed devoted Christians, (as we have in Indonesia, China, and other places), the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth will do. These are the people who are right now suffering and dying for the faith. They make it their business to seek out Biblical truth. They deserve good information. They can also be trusted to make good their spiritual preparation against the coming night.

So as we have seen, this dividing asunder of the Biblically united Resurrection-Rapture was very strange. It was clearly a very deliberate ecclesiastical action. And as we are beginning to see it is quite contradictory to the Holy Scriptures. And there must have been a very important reason and a "purpose" behind all this. Devoted Biblical Christians deserve to know the truth. So we shall be looking further into these matters as we go on into this article.

Let us stop and consider what we have learned so far from the Holy Scriptures.
So far we have established from God's Holy Word that there is to be a combined Resurrection-Rapture.
Pray God that Biblical Christians come to speak of it and to think of it as the "Resurrection-Rapture"
. ...... instead of just talking glibly about "The Rapture".