A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

A picture is worth a thousand words.

During parousia there are three periods which coincide with three locations: (see large center circle below): At the beginning of parousia (1) the overcoming believers are raptured to the throne (Matt. 24.37, 40-41). After some time (2a) the Lord descends from heaven to the air (1 Thess. 4.15-17, 1 Cor. 15.23, Rev. 12.5, 14.1-5)—(please remember that the throne is presently in heaven—Rev. 4.1-2). Meanwhile (2b) the dead in Christ shall rise, and those believers who are alive and left on the earth from the previous rapture (to the throne) shall, together with the risen dead in Christ, be caught up to the air. There they shall experience parousia with the Lord. And finally, parousia ends (3) with the appearing of the Lord with His saints from the air to the earth. He will bring to nought the Antichrist by the exploded glory of His parousia (2 Thess. 2.8-9) when He returns with his overcomers (Jude 14,15; Rev. 20.4) when He steps down on the mount of olives in His appearance in Person (Zech. 14.4). He returns just as He left (Rev. 1.7, Acts 1.11). I think that if this can't convince someone, then there is something more fundamentally wrong with the hearer.

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"Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come" (Matt. 24.42). Watch because we don't know when first rapture will occur to begin the parousia. "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night...But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief" (1 Thess. 5.2,4). We know when Christ steps down on the mount of olives at the end of parousia. First rapture is to "throne of God" (Rev. 7.15) "before the Son of Man (Luke 21.36), but last trumpet resurrection is meeting Christ in "the air" (1 Thess. 4.17). These are two different raptures at two different times. “But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” (Mar. 13.32). We don't know when first rapture will be. “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God” (v.16). We know when the Lord steps down on the Mount of Olives and brings the saints with Him who were accounted worthy. We can count down the 84 thirty day months from first rapture to Zech. 14.4+Jude 14,15. I understand many do not have the faith to believe this or that Jesus can return in Person, but if He did it before, He can do it again. Have faith!

God does not give the warning to escape these things which are to come upon the whole world at the consummation of this age if it does not have any consequences. But there are consequences as indicated in Rev. 3.10, Luke 21.36. Ergo, some of those who are saved before the first rapture will escape the time of the Tribulation and some won't. The condition for this promise to escape which can only be fulfilled by rapture is in keeping Matt. 5-7 and abiding in the works God has set for us. You may be saved but if you don't abide in the works God has set for you, you won't be ready at first rapture. Some balloons prefer to be tied down.

At the end of the day I think the fundamental problem with many is they don't think the regeneration of the world (Matt. 19.28) is coming in the 1000 years (Rev. 20.2-7), and they don't think there are consequences for Christians who could lose the reward of reigning during the millennial kingdom (an acountability and time of recompense), though still having eternal life. But Revelation 20.3 clearly says the nations will not be deceived in the 1000 year reign of Christ and the Overcomer Saints with an IRON ROD, mentioned 3 times in Revelation (so it is not happening now). The Great Tribulation has not happened yet (Rev. 9.16,18). Do you recall in history when 1/3 of the people of the whole earth died in 13 months (v.15) and there was an army amassed of 200,000,000 machines in the middle east fighting over oil? I certainly don't recall that and I have never heard an allegorizer able to show it either. Allegorizing is very dangerous for historicalists since it seems no two allegorizing theories are ever the same in the land of self.