Rapture When: Resolved by Resurrection

by rory moore

A Rapture When? Let's make it a Simple Truth  II

Did the Apostle Paul write of a POST or PRE -tribulation "gathering" (aka "rapture") ?? 
Let's consider...
1. as he wrote in 1 Thess 4:16-18  .... the dead in Christ are raised FIRST.

And so we have the KEY QUESTION: WHEN are the dead raised? 

We will use the key to prove the "rapture" for "our gathering", and including those "who are alive and remain" living, and the preceding mention of the dead in Christ who rise FIRST. 

Because we find in 1Cor 15:51-52 for us to see the Resurrection:
 "Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will ALL be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the ***LAST*** TRUMPET; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed."
 
So we note "ALL" are "changed" on the same day.

When the dead in Christ are "raised", it is the "resurrection".
Jesus taught on the resurrection four times in John 6 when He
said  He will raise ALL who have believed on Him on the last day. (John 6:39,40,44,54). 

Those who are "raised" < i.e. "changed" > are raised on the same day.
There is only ONE (first) resurrection of the saints in Christ..
 Jesus is gathering His elect, His people, after the tribulation (Matt 24:29-31).  There is not a separate gathering for one group of Jews after a "raptured" church, because John SAW martyred saints from all tribes tongues, and nations that "came out of great tribulation".

Rev. 7: I saw, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, from every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands;
 10 and they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation unto our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.
13 And one of the elders answered, saying to me, 

These that are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and from where came they? 
14 And I said to him, My lord, you know. And he said to me, 

These are they that come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  (note: NOT Jews only)

The last trumpet sounds on the last day, and Jesus said that was after the tribulation (Matt 24:29-31). Jesus and Paul agree on the timing and it is not pre-tribulation, but "AFTER the tribulation".

When you see the correct order and time of the resurrection, when "we shall be changed", the when and who fall right into place and the "pre-trib" explanations and reasonings, are all answered. 

The "first resurrection" is specific in Revelation 20:4-6.
Who is in the "first resurrection" after the tribulation?

Here is the simple truth:

Rev. 20:4   And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them:

 === > and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus

and for the word of God, and such as worshiped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand;

and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years.  
5 …….. This is the first resurrection.

....  The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished.

6)   Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection
over these the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

The first resurrection  of  “them that are fallen asleep” that is near simultaneous with the "harpazo" of 1Thess. 4 and 1Cor. 15  is in Rev 20 and includes the martyred tribulation saints!

That's right, there is only ONE "first resurrection" of those "in Christ" and it includes them that refuse the mark during the tribulation. All are "raptured" together in the "first resurrection.
Therefore there simply cannot be a "pre- or mid trib rapture" because all living and dead in Christ are gathered  at the same time, "in a moment, and in the twinkling of an eye..".

And that is the simple truth.