Summary of Bible references on the Rapture

Revelation 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ

When I was first starting to study the Bible as a new Christian I was taught that the book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ. It isn't the revelation of the Antichrist, or the Beast or frogs or killer asteroids. They really drilled that into me. But I didn't understand, so I said "Lord, I don't get it, if this is the revelation of You then why do you talk so much about all this other stuff?" When you don't understand something this is the best approach, pray about it.

So I was reminded of football. When I was in high school I was a very big football fan. Every week I would bet on the games which made me pay even more attention. I never lost money on any given week but I stopped when I realized I could lose money if people didn't pay up. Anyway, the reason I bring that up is I was always fascinated by upsets, what had I missed? This in turn got me fascinated with Joe Montana so I knew his whole story. I was no longer watching football on TV but I read about him.

In his story you can see him as an underdog who people didn't appreciate. So I focused to see how they could have missed how good he was when in hindsight it should have been apparent to all.

This brings me to my prayer about Revelation. The Lord pointed to all that and then asked me what the most compelling thing to me was about Joe Montana? My response was that He won four Superbowls against Hall of Fame quarterbacks. The reason Revelation tells us all that stuff is because we need to see that all those things are coming, we could never go into the ring against them, but Jesus can, Jesus destroys them. You can't get a real revelation of Jesus without seeing the ones that Jesus conquers.

How long is the "7 year tribulation" period? -- 2,300 days

There has been a lot of debate over the "tribulation" being 7 years long. This is a terribly confusing use of the word tribulation. Yes there will be tribulation during the end of the age but it is not ever called a seven year period. Instead what most people are calling "the tribulation" is either the seventieth week which is seven years or the period of time required to cleanse the sanctuary and Daniel tells us that takes 2,300 days. This is crucial because an entire edifice of eschatological theory hangs on this. I could go on and on to describe all the erroneous teachings that hang on this non Biblical point. But instead would simply point out the cleansing of the sanctuary means we are getting things ready for the coming of the king. So this 2300 days concludes on the Feast of Trumpets in 2031, ten days before the Day of Atonement. If you subtract 2300 days from that date you get June 1, 2025 which is Shavuot.

The feasts are a shadow of things to come, no doubt the Lord's feasts in the Old Testament give us a shadow of this cleaning up period. In order for the Jews to "clean up and get ready for the coming of the king" it all starts with the word of God that was given on Shavuot. Once this period of time is ready then they are ready to blow the trumpets to announce the coming of the king.

Now, this period of time fits nicely with the wedding in Cana. There are six water bottles standing there for the purification of a woman after having given birth. Jesus tells them to fill them to the brim. That represents six years of "tribulation" or "death water". That is then turned to wine when Jesus steps down to rescue the Jews on Shavuot, 2031. That is precisely 2,000 years after He ascended on Shavuot. Hosea 6:2 says He returns to enliven the Jews after two days. When He does step down to save them the time of cleaning up is still not over, we still need the battle of Armageddon. Yes, the Christians and the Jews have been saved but the rebellious ones need to be dealt with.

According to Revelation the rapture is before the hour of trial. After the trial the Christians are convicted, hunted down, persecuted and beheaded. So there will be a few months for Antichrist to be revealed, received and then the honeymoon will be over on Shavuot. The wedding of Cana depicts a shotgun wedding where the bride has already had a child. That is the rapture. The woman who is persecuted refers to those being forced to take the Antichrist. The Lord tells us the end from this beginning of signs. So from the rapture to Shavuot you could describe those in the world as "having no wine to drink". No rejoicing, no singing, no dancing, no feasting. But the beheading will likely not start until Shavuot. That is the beginning of six water pots filled to the brim with the death waters.

Dream: 'Tell My People Sudden Destruction Is Coming' and a Vision of the Rapture