The rapture and the tribulation is an event that will take place sometime in the near future.
1 Thess. 4:13-18-But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorr as others who have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Ye Know Neither the Day nor the Hour Vs 1260 days.
When we search the scriptures and read the passages describing of the Lord Jesus’ return, we find verses that tell us we won’t know the day and another that tell us we will know the day.
Mat 25:13-”Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
Rev 12:6-Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by
God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
The 1260 days start when the Antichrist stands in the Temple of God and declares himself to be God.
2 Thess. 2:3-4-Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
The Marriage Supper of the Lamb
Luke 12:35-40-”Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning;
and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them.
And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
We read about the marriage itself.
Rev 19:7-8-Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”
And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fme linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Before the marriage takes place, there is the marriage supper. According to Jewish custom, first the marriage contract is drawn up, often including a dowry.
When the time comes for the wedding to take place, the groom goes to the bride’s house unannounced, she comes out to meet him, and they both return to his father’s house.
Jesus the groom comes down from heaven, calls up the Church, the Church next rises into the air to meet Jesus, and then both lie and the bride return to the His Father’s house (heaven). The marriage supper itself will take place up in heaven, while down here on earth the final 7 years.
The People of the Millennium
If Christ were to come back after the tribulation, rapture all the saints, and slay all the ungodly; who would them be left to populate the millennium?
The Church is raptured before the tribulation, a vast number of souls are saved during this 7 year time frame, and those that make it through the tribulation will go into the millennium.
Rev 4:1-come up hither:
Many writers cite this as a prophetic reference to the rapture of the Church.
Revelation 1 through 3 is the Church Age.
Rev. 13:9-If anyone has an ear, let him hear
After the shout to “come up hither,” the Church is not mentioned in scripture at all. The attention of scripture switches from the Church to the Jews living in Israel.
The Time of Jacob’s Trouble
In a number of places, the Bible refers to the tribulation as a time of trouble for the Jews.
The phrase “Jacob’s trouble” pertains to the descendants of Jacob.
Jeremiah 30:7-Alas! For that day is great, So that none is like it; And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, But he shall be saved out of it.
Daniel 12: 1-”At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book.
Amos 5:18-19-Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, and not light.
It will be as though a man fled from a lion, And a bear met him! Or as though he went into the house, Leaned his hand on the wall, And a serpent bit him!
He That is Taken Out of the Way
2 Thess. 2:6-10-And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
For the mystery of lawlessness is afready at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
Before the Antichrist can be revealed, Paul said a certain, “He” must be taken out of the way. The “He” that must be removed, is widely thought to be the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been promised to never leave the Church.
