As the time draws nearer for the Rapture, questions seem to be flying around with many different ideas about it. They range from outright denial that there will be a Rapture, to confusion between its timing and that of the Great Tribulation. Some believe Tribulation will come first, and that Jesus will only take His faithful ones to Heaven at His Second Coming after the Tribulation. There is also discussion on whether the rapture will be silent as depicted in the fictional series “Left Behind” where people suddenly disappear with no warning and those left are in shock and wonderment.
Here is what will happen and the sequence, as given in the Bible, and revealed by Jesus to some of His faithful. Jesus has told those with whom He communicates that the Rapture will be very soon. No one will know the exact day or hour until He arrives. Jesus states that He will be coming in the clouds to take His “Children” to Heaven. He will come with trumpets and loud acclamation and everyone on earth will realize that something of great consequence is happening. (Rev, 1:7 & 1 Thes. 4:15-17) The first taken up will be the spirits and souls of those who have already died but who had accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They will be given new bodies in the air. After these souls are raised up, He will call up those who are still alive that have accepted his wonderful offer of salvation. They also will get new bodies. There will be great concern, to put it mildly, among those left behind. (Luke 13:22-30) This is NOT His second coming as He will not touch the earth. His second coming is after the Great Tribulation.
Then the Great Tribulation begins. Some believe that the calamities that have already been occurring are a part of the tribulation or a fore-runner of it. This is probably true, but the Great Tribulation is promised to be terrible and nothing like it has occurred before or will happen again. (Rev. 6, 16:16-20 & Mark 13:19) (see also Matthew 24, Luke 21 & 2 Peter 3).
In the first part of this Great Tribulation the world will witness what seems to be the answer to its problems. A man who may already be alive will come to the front as the world leader. He will promise two main things -- world peace and one religion that all can accept. His program will sound so good that he will be acclaimed as the world leader. He will sign an agreement with the Jews to allow them to build their long sought temple. This agreement will later be broken. The Great Tribulation will last seven years and the above will occur during the first half.
After this man who is really the Anti-Christ has consolidated his rule, he will display great miracles using the power Satan gives him. He will even resurrect from the dead. This will convince many that he is really God and people will begin his worship. Then he will build a statue of himself and require everyone to worship it. Those who agree will be asked to accept his mark, the mark of Satan, on their arm or forehead, or perhaps have a microchip implanted under their skin. His mark is the number “666”. (Rev 2:10-12, 13:11-18, 14:9-13)
Everyone who refuses his mark and does not worship him will be first denied the right to buy anything. Their money will be useless. Their foreheads will be marked with the cross of our Lord and great hardship will begin for them. Then they will be persecuted without mercy and those who still refuse Satan’s mark will eventually be killed, probably beheaded. But these will be raised up as saints in Heaven. Those accepting Satan’s mark will be with him forever and suffer his fate. (Rev 14-1, 11-13)
Some believe that those who do not pledge their lives to our Lord before the Rapture will not be given a second chance. I believe that some people will indeed be given a second chance during the Great Tribulation. That is if they pledge their lives to Christ, ignore the lies of Satan promising everlasting life and if they refuse to follow the evil one, and do endure his tortures. (Rev 14:9-13; Rev 20:4-6, Rev 7)
It will be possible for you to still make it to Heaven if you refuse to pledge to Satan. Dr. David Jeremiah has said: “There will be multitudes of people who find themselves in a fix. They will have failed to believe on Jesus Christ before the Rapture, and they find themselves enduring the pain of enduring tribulation on earth. But hopefully they will not fail to call out to God for salvation. We know that many will call upon Him, bases on the multitudes “of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues” the apostle John saw in heaven – those who had “come out of the great tribulation” (Revelations 7:9, 14). Even if they lose their life via persecution on earth, their eternal life is secure. God always delivers those He saves.”
Then massive wars and destruction of the earth begins. One part will take place in an area called Armageddon. The Anti-Christ will muster armies from the east, likely China, to assemble and try to destroy the Jews in Jerusalem. The battles will rage in the Armageddon area next to Israel. The huge armies of the east will be confronted with armies of God and soundly defeated. Millions of these warriors will be killed. Also the Bible seems to point to Russia as attacking Israel with their mighty air force intending to drop atomic bombs. God will destroy these planes before they can drop any bombs. All of this terrible turmoil and destruction will occur during the second half of the seven-year Great Tribulation. (Rev 16:16, 20:9)
Also during this time the earth will suffer further disaster almost too horrible to imagine. It will be far worse than depicted even in some science-fiction films. Whole cities will be destroyed. Possibly some of this will be with atomic weapons. The major part of the destruction of mankind will be the work of the Lord’s wrath because of the horrible sins of the world. Over one-half of the world’s population will be killed, and much of the heavily populated areas of the earth will be scrap heaps. Will those destroyed only be the unrepentant sinners? I do not know but it is an interesting question. However sometime during the tribulation all of the wicked will be killed or die of plagues. After the millennium these will be raised to life for their final judgment, which will be Hades forever. (Rev 16:17-21)
After these terrible times are over, God will begin to rebuild the earth and eventually locate a New Jerusalem where many of His saints and faithful ones will live. There will be a Millennium of 1000 years during which Satan will be bound and Christ will rule. The righteous will reign with Him. This New Jerusalem is already built in Heaven and simply will descend to earth. The earth will ultimately be restored to a state far better than it ever was. Possibly the majority of saved people will live in a wonderful area in Heaven. It is large enough with enough housing to accommodate all who will ever go there. Does all of this sound too good to be true? We need not doubt anything that God will do -- didn’t He create the earth and the universe and everyone and everything in it? (Rev 21:1-2,10-27)
Heaven is ready for us and our wonderful Lord has already built housing and developed a Heaven that is beautiful beyond imagination. We will live there forever with God, unless He sends us to help Him on earth or somewhere in the universe. Heaven is something that we should look forward to with great joy. We won’t be sitting around on a cloud strumming a harp, but working actively to make it better. There will be plenty to do and enjoy with recreation facilities far beyond anything on earth. We will relish new kinds of fruit and there will be gorgeous flowers and other beauty. Some of the food will be the kinds we enjoy on earth, but also varieties we do not know. In short, it will be true Paradise. (Isaiah65:17, 66:22). Our bodies will be new but will be recognizable to those who knew us, but mature adults will look younger.
Many mistakenly believe that they have to earn Heaven by doing good deeds and living an exemplary life. This is false. We cannot earn our way into Heaven; it is a free gift from God. We only have to pledge our lives to Jesus Christ and accept Him as our Lord and Savior. He will forgive all the sins that we confess to Him and make us into a “new person”. Then we will want to do good deeds and live in the way Jesus desires for our lives. (John 14:6, 1 John 1:9, Titus 3:3-8, Rev 3:3-6, 10-13)
Should you believe that the above sequence is how it will happen? The Bible deals with all of this. Sometimes sorting it out is a challenge. I am only a servant of our precious Lord, but the essence of this message came from God. On Sunday evening September 27th I was prompted by something just read. I wondered about some of the sequence depicted in a little booklet. So I quickly went over these coming events in my mind. I then asked God if my understanding of them was correct. Three times He confirmed that the above is the sequence in which the Rapture and the Tribulation will take place. The events have been described in the Bible (note the above references).The details have been written by others in more detail, but I believe this message captures important things we need to know.