Have you ever heard of the tribulation saints? There are teaching that there will be believers who will not be raptured when Jesus returns to take his church home. They received Jesus as the Lord and Savior after the other saints are Raptured. These are the saint that were left behind.
These tribulation saints will suffer the coming of the beast and the anti-Christ who will be forcing everyone to worship the image of the beast and take it’s number or be killed but these saints will refuse to obey them and will be martyred because of their faith in Jesus.
So, these tribulation saints were never part of the church, the body of Christ. Scripture teaches when anyone believes in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they become one of his saints they become one in his body, his church.
The Bible teaches that all the saints are chosen by God before creation. God knew all who would be one with his Son making them one with his body, becoming his children, his family.
Why would a loving merciful God only rapture selected saints and not all his children? Why would we want our brothers and sisters to be left behind to suffer the tribulation and not be willing to suffer with them? I cannot see the love of Jesus wanting them to be left behind. I would not feel blessed to be raptured and know my brothers and sisters are left behind. Even Paul felt this way for his Jewish family who did not believe in Jesus. God said he does not show any favoritism so he would not favor some saints and leave others behind.
All the saints by the same faith are washed by the blood of Christ and saved by God’s grace and become worthy to receive eternal life and go with Jesus when he returns and be with him forever. So, Jesus wants all his saints to be ready for what the beast and the anti-Christ will do to them.
The 1st beast will be given power to conquer the saints.
Revelations 13: 7 He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them.
The 2nd beast, the ant-Christ will force people to worship the beast and take his number if they want to live.
Revelations 13:15 He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16 He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17 so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.
The saints in the time of the anti-Christ will be conquered like the early Christians who were martyred for their faith in Jesus.
Hebrews 11: 35 Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated- 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. 39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Hebrews said God’s planned something better for them that only together with us we would made perfect in Christ this is when we are raptured together and receive our spiritual body and be with Jesus forever. Hebrews said “together” which includes the tribulation saints.
Jesus will test us to see if our faith is genuine to see what type of the 4 soils we have by putting us through the different storms God has willed for us to strengthen our faith in him.
2 Corinthians 13: 5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test?
So that our faith in Christ will remain steadfast in the hope we have in him to be ready to die for him if we are called to be one of the saints in the time of the Great Tribulation.
God warns what will happen to those who willingly give in and worship the beast and takes his mark.
Revelations 14: 9 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, 10 he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name."
The third angel also tell the saints to do.
Revelations 14: 12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus. 13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them."
Because we are foretold of what God will do the saints need to patiently endure patiently during the tribulation because God’s justice will be done in the end.
He also said that the saints who die from now on are blessed because they will not go through the great tribulation. It did not say they would be raptured before it.
Jesus promises this to the church of Philadelphia in Revelations 3, when he said he would keep them from the hour of the trial that was coming. They all died before the great tribulation.
So, when will the rapture come? It will be during the tribulation when the number of saints that God has determined is martyred.
Revelations 6: When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" 11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.
When that number of saints that God has determined to be martyred during the tribulation then Jesus will be told by his Father to go and harvest his saints both dead and alive.
Revelations 14: 14 I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one "like a son of man" with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, "Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe." 16 So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.
This is the rapture the harvesting is the gathering of the saints which Jesus teaches which will be during the tribulation in:
Matthew 24: 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now--and never to be equaled again. 22 If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. 24 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect--if that were possible. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.
So, during the tribulation God will cut short the time when the anti-Christ can kill the saints so not all the saints will be killed but will be raptured.
Matthew 24: 29 "Immediately after the distress of those days " 'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.' 30 "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. 36"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
Here in Matthew, Jesus said he did not know when to gather the saints only his Father knows. That is why we read in Revelation 14 the one that look like the Son of Man is Jesus who was told by the angel sent by his Father to go and reap and harvest his saints. To rapture them.
Jesus tells what some believers will be doing because they were not being ready for when he returns.
Matthew 24: 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. 42 "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
Jesus said in verse 25 that he is telling us this ahead of time so that we will be ready if we are chosen to be one of the saints who will go through the tribulation.
If we believe that we will be raptured before the tribulation we will not be ready and prepared to give our life for Jesus. We will be unprepared like those people before the flood who were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day.
Jesus wants us to be ready.
Matthew 14: 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
Every church leader will be held responsible by Jesus to prepare His servants for his return by teaching them ahead of time what He said is coming before he returns and teach them how to love God so that they will have a faith that is willing to give up their life to have an eternal life with the Father and the Son.
Matthew 14: 45"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.
So, let me encourage you to remain steadfast in your sincere devotion to Jesus our Lord and to always be ready to surrender your life for him by having the same faith as the martyr Stephen who was ready to die for Jesus and saw Jesus standing up for him in heaven welcoming home because he loved Jesus more that his life on earth.
Be ready because the Rapture is when all the saints are called home and not just some.
Be safe in Jesus, Ps. Glenn.