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  As prophecy unfolds around us today; as we study the “End of Days”; as we see what is going to happen in the future and what is happening Right Now ~ the question arises “What about the Church?” “What about our Hope?”.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:3-5 NASB

 Part of that hope, at least for many True Believers; is what is called the “Rapture of the Church or the 'Bride of Christ'”. We're going to explore this phenomenon along with related “End of Days” and prophetic aspects. Keep an open mind; be prepared to have some of your traditional understanding challenged; and as always ~ you decide for yourself if you want to accept what I present.

Then For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 NASB

 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him,

2 Thessalonians 2:1 NASB

 Let's look at two phrases in these verses: in 1 Thessalonians Paul uses the phrase “caught up together” and in 2 Thessalonians he uses the phrase “our gathering together”. Both of these passages describe what we commonly refer to as the “Rapture”. That one time special event of the sudden and unexpected return of Jesus in the air to receive His Bride to Himself; as we are told in 1 Cor. 15:50-53, we are changed instantaneously from this corrupted, sinful flesh to an incorruptible, immortal and sinless glorified body and enter the Throne Room of Heaven, the Temple of God. {Rev. 4}

 We're going to get into more detail about the Rapture directly, but first I want to look at something related to the Rapture concerning those who have died in the Lord; Born Again Believers who have passed away and their role in the Rapture scenario. This is what Paul was addressing when he explained about the Rapture or “Catching Away” of the Church in Thessalonians.

Most preachers; who believe in the rapture, teach that when the Rapture occurs those Born Again Believers who have died, or as Paul says ~are Asleep in the Lord; those Believers will rise from the dead first, obtain their Glorified Body, meet Jesus in the air; and then the True Believers who are still alive on the earth will be changed in the twinkling of an eye and be caught up to be with Jesus in the air.

 1 Thess. 4:15 ~ “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 not precede those who have fallen asleep.”

16b-17 ~ “and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”

These are the main scripture references that teachers use to validate this. I've heard many prophecy teachers talking about how God will retrieve the dead on that day from the sea and graves bringing their bodies back together using DNA and other methods; only to transform them into their glorified body to meet Jesus in the air.

 Now I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with this belief; I'm not arguing with those who ascribe to this belief; and I'm certainly not condemning or criticizing anyone who believes this.

As I have said about some other concepts and ideas that have been presented in studying and understanding God Word, this is not something your salvation will hinge upon. It's just something I wanted to show you concerning what tradition has taught us and how that may not always be what God's Word actually teaches.

 First of all, I believe that God's Word teaches us that the End Times, the Last Days began when Jesus was resurrected from the grave and ascended into heaven to take His place at the right hand of the Father as our High Priest. There are many scriptures to back this up and most prophecy teachers do agree with this. Jesus consistently pointed out that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand ~ the Greek meaning here denotes that the Kingdom of Heaven was imminent; it was going to happen in the immediate future.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 When Paul is reassuring the Church at Thessalonica, he is letting them know that their loved ones who pass away before the coming of the Lord are taken care of and are with the Lord. See, you have to understand the thinking of the early Church ~ they believed that the return of Jesus was imminent; they were going to be raptured in their lifetime and those who died before the rapture would miss it.

 Because we are in the Last Days and have been since Jesus rose from the dead and the fact that Paul states in

 When we look at just those scriptures used to teach that at the rapture God resurrects the bodies of those who have already died and gives them their glorified body and they meet Jesus in the air, then those who remain are caught up, changed and meet with them in the air; we don't have the full picture or understanding of what Paul is trying to tell them.

  Then the Scriptures go on and explain about how the dead in Christ will rise first. Of course they do! When you die in the Lord, you are RAPTURED! Paul is telling believers that those who die in the Lord are not going to miss the rapture, they are in fact going to experience the rapture upon their death in this world. You don't have to wait to be with Jesus, you are immediately in His presence!

Verse 15 clearly states that those who have died in the Lord will be coming with Him when He comes to get those who are still alive. They won't have to be raptured and reunited with their corruptible bodies to be changed into their glorified bodies; they are already there, they've already been raptured!

This is also why I believe that when the living are raptured, their physical bodies will remain here on earth, an empty shell; and not taken up, disappearing from the earth.

 Gen. 2:7 states: Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground,

Psalm 103:14: For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.

 Ecclesiastes 3:20: All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust.

 Ecclesiastes 12:5b-7: For man goes to his eternal home while mourners go about in the street. Remember Him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

  Gen. 3:19 states: By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”

 The key to understanding all this; is to understand that the End Times began some 2000 years ago and has been and is an ongoing process with End Times Prophecy being fulfilled faster and faster as we approach the time when the Father tells the Son to go fetch His Bride and we are all complete, together with Him and the saints who have preceded us to Glory!

 You don't have to believe this! This is my understanding of what the Scriptures teach. If you want to believe that your physical body is taken up in the Rapture and changed to an incorruptible body on your way to meet Jesus in the air ~ that certainly is not out of the realm of God's ability ~ He is God! He can do anything; anyway that He wants! Your Salvation does not hinge on whether or not one believes that this physical body is taken in the Rapture or left here on this earth.

 Your Salvation hinges only on the Blood of Jesus and the Cross of Calvary; your acceptance of His redemptive act; repentance; and acknowledgment of Jesus as the Son of the Living God come to earth in the flesh, suffered and died for our sins, was buried and rose again on the third day victorious over sin, death, hell and the grave, and is sitting on the right hand of the Father interceding on our behalf before Almighty God.

 Now, so far we have made the assumption that everyone is in agreement on the Rapture; and despite the scriptures that support the concept of a pre-Tribulation Rapture, there are some who do not believe in the Rapture and in fact, believe it to be false doctrine.

Before we get into it any further, let me just say that believing in the Rapture or not believing in the Rapture is not going to affect your salvation. It might affect your hope, knowing that we have a reward promised to us by God and thus making it easier to stand fast in the Faith and overcome the evil of this present world; but it won't keep you from being saved, won't cause you to lose your salvation, nor will it keep you from going up in the Rapture when it happens. Just because you don't believe in something, doesn't make it untrue. Truth is truth whether you chose to believe it or not. I believe that there are plenty of Scriptures to support the Rapture of the Church.

 I've used the word “Rapture” to describe this event; that's the English word and those who argue against the Rapture usually come at from this standpoint ~ the word “Rapture” cannot be found in the Bible and therefore it is not a doctrinal teaching and is false.

Of course neither is the word “Trinity”, nor the phrase “Second Coming”, nor “Millennial Reign”. None of these are found in the English Translation of the Bible and yet are generally accepted by those who deny the Rapture. Listen, we need to understand that God's Word was not written in English, it was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and a dab of Chaldean. Translation into English is based upon the understanding of English at the time it is translated, which changes over the years. Even in the English Translations there are differences in words that are used because the present meaning of the word is not the same as the historic meaning of the word. Demon, for example, is not found in the King James translation; but is found in the NIV. And then only in the New Testament, never in the Old Testament; because it is derived from the Greek root meaning “to have a devil, or a little god” and from where we get our modern word “demon”; which in itself was not a word when the New Testament was written.

 Another problem with the Rapture event that some have, and use in denying the Rapture, is that they have been convinced that the “Rapture” teaching started in 1830 when Margaret MacDonald had a revelation in Port Glasgow, Scotland; that a select group of Christians would be caught up to meet Christ in the air before the days of the Antichrist and there would be two separate appearances of the Lord; one secret just for believers to know about and the other the whole world would see.

 However, when you do the research and really dig into the origins of Rapture teaching you'll find that Dr. John Gill, a preeminent Baptist minister and theologian used the word Rapture for the catching away of the Church in the 1700's; There was a Jesuit Catholic Priest in the 1600's who believed in the Rapture; and when the Greek Orthodox Church had some of their scrolls translated from Greek into English, they found some writings from the fourth century by Saint Ephraim the Syrian who wrote in a treatise about the Antichrist called “The Cave of the Treasures” specifically taught that Jesus would take His children before the 7 year Tribulation period: "For all the saints and the Elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins."

 Let's explore the concept of the Rapture and see exactly what God's Word does say concerning this unique event.

Jesus alludes to the Rapture in Matt. 24 when He talks about the unexpectedness of it and how one will be taken and the other left.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53: 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 incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible must put on the incorruptible, and this mortal must put on immortality.

And remember our Scripture Reference at the beginning: Then For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.   1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 NASB

Notice the phrase here; “Caught up together”:

The Greek phrase here means to be seized, plucked up, taken by force all at the same time. ***Sounds like the definition of Rapture to me! In fact, history tells us that when St. Jerome was translating the bible from Greek into Latin in the 4^th century he came to this passage and searched for a word or phrase to translate “caught up together” and came up with the Latin word “repare” which means to be caught up or lifted up; from which we get the word “Rapture”!

  Okay, look at one more important foundational concept before we move on........

 

  So here in these three scripture passages, we have what the Rapture is all about:

1 Thess. 4:16-17 we see the suddenness, the quickness, the unexpectedness of the Rapture.

Ephesians 1:10 we see that the gathering together in one; the bringing together of the Bride of Christ, the Body of Christ all summed up together is the Unity of the Rapture.

2 Thessalonians 2:1 We see the assembling of the Bride of Christ, the Body of Christ all together complete in Him is the Promise of the Rapture.

You see, the Rapture of the Church is not just about being suddenly taken out; it's about gathering the Family of God in Heaven and Earth all together in one place all together as one family.

 It's about the Assembling Together of the whole family of God; the Old Testament Saints and the New Testament Saints brought together, completed, perfected in Christ Jesus; the Bride of Christ, the Body of Christ assembled together with those who died before the first coming of Jesus the Messiah.

  Let's look now at Hebrews Chapter 11. Remember as we look at the Bible, even though we might see Chapters and verses, when this was written; there were no Chapters or verses, this was a letter written in continuous form. The concepts contained in Chapter 11 are continued into Chapter 12. That's why we must look before and after selected verses to make sure we are not missing the context in which the verse was written; we must determine where one train of thought begins and where it ends.

 So if we look at Chapter 11, we see what is

 There were many more heroes of faith before the coming of Christ, and much more could be written about them. Only a small sampling is given, representing all types of men and women of faith. The great quality they had in common was that of overcoming “through faith”.

 These all died in the Faith without receiving the Promise! They knew that there was a Promise ~ look at verse 13:

 The writer of Hebrews emphasizes it again in verse 39 - 40:

And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. {NASB}

Again, the Amplified Bible states it like this:

And all of these, though they won divine approval by [means of] their faith, did not receive the fulfillment of what was promised,

Because God had us in mind and had something better and greater in view for us, so that they [these heroes and heroines of faith] should not come to perfection apart from us [before we could join them].

Now, understand that the Greek word here for “Perfect” or “Perfection” does not mean that we are without fault. It means that we are complete, fulfilled, finished, consummated, consecrated.

 See the writer, which many believe was the Apostle Paul, is saying that the Saints of God are not complete without all His Children being brought together as one! The Old Testament Saints saw the Promise afar off, they knew that there was more than they were experiencing waiting for them in the future.

That's why when they died, they didn't go to Heaven, they didn't see the Throne Room of God. They went to a place called “Paradise”. Remember the story of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus? When they died, they went to “Hades” ~ “The Place of the Dead”. It is separated into two parts by a huge chasm that cannot be crossed; the rich man was in a place of torment ~ Hell; and Lazarus was in Abraham's Bosom ~ Paradise.

  Even Jesus had to go there first!

Matt. 12:40 {NASB}~ for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

 In other words, from the first man Adam until the thief on the cross, every righteous person went to Paradise and every unrighteous person went to Hell; both located in a place called Hades, believed to be in the bowels of the Earth. Now, I personally believe that Hades, Hell, and the now empty Paradise are located in another spiritual dimension that is accessible through portals that are located inside the Earth...... but that's another teaching altogether.

 And Ephesians 4:9 {NASB}~ (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?

  So all these men and women of Faith listed by the writer of Hebrews went to Paradise never having seen the Promised City, never having seen the Glory of the Throne Room of God, never having seen the Heavenly Temple; but knowing that it was there, knowing that the Promise they trusted in would soon be accomplished; but as Hebrews says ~ never having received the promise.

When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, he went to these saints of old and presented Himself as the Lamb of God slain on their behalf to receive the fulfillment of the Promise. He strode into Paradise and announced “It is Finished” “ I'm here to bring you home! You're about to receive the Promise!”

 When Jesus rose from the dead, after three days in the grave; He brought with Him all the Saints of old; setting them free from the bondage of sin and death and leading them into Glory with Him as he ascended unto the Heavenly Temple.

The Power of His Resurrection brought out the Righteous of God and Raptured them into heaven with Him. So powerful was the Power of His Resurrection that some of the saints were temporarily reunited with their bodies from the grave as they passed through this plane of existence on their way to Heaven; and were seen walking in the city ~ According to Matt. Chapter 27:52-53.

So now all these saints are in Heaven looking down on us waiting for us to come home and be made complete ~ perfected with them according to the Promise of God. Remember, according to God's Word here in Hebrews, they are not perfected without us!

 Hebrews is taking us through a Prophetic time line ~ first presenting the Saints of Old and their Faithfulness, not having received the Promise but anticipating it; next Jesus begins the fulfillment of the Promise, taking the Old Testament Saints from Paradise to Heaven to await their perfection and providing for us the Guarantee of the Promise to help us live this life on earth as we await our reward; providing encouragement and direction for us to live a life worthy of receiving the same reward promised to the saints of old, being made perfect united together in Christ Jesus in His Heavenly Home; and finally we come to verse 22 of Hebrews Chapter 12 where we are looking into the future and seeing the Promise fulfilled.

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, {NASB}

 See, right now the Saints of old are in Heaven waiting for us to be resurrected from the dead or raptured out of this world so that we can be made perfect; because according to Hebrews, they cannot be perfected without us and we are not perfected without them ~ we've got to enter that city, we've got to be brought together with all God's Family ~ the Family of God in Heaven and the Family of God on earth have to be united together as one in Christ Jesus ~ According to Ephesians 1:10; Amplified Bible.[He planned] for the maturity of the times and the climax of the ages to unify all things and head them up and consummate them in Christ, [both] things in heaven and things on the earth.

 Okay, now let's look back up to Hebrews 12:22-24:

 Look again at verse 22: But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven,

This is Mount Zion in Heaven, not Mount Zion on earth; it is the Heavenly Jerusalem, not the earthly Jerusalem; this takes place in Heaven before the Millennial Reign, before the New Jerusalem descends to earth ~ this is the General Assembly of the Church of the First Born ~ who's the “First Born”? Jesus is the First Born of the dead; the first born of the resurrection; Jesus is the Head of the Church; it's His Church; He is the first fruits of the resurrection.

  Colossians 1:18 NASB~ Referring to Jesus - He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, So the Church of the First Born is the Church of Jesus; born again, true believers, saints of God.

 Paul puts it another way in 1 Corinthians 15:20 where he is discussing the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of the dead. He uses the Hebraic term “first fruits” for “firstborn”; referencing the Jewish Festival of First Fruits ~ the day Jesus rose from the grave as the firstborn of the resurrection was on the Jewish Festival of First Fruits.

 Notice the progression here:But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits,{Christ is risen from the dead first, without His resurrection there is no other resurrection} after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,{these are the saints who die in the Lord; for they are already Christ's when He comes, and the Rapture of the Church who remains when Jesus comes to gather us home.}thencomes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. {this is the “Tribulation Period”}For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.{ this is the Millennial Reign.}

 What I want to talk about here is the concept of “First Fruits”. See, by understanding this Hebraic Connection, we can better understand what God's Word is telling us in the New Testament; they knew what Paul was referring to when he talked about “first fruits”, they understood the implication of what he was saying, they understood the correlation between New Testament teachings and the Hebraic lifestyle; they understood that there were prophetic ties with Jewish feasts and celebrations.

 During the “Feast of First Fruits”, the priest would go into the field and take the first part of the ripened barley, go back to the temple, offer up a lamb, then present the first fruits to God.

  Remember, it was on an early Sunday morning; the first day of the week, Resurrection Day, when Jesus appeared to Mary and told her not to cling to Him because He had not yet ascended to the Father. This was the day of First Fruits which in this particular year, according to the plan of God, fell on the third day following Passover, fulfilling the prophecy of Jesus being three days in the bowels of the earth!

 Jesus is raised from the dead on the day of First Fruits when the priest has gathered the first fruit of the barley harvest and is at the Temple preparing to sacrifice before God and present God with the First Fruits ~ Jesus is about to ascend into Heaven with the first fruits of the Resurrection, the Old Testament saints, and present Himself before God; the Lamb Sacrificed for the sins of the world, sanctify the Altar of God in the Holy Temple of God in Heaven with His blood and present Himself as the first fruits of the resurrection along with the Saints of Old.

 Jesus told Mary “I ascend”; this is not a reference to His ascension 40 days later; in the Greek this verb is in the immediate tense; it was happening now or going to happen right away. Understand, Jesus had to go to the Temple and sanctify the Heavenly Temple with His Blood in order that we might come and dwell with Him, that where He is, we might be also. Without the sanctification of Heaven's Temple, made Holy again by the shed blood of Jesus as the Lamb of God; we would not be able to be there with Him, the saints of the Old Testament would not be able to be there with Him ~ you see, the precious, perfect, atoning Blood of Jesus not only paid the debt for our sins and the sins of mankind from the beginning of creation until the end of ages, it was also; according to the Word of God, sprinkled on the Altar, the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant, and all the instruments of God's Heavenly Temple to purify it, to sanctify it, to make it Holy; because it was there in Heaven that sin began with Lucifer and without the purification and sanctification of the Heavenly Temple, man could not enter into Heaven. God was not going to bring mankind into the place where sin began without purifying it and making it holy.

 Jesus presented Himself as the First Fruits and according to God the offering of First Fruits before Him sanctified the Field, the field becomes Holy. That's why the saints of the Old Testament had to go to Paradise and couldn't go to Heaven, that's why they had to wait for Jesus to come and lead them to Heaven, Heaven had to be sanctified and it was through the Blood of Jesus and Jesus presenting Himself as the first fruits of the resurrection that sanctified the field of Heaven and opened the door for us to go to Heaven and there to be where Jesus is; this is why when we die in the Lord, we now go to Heaven; this is why we who are alive when the fulfillment of God's timetable occurs, are able to be Raptured into His presence and be brought together with those who have already gone to be with the Lord and the Old Testament Saints ~ being made complete, perfected together as the Church of the First Born at the Great Assembly in Heaven!

 Paul calls it the “General Assembly” in Greek, but the Hebraic phraseology is the “Great Assembly”. Remember where Chapter 12 of Hebrews started ~ the implication is that of a great amphitheater of a track and field event; a huge gathering together; in this case of the Church of the First Born; all having run the race and finished the course.

Verse 23 implies a universal companionship in a mass meeting.

In 2 Thessalonian 2:1, Paul refers to a gathering together which in the Greek implies a complete collection; a meeting for worship; assembling together.

When Paul writes about the “General Assembly”; the understanding of the time was that of the “Great Assembly” at the Temple.

 In the Book of Revelation, Chapter 5, at the beginning of the seven year tribulation there is a seven seal book and a voice asks who is worthy to open the book; John is told that the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome to open the book and John turned and saw a Lamb.

 John saw Him as a Lamb, because it was as the Lamb slain that He became worthy to open the book. There are two pictures of Jesus; the Lion and the Lamb ~ The Lion of the Tribe of Judah denotes His Kingly position ; the Lamb is His Priestly Position. Jesus came first as the Lamb but He's coming back the second time as the Lion of Judah. In Revelation, at the beginning of the seven year Tribulation, in Heaven, He is the Lion ~ identifying Him as the King!

 Trumpets were used for various signals and in festivals throughout the history of Israel; not just the shofar ~ the rams horn or the antelope horn, but also silver trumpets and a gold trumpet.

 Look at Numbers 10:1 NASBThe LORD spoke further to Moses, saying, “Make yourself two trumpets of silver, of hammered work you shall make them; and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for having the camps set out.

 Paul says in Corinthians 15 that we shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye at the sound of the Last Trump; if there's a last trump, there has to be a first. There are two silver trumpets; One trumpet will wake you up, and when the next one sounds, you're going up! The symbolism of the two silver trumpets of Numbers is found in the Rapture of the Church!

 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, “ IF EVEN A BEAST TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN, IT WILL BE STONED.” And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “ I AM FULL OF FEAR and trembling.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

  The trumpet is going to sound an assembly on Mount Zion in the Heavenly City of God; an assembly of the righteous who are made perfect in Christ Jesus ~ the Church of the First Born!

  This is the Hope of our Salvation! This is the Rapture of the Church. The Great Assembly in Heaven; remember, this event takes place every seven years on earth and the king shows up to take part in the assembly. So here we are in Heaven at the first Great Assembly in Heaven; there will be another one in seven years after the tribulation when Jesus will return to earth. Jesus shows up as the King of Kings, the Lion of Judah ~ the king, in the earthly assembly, blows a gold trumpet.

The two trumpets of the Rapture are silver ~ silver is the metal for redemption; the king's trumpet is gold ~ gold represents the Divinity of God.

 Now we're going to go to Revelation Chapter 4. After Jesus finishes addressing the Church in Chapter 3, it is not mentioned again in Revelation. The “Ekklesia” ~ the Called Out ~ the Church is never mentioned again in the Book of Revelation.

Revelation 4:1 NASB -After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “ Come up here,

 This is a prophetic image of the Rapture of the Church and the voice of Jesus like a Gold Trumpet will sound to initiate the Great Assembly of the Saints in Glory, united with the Saints of Old and all those who have died and gone to be with the Lord; we will all be together in the Great Assembly made perfect ~ that is to be completed and made whole as the Bride of Christ without spot or blemish and united with Jesus for ever in Glory.

 That's the Rapture of the Church. I hope and pray that you have at least a little better understanding of the Rapture and what it holds for the Believer and what it's all about. We are on the Edge of Eternity. Jesus is coming soon. Look up for your redemption draweth nigh.

 

 Paul clearly teaches in these passages that when believers die they are with Christ and apart from the body; so that the situation of believers after death is no longer living in their mortal bodies, rather they are with Christ in some kind of conscious presence fellowshipping with Jesus.  I believe..... already in their glorified bodies in the same state as Jesus.  Why do I think this?