Prayer – Lord Jesus, please give me wisdom and insight
to understand what will take place when we are “called up” to heaven.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge
crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that
slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run
with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes
on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy
awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in
the place of honor beside God's throne. ... You have not come to a physical
mountain, to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the
Israelites did at Mount Sinai. ... Moses himself was so frightened at the sight
that he said, "I am terrified and trembling." No, you have come to
Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. You have come to the
assembly of God's firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You
have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to
the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. You
have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and
people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of
crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel. Hebrews 12:1-2, 18,
21-24 (Underlined for emphasis.)
Meditate. Consider God and Jesus sitting on their thrones in
heaven and the worship that will occur there.
This passage above indicates that God’s first born are
assembled together. It does not use the word “church” because there will likely
be people who are part of “The Church” who are not first-born sons of God. Additionally,
it does not say that they were all raptured together. In fact, as I’ve searched
the scriptures, I didn’t find any definite passages that declared that “The
Church” as all raptured “harpazoed” together. This idea that The Church is all
going to go up into heaven together may not be scriptural. Let’s not be
deceived. Prove it. If you find a scripture passage that indicates that the
Church on earth is all raptured together, please email me at the address below
and share your comments on that passage with me…and anyone else who is interested.
I’ve been listening to an End Times Bible Study teacher,
Brenda Weltner, who instructs on YouTube that like the harvests of grains and fruit crops
there will be three harvests of people. Three raptures. In harvesting crops,
the first portion is the first fruits always presented to God. The second
portion of the harvest is the main harvest; and the third portion is the
gleanings which are the corners of the fields left for the poor and the strangers.
 |
| Wheat harvest in Israel |
The “harvest” of souls will be similarly done with the
first fruits being a select group offered to the Lord God—just as Jesus was
considered the First Fruits. These sons of God, firstborn, will be called up
and gathered into heaven first to serve God and Jesus, even as described in
this portion of scripture above from Hebrews 12. The second group of Christians
will be raptured after they are martyred during the tribulation.
Then one of the twenty-four
elders asked me, "Who are these who are clothed in white? Where did they
come from?" And I said to him, "Sir, you are the one who knows."
Then he said to me, "These are the ones who died in the great tribulation.
They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white. That
is why they stand in front of God's throne and serve him day and night in his
Temple. And he who sits on the throne will give them shelter.” Revelation
7:13-15
This means that God's
holy people must endure persecution patiently, obeying his commands and
maintaining their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying,
"Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes,
says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard
work; for their good deeds follow them!" Then I saw a white cloud, and
seated on the cloud was someone like the Son of Man. He had a gold crown on his
head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Then another angel came from the Temple
and shouted to the one sitting on the cloud, "Swing the sickle, for the
time of harvest has come; the crop on earth is ripe." So the one sitting
on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the whole earth was harvested.
Revelation 14:12-16
Another group will be the 144,000 Jews who will claim Jesus
as their Messiah.
Then I saw the Lamb
standing on Mount Zion, and with him were 144,000 who had his name and his
Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like
the roar of mighty ocean waves or the rolling of loud thunder. It was like the
sound of many harpists playing together. This great choir sang a wonderful new
song in front of the throne of God and before the four living beings and the
twenty-four elders. No one could learn this song except the 144,000 who had
been redeemed from the earth. Revelation 14:1-3
The whole earth was harvested…and then judged. Everyone
will have eternal life—some with God, and others who reject Jesus as Savior
will find themselves forever without God, in eternal damnation.
Then they will
reply, 'Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked
or sick or in prison, and not help you?' "And he will answer, 'I tell you
the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters,
you were refusing to help me.' "And they will go away into eternal
punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life." Matthew
25:44-46
Where will you spend eternity? With God? or Without Him?
Verse of Salvation ~ So we must listen very carefully to
the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. For the message God
delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law
and every act of disobedience was punished. So what makes us think we can
escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord
Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? Hebrews
2:1-3
© 2023 Text, photos, and illustrations by Mickey M. Hunacek. All
rights reserved.
All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless
otherwise noted.
New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale
House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream,
Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Biblical search from Blue Letter Bible - http://v3.blueletterbible.org/search.cfm.
Books by Mickey M.
Hunacek
Available as e-books or paperbacks at Amazon.com
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