Rapture and Tribulation Timing Until and Timing Between

So near and yet so far. The Rapture, the End. Right around the corner, any minute even, and yet time goes on and things keep getting worse until you wonder how bad it has to be before God lowers the boom. We're to be anxious for nothing, worried about nothing, just trusting in the LORD, but it's so hard when you know so many family and friends who keep resisting the gospel while time is getting so short. I get overwhelmed with how MUCH people would need to know to get through the Tribulation for instance, people who get saved then I mean of course. They know nothing now, nothing. The timing will be crucial and they don't know to look in the Book of Daniel or the Book of Revelation. I want them to become believers NOW so they don't have tgo deal with all that but so far it's not happening. I don't even know if they will become believers during the Tribulation either, I can only hope that events will be so startling it will force them to rethink things and get saved. ******************************************************************************************** Tomorrow? Next week? Next month? Year, years? I know we aren't to know but certain days always hit me as more likely than others because I keep thinking that since all the major evens of the coming of Jesus and the founding of the Church occurred on Jewish high holidays it makes sense that something as momenentous as the Rapture should also be marked by occurring on a special day in the biblical calendar. Of course it's foolish to guess but I'm foolish. The next date that seems likely to me is Palm Sunday, which this year is only a week away, on March 28. And Palm Sunday seems likely because that is the date on which the 69 weeks of Daniel's Seventy Weeks prophecy ended, with the announcement of Jesus' Messiahship. The full Seventy Weeks wree not fulfillable at that time, putting the seventieth week, or seven years, into the future. Time after that date is known as the Church Age, and when the last or seventieth week of the Seventy Weeks prophecy occurs it will be the last seven years before Jesus returns as Conquering King. We know the seventieth week will encompass the seven-year Tribulation period laid out in the Book of Revelation but we aren't told when it will begin. And since we aren't supposed to know the time I must be wrong about this, it just seems so fitting that since the prophecy left off on Palm Sunday the week before Jesus was crucified, that its last seven years might resume on the same date. Of course even if it did it wouldn't necessarily be this year.... ***************************************************************************************** Scripture tells us believerfs will not be taken by surprise but I don't know for sure what that means since if we have no warning at all it's going to be a surprise no matter when it happens. No warning other than all these signs we are seeing now I mean of course, signs that tell us it is close but not HOW close. Closer than before, but not HOW close. ******************************************************************************************** And the timing is even more complicated when it's not entirely clear whether the signs refer to the time before the Rapture or during the Tribultion. Most of the prophecy ministries these days insist that there will be NO signs before the Rapture, it will be a total surprise so they think the signs will occur during the Tribulation. I tend to see the Rapture as a phase of Jesus' Second Coming so signs could very well anticipate it. We won't know until we know. ******************************************************************************************************** I was just listening to the latest program of Jan Markell's Understanding the Times radio which is about what happens after the Rapture, for those who will be left behind and have to deal with it. As usual it's a good presentation but as usual it's the most popular view that I always differ from on a few points. ********************************************************************************************* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GS7KUa_sXA ******************************************************************************************* In this episode the speaker says how there may be a gap between the Rapture and the First Seal which begins the Tribulation Period, because some things according to the popular view are going to take time. For instance they think the Antichrist will not be revealed until the Tribulation begins, or even not until the midpoint of the Tribulation, and he will have to rise to power and make a covenant with Israel and all that will take time. So there might be a fairly long gap between the Rapture and the Seven Year Day of the LORD or Tribulation period. ********************************************************************************************* Unless the Antichrist is the papacy as the Protestant Reformers and hundreds of their predecessors said he is, using the very same scriptures to identify him as are now used to put off his revelation until after the beginning of the Tribulation. IF the Great Apostasy was the RC Church itself as the Reformers believes, and if the Restrainer that keps the Antichrist's identiy from being revealed was the Caesars as they also believed, then he's been revealed and the Restrainer is not the Holy Spirit. The current Pope needs little extra time. He's already well established as a world figure, he's participated in many international events. The end times religion doesn't need to be formed either, because the Roman Church itself is its foundation and the popes havbeen working for decades to include all the other religions of the world under its umbrella. No doubt some i's need to be dotted and some t's crossed but it looks to me like the stage is fully set already. If the popular scenario is true then it WILL take time, but not if the Reformation was right about the identity of the Antichrist. ********************************************************************************************* Altho8ugh there's nothing in scripture that requires the Rapture to be the trigger for the Tribulation that I know of, it just makes more sense for there to be a solid seven years between the Rapture as the first phase of Jesus' Second Coming and His return aftger the Tribulattion. The Church's time in heaven with Jesus should be a neat seven years just as the timing of the Tribulation is to be a neat seven years. I suspect there is biblical support for this but I'm not sure what it is. There was the idea that the seven years parallels the week a Bridegroom gives to his bride in marriage customs, but since the wedding feast doesn't occur until Jesus' final return this doesn't seem to work out. But I'm probably missing something. ***************************************************************************************** Anyway I'm still going with the Reformation view of the identify of the Antichrist. Time will tell.