1 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open
in heaven! And the first voice which I had heard addressing me like [the
calling of] a war trumpet said, Come up here, and I will show you what must
take place in the future.
·
A door represents separation. Division between God and man. But here
the door is open, so we are shown here that there is no more separation between our Father and man.
· A trumpet represents a loud proclamation. We are going to be shown the
Truth in its entirety, as Jesus told us that we would in Chapter 1 of Revelation.
·
Our peace and joy is that our Lord
and Savior, Jesus, always wants us to know what is going on. He does this
because we are His body and as He told us, we aren’t just His servants, we are
His friends. Jesus even began the Book of Revelation by telling John that He
was about to show him all of the things that were to come in their entirety. Jesus
wants us to know our Father completely; He wants us to know the complete Truth
that will set us free, John 17:26.
Jesus wants us to know His full will for our lives, John 16:13, and our place in the Kingdom of Heaven. Our Father
wants us to know just how dear we are to Him and how that He is unwilling to be
without us.
·
Jesus absolutely knew what was going
on in the Kingdom of Heaven when He was here on the earth as a man and He
completely knew our Fathers will for Him. Jesus knew when He was going to die,
how He was going to die, and who was going to kill Him. Jesus knew our Father’s
will completely and He was empowered with the Holy Spirit to accomplish all
that He came to do. Jesus knew the Truth that would set us free and He shared it
with us. So if Jesus was allowed to know and was empowered to carry out our
Fathers will, why wouldn’t we be allowed to live with the same knowledge and
power? We have the same Holy Spirit that Jesus has and we are now member of His
body, flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone, Ephesians 5:30. Through Jesus, our Father showed us plainly how
man is supposed to be, fully one with Him and fully empowered by Him, John 17
clearly shows us this Truth. Jesus told us that He came so that we might have
life and have it more abundantly, John
10:10. Jesus came so that we might have a life as He has life and to
know the Truth as He knows the Truth. We have become one with our Lord and
Saviors mind, His Spirit, and His Body. As Jesus is, so are we in this world, 1 John 4:17.
·
Revelation
4:1 has been used a great deal in my life to teach that there is a
pre-tribulation rapture for the church. But as we will study in Revelation’s
later chapters, the church has a great role to play during the Great
Tribulation. While I used to be a big believer in a pre-tribulation rapture of
the church, the more the Holy Spirit has shared with me the Truths of the
Revelation of our Lord, I no longer believe in one. I really believe that Jesus has far too
great of role for us, as His body, to play during the Great Tribulation, for
Him not to have us here.
·
We are shown that Paul was caught up to the 3rd
Heaven as well, 2 Corinthians 12:2,
just as John is here. Yet I never hear that Paul’s accession to Heaven was a
foreshadowing of a pre-tribulation rapture? It just seems to me that our Father
had things to show both John and Paul and He brought them to Heaven to do it.
To say that it proves that there is a pre-tribulation rapture is a great reach.
Our Father Transformed Jesus while He was still on the earth, and in the flesh,
to talk with Him. Our Father is dramatic and you have to love it, He does dramatic things.
· There are 5 verses that clearly
prove to us that there is no pre-tribulation rapture, 1 Thessalonians 4:15, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, John 6:39, and Revelation 11:15.
·
For this we declare to you by the
Lord's [own] word, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the
Lord shall in no way precede [into His presence] or have any advantage at all
over those who have previously fallen asleep [in Him [in death]. 1 Thessalonians 4:15
·
Take notice! I tell you a mystery (a
secret truth, an event decreed by the hidden purpose or counsel of God). We
shall not all fall asleep [in death], but we shall all be changed
(transformed). In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the [sound of the]
last trumpet call. For a trumpet will sound, and the dead [in Christ] will
be raised imperishable (free and immune from decay), and we shall be changed
(transformed). 1 Corinthians 15:51-52
· And this is the will of Him Who sent
Me, that I should not lose any of all that He has given Me, but that I
should give new life and raise [them all] up at the last day. John 6:39
· The seventh angel then blew [his]
trumpet, and there were mighty voices in heaven, shouting, The dominion
(kingdom, sovereignty, rule) of the world has now come into the possession
and become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (the Messiah), and He
shall reign forever and ever (for the eternities of the eternities)! Revelation 11:15
·
The Truth that our Father shows us
is that no one who is alive in Christ shall in any way precede those of us who
have died in Him. The Truth is also that the dead in Christ shall not be
raised from the dead until the Last Trumpet, on the last day, and we see in
Revelation 11, that when the seventh angel, the last angel, blows the last
trumpet, Jesus will return and take over the rule of the world. The
pre-tribulation rapture theory tells us that Jesus won’t do this until seven
years after we were raptured. The Truth is clear, and as we study the
Revelation of our Lord, we will actually see that there is far too much work
for our Father to do through us, for Him to take us away!
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