Thanks for sharing that Patricia, I agree, the “signs of the times” abound and it has to be soon and personal confirmations, like dreams seem to indicate that also. About imminence…. I am always a little divided because I think the rapture is imminent but part of me feels as if the tribulation is not - as in, I think there may be a “set time” for that 70th week of Daniel. It is possible it is a Shmitta cycle like Mark Biltz teaches. But whether it is or not, part of me feels like the start of the tribulation is a date already penciled in on the calendar and has been for a while - I also feel that while Satan might not know the date of the rapture, he might fully well know the date the tribulation will start. Sometimes I think this is why he and his forces of evil poke at us, it almost seems like he is trying to provoke God to rapture us so he can get his his program going. If we are raptured on the day the tribulation starts he only gets his 7 years to wreak havoc - maybe he also is hoping we get raptured a few weeks or a few months earlier so he gets a little more time to put his plan into action, so sometimes I feel like he tries to pressure and threaten the church, like the dragon in Revelation 12, threatening to swallow the child, trying to provoke God to rescue us. Anyone have any opinions on this? I lean there is going to be a small gap between the rapture and the start of the tribulation period. This morning I was thinking of Enoch … he was raptured out on his birthday (Pentecost) and since he is “a type of the church” that will experience the rapture event and the church was birthed on Pentecost perhaps that really is our departure date? Or is it Ascension Day? Also I was thinking God’s judgment didn’t start immediately after Enoch disappeared out of here … the flood occurred after his son Methuselah died. So there was a gap of time. So if God goes by a certain pattern … perhaps He will do the same? I lean we need time for the meet and greet in heaven, judgment seat rewards ceremony, marriage ceremony, then there is praise ceremony and laying down our crowns at Jesus’ feet and then we are watching Jesus opening up the seals and then the tribulation kicks in. Well we be in balcony seats eating :popcorn and drinking slurpy fruit drinks or wine or beer or pina coladas while watching it all unfold on the earth or can we walk around and have our RITA partea fellowship? There is a verse where it says there is silence in heaven for about a 1/2 hour so I think we all be aware and know what is happening … if we are allowed to explore heaven and not watch the horrors that are taking place on the earth. I hold to the view the marriage banquet feast doesn’t happen in heaven … but at the 2nd Coming and its on the earth … just not sure yet “where” … in Jerusalem or where the Garden of Eden was located or where the first miracle of turning the water into wine at the Cana Galilean wedding. The battlefield of Armageddon is nearby and the Lord already invited the birds to come and dine on those who died there. So perhaps our banquet feast is in the same region and our beloved fur babies are with us too as we dine? Plus at this point all the guests … tribulation saints and the Old Testament saints I think will have their new bodies at this point.
