vinsight4u said in post #137:
Revelation 16 is not when Jesus Christ returns for the church.
That's right.
For it's only
after the destruction of Revelation's symbolic (and worldwide) "Babylon" at Revelation 16's seventh-and-last vial, the final event of the future Tribulation (Revelation 16:17,19, Revelation 19:2), that Jesus Christ will return and rapture (gather together) and marry the Church (Revelation 19:7 to 20:6, Matthew 24:29-31; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8).
Also, the world won't experience the seven last plagues of the seven vials of God's wrath (Revelation chapters 15-16), the final stage of the future Tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and Matthew 24, until after the never-fulfilled Revelation chapters 6 to 15 have been fulfilled. At the first vial, an awful sore will appear on those people who will have received the Antichrist's mark and worshipped his image (Revelation 16:2). At the second vial, the sea will become like the blood of a dead man, and every living creature in the sea will die (Revelation 16:3). At the third vial, all natural, surface sources of fresh water will become blood (Revelation 16:4). At the fourth vial, men will be scorched with fire shot out from the sun (Revelation 16:8). This would be a solar-flare coronal mass ejection of solar plasma, which could make its way down to the surface of the earth due to the earth's magnetic field being disrupted during a magnetic-pole reversal which could occur near the end of the future Tribulation.
At the fifth vial, the whole world will be plunged into literal darkness (Revelation 16:10). At the sixth vial, unclean spirits like frogs will come out of the mouths of Lucifer (Satan, the dragon: Revelation 12:9), and the Antichrist (the individual-man aspect of Revelation's "beast"), and the False Prophet (Revelation 16:13). And these unclean spirits like frogs will go forth and perform amazing miracles to convince the world's armies to gather together to fight YHWH God Himself (Revelation 16:14, Revelation 19:19). The Euphrates will dry up so the armies of "the kings of the east" (Revelation 16:12) (that is, the vast armies of China, India, Pakistan, Japan, Iran, Indonesia) can easily cross the riverbed and gather at the "place" called Armageddon (Revelation 16:16) (Har Megiddo: Mount Megiddo in northern Israel). Once they have gathered there, as only a staging area, with all the other armies of the world (Revelation 16:14,16), they won't wage battle there (that's why the Bible doesn't refer to a "battle" of Armageddon). Instead, they will travel south to pillage Jerusalem, right before Jesus Christ (who is YHWH) returns and defeats them (Zechariah 14:2-21, Revelation 19:19-21).
At the seventh vial, right before Jesus returns (Revelation 16:17,19, Revelation 19:2-21), there will be a huge earthquake which will affect the whole world (Revelation 16:18-20), and 100-pound hailstones will pummel the earth (Revelation 16:21). The seventh vial will also be when Revelation's symbolic (and worldwide) "Babylon" (Revelation chapters 17-18) will be destroyed (Revelation 16:19).
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vinsight4u said in post #138:
The church is raptured before any of the vials are poured out /full strengh/full measure.
Then are you of the pre-wrath/seventh-trumpet rapture view, instead of the post-tribulation rapture view?
If so, note that regarding the seventh trumpet (Revelation 11:15-19), it doesn't refer to any coming of Jesus. Instead, Revelation 11:15 refers to the future point in time (to us) (Revelation 4:1b) when Jesus Christ will take ultimate, legal, physical authority over the earth, away from Satan (cf. Luke 4:5-7) and Satan's fallen angels (Ephesians 6:12), and away from the future Antichrist (the individual-man aspect of Revelation's "beast") (Revelation 13:4-18, cf. Revelation 12:9) and the Antichrist's 10 kings (Revelation 17:12-13), right when the seventh trumpet sounds. It won't be until a little later that Jesus will physically return and take de facto, physical control of the earth at His Second Coming and during the subsequent Millennium (Revelation 19:11 to 20:6).
Jesus' Second Coming won't occur immediately after the sounding of the future Tribulation's seventh trumpet and the declaration of the legal replacement of the Antichrist's future, literal 3.5 year worldwide reign (Revelation 13:5-18, Revelation 12:6,14) with Jesus' reign (Revelation 11:15). For a "time" (Revelation 11:18) can last awhile (cf. Revelation 12:14). It's like if someone said: "It's time to sell this house"; this doesn't mean it will get sold immediately. The only part of Revelation 11:18 which will happen immediately after the seventh trumpet sounds is "thy wrath is come". For the plagues of the vials (Revelation 16), the Tribulation's final stage, will come out of the seventh trumpet's heavenly-temple opening (Revelation 11:19, Revelation 15:5 to 16:1).
So the seventh trumpet (Revelation 11:15-19), even though it will be the last trumpet to sound during the Tribulation, won't be the resurrection "last trump" of 1 Corinthians 15:52. The latter won't sound until after the future Tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and Matthew 24, at Jesus Christ's Second Coming (Matthew 24:29-31; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-16), which won't occur until Revelation 19, and which is when the Church will be physically resurrected into immortality (Revelation 19:7 to 20:6; 1 Corinthians 15:21-23,51-54; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-16).
Before the Second Coming, the Tribulation's final, Revelation 16 stage could last for 75 days. For the first vial in Revelation 16 could be poured out immediately after the 1,260 days of the Antichrist's worldwide reign (Revelation 13:5), which 1,260 days could begin when the abomination of desolation (possibly a standing, android image of the Antichrist) is set up in the holy place (the inner sanctum) of a third Jewish temple in Jerusalem (Matthew 24:15, Daniel 11:31,36). And Jesus could return on the 1,335th day after the setting up of the abomination of desolation (Daniel 12:11-12, Revelation 16:15). An analogy for the possible, 75-day vials-delay between Jesus Christ taking legal possession of the earth (Revelation 11:15) and His return to take de facto, physical possession of it (Revelation chapters 19-20) would be someone in New York legally inheriting a house in California, 75-five days before he moves there to live in that house.
At Jesus' Second Coming, only the Church will be physically resurrected and judged (1 Corinthians 15:21-23; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-16, Revelation 19:7 to 20:6, Psalms 50:3-6, cf. Mark 13:27). And then Jesus will marry the obedient part of the Church (Revelation 19:7-8, Matthew 25:1-12). Then Revelation 19:11-21 will occur. So both the resurrection and rewarding of the Church in Revelation 11:18, as well as the destroying of the destroyers of the earth in Revelation 11:18, could occur 75 days after the seventh trumpet's sounding. And because a "time" can last awhile (cf. Revelation 12:14), this would still be well within the "time" referred to in Revelation 11:18.
Everyone not physically resurrected and judged at Jesus' Second Coming won't be physically resurrected and judged until Revelation 20:11-15, which won't occur until sometime after the returned Jesus and the physically resurrected Church have reigned on the earth for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29), the time period commonly called the Millennium. Both resurrections and judgments can still occur within Revelation 11:18's "time". For the original Greek word (kairos: G2540) translated there as "time" can refer to even quite a long period. For example, the same Greek word is used in 2 Corinthians 6:2 to refer to the "time" of people becoming Christians, which has been going on for thousands of years.