justsurfing said in post 149:
#2. "Gathering" in separation unto protection of the 144,000 (sealed in their foreheads protected from plagues and wrath).
All obedient people in the church will be spiritually protected during the future tribulation of Rev. chs. 6-18/Mt. 24, no matter what happens to them physically (Rom. 8:35-37). The 144,000 male-virgins part of the church (Rev. 14:4), along with some others, will be physically protected so that they will survive the tribulation's first stage (Rev. 6), while others will die and their souls will enter into heaven (Rev. 7:9,14). Near the end of this first stage, the 144,000 will be sealed (Rev. 7:3-4) for physical protection before the unsealing of seal 7 (Rev. 8:1), out of which will come the tribulation's 7 trumpets (Rev. 8:1-2). The first 6 trumpets' events, up to Rev. 9:19, will be the tribulation's 2nd stage. The seal which the 144,000 will receive (which will be different from and in addition to the seal of the Holy Spirit himself which they and all others in the church receive: Eph. 1:13) will physically protect them during this 2nd stage (Rev. 9:4).
After that stage is over, the 144,000 male-virgins part of the church will be caught up in their mortal bodies as the "man child" to God's throne in heaven (Rev. 12:5, 14:4-5, TR), like how Enoch and Elijah were caught up in their mortal bodies to heaven (Heb. 11:5, 2 Kin. 2:1). Right after the 144,000 are caught up, the tribulation's 3rd stage, the literal 3.5-year worldwide reign of the Antichrist (the individual-man aspect of the beast) will begin (Rev. 12:5-6). This time period is shown from 4 different angles in Rev. chs. 11-14 (Rev. 11:2b-3, 12:6,14, 13:5-18, 14:9-13). The 144,000 will remain up in heaven before God's throne (Rev. 14:5, TR) during this time (Rev. 14:9-13, 13:5-18), while two other parts of the church will still be on the earth: the figurative "woman" who represents those in the church who will flee into prepared wilderness places and be physically protected (Rev. 12:6,14), and the remnant of her seed (Rev. 12:17), those in the church who will remain in the cities and not be physically protected, but will be persecuted in every nation, imprisoned, and beheaded by the Antichrist (Rev. 13:7-10, 14:12-13, 20:4-6, Mt. 24:9-13).
After the Antichrist's reign is declared legally over at the sounding of trumpet 7 (Rev. 11:15), the 7 plagues of the 7 vials of God's wrath will come out of trumpet 7's heavenly temple opening (Rev. 11:19, 15:5-16:1). These vials will be the tribulation's 4th and final stage (Rev 16). Because the church isn't appointed to God's wrath (1 Thes. 5:9), none of these vials will be directed at those in the church who will still be alive on the earth at that time, still waiting for Jesus' coming as a thief (Rev. 16:15). Instead, they will go into protective chambers which they will have built for themselves on the earth (Isa. 26:20), just as Noah and his family went into the protective ark which they had built for themselves on the earth (Gen. 7:7). So some in the church will survive the entire future tribulation on the earth. They are those who will still be "alive and remain" at Jesus' 2nd coming to be raptured (1 Thes. 4:15-17) immediately after the tribulation (Mt. 24:29-31, 2 Thes. 2:1-8). These survivors will have experienced God's miraculous physical protection (Ps. 91) without having to have been part of the 144,000.
