What Happens After The Rapture?

Yesterday a Friend on the "Rapture Discussion: Pretribulation, Posttribulation, or Prewrath?" Facebook group page asked me a very good question:

Marie asked, "What happens after you're raptured?"

Thank you, Marie, that is a very good question.  First we know from the 1 Thessalonians 4 passage that we are Raptured and will be with the Lord eternally:

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And thus we shall always be with the Lord."

And we know from 1 Corinthians 15:50-53 that upon meeting Him and before we go into heaven with Him - we will receive our immortal bodies, for flesh and bone cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:50-53, "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.  Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed - in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality."

Once we are in heaven in our immortal bodies - I would suggest that three things will definitely happen.

1.  We will meet our loved ones and friends who have died before us, a glorious reunion.

2.  At some early point the Believers' Judgment will happen.  I believe that at the Rapture or very shortly thereafter, we will stand before Christ at the Believers' Judgment (Bema Seat) where we will receive our own robes of righteousness.  For in this mortal life we are covered by the righteousness of Christ.

In this mortal body we can never be clean, i.e., righteous, enough to have God look upon us, because of our Adamic Sin Nature.  This is confirmed:

Isaiah 64:6, "But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; .  .  ."

Yet God has made provisions for us, while in this mortal body, to not be offensive to Him.  He has imputed, i.e., attributed, the righteousness of Jesus Christ to all believers.  His righteousness is like a "spiritual umbrella" covering us - so that when God looks upon us, He sees not our unrighteousness, but the righteousness of Jesus Christ:

Romans 3:21-22, "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction."

3.  The church, betrothed to Jesus Christ at His death, resurrection, ascension - and confirmed in the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost 33 AD - will be His Bride at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb:

Revelation 19:6-8. "Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.  Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.'  It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints."

And the honored guests at the Wedding of the Lamb will be the Old Testament saints, the martyred Tribulation saints, and all the heavenly beings:

Revelation 19:9, "Then he said to me, 'Write, "Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." ' And he said to me, 'These are true words of God.' "

I believe the Wedding Feast of the Lamb will be at the end of the seven year Tribulation.  But because of our lack of personal righteousness the Believers' Judgment will happen very early in the Tribulation, most likely concurrent with the Rapture - so that Christ can welcome us into His Father's mansions in heaven.

And for the rest of the seven year Tribulation while we are in heaven, we will be worshiping God - and having a glorious reunion with our beloved family and friends - many or whom went long before us and finally we will all be together again, eternally. 

Just imagine meeting all those giants of the faith from the past.  We will be able to fellowship with the Old Testament giants of the faith.  We will be able to have Faith Classes with Peter, John, Paul, and all our New Testament men and women of faith.  My Friends, I can assure you - we will not be bored during that seven years in heaven - nor in the eternity to follow.

At the end of the seven year Tribulation, Jesus Christ will return to earth, His Second Coming in Glory - and we, His Bride, with the Old Testament and martyred Tribulation saints -  will accompany Him back as He takes care of Satan by putting him into the abyss for 1000 years.  And the Antichrist and his False Prophet will be defeated at the battle of Armageddon and sent into the lake of fire.

The surviving Tribulation mortals will stand before Him at the Sheep & Goat Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46).  The Sheep, i.e., the surviving Tribulation believers will go into His Millennial Kingdom in their mortal bodies and will continue to marry and have children for 1000 years.

The surviving Goats, i.e., the non-believers, will go into Hades/Torment to await their resurrection after the Millennial Kingdom.  At that time they will be resurrected into their immortal bodies and will stand before Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment.  And from there into the lake of fire, hell (Revelation 20:11-15).

Then the New Heaven, New Earth, and New Jerusalem (Revelation 21-22) and eternal life in the presence of Almighty God. 

Revelation 22:20, "He who testifies to these things says, 'Surely I am coming quickly.'  Amen.  Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill

Click on the image to enlarge: