The Great Escape

After the great snatching away of those who gave their lives over to Jesus they will be taken directly to the place where the 3-part God dwells, in Heaven. We get glimpses of it throughout the Bible in both Old and New Testaments. All “raptured” believers will be instantly given new bodies – or resurrected bodies – with the same attributes as Jesus’ new body. Our bodies will be changed to overcome the space-time limitations which now bind us to the Time Line and this earth. The new bodies will live forever and never be subject to the illnesses we face now.

During the last seven years of the current Time Line, during the time of judgment on earth and its people, those believers in Heaven will go through a rewards judgment, a rewards ceremony, and a dinner banquet.

The first event will be the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10). Every believer will stand before the Judgment (Bema in the Greek) Seat where they will give an account of the work they did for God in obedience to him. This is the first order of official business in eternity future for the believer. An example would be that if they believed God told them to do something and they obeyed, they will receive an award. If they disobeyed, or did it to please those around them at the time, or make themselves look better than others, their motives would have been wrong and they won’t receive a reward. Those who hung in there during persecution, those who yearned for Jesus’ return, and those who lead groups of believers will receive rewards to name a few. That is what is meant when Jesus told the people around him to lay up their treasures in Heaven.

The second event will be the giving of awards, or the awards ceremony. There are several crowns given for different types of rewards. These are diadems, or crowns of honor and royalty. 2 Timothy 4:8 speaks of a crown of righteousness, James 1:12 describes a crown of life, 1 Peter 5:4 shows a crown of glory, and Revelation 2:10 describes a crown of life. These are just a few of the rewards written about.  Not much is written about the time called eternity future – just glimpses of how wonderful it will be.

The final event during those 7 years will be the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Jesus is described as the perfect Lamb of God because while he lived here on earth, he lived a perfect life and took the place of the Jewish sacrificed lamb to pay for our disobedience so we wouldn’t have to. Revelation 19:7-9 talks about the event. It will be the final celebration when all believers dine with Jesus and each other in the largest banquet of all time.

Shortly after the Marriage Supper, Jesus returns to earth on a white horse, followed by the armies of Heaven riding white horses. I would like to think those armies were the angels followed by the raptured believers. It doesn’t specify if the believers will be in that campaign. Revelation 19:14 just says “armies.” Jesus and his army will ride down to where the battle of Armageddon will be raging and the armies of earth will immediately turn to fight him. Revelation 19: 19-21 describes how he will take the world leader (the beast) and his false prophet and cast them into the lake of fire alive. He will then destroy the remainder of the armies of the world.

Next post – beyond the Time Line.