I know I have rehashed the whole rapture timing a thousand times.

I am now right back to where I was several weeks ago. I am not trying to cause confusion, I am just trying to figure all this out just like the rest of you.

Here is how I understand it right now:

Joel 2:16 - Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.

The assembly spoken of here is Shavuot (Pentecost), which is the same time the battle of Armageddon is taking place. At the time of this war, the bride comes out of her closet. The word “closet” in Hebrew is “chuppah”, and means “a nuptial bed, a covering, or divine protection”. It is mentioned only two other times in scripture: Psalm 19:9, and 1 Chronicles 24:13

At this point, she is still the bride, however in Revelation 19:7 we read “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.”

The marriage supper of the lamb takes place at the same time the beasts of the earth are feasting on the defeated armies of Armageddon.

Where was the bride prior to this time?

Revelation 3:7,8,10 - And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

Isaiah 26:17-20 - Like as a woman with child, [that] draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, [and] crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. Thy dead [men] shall live, [together with] my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew [is as] the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

Luke 21:36 - Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. ( Matthew 24:42, Matthew 25:13, Mark 13:35, I Thessalonians 5:6, I Peter 4:7, Revelation 3:3)

It is clear that there is a place of hiding – an escape for those who are watching.

Revelation 2:22 - Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

Clearly, those who commit fornication with this false religious system will enter the great tribulation. Doesn’t this also allude to the fact that those that do not mingle with this whore will not enter the great tribulation?

Revelation 20:4,5 - And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received [his] mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This [is] the first resurrection.

When is the first resurrection? It comes at the end.

Matthew 24:29-31 - Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Once again, after the tribulation, Jesus gathers His elect.

II Thessalonians 2:1-4 - Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and [by] our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

And yet again, this gathering does not take place until Antichrist is revealed and sits in the temple of God.

John 6:39 - And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. (John 6:40, John 6:44, John 6:54, John 11:24)

The main theme of the gathering taking place at the last day is pretty obvious.

1 Corinthians 15:51,52 - Behold, I shew 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 trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Revelation 10:7 - But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.



1 Thessalonians 4:16,17 - For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.


The disciples knew full well when this gathering would take place, and where it was they were taken to.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-4 - But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

Revelation 16:15-18 - Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed [is] he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, [and] so great.

So the bride is hidden, then “caught up” and taken to Israel at the battle of Armageddon, and for the marriage supper of the lamb.

Matthew 24:37 - But as the days of Noe [were], so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Genesis 7:16 - And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.

Luke 17:26-30 - And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed [them] all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

Again, this is speaking about a time when Christ is “Revealed” which in the Greek is the word “apokalypto”. It is when Christ returns that the sudden destruction takes place.

Genesis 19:10 - But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door.

In the days of Noah and Lot, they were taken to safety and the door was shut.

Matthew 25:10 - And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

Once again, some go to safety and the door is shut.

From what I understand at this point, there IS a place of divine protection during this period, however the rapture takes place at the end.