When is the Rapture?

Rapture is a keyword with certain special meanings ascribed to it in various end-times theories. If it means the departure from planet earth of the human race, then we can find the date: 4000 years from the birth of the Patriarchs, 2000 years from Jesus’ own ascension and 7000 years from Noah’s flood. Instead of dating the event relative to the tribulation, we date it relative to the general resurrection, a much more fruitful approach.

This question is fairly frequent. When, I’m often asked, is the Rapture?

There are various passages that provide the sequence for this event. The key one here:

This series of verses sequences most of the high level events in this part of the age. They key one being the resurrection of the dead. That event can be known and is dated and confirmed through several stories. Once we have the resurrection dated, seeing the dates of the departure from the human race is not hard to do. So, we start with the dates for the Resurrection:

Ezekiel’s time to the Resurrection of the Dead

Ezekiel is given a vision about how the living water that flows from the throne of God brings life. In that vision a measurement indicates the time to this period:

The measurement being being the total of 4000 cubits in this parable. This is the number of years, one cubit per year, from the very first temple reference to the point where this starts to happen.

Of course that reference was Jacob’s dream of a stairway to heaven at the Jubilee who’s 4000th anniversary hits in the spring of 2010. This date is not the resurrection directly, but the approximate date of the first event in the sequence given in Thessalonians. Jacob’s story from which this period is measured began a 20 year long adventure in Padan Aram. The last 12 of those 20 years is when his sons were born. This is an example of skew and it will replay again here. Just as Jacob went down to Padan Aram to work for his family, so too, will Jesus.

Years to raise the dead

Jacob’s 12 sons being born across 12 years are seen in further prophetic stories of this future era. The best is found here:

Here we see 12 crops, where each crop is usually something that happens once a year, with fruit from that crop yielded each month in each of those years. 144 total months of fruit. This contains the reference to the river of life from Ezekiel’s vision but it confirms the skew and that when we’ve placed the start of the 4000 years right we’ll have also found a story that takes 12 years for life.

Jacob’s story does that with the 12 years at the end of 20 as the time when his sons were born.

Auditable Date Report

These two clues support the math behind the following report. Jacob’s dream at Bethel was in the year 9001 from Adam. For our purposes here, as we always do, we’ll use the Passover date as our near-start-of-year date and base all calculations from that:

Of course Jacob’s sons were born in the last 12 of the following 20 years, or 9009 AA - 9020 AA. The 4000th anniversaries of those years are indicated in the following report. Note there is a leap month at 13014 that makes the following report uncertain by about 1 month. What is reported in the following report are simply the common Passover dates at the start of each Biblical year.

The following report runs out the anniversaries from the likely conception years as this fits the other stories better. Further tuning of these dates, likely +/- 1 year is possible given more study.

Jesus’ confirmation

Jesus references this same story and dates it himself when he raises Lazarus from the dead. The story takes an entire chapter but has its punch lines at the end:

To take part in this resurrection requires that we follow Jesus now in order to be raised from the dead then. Further references in the story provide the time clue. Lazarus has been dead 4 days.

This follows the standard pattern of 1 day being as 1000 years. Of course the first to die as a believer was Abraham, his 4000th year anniversary from being placed in the tomb was the 1967 war in Jerusalem. We’re in the season at that point, but have not seen faith of the Jews, nor the resurrection of the dead. We’re headed for it soon. On to more...

Anniversary of Jesus’ Ascension

Anniversary dates of Jesus’ own ascension land in this period. His resurrection, a pattern for all, was the 25th of March, 31 AD on the Old Style calendar. Converting that to the Bible calendar and running forward 2000 years indicates the anniversary were we are in the season for another resurrection, and ascension which is what we are looking for:

Of course the ascension was 40 days later and is the primary indicated date for an ascension in this period as suggested by Thessalonians. The following is the date report for that 40th day:

Contrast this late fall 2028 date with the year that makes up the birth of the last of the twelve, given above. This ascension date is while Benjamin is being raised from the dead. This makes sense since Benjamin was born while the rest of the family was returning home from Aram. The last group to be raised is apparently happening while the rest have already started departing.

Noah’s flood Confirmation

The entire story of Noah’s ark contains a reference to this same period. It was the Lord himself who gave Noah and his family the 7 day warning. Of course his speech follows the same rules, 1000 years for each day, so 7000 years from that event is also a flood like event. The math for the anticipated future date is simply 7000 years after the flood. The flood itself, when Noah was sealed inside, was on a precise known date: 6020/2/17 AA. Running 7000 days forward is given in the following report:

The Ark is a pattern object for the New Jerusalem. This 7000th anniversary date is not for Noah’s Ark, but the Lord’s Ark or the New Jerusalem itself.

Conclusion

So, when is the Rapture?

After the resurrection of the dead, somewhere in or near the years 2028 or 2029. It appears to be spread out, with some already departing as the last of the dead are being raised to life. Jesus appears to have headed out in front of the rest of the race and is in the New Jerusalem as the rest arrive.

By Phil Stone
Posted Monday, Issachar 13, 12991