The BIG Picture (Study)

The Stages of Christ's Ascension and Return (Part 10) The return of Jesus Christ is in stages that symmetrically correspond to the stages of His ascension. Because of this pattern (as with many other types and patterns in the Word), it helps us to gain deeper insights, and piece together scriptures, that provide a bigger picture of the redemption plan of God throughout the ages. Connecting the dots on past events is easy due to hindsight, but the types and patterns in the Word really do assist in building a more insightful understanding of future events, as what we are discussing in this series of posts. In  part 8 , we put focus on the position of Christ as he returns for the church, which is His Body, before the 7-year Tribulation. Our focus was on a 'silent' rapture based on underlying points of study we expounded on in that post. In this post we will continue to the next stage of Christ's return, being the stage when he appears in the clo

The Stages of Christ's Ascension and Return (Part 6) It is important to maintain the context from part 5 in this study and remember that Paul's writings encompass  ALL of the coming of Christ, across both Mystery and Kingdom Programs. When Paul writes about Christ's return, he does not always focus exclusively on the Body of Christ! Our rapture only makes up part of the details that Paul lays out as he documents the WHOLE of Christ's return and the order (or sequence) of the raptures and resurrections. Please keep this in mind as we continue in this study. I'd like to present you with two passages of scripture, that, when read in the context I'll be presenting, have recently 'blown my mind'! As far back as I can remember, I have read these two passages with the understanding that they give a picture of our rapture and the return of Jesus Christ for the Church, which is His Body. I can also say with certainty that most Christians, at least in my circ