The Bride of Christ – Part 5
When Will the Bride Appear?
When Does the Marriage Happen?
Perhaps you have heard of the details of an ancient Jewish wedding ceremony and customs as representing the final things concerning the Bride of Christ. This fits quite well. The Church in heaven during the 7 year tribulation works out very well to fit with a Pre-Tribulation rapture and marriage of the Church as the Bride of Christ. The Tribulation period then becomes a 7 year wedding feast.
Perhaps you have heard of the ancient custom of a returning victorious army camping a distance outside their home city. Citizens come out of the city and accompany the army as they all enter the city. This fits well with the idea of a Post-Tribulation rapture and a marriage of national Israel as the Bride of Christ and the 1,000 year Millennium as the marriage supper of the Lamb.
However, we do not even know if any of these historical legends are factual. An illustration does not prove anything. It might illustrate something if it is already biblically sound. Since when do we get our doctrine from ancient stories that may not even be true or may have happened in the past only once?
Let us say that we are having an debate event. There is a good communicator who is well versed in bible eschatology, the study of end time events. He has one hour to present the case for a Pre-Tribulation rapture. There is also another great bible teacher. He also has one hour to present what the bible seems to say about a Post-Tribulation rapture. [Yes, I know very well that there are other positions which deny any rapture at any time. There are always persons who want to be contrary to everything and everyone. In my opinion it is a spirit/attitude you want to avoid. It leads to people becoming scoffers and mockers. You do not want to get any of it on you.]
Back to our illustration. The first teacher concludes his hour and makes a water-tight case for his point. The next man takes his hour and produces an air-tight case for his position. What have we accomplished beside wasting two hours? [Being in the Word is not wasted time. A special blessing is promised to those who read or listen to the book of Revelation. The waste is in debating with the intent to shame another brother in the Lord or to exalt ourselves or our favorite theory.]
Note: What is really bizarre is if the teachers giving the two lectures are the same person. There are men so versed in scripture, vocabulary, examples, history, and logic that they can successfully debate a position they do not even hold to personally.
As you may or may not pick up from reading my articles, I lean slightly toward a Pre-Tribulation rapture as to end time events. But as the bible does not clearly state that as an absolute, I cannot be dogmatic in claiming that it does. It seems that legend, majority opinion, or what the neighbors think determine the will of God. Jesus, the Captain of Heaven's Armies, leaves it very ambiguous so as to not leave His military strategy laying around for the enemy to see.
The book of Revelation may not written in a strictly chronological sense. That is, something mentioned in verse 7 (of any particular chapter) may not be an event which occurs before something in verse 9. Some of the book may be more topical, grouping future events together, irrespective of their timing. However, there is at least a general flow of events written in the book of Revelation.
Even if we may have to set Pre-Trib eschatology aside, we see the marriage supper of the Lamb near the end of the Tribulation period. We are even told,
And after these things... (Rev 19:1)
As it is presented in the book, the announcement of the wedding is made just before the Coming of Jesus (vs. 11-16), just before the start of the 1,000 year reign of Christ on the earth. It looks as though the marriage feast is the 1,000 years, not the 7 years of Tribulation. [Some point out that it is the latter half of Daniel's 70th week that is the Great Tribulation. “The Tribulation” is used to refer to this entire special week of 7 years.]
We do not see the Bride, however, until Rev 21, the very end, after the end of the 1,000 years. Could it be that God thinks this is important enough that 1,000 years must be devoted to feasting and celebrating, and not a wimpy 7 years? [This really is a separate issue as to when the rapture occurs.]
We saw the serpent at the bible's first wedding (Gen 3:1) when man fell into sin that cursed the entire human race. Here, in this wedding, he is absent. By this time he has already been cast into the lake of fire
...and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Rev 20:10)
He will not disrupt this wedding or anyone ever again. He will be sizzling in his special place. The very, very sad thing is that all who would not obey the Gospel and give Jesus the place He deserves will be with him and there is NO reason for it. Jesus has paid the price in full to escape this fate. No human needs to be there because it was prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). But there is no other place in the universe for them. All rebellion has finally been put down and all of existence is under the Father's perfect rule, except for that one place.
Believer, there is also no reason to not be part of the Bride, the wife of the Lamb. The invitation is given. Cultivate a desire for the Lord now.
Oct 25, 2023