“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Luke 21:28
The Rapture
There are many signs concerning the second coming of Jesus Christ to the earth. Believers are looking for the rapture, which really there is no sign that is necessary to be fulfilled before the rapture takes all believers to heaven. I always get excited around the feast of trumpets, because God has promised that, when the rapture happens, there will be the sound of blowing of trumpets.
However, to tell the truth, trumpets will also sound to herald the second coming of Christ as well.
When will Christ Come?
In Matthew 24:29-31 God says: “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:
30: 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.
31: 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.”
Consider from where the angels gather God’s people with the sound of the trumpets at His second coming. They gather them “From one end of heaven to the other,” (not earth). Obviously, His elect will already be in heaven at this juncture, because the rapture will have already taken place years earlier.
Two Signs
So, the two signs that herald the beginning of the tribulation are the rapture and the revealing of the antichrist. The rapture comes before the tribulation begins, and the antichrist is revealed 3 1/2 years after the peace treaty between Israel and the nations of the Middle East. Ten of of those nations will give their power to the antichrist in the middle of the tribulation.
The First Signs
However, the FIRST sign God mentions is brought out in II Peter 3:3-5. Men will scoff at the idea of a second coming of Christ out the outset, then at the creation, and the flood of Noah’s day. So…
“When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”