Question from Michael:
If in fact, the rapture/resurrection occurs before tribulation, how do the martyred saints make it to heaven during the last 3.5 years of the trib? Because in 1 Cor. 15:22-26 it only describes one more resurrection after Christs’, (24) Then cometh the end. Also Rev 20:4-5 describes the saints who were beheaded because they would not take the mark, are in the first resurrection. How does all this fit the Pre-Trib rapture/resurrection? Blessings, Michael
Answer:
In order to understand the resurrections, it is imperative to understand how they are typified by Jewish harvest cycles in the Old Testament. Remember that the Old Testament was a shadow of things to come and that Jesus came to fulfill all things that were shadows. 1 Corinthians 15:23 says that the saints are resurrected in their own order, meaning that there are several resurrections.
Jesus equated the resurrection order with the harvest cycle with His being the “first fruits”. There were three cycles to the Jewish harvest period according to Leviticus 19-23. The first cycle was the “first fruits”. This was a small sampling that was presented to the priest as an example of a greater harvest that was to follow (Leviticus 23:10-11). This offering of the first ripe always took place on Sunday (the day after the Sabbath which was Saturday). Of course, this was fulfilled on resurrection Sunday when Jesus and a few others were resurrected (Matthew 27:51-53).
The next harvest cycle was the general harvest where the bulk of the ripe grain was brought in. This harvest time was left to the discretion of the one who owned the field. This will be fulfilled in the rapture when millions of believers will be harvested from the earth (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
It is at this point that some get confused in prophetic events. According to Leviticus 19:9, there is a third cycle in the harvest period, it is the gleaning. It is in this third resurrection of believers that the tribulation saints will be brought bodily to heaven. This harvest in the Old Testament always took place after the main harvest was over and the field was cleared of laborers but not long after the main harvest. Since the tribulation saints are not seen in heaven until Revelation 20, it can be said that they were removed from the field after the general harvest but shortly after. Since the gleaning harvest was considered part of the general harvest, only done a little later, Revelation 20:4-5 considers the gleaning as part of the first resurrection (general harvest).
It is also important to understand that no unsaved person will be resurrected in any one of the three resurrections of believers, but will be resurrected to judgment after the millennial reign of Christ upon the earth. Saved and lost will neither be resurrected together nor stand in judgment together.
