posted on Mar, 7 2016 @ 01:01 AM
These are your humble servant’s thoughts on the matter after careful prayer and research. Please consider this carefully.
For many decades Jehovah’s servants have been keenly interested as to what the prophecies concerning the resurrection of the anointed to heavenly
life mean. Are we all taken to heaven before Armageddon begins, are anointed still on earth when the new world of righteousness under the kingdom
begins to rule after Armageddon?
Certainly if it is not Jehovah’s time to understand such things we should not expect to. But as the days draw to a close certainly flashes of light
will continue to get brighter until the day is firmly established. That day is on the threshold.
It appears that the scriptures indicate that the called and chosen ones who are faithful will, all of them together, after the first phase of the
great tribulation, the destruction of Christendom and the rest of Babylon the great, be raised to heavenly spiritual life. Here is my understanding
in this regards. Perhaps it is wrong; if you can find anything out of harmony with scripture or what the spirit is directing please inform me.
When are the anointed resurrected to heavenly life?
The first scriptures that indicate that there would be co-rulers with Jesus in heaven are in the prophecy of Daniel 7. There we are told that there
is a definite time that has been set that would arrive for the “holy ones” to gain “possession of the kingdom itself” and thus begin to rule
in their kingly functions in Jesus’ kingdom government:
(Daniel 7:21-22) . . .“I kept on beholding when that very horn made war upon the holy ones, and it was prevailing against them, 22 until the
Ancient of Days came and judgment itself was given in favor of the holy ones of the Supreme One, and the definite time arrived that the holy ones took
possession of the kingdom itself.
Here we see that a “definite time arrived.” Just as Jehovah has placed times and seasons in their own jurisdiction, he has a set time when they
will start to reign. Doing further research on this scripture to see what the literature says when this “definite time arrive” I found two study
articles dating from 1982 – The Watchtower September 15, 1982 study articles entitled “The Kingdom and a Holy Place” and “High Time to Flee”
on pages 12-22 talk about Jesus’ sign of the last days in Matthew 24 and the fulfillment of certain events in Daniel 7. There we are given the idea
that the “disgusting thing” standing in a holy place arrived with the forming of the League of Nations in 1918. We know that this understanding
is now incorrect. We also are told that this is the year the “definite time” arrived for the anointed to gain kingship in heaven with Jesus as
well. This is based on the fact that the horn that battled with the “holy ones” was the American government that was allowed to stop the kingdom
preaching work, and send some of our brothers to prison.
We now know that the “disgusting thing” that stands in a holy place is yet a future event. Is the “definite time” for the anointed to rule
in heaven, then also a future event?
Take note of Paul’s words about the resurrection of the faithful called ones in 1 Thessalonians 4:
(1 Thessalonians 4:15-18) . . .For this is what we tell YOU by Jehovah’s word, that we the living who survive to the presence of the Lord shall in
no way precede those who have fallen asleep [in death]; 16 because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an
archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first. 17 Afterward we the living who are
surviving will, together with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall always be with [the] Lord.
18 Consequently keep comforting one another with these words.
Notice that the brothers in their research of when the “presence of the lord” referred to in this scripture cross reference this word in verse 15
to Matthew 24:30 and 1 Corinthians 15:51.
Matthew 24:30 states the following:
(Matthew 24:30-31) . . .And then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in
lamentation, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send forth his angels with a
great trumpet sound, and they will gather his chosen ones together from the four winds, from one extremity of the heavens to their other extremity.
This scripture is referring to a time-period yet future. When the “sign of the Son of man” appears in heaven will be after the first phase of the
great tribulation, the destruction of Babylon the great. At that time we are told that Jesus descends from heaven and sends his angels “with a
great trumpet sound” to gather together his chosen ones from all the extremities of the heavens. Just as 1 Thessalonians 4 tells us, that Jesus
will descend “with a commanding call…with God’s trumpet” and at that time resurrect those resting in sleep in death, and then after that “we
the living who are surviving will, together with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall always be with [the]
Lord.”
When Paul wrote the word “we” he was referring to the anointed body of Christ alive during that time period. We who are alive today on earth at
that time period are the ones referred to here. What will happen to us? After Jesus raises those who preceded us in death, then we who are alive at
that time “will, together with them,” be taken to heaven.
Here also is the sacred secret that Paul was referring to then at 1 Corinthians 15:51 that is cross-referenced from this scripture:
(1 Corinthians 15:51-52) . . .Look! I tell YOU a sacred secret: We shall not all fall asleep [in death], but we shall all be changed, 52 in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, during the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised up incorruptible, and we shall be
changed.
What a sacred secret that is being revealed! During that trump blast, “we shall all be changed, in a moment in a twinkling of an eye.” It
appears that is the same trumpet blast referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
Who was Paul referring to when he said “we.” He must have included himself. Who else? It goes to reason that it is all the other of the 144,000
who have the hope of a heavenly life and who have received the crown of life, the final sealing and an assured promise of a heavenly resurrection, of
which the angels holding back the four winds of destruction are awaiting for. He states that “we shall not all fall asleep” but we “shall all
be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, during the last trumpet” meaning that some of us (the 144,000) will be asleep at that time, but
not all of us will be sleeping in death. Some of us will be alive. But all of us, those asleep in death, and those who are alive, will together be
caught away to heaven. 1 Thessalonians 4:15 states that those who are asleep in death will be raised first, and then: “Afterward we the living who
are surviving will, together with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
The Bible book of Revelation chapters 17 and 18 tell us of the judgment upon the great harlot Babylon the Great and her fall and destruction. Chapter
19 follows that up with an