Is the Rapture of the Church really found in the Bible? Finding the Rapture in Revelation 3:10!

(Ver 1.2)  This is Part 5 in a series of advanced spiritual Bible lessons on the timely and very important subject of “Is the Rapture of the Church a Bible Truth”.  If you have not read this entire series from the beginning I would highly recommend that you go and start your study with “Part 1” and then continue in succession until today’s lesson.   However if you do not have the time to read every lesson I will inform you that this lesson today will be of great benefit and will be easily understood as a standalone lesson.  Many Christians today are asking “Is the Rapture Really Found in the Bible?”  I believe the clear signs of the times that we live within today are causing more and more people to ask this question.  In this lesson series I have been going through verses that teach us about the rapture subject found both in the New Testament and in Old Testament typology.   Many of these verses represent places in the Bible that Christians have not considered being about the subject of rapture.  Today’s lesson will certainly be no different.    God will present to you some potentially new information today in this lesson that may just open your eyes to a brand new way of searching for His Truth!   I hope that you are ready to learn.

Before I get started today I wish to thank you for your time in studying the Bible.   To all of my faithful subscribers I greatly appreciate your ability to perceive that what I teach is not from me.  The teachings of a man are inconsequential without the anointing and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  I take no credit for anything that is on this website.  If it was not for the gracious and precious Holy Spirit teaching me I would have had nothing worthwhile to say.  Therefore, I give God all the praise and all the glory for anything that has helped anyone.  So no matter what, I trust God to confirm everything that is taught here by you using your own Bible and the Holy Spirit that is within you giving witness.  Trust no human at any time, no matter how eloquent the words that come from them or their good looking appearance.   There is a great deception occurring in the world today.    Evil is being called good and good being called evil.  I know that no one including myself is perfect and we all make mistakes.   Therefore I trust that you will receive my sincere gratitude as I humbly submit to God’s direction.

SEARCHING FOR TRUTH IN THE BIBLE!

The vast majority of Christians today believe in a rapture concept where Jesus literally returns in the clouds to take up His people to be with Him in heaven.  This belief is based upon verses like John 14:1-3 where Jesus speaks of His father’s house in heaven and says that He will go and prepare a place for us and then come again to take us there.   There are not very many Christians that do not understand this truth and believe it yet the great debate that remains among many churches is concerning the timing of this event.  The rapture timing is exactly the subject being addressed in these Bible lessons.   In the last lesson I went through a lot of new information that I will not repeat today.  I tried to teach the importance of seeing spiritual things even in the O.T. natural stories but I got a few ignorant comments that refused to open their eyes to understand the legitimacy of these methods.   These types of people are so focused on the literal obvious messages that they do not want to understand how God has concealed many spiritual truths for us to find in these same words.  I tried to emphasize in the last lesson that even Jesus said that He was hidden in the O.T. (John 5:39) and that we were required to go and search to look for Him in those verses.  This information must have gone over the heads of a few people who want to see everything easily in the Bible.  I do not recall any verse in the Bible that says Bible study is easy, do you know of any?   If you do please share it with me so I can learn.

I just mentioned John 5:39 and this is so important to memorize that I am going to emphasize it again.   In Matthew 13:11 Jesus declared to His disciples that it was given for them to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of God but then He clearly states that this was not given to everyone else.  This is just further confirmation that not everything in the Bible is clearly stated to be understood by everyone.  Romans 16:25 says that Paul preached the mystery of the Gospel of Jesus that was hidden from the foundation of the world.  That literally means it was not plainly stated in the O.T. and had to be revealed by the Spirit of God.  Proverbs 25:2 declares that it is “the glory of God to conceal a thing and the honor of kings to search out a matter”.   These are just a few verses of the many that I could include in this message that not everything in the Bible is plainly presented for your automatic understanding.   This is so easy for a supremely intelligent God to do.  He can speak to us on His level of understanding and we would be clueless to understand it until we learned how.   I emphasize this fact in many, many of my Bible lessons because it is so vital for you to come up to a higher spiritual way of thinking.   Learning to see the scriptures as God sees them will help you more than anything else that I could teach you today.

BE IT UNTO YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH

Why any Christian would desire to go through the coming tribulation is a mystery to me but that is what many are choosing to believe and I believe that is what may just happen to them based upon what the N.T. teaches us about faith.    Jesus very clearly taught us a valuable lesson in the Gospels when He said “According to your faith, be it unto you” (Mat 9:29).    Jesus was telling these blind men in Mathew 9 something directly and He treated them differently than the many other blind men that may have been in the same city.   Jesus only healed the blind men that believed and had faith and the others that were in the city were not healed.   You could reason that these others that were not healed were simply not present but that is a different part of another lesson and I do not want to get off track in this lesson.  Simply understand that the blind men had to believe in order to seek after Jesus and if the others did not do the same they were left out from this benefit.   Now go and read Matthew 8:13 where Jesus says to the centurion “go thou way and as thou has believed, be it done unto you”.  Jesus spoke very highly of this man’s faith.   He then told him clearly that it would be done to him even as he had believed.  I think you need to consider these facts carefully.

I think both of those examples that I just presented you are valuable lessons to learn from about the subject of faith.  We then need to learn to apply that knowledge to the subject of rapture.  If you want to believe and stay in the post tribulation camp, I won’t stop you.  I will still try to show you what I see that the Bible says on the subject and that is why we are going to go through a different part of the Bible today to see a different lesson taught by God.  What I am trying to say here is that what you believe matters and if it does not matter what you believe then God is in sovereign control and I don’t have to believe in Jesus or Satan.   That is a common false teaching to think that man has no determination of his destiny.   I believe from the words of Jesus that what you believe could very well be the determining factor if you are taken out on the first call of the rapture or left here.   If you don’t believe me, that is fine with me.   Please don’t write me any negative comments trying to say something I didn’t say.

Evaluate where your faith is today.    What do you believe and why?   If you have several scriptures to back your beliefs then you are on a firmer foundation than not having any.   That is exactly why I am giving you my scriptures for why I believe the way that I do in a pre-tribulation rapture.  I did not determine my beliefs in pre-tribulation rapture first and then seek to find the scriptures to confirm them.  That is a false erroneous approach to Bible study.   You can find any belief in the Bible that you want to find in some form.  This is exactly why there are mid-tribulation believers and post-tribulation believers and most of them have found some scriptures that they believe support their thinking.   God purposefully designed the Bible this way to allow us to be wrong and remain in our false beliefs.   What God desires is for us to first clear our mind of our prejudices and then to ask the Holy Spirit to show us the truth and only then can we go and seek to find it in His Word allowing Him to direct our paths of search.   We cannot do this with any presumptive expectations for what the truth is or this will slant our viewpoint to that preconceived belief.  That type of search is a closed minded approach and does not allow God to speak to us in our hearts since our hearts are already set in concrete.   We can only determine the actual truth based only upon what God reveals to us in His Word when He speaks to our heart.   Notice that I did not say your mind, the voices in your mind can be from the devil.  The Spirit of God is in your heart and that is where divine direction will be given.  If you do not know how to be led by the Spirit of God I would recommend that you go read that series of lessons to begin to learn.

This section of the lesson I title “Be it unto you according to your Faith”.  Faith comes by hearing the Word of God taught according to Romans 10:17.  That simply means that you can get faith to change your beliefs by what God presents in this Bible lesson series.   If you are open to learning this will allow the Spirit of God to confirm this lesson.   I hope and pray that you will at least give God a chance to see what He might say to you today.

THE RAPTURE IN REVELATION 3:10

 I was asked to explain the Bible verse found in Revelation 3:10 and I immediately understood that they were asking this question from a rapture subject perspective since that is clearly the hidden message of the verse.  I say clearly but what is clear to me may not yet be clear to you!   You may still be amazed after you read this lesson how a verse that never mentions the word rapture directly can be such a key and important lesson on the subject.

The first fact that would I like to mention is that you are right the theological term “rapture” does not exist in the English Bible but that does not mean that the concepts surrounding the subject are not taught repeatedly by God in many unique ways.  As I have said before the English term “rapture” comes from a Latin word “raptus” which means “a carrying off”.   People are normally too narrowly focused on finding the specific word rapture, that they are missing entirely the more important messages about the subject recorded from God.   One detail that needs to be understood is that there are at least two completely different ways of teaching any subject.   A teacher can state the subject directly by describing it plainly or they can teach it indirectly by what is stated so that the subject must be true in order for the statement being made to also be true.   Most modern school textbooks are written in a direct teaching style with ordered increasing levels of associated complexity.  However, God’s word is not written in a textbook style and appears to be more random information that needs to be connected by study.  God teaches most spiritual subjects indirectly especially in the Old Testament where they are never explained fully until the descriptions are given about them in the New Testament.   Direct natural truths as opposed to indirect spiritual truths are found equally in abundance throughout the Bible.   For every direct natural lesson on a subject there are usually equal numbers of indirect spiritual lessons that can be found if you know how to search for them.   I hope you will learn both of these concepts given in this introduction from this lesson today.   Revelation 3:10 is an indirect and unstated spiritual lesson on the pre-tribulation rapture of the church that must be a truth for this statement that was made by Jesus to also be a truth and you will soon learn why I say this.  Let’s start by reviewing the verse in question and seeing what was stated by Jesus:

• Rev 3:10  Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

The KJV Bible translation does a fair job at translating each Greek word into English but yet these English words are often ignored or misapplied to not mean what they are really saying.   It is very easy to take an English word and restrict it to a specific narrow thought or application and that may be what is happening in this verse when you read it.  Some English words are easily assumed to be fully understood as they actually go much deeper in their definition and meaning when studied.   Assuming that you know and understand the truth is probably one of the greatest reasons why God is unable to teach you anything new.   So please take no preconceived assumptions into this Bible lesson as you continue to read.  There are certain key words given to us in this verse which need to be understood in order for us to comprehend the message being given to us by God.  Today we are going to go through at least 5 specific Greek words found in Revelation 3:10 and find their meanings and God’s usage for the words in other parts of the Bible.    These words that I will focus on are “all”, “world”, “temptation”, “keep” and “kept”.

I’m going to start with the Greek word translated as “all”.  This Greek word G3650 translated as “ALL” literally means the “entirety of the whole”.  This Greek word is applied as an adverb in this sentence and is directly used by God as a modifier description for the noun “world”.  In this type of presentation it would represent the entire “world”.   Let’s go back to an old Bible lesson that I did on the serpent in the garden first mentioned in Genesis 3:1.   In that Bible lesson I taught on how that God created laws of mathematical sets and used them in the words that He has written in the Bible.   A set is always a related grouping of like objects.    If I have a set of automobiles they may differ in manufacturer, color, make, year and model but they are all still unified members of my automobile set.  If I wanted to limit the scope of my set of automobiles I could qualify a new description to create a subset of just certain common features or characteristics.  For example I could define one sub-set of my “automobiles” to be only “red” automobiles and that makes ALL cars of the red color to be members in that set.  Now when I say ALL RED CARS you know I am including every one that qualifies to be a member together in that definition.   This is basic mathematical logic based upon established God created principles and yet many Christians may not grasp these important basic concepts and how they apply to the Word of God.   What we need to see is that God has just defined a mathematical set in Revelation 3:10 and said “every” noun object in that set called the “world” was included.   That literally means there are no “world” members excluded from the statement.  However the next problem is how does God define the members in the “world” set and what do these members possess that defines them to be in the common description?  I hope I am not going over your heads with these important thoughts but they must be applied correctly to understand who God is speaking about in this verse.

Let’s speak briefly about God’s usage of the Greek word G3650 that was translated as “ALL” in this verse.  This Greek word occurs in 99 verses of the Bible.   Around 60 times it was translated as “ALL”.   In nearly 40 verses, the Greek word was translated as “whole”.    “Whole” and “all” are clearly synonyms with the same definition.   They both will always include every member that fits the definition.   If you would like to do the study and search for this word for yourself in your Bible software to confirm how God consistently uses it to mean every that would be good to do, but I will not do that in this lesson today to keep this lesson a little bit shorter.

The next step to understanding Revelation 3:10, is to learn the Biblical definition of what the “all the world” set represents to God.   Jesus very clearly states that an “hour of temptation” will come upon the “entire world” at some unstated future time which was not directly given to us.  If the entire world will come into these common temptations we need to learn what the world means and what temptation means so that we can understand how or even if these apply to us in the church.   Let’s continue by examining the Greek word G3625 and determine how it was defined in the Greek language.  This Greek word which was translated as the English word “world” literally means “the earth”, “the soil” or “the physical land parts of the globe” according to the Strong’s definition.  However that does not mean that these physical land parts of the globe will be what is tempted in the prophesied hour.   What we are to apply is that God is speaking indirectly about the “inhabitants” of these “land areas” and not specifically about the dry dirt.   Therefore it is not the physical land directly being referenced but rather the people living on the land who will be tempted.  The implied application for this Greek word (world) is anyone that is alive on the earth or living upon dry land or occupying the livable land mass continents of the planet.   Let’s confirm this by observing this phrase in other parts of the N.T.:

• Mat 24:14  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

Here is an interesting reoccurrence of the phrase “All the world”.   Jesus is speaking and He declares the time of the end will come only after the Gospel is preached to “all the world”.   Obviously Jesus was not telling us to go preach to the literal soil of the planet.   No Jesus was telling us to go into every part of the globe and preach to the people that inhabit that part of the whole.   In other words the entire population of the globe will hear the Gospel before the end will come.  If we go and read Luke 2:1 you will see another example that it is the people that are the intended definition for the term “all the world”.   In this verse the ruler Caesar Augustus declared that “all the world” should be taxed.   That sounds very familiar to what is happening with governments today but that is a different subject.   We have seen enough examples to understand the description being used is about the people living on the earth and definitely not the literal earth.   Let’s stop there and ask ourselves does that term “all the earth” include Christians?   Of course we must realize that presently it does.   Christians on this planet are no different than non-Christians in that we both live in the same global “world” set of earth dwellers.   Remember what I just said because that fact will become very relevant as we continue in this lesson.  Let’s now examine the next Greek word G3986 translated as “temptation” in Revelation 3:10 because this is also an essential word to learn and understand:

• G3986
• From G3985; a putting to proof (by experiment [of good], experience [of evil], solicitation, discipline or provocation); by implication adversity: – temptation, X try.

This Greek word literally means to prove something or someone.   This is usually done by someone performing a trial or test like a scientist proving their theory of supposition performing repeated tests.   That is a popular concept within the scientific community but one that is misapplied to God and the truth found in God’s word.   Many Christians today believe that God tests people with trials to prove their faithfulness and that belief is contrary to what the Bible actually teaches.  Once you learn the truth you will figure out quickly that it is unnecessary for God to test anyone.   First consider the well-known fact that the divine God is called omniscient.  This is a common characteristic used to describe God and clearly demonstrates His superior nature.  Omniscient simply means “ALL KNOWING”.   If God literally knows everything as most Theologians and Christians believe it would be totally unnecessary for God to test or prove anyone since He must already know the outcome before the test is presented.  Therefore it is extremely ignorant to believe God needs to test us in order to prove our faith in Him.  Do you believe this?  If you do then you need to apply that information to what Jesus is stating in this verse to determine who is doing the testing to prove these people in the world.

The Bible teaches us who the tester represents but these facts are often ignored by many Christians because Satan would rather you believe in a good God that brings the tests rather than an evil being like himself that you might resist or fight against.   Do you already see the initial motivation behind why Satan wants Christians to believe that God is their tester?   I think it is obvious because Christians will not be foolish enough to fight against God.   The Greek word G3986 translated as “temptation” in Revelation 3:10 comes from the root word G3985 that means “to test”.   We need to learn how this word is used by God to teach us that it is not God that is testing people.  Let’s read this verse found in the book of James:

• Jas 1:13  Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

The word translated as “tempted” here is the Greek word G3985.  Notice what God declares.  God clearly states that He is not the tempter or the tester of humans.  The statement is directed at man by God saying “let no man say”.  This term for “no man” is found in several statements made by Jesus and is even found in Revelation 3:11 the next verse that we are studying when Jesus says “Let no man take your crown”.  It is very clear to me that this term is referring to human earth inhabitants again.   We have already stated why this testing is unnecessary based upon God already knowing the outcome.  If God does not test or tempt any human then who is sending the temptations, tests and trials in Revelation 3:10 to the whole world?   That is a very interesting question and the answer still points us to Satan to be the tempter.   Let’s examine some other verses found in the N.T. to confirm that God is not the tempter or tester of man:

• Mat 6:13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Here is a verse found in the Lord’s Prayer used by Jesus to teach His disciples how to pray.   Jesus taught them to pray for God to lead them out from temptation and clearly not into them.   Is the implied will of God for Christians to be tested or not to be tested?   It would seem to say that it is not God’s will for us to be tested based upon the prayer.  The implication given to us is that if we need to pray to ask God not to lead us into “temptations” that God is not the one that is initiating the temptation.  That is just sound basic logical reasoning.  God would not remove something that He was causing.   Let’s shift to another verse to help understand the true source of temptations:

• Luk 4:13  And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

This verse has the same Greek word found in Revelation 3:10.  God clearly says that Satan was the source for these temptations here in this verse.    Based upon the context given to us these temptations occurred when Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness being on a forty day fast.   Clearly Jesus would be considered to be “in the world” occupying the soil in this example and that is key for us understanding Revelation 3:10.   I could go over many verses found in the N.T. but I will only give you one more witness to learn from for now:

• 1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Here we have a message written to the church.  We are plainly informed that “temptations” may come but then we are indirectly informed that God was not the one that sent them.   This is an example of learning from what is stated how to see what is not stated.   In this verse God says “I will not allow the temptation to be above what you are able to endure”.   That appears to me to say I am a God that places limitations upon the one that is testing you.    God would not send the test and then limit the test and finally make a way out of the test as this verse declares.  That would be a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of God.  This would be dueling personalities with one side of God sending you the test to potentially harm you while the nice side of God limiting the test and placing a way out from it so that you can escape it.   That type of reasoning makes no sense to me but many Christians believe in that type of situation everyday.  One man that I knew believed that God sent cancer to his wife to test them but they were going to the doctors to try to get out from the test and live.   Wow, I seriously tried to help him see that it was not God doing it to his wife but he rejected it.  I’m really not sure what happened to his wife.

So far we have looked at the Greek words for “temptation”, “world”, and “all” in in Revelation 3:10 to gain understanding how they apply to the verse.   We have learned so far that a “temptation” is a stated trial or test that every human can potentially come into at some time in their life even Christians.  We have learned that Satan is the initiator of these tests and trials and that God is the one that leaves us a door out of the test if we want to find it.  We have learned the term “world” means earth dweller or inhabitant.   So far that definition would include everyone still living here on the planet.  Since God used the qualifier “all” before the world noun He clearly states that the entire population will be tested by Satan.  Let’s reread the verse again and apply what we have learned so far:

• Rev 3:10  Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

Jesus is the speaker in this verse so that is very important to note.   Then we know by reading in context that He is speaking to the church since this statement is found within one of the letters of Revelation written to the churches.   Therefore we know the majority of the noun subject participants found in this verse including the speaker and the intended target audience, Satan the tempter of the earth inhabitants and we now desire to understand the verb actions being given to connect them all together.  We have already seen where Satan is the tempter and Jesus says that his temptations, tests and trials will come upon the entire population of the earth.    Right there is an excellent time to consider that to be a prophecy of future reference.  Meaning what Jesus was speaking of had not occurred up until the time of writing.   That should raise a meaningful question in your mind, “Why is this stated time of temptation different than previous mentions of temptations given throughout the Bible?   I personally believe that the hour of temptation being spoken of is the soon to be described “Great Tribulation” later in the book of Revelation.   One of the main reasons that I believe this is because Satan is one of the key subjects in the rest of the book.  He is described as the “Great Dragon” and his prophet and anti-Christ servants will be revealed during this time to deceive the whole world’s population.

We then know from the statement of Jesus that He will “Keep” the church from that hour of global tests.  How will He do this?  In order to understand this we need to learn the definition of the word “keep” next.  Let’s look up the definition for the Greek word translated as “Keep”:

• G5083
• From τηρός teros (a watch; perhaps akin to G2334); to guard (from loss or injury, properly by keeping the eye upon; and thus differing from G5442, which is properly to prevent escaping; and from G2892, which implies a fortress or full military lines of apparatus), that is, to note (a prophecy; figuratively to fulfil a command); by implication to detain (in custody; figuratively to maintain); by extension to withhold (for personal ends; figuratively to keep unmarried): – hold fast, keep (-er), (ob-, pre-, re) serve, watch.

This is obviously a complex word and is compared with several other Greek words that are similar but different.   The meaning of the word means to watch or to observe.   As you can read this word means to keep your eye upon something or someone.   Perhaps it will help us if we analyze how this word was translated in the N.T.    This Greek word is found in 68 N.T. verses.   In 33 verses it is translated as “keep”.    In 12 verses it is translated as “kept”.  In 10 verses it was translated as “keepeth”.   The other verses in the N.T. it is translated as “observe”, “reserve”, “reserved”,  “watched”, “watching”, “preserve” and “hold fast”.

What do all of these translated English words have in common and how do they apply to how they were used by God in the New Testament?   We really need to learn this in order to understand what Jesus is going to do to the church before the coming hour of trials.  I think it is relevant and important to know that this Greek word is used twice in Revelation 3:10.  Once it was translated as “keep” and the other time it was translated as “kept”  Let’s examine how it was used for the church and then apply that definition to how it will be used by Jesus.  Read the beginning of the verse again and see how God uses it for the church.  God says “Because you have kept my words…, I will keep you…”.    How do you keep God’s words?    That is a very loaded question.   To keep God’s word implies they are important to you.   That you value them and that you desire to know them and possess them.   If further implies that you want to protect them and even make them safe.   Let’s examine the steps or process for keeping God’s Words:

1. We must desire to know God’s Words
2. We must value the Words of God
3. We must give the Words of God priority over all other words
4. We must make the effort to find God’s Words
5. We must take the time to learn God’s Words
6. We must extend the effort to understand God’s Words
7. We must then place the Words of God into our memories and recall them at all times
8. We must then put the Word of God into daily and hourly practice becoming a doer of the Words of God

That was my quick overview of keeping the Word of God.  It denotes a process of taking the Word of God from a book and placing into our hearts and minds to exalt it, protect it, guard it, preserve it, etc.  Clearly to keep the Word of God represents a transfer from one location to another.  What did I just say?   Taking God’s word from the pages of a written book and internalizing them is the transfer of divine information from one place to another.  Can we agree that this is what this word represents?  Now apply that to what Jesus said He would do before the hour of temptation.  Jesus basically said “I will keep you (move you out of harm, protecting you, keeping you safe, etc.) before that hour occurs because I value you as my treasure.   People will disagree with me that do not wish to see the truth, but there is really not much I can do to help those that do not want any help.

I believe very firmly that this verse is very specific.  It is a prophecy of two events occurring in sequence.  The first event is the “Keeping” safe of the church body that has kept safe the word of God.   The second event that will occur next is the hour of temptation, testing and trial that will occur to everyone on the planet earth.   This very clearly says that the church cannot be present upon the earth or this verse would not be accurate anymore.  The church’s presence on the earth’s surface during the trial would either cause the first part of the verse to become a lie or the last part of the verse to be a lie and that does not make any sense to me how people could explain it to be something else.

If you go through the New Testament carefully, it might help you to see where the Greek word “keep” is used and how it primarily means to take hold of something to never let it go.   I’ll give you an example of this:

• Joh 14:21  He that hath my commandments, and “keepeth” them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

You see even in this verse it says that a man that hears the Bible is not the one that will benefit from it.  He must “Keep” it which means grab hold firmly and not let go or let it slip away for God’s Words to be effective.  To take hold and not let go sounds very much like a rapture in this Revelation 3:10 description.  To rapture or to catch up or catch away is clearly God taking hold of His people and not letting them go.   This is what will happen to the church members that have kept God’s Word firmly within their hearts and not let them go.   It is a conditional rapture event.  Not everyone that called Him Lord will be taken.  It is only those that made Him Lord and put His Word on the inside firmly that will be taken up.  Can you now see how Revelation 3:10 is describing a rapture event before the time of trial?  It is literally impossible for the church to on the planet and not be in the group “all the world” that will be tested.   This literally means that since God has “kept” us from this hour that we must be in heaven.  Those are the only two choices for our location.  Based upon the meaning of the word “kept” as being a transition of state or position, there is really no way for a Christian that loves the Word of God to not be carried away from the pending world disasters.  I could literally go on and on about this but that was enough for one Bible lesson.  I hope and pray that you have gathered some wisdom on the timing of the rapture event from what was taught to us from God’s Word today.  The primary goal of this lesson was to help build your faith in a pre-tribulation rapture event.  I at least hope that you were encouraged how to go and search to see more verses like this one today in the Bible.   I’m not sure when my next Bible lesson will occur on this subject or any other right now.  I would appreciate your prayers if you know how to pray in the spirit as Ephesians 6:18 teaches.  I thank you all and I will also remember you in my prayers today.  Be Blessed Always.