Are the events of Revelation 6:1-17 not happening or have been happening for the past 2000 years?
As I watched, the Lamb broke the first of the seven seals on the scroll. Then I heard one of the four living beings say with a voice like thunder, “Come!” I looked up and saw a white horse standing there. Its rider carried a bow, and a crown was placed on his head. He rode out to win many battles and gain the victory. When the Lamb broke the second seal, I heard the second living being say, “Come!” Then another horse appeared, a red one. Its rider was given a mighty sword and the authority to take peace from the earth. And there was war and slaughter everywhere. When the Lamb broke the third seal, I heard the third living being say, “Come!” I looked up and saw a black horse, and its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice from among the four living beings say, “A loaf of wheat bread or three loaves of barley will cost a day’s pay. And don’t waste the olive oil and wine.” When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the fourth living being say, “Come!” I looked up and saw a horse whose color was pale green. Its rider was named Death, and his companion was the Grave. These two were given authority over one-fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword and famine and disease and wild animals. When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of all who had been martyred for the word of God and for being faithful in their testimony. They shouted to the Lord and said, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge the people who belong to this world and avenge our blood for what they have done to us?” Then a white robe was given to each of them. And they were told to rest a little longer until the full number of their brothers and sisters—their fellow servants of Jesus who were to be martyred—had joined them. I watched as the Lamb broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became as dark as black cloth, and the moon became as red as blood. Then the stars of the sky fell to the earth like green figs falling from a tree shaken by a strong wind. The sky was rolled up like a scroll, and all of the mountains and islands were moved from their places. Then everyone—the kings of the earth, the rulers, the generals, the wealthy, the powerful, and every slave and free person—all hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they cried to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to survive?”
These things have been happening and will continue to happen until Jesus returns.
Did the arrival of the Day of the Lord take 2,000 years?
Have things been constantly all consumed by fire over and over again?
That is like saying Jesus has been constantly dying on the Cross for 2,000 years in preparation for the Second Coming.
One cannot spread the first coming into an indefinite period of time. Nor should one force the Second Coming over an indefinite period of time.
The trouble experienced by the church ends immediately with the removal of the church. Neither the church nor the church's trouble extend past the removal of the church, and continues into the final harvest of billions of humanity. The dead simply don't vanish, nor do they all physically die at the Second Coming. The final harvest is the end of Adam's dead corruptible flesh, but not the church. The church has the second birth and is already in a state of life, even in Adam's dead corruptible flesh. But the Second Coming changes those alive.
What has been ongoing that many put to the last minute is the change to those in Christ. The church has already left their graves, because the church was never buried. Jesus said that the dead bury their dead. But those in Christ do not even taste death. Those in Christ already serving God day and night in that heavenly temple don't come out of their graves. They come with Jesus from heaven. They have already risen from death.
Your translation contradicts itself. Since they are coming with Jesus, they cannot be coming out of their graves to meet Jesus at the same time. Those that Jesus brings with Him are gathered from across Paradise, just like those gathered from across the earth. All meet in the middle in the air between Paradise and the surface of the earth.
So no redeemed soul needs a physical body to come out of the ground. They have had the same physical permanent incorruptible body Jesus always had, once the OT redeemed were removed from Abraham's bosom.
Not sure why one would think Jesus can have a physical body, but no one else can have one.
That body was given to them by God, so not the body handed down from Adam, same as Jesus.
"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 2 Corinthians 5:1
Those in Christ have been rising first from the dead, consistently since the Cross. They have been putting on that permanent incorruptible physical body. They will be gathered from Paradise and come with Jesus to the same spot those raptured from earth arrive at.
But only Jesus and the angels complete the process to the Mount of Olives. Jesus did not leave with people in Acts 1, nor will He return with them.
Jesus did not appear one day, was placed on a Cross within 12 hours, died and rose again 12 hours later and then left earth. Yet that is how some claim the Second Coming has to happen. Jesus is the 70th week. 3.5 years as Messiah and 3.5 years as the Prince to come. The final harvest represents that second 3.5 years or what is left of it.
"And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened."
The longer the Second Coming does not happen, the shorter those 3.5 years become. Jesus does not leave after the Second Coming to make time shorter. God holds back the Second Coming. It is the elect who are given more time to make a decision to follow Christ through the Holy Spirit. But those 3.5 years are not indefinite and stretched out over time. They are as firm as the 3.5 years in the first century.
The Seals, the Trumpets, and the Thunders cover this 3.5 year span. Not that they dole out God's punishment, judgment, and wrath upon all equally. Jesus is personally involved in the final harvest, because that is what He explicitly said. Salvation by faith is removed. Jesus chooses who is redeemed and who is not redeemed. The 144k are chosen by God, and sealed by an angel. It is not their choice, but God's. The wheat is seed sown directly by Jesus. The sheep are chosen directly by Jesus.
Theology teaches the sheep and the wheat are determined prior to the Second Coming. That is not how the final harvest works according to Scripture.
You are in it with me, brother. Welcome to the rodeo.
