When are the elect gathered (“raptured“) according to the 3 main “gathering” texts:

1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

Matthew 24:29-31, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Revelation 1:7, John says, “Behold, he is coming on the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him.” Notice that this verse is parallel to the language of Matthew 24:30. The same coming on the clouds, the same mourning by all the tribes of the earth. But it adds one detail to the tribes. It adds language about those who pierced God. That language is not new. It comes from the book of Zechariah 12:10 where God says, “They will look on me whom they’ve pierced and they will mourn for him.” And the Gospel of John, chapter 19, explicitly connects this prophecy to Jesus’s crucifixion. You know, that’s when Jesus was pierced. In Zechariah 12, the mourning of Israel is not despair. Rather, it’s a mourning unto repentance. It is regret or mourning leading to a changed heart.

Revelation 7 is after the great tribulation just like Matthew 24. In fact, after the gathering, it specifically says these folks were gathered out of the great tribulation. Now, those are ways it’s parallel, but Revelation 7 adds new information to Matthew 24. It describes two distinct groups: the 144,000 Jews for evert tribe and then an enormous number of gentile believers.

Watch this Nelson Walters video for the answers.