The Rapture Puzzle

Revelation 21: One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plaguescame and said to me, ―Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.‖ And he carriedme away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem,coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance waslike that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall withtwelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of thetwelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on thesouth and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them werethe names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The angel who talked with me had ameasuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like asquare, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. The angel measured the wall usinghuman measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. The wall was made of jasper, and the cityof pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with everykind of precious stone.The New Jerusalem is the Bride of Christ, the Church. It’s wall is 144 cubits, a representation of the144,000 pureheart virgins that are redeemed from the earth. The Gentile believers have been graftedinto the olive tree and we are part of the 12 tribes of Israel. The unbelieving Jews who have rejectedtheir Messiah have been cut off from the olive tree and are no longer a part of the true tribes of Israel,the household of faith.Matthew 19:28 says, Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when theSon of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelvethrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.Revelation 12:14 says, ―The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were thenames of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.‖The foundation of the city, or the Bride of Christ, thewife of the Lamb, are the 12 apostles. They were the firstbelievers who went out and proclaimed the gospel to thenations and the Church was built upon their teachingsand leadership, which was modeled to them by Jesus.The 12 apostles are the rulers or head of the 12 tribes ofIsrael, which includes all Jewish and Gentile believers inChrist.Did the apostles understand this concept and did they teach this through their writings? Absolutely!Look at who James addresses his letter to: (James 1) James, a servant of God and of the LordJesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.In Galatians 4, we read: These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent twocovenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: Thisis Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of74