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shouldst give rewards unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints and them that fear thy Name small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth." (Divine retribution).

        This is the first place in Rev. where a voice from heaven proclaims God's wrath as having begun. Before this men perceive the unrelenting catastrophe's as heavenly retribution, but God Himself does not declare it to be so till this  verse -- after 3 1/2 years of tribulation.

          There can be absolutely no other biblical explanation for the judgment proclaimed in these verses, except to admit that this is indeed the Bema judgment of believers, occurring after the main Rapture of the church; the unrighteousness dead will not be raised till after the millennium; So we must concur from these events that the main Rapture has just taken place and Christ is seen rewarding His church in heaven -- the Rapture, Paul declared as a mystery in Thessalonians, is now finished. In addition, since Paul declared in 2 Thess. v. 3 that the main Rapture of the Church must occur after the Anti-Christ is revealed, the calling of John heavenward in Rev. (4, v. 1) cannot chronologically be the point of Rapture for the entire church since the Anti-Christ is revealed two full chapters later in Revelation 6, (v. 2)

          In (1 Thes. 4 vs. 15-17), we reviewed the fact that all believers will be Raptured before the wrath of God is poured out in the middle of the tribulation. Our goal should not be to make this main harvest Rapture; correlating to the Feast of Ingathering in the Feast of Weeks. Instead, we should desire to be part of the Firstfruits Rapture before the tribulation for the overcoming elders of the church.

          One of the first qualifications to be ready for this Rapture is found in Luke (21 v. 36) "watch ye therefore and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things and to stand before the Son of Man."

          These verses are spoken to believers so we dare not fail to take Christ's admonitions to heart; for He declares to us here, that a state of prayerful watchfulness is a prerequisite for taking part in this Firstfruits Rapture. Also we can perceive that God is indicating to us that a standard of worthiness is also required (we shall go into this later).

          What these passages mean for us today is that we must all diligently search the prophetic scriptures (for ourselves) and glean the divinely inspired revelations God will give to those who ask -- remember, "Ask and it shall be given; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you." Mat (7 v. 7)

          Still James (4 vs. 2-3) qualifies that our hearts must be in the right condition to receive -- "Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lusts."
Far too many Christians today (even in ministry) are striving to build and secure for themselves, an earthly kingdom and future, and in so doing actually seal their own destinies. Our primary goal must be the Kingdom first, if we are going to be ready for the Firstfruits Rapture before the tribulation. For "where your treasure is there will your