From: marttila69@hotmail.com   
      
   God told the Israel people to keep 3 feast as a sign/remembrance.   
      
   The first grain to ripen(First Fruit) was the Barley and before the crop could   
   be used a handful of that Barley was to be taken to the priest who would offer   
   it up to God with his hands up waving the Barley.   
      
   Later on the wheat would ripen and before the wheat crop could be taken 2   
   wheat loves had to be waived by the priest to God with raised arms.   
      
   Note that first is the small sample (the 144 000) taken first and then the   
   rest later.   
      
   Rapture1   
   Jesus said He was the First of the First Fruit and when He died His soul went   
   to Hades and brought the captives out of there as well as the tombs opened and   
   dead people came to life which Jesus took to God's kingdom. This was the First   
   Fruit offering of    
   the Barley. The 144 000 who are with the Father and Jesus.   
      
   Rapture2   
   The main body of the Barley(Christians) will be taken before the Tribulation   
   (the Bride).   
      
   Rapture 3   
   This is followed by the sealing of the 144 000 Jewish witnesses (The Male   
   Child)and at the Mid point they are taken to God.   
      
   Rapture 4   
   At the end of the Tribulation period the Two Witnesses, the Woman-who   
   comprises of the Jewish Believers are also taken to heaven, as well as those   
   who have died who believe in Jesus and other Non Jews who have turned to   
   Christ.   
      
   Those that are left are all destroyed in God's wrath which is a combination of   
   the wicked killing each other as all restraint is gone and asteroids hitting   
   the earth.   
      
   Man is God's crop and can not be harvested before they reach a maturity in   
   Christ and is why there are different raptures, as they are not ready yet.   
   Once the destruction is over God's people will come back to the Earth for the   
   1000 year rule of Christ    
   and then it is the last Resurrection/judgement of the dead and eternity.   
      
   Revelation 12 New International Version (NIV)   
   12 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the   
   moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was   
   pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another   
   sign appeared in heaven: an    
   enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its   
   heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to   
   the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth,   
   so that it might    
   devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male   
   child, who "will rule all the nations with an iron scepter." And her child was   
   snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to   
   a place prepared for    
   her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.   
      
   Remember Jesus was already in Heaven with those that Jesus rescued the first   
   group of 144000 so at this is prophetic of future events and this Male Child   
   is the 144000 of the Jews who are also taken to heaven.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)