Answer: Thank you for your question, it sounds honest and important. Before I answer I just want to say that it is great that you have been studying Revelation. Many people struggle to understand this book yet we are encouraged to study it. God has even pronounced a three-fold blessing on it (Revelation 1:3). We are so thankful that you have been blessed by using our free studies on the website. Please tell others about this free resource.

Now to answer your question in brief, the righteous will be on this earth during the seven last plagues, not in heaven. Yet even though they are on the earth they will not be touched by the seven last plagues, but they will be protected from them.

For biblical proof we will site a few Scriptural references:

#1—In Revelation 16, as the plagues are being poured out, the message is given:

“Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon” (Revelation 16:15, 16).

Notice that this message that Jesus is yet to come “like a thief “is given between the 6th and 7th plagues. These verses indicate that after six plagues have been poured out Jesus has not come to take His faithful home yet.

#2—In Matthew 24 when Jesus shares a basic outline of the end of the world and His second coming He uses Noah and the flood as a summary.

“But as the days of the Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37).

Noah was a type of God’s people in the end of time. Noah and his family were the saved from the flood, but they remained on the earth during it. They were, in fact, in the midst of the flood. Jesus is saying that as Noah was protected from the plague of the waters that flooded the earth, so will it be in the time when Jesus returns. God will protect His people from the plagues that will fall before Jesus returns.

#3—In Psalm 91 we are promised God’s protection from plague and evil.

“No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling” (Psalm 91:10, NKJV).

#4—According to Luke 17:26-37 there are two groups of people when Christ returns—those who are “taken” and those who are “left.” In the context, the taken are the lost and the “left” are the saved. This sounds contrary to popular Christian fiction, but remember the “Left Behind” series is “fiction” not fact. (The Authors themselves acknowledge this.) The “taken” in these Bible verses are those that were taken by the flood waters and by the fire from heaven—those who died. When the disciples ask “Where, Lord?” (Where are they taken?), Jesus responds, “Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together” (Luke 17:37). In other words the “taken” are the dead, both in Lot’s day and in Noah’s day, their lives were taken by the flood waters and by the fire, while the saved remained alive. In fact, Paul, speaking of Christ’s second coming says also, “then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Those who are “alive” and “remain” are caught up to meet the Lord, not those who are taken.

The Bible also indicates that at this same Second Coming event when we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, all the lost will be destroyed (2 Thessalonians 2:1-8; Revelation 6:15-17).

This is an important point to consider. When God’s people are caught up to meet Christ in the air there is no one left alive on this earth. Those who received the mark of the beast receive the plagues (Revelation 16:2). Then when Jesus returns during the seventh plagues, God’s people are caught up to meet Him in the air while the man of sin and the wicked who have survived the plagues so far will then be destroyed by the brightness of our Lord’s second coming. No one is left alive on earth at that time.

So what about Revelation 15:2-4? These verses give us a picture of the saved in heaven on the sea of glass. Because the verses are found between Revelation 15:1 and the pouring out of the plagues in chapter 16, we might assume that these verses indicate that God’s people are in heaven when the plagues are poured out. This assumption is based on the idea that Revelation is written in order of events, but this is not the case. If so, Christ’s return would take place in chapter 1 (verse 7). Even the chapters themselves are not always written in sequence and we often find interruptions to the flow of thought. So how can we know when we being interrupted by another vision?

One of the basic transition identifiers in the book of Revelation are the phrases, “And I saw, after this I saw, and I heard, and after these things I heard, etc.”
Revelation 15:1 introduces the 7 last plagues with the phrase, “and I saw…” However, before John sees the plagues poured out he is introduced to another vision in Revelation 15:2 again with the phrase “and I saw…” This vision is given to encourage those who gain the victory over the beast and his mark and consequently do not receive the plagues. That this vision is future to the actual outpouring of the plagues is evidenced by the fact that this group is before the throne of God having gotten the victory over the beast, his image and mark when, in fact, the controversy is not yet fully settled for the lost are still alive and fighting against God (Revelation 16:13, 14).

The song of Moses that the saved in this vision sing before the throne of God also prove this vision to be future to the outpouring of the plagues because they ask “who shall not fear Thee and glorify Thy name,” and then state in part that, “all nations shall come and worship before Thee.” If this were taking place before or during the plagues it would not be true for many nations will yet refuse to repent and worship, fear and glorify God. It is clearly then a summary statement of a people who sing this song of victory before the throne after all the lost have been destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming. It is a vision that looks forward to the final victory the redeemed are about to experience just after the plagues are poured out. This is further substantiated by the fact that previous visions give a similar picture of the redeemed in heaven singing the song of victory (see Revelation 7:9-17; 14:1-5).

I hope this has been helpful. Do keep studying the Bible and the Revelation of Jesus Christ. And feel free to ask us about any questions that may arise.

Question: “What is your position on the rapture of the church?”

Answer: Our position is based on what the Bible teaches. The word rapture comes from the phrase “caught up” in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. In that context, the Bible teaches that the church will be raptured at the second coming of Jesus Christ along with all believers whether dead in Christ or alive at His appearing. This rapture will come at a time that will catch the world by surprise–like a thief in the night  (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3) and bring sudden destruction upon all who are not in a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

 
We believe the second coming of Christ will be a loud, bright, every-eye-will-see-Him, literal, ending history-as-we-know-it event (Matthew 24:26-31; Revelation 1:7; Acts 1:11; 2 Peter 3:10).