Rapture: two-step wedding process

I got the below information from a devotional. I have been thinking regarding Pentecost and that this feast was a type of marriage arrangement between Jesus and the Church (the upper room where Jesus shared the Passover meal and later where the Holy Spirit was poured out).

This being accepted it’s natural for persons to look to Pentecost as a Rapture date as the Bride of Christ would certainly go on her wedding date. But, if the marriage were a multi-step process then maybe one of the other feasts would fulfill the second half of the marriage.

Here we see how Jewish betrothal was not the same as our modern notion of engagement. Betrothal was the first step in a two-stage marriage process. At their betrothal, Mary and Joseph would have exchanged their consent to marry each other before witnesses, and this would have made them legally married. However, as a betrothed wife, Mary would have remained living with her own family apart from her husband for up to one year until the second step of marriage took place.

In this second step, the husband would take his wife to his own home for normal married life to begin. Therefore, when the angel Gabriel appeared to her, Mary would have been living between these two stages of marriage: She would have been Joseph’s wife, but not yet dwelling with him.

Third, according to Jewish marriage customs, sexual relations would not take place until the second stage of marriage. Thus, since Mary is a betrothed woman and not yet living with her husband, it would come as no surprise that she was a "virgin".

Here is a great site on relating Jesus and what he did in relation to the Jewish Marriage custom. You’ll notice that the next step is the Husband to come in the night with the sound of a Shofar to come for his Bride:

http://www.returntogod.com/hebrew/Wedding.htm

John 14:2In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

Blessings,

Tony