The PAUSE; DELAY in the Return of the Bridegroom – What This is Teaching Us Today in Relation to the Rapture (KJV)

August 21, 2026 | www.gospelofjesuschrist.blog | River Wilde

The most awesome experience in studying the scriptures full time is how the words keep teaching, regardless of how many times that you’ve read them before.

I’ve been fixated on the return of the Bridegroom for the past several weeks, and I keep learning what Christ is wanting us to know, and I’d like to share something with you today.

Let’s begin by looking at the scriptures:

Matthew 25:5 (KJV), in the parable of the ten virgins:

“While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.”

In modern English, you could understand this as:

“While the bridegroom was delayed in coming, they all became sleepy and slept.”

Why is this significant in this parable? Remembers this teaching is for US, as we prepare for the Rapture.

Is He telling us that there will be a delay? Is He suggesting that it will be a “longer” time than we expect? I feel strongly that this is the intent of the story, and something that we should be preparing for. Through prayer, I have come up with two different scenarios of this teaching that I would like you to consider, NOT as gospel teachings, rather, to understand the concepts which both lead to gospel principles of the story used here.

Those of us who are trying to understand the end-times prophecies are focused upon knowing the season of the rapture. We have specifically been given the parameter of not knowing the “date or time” of His arrival which is in itself a 24-hour period. It is the season, THE year that many of us have been trying to establish.

I personally thought that year was 2025, and I believe that MANY people were looking at the feast of trumpets in 2025 as being a high watch date. The SAME findings used to establish 2026 as the year of the rapture also applied to the year 2025 for me. Let me show you three time stamp examples which could suggest the rapture in 2025 or 2026.:

This first teaching shows us that the return of Christ could be between 2018 thru 2028.

Matthew 24:32–34 (KJV), Jesus teaches the parable of the fig tree while describing the signs of the end times. He says that when the fig tree begins to put forth leaves, you know that summer is near; likewise, when the signs He described begin to occur, His return is near. Many prophecy teachers interpret the fig tree as symbolic of Israel, and since Israel was restored as a nation in 1948, they believe Jesus was implying that the generation that witnesses Israel reborn would not completely pass away before the major end-time events and His return occur.

The key verse says, “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” (Matthew 24:34 KJV). This interpretation suggests that Israel’s rebirth is a prophetic marker indicating that the world has entered the final period leading up to Christ’s return.

Psalm 90:10 describes a human generation as spanning roughly 70–80 years. When applied to Israel’s rebirth, it places the return of Jesus Christ in a time window of:

1948 + 70-80 years = 2018 thru 2028 – (2026 is within this windowof time of Christ’s return, however does not allow for the 7-year prior window of the rapture). If the generation were to be 5 years longer, or 85 years, the math would fit. Return of Jesus Christ in 2033 and the rapture in 2026.

Key Fact – We are currently living in the time prophesied that Jesus Christ would return to the earth, 2018 thru 2028.

Now, this is where it gets interesting to me. Let me share the other two “time stamps” teachings of the return of Jesus Christ.

Hosea 6:2 (KJV):

“After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.”

We are using 1,000 years to represent 1 day in this scripture.

Christ was resurrected in 32AD Since He was born in 01 BC and lived 33 years. 2 days, or 2000 years from the resurrection of Jesus Christ would place His Second Coming in the year 2032, making the Rapture happen 7 years prior in the year 2025.

The same is true using the third time stamp of His return.

The timing/pattern of the earth through the biblical seven-day framework

The Bible presents a recurring pattern of six days followed by a seventh day of rest:

God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh (Genesis 1–2), and He later established the same pattern for Israel in Exodus 20:8–11; Scripture also says, “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years” (2 Peter 3:8), while Psalm 90:4 similarly compares a thousand years to a day, leading some students of prophecy to understand the creation week as a prophetic picture of 6,000 years of human history followed by a seventh thousand-year period of rest.

Using this timeline, again 2,000 years from the resurrection of Jesus Christ if He died in 32Ad would suggest that He would return in the year 2032, and the rapture happening 7 years Prior (due to the 7 year Tribulation Period) in 2025.

We all know that did not happen in 2025, however, if we use the year 33 AD as His resurrection Year, His second Coming will be in 2033, and the rapture 7 years prior in 2026.

My point here is that many of us were expecting the season of the rapture to be in 2025 and we had to “Tarry,” we had to wait because His return was delayed.

Could this last year, 2025 to 2026 be fulfilling the period of time where we would have to WAIT for His coming.

Let’s look again what was prophesied regarding people in OUR day who are waiting, and what some people said during this period of time:

2 Peter 3:3–4 KJV:

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

So, some people were essentially saying, “Where is He? He promised to come, but nothing seems to be happening.”

Peter then explains something very interesting:

2 Peter 3:8–9 KJV

“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness…”

Over the past year, many of us have been mocked, and received the same question… “I thought that you said that Christ was Coming… Where is He?”

What is blowing me away right now relating to Peter’s answer is that he is actually addressing those scoffers with an explanation of Why the Lord is delayed, using the teaching of one day is like 1000 years. He is using our very time stamp in His explanation to the scoffers!

I must say, if we are looking to explain what period of time would best represent our having to wait period of time, for the return of Jesus Christ, this would be one that seems to find peace in my heart as the time period that He was referring to.  

Here is the Second Interpretation of When the Delay Period might happen.

Using the same three “Time Stamps” above, teaching of the season of His return, to me it is clear that the Rapture will occur in 2026. All three point to that year.

For many of you following me, I also believe strongly, that the Rapture will occur during the Feast of Trumpets. Notice that this feast is NOT a 24-hour period, as cautioned about in scripture, rather it occurs from Sept 11 through Sept 13, 2026. It is a 48-hour period or longer. I am NOT knowing the day nor the hour here.

I am fully prepared that if the Rapture does not happen during this 2-3 day period, that the delay taught by Jesus Christ will then begin. However, I’m quite certain that the Rapture will happen in the year 2026. That being the case, the delay in this scenario could be anytime from Sept 13 through Dec 31, 2026.

Using this teaching, again, it would produce the same Scoffers, “I thought you said the rapture would happen during the feast of trumpets. Where is He??”

In both scenarios, it requires FAITH on our part. WE NEED to have enough “OIL” to see us through should the Bridegroom be delayed, just as the parable teaches us.

I keep teaching something, however, my personality will just not accept it.

“We don’t need to know the date; we simply need to be prepared.”

I have honestly asked for God’s help in letting this go, and I JUST CANNOT! I am so driven to study until I literally fall asleep, SEARCHING for Scripture timestamps of His coming.

What is reassuring to me is that with this continued study, I keep finding additional information, which helps me feel that I’m not going against God’s word as I continue digging for more details.

The Bridegroom will soon come for His bride, that I can testify of for certain!!

A person must be prepared for the Rapture by being “in Christ” (Born Again). THAT I also KNOW IS TRUE!

The “Delay in His Coming,” weather that has already happened, or is something in the future HAS a PURPOSE, which is to TEST our FAITH. This too I know to be TRUE.

And, sadly, I also know something VERY TRUE as well. The Majority of the world will not be prepared, nor will they even care enough to watch for His return.

And, there is something else that is quite telling to me about this parable. Jesus specifically describes those who are waiting as 10 VIRGINS. He does not say that the entire world was waiting for His return. Virgins, meaning those who thought they were pure… RELIGIOUS people. And of the religious people that are waiting for Him, 5 were prepared and granted access to the wedding feast, and 5 were not allowed to enter. That is very symbolic, and thought provoking to me.

Why?

That answer is simple… Because just like Nicodemus, they had NOT been Born Again.

Matthew 7:21–23:

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?”

“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

More than just the rapture, many religious people will not be able to enter the “Kingdom of Heaven.” They trusted in their good works, temple sealings, and religious rituals, rather than trusting only in Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice, being Born Again as He has asked of us.

There is no greater risk for people right now than those religious people who think they are saved, but are not. Let’s continue our prayers for them, that they can do this before the rapture, so that they will not have to endure the hardships of the upcoming Seven-Year Tribulation Period, to come to Christ.

I also hope that this writing today has helped some, in finding the comfort in knowing that they will soon be rescued by our Savior from this wicked world. “I can only imagine!”