The "Rear Guard" or “Last Trumpet” saints, caught up just prior to Armageddon, fulfill both the pattern of the tribe of Dan and the time of sundown on Yom Kippur. There is one last great trumpet call before the gates to the Word of G-d are closed, and judgment is sealed, irreversibly! No amount of repentance appeases the wrath of G-d!

Indeed, following the catching up of those “Rear Guard” saints, we see judgment loosed upon the earth. The wrath of G-d rages upon the unrepentant wicked, upon the despoilers of the earth¹ and upon all corruption.

While G-d's undiluted wrath is poured out upon the earth, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is being celebrated with great joy in heaven, with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and many other O.T. saints as invited guests²  sitting at table with Bridegroom and Bride, and the Bridemaids. 

Then comes the decisive battle, the one for which all of heaven and earth has waited -- the battle over Jerusalem! When Israel has her back against the wall -- for there will be no righteous ones left to restrain the nations from annihilating her - the Messiah and King of Israel will return in the company of all His saints, to save her. He and His saints enter the battle over Jerusalem and put an end to the "Beast" system, the “beast” man and to the false prophet, by throwing them alive into the Lake of fire. Satan instead gets bound and locked securely away for a thousand years.

THEN --- and only then, does the 8th stage of the First Resurrection take place!

Who then are they?

We find them in Revelation 20:4. They are actually part of those who are called "the REST OF THE DEAD [who] did not come to life until the thousand years were ended." ³  But they are raised in the First Resurrection. They do not belong to the Body of Messiah, and therefore were not "raptured" out. Rather, we see them being judged by saints who were raptured out earlier and are now seated on thrones⁴. 

Nevertheless they share in the First Resurrection⁵. Why? How come?

Their specific purpose, or function, is that of sanctifying! G-d has a certain method by which He sanctifies people, animals, furniture and utensils, harvests, foods, etc. And just as Hebrews 2:11 declares, "For the One Who sanctifies and those who are sanctified  have all one origin [or, Father]," so it is: while we are yet in the earth and at home in a mortal body of sinful flesh, we are already sanctified by Him, NOW⁶ . Consequently we are deemed to be like Him, although we don't yet share visibly in His appearance and nature.

Likewise, these specific saints are the First Fruit of the Second Resurrection, raised in the First Resurrection for the very purpose of sanctifying through their new and immortal nature G-d's Congregation of men, namely the survivors of the twelve tribes of Israel of still mortal nature.

These saints - NOT of the Body of Messiah^h - which complete the First Resurrection, constitute G-d's immortal for the Court, the eternal inheritance of the immortal congregation of G-d. With their resurrection we see again the Tabernacle in its tri-unity, with One G-d of a triune nature dwelling once more in the midst of His people Israel. Without these immortal saints no Court could be created, for its sanctification would be missing. And without a Court the Tabernacle is incomplete. And as long as the Tabernacle is incomplete, G-d cannot return to dwell among men, because His Triune Nature requires the proper habitation with the people of like nature, respectively.

Hence, faithful to the pattern of offerings established in the wilderness, G-d "heaves out" a First Fruit, a consecrated portion from “the rest of the dead” of the Second Resurrection, to be raised up in the First Resurrection. This "heaved out" group sanctifiesⁱ the whole of the Court, alias Congregation, which will be composed of mortal Israel during the Millenial Reign. Thus G-d makes of some who belong to the Second Resurrection a consecrated, sanctifying First Fruit⁷.