RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH

Researched and Written by Ron Robbins

The Rapture of the church is one of the most compelling and exciting prophetic events in the Bible. There have been movies and TV shows about the Rapture. These have minimized and misrepresented what the Bible tells us.

What occurs at Rapture?

It is clearly taught in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 (NKJV), where the apostle Paul provides us with these details:

“This we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

This Scripture gives us five stages to the Rapture: 1) The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with at shout and with the sound of a trumpet; 2) the dead in Christ will rise first; 3) we who are alive and remain on the earth will be “caught up” (Greek “harpazo” which is translated “together in the clouds”); 4) we will meet the Lord, and 5) we shall always be with Him. This is clearly a different description that is found in Revelation 19:11-18, that describes the “Second Coming”– where His “army” (believers already in heaven) follows Christ to earth and DO NOT meet Him in the clouds.

The apostle Paul also describes what he calls a mystery pertaining to the rapture, in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53. Here Paul explains that some Christians would not sleep (die), but their bodies would be instantly transformed:

“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep. But we shall all be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

This tells us what the Bible teaches about the events when the rapture occurs. The bodies of all believers who have died since the day of Pentecost will suddenly be transformed into new. Even those whose bodies have long since decayed, destroyed by fire or bombs, and even those whose bodies were scattered out over the oceans will receive a new outer form. This seems to be saying that the new form will be joined together with the person’s spirit, which Jesus will bring with Him in the clouds. Then the people of those who have likewise accepted Christ as their Savior and are alive at that moment will also be instantly transformed into new “heavenly form”. Together, all believers will be instantaneously transported into the heavens to meet the Lord. It needs to be indicated here that true believers in Jesus will not get their “super immortal bodies” until the first resurrection at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

This tells us what will happen at the time of Rapture. Now let’s consider why the Rapture occurs and what it tells us today prior to when it happens.

Rapture is a Blessed Hope

Titus 2:13 refers to the time of Rapture as the Blessed Hope because it provides assurance to believers who are fearful of the coming Tribulation. It tells us that the Rapture offers comfort to those who want to be reunited with their departed loved ones who share faith in Christ.

Let’s look at the two distinct phases of Jesus’ return, which is displayed in more than 300 biblical accounts of His second coming. The contrasting elements of these two phases cannot be merged into a single event. To fulfill the promise of John 14:1-3, Jesus will come suddenly to rapture His believers to His Father’s house. Specifically in John 14:3 Jesus says “When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with Me where I am” (NLT).This does not say His army will follow Him to earth as it does in Rev. 19:13.

In 2 Corinthians 5:8-10, it says they (the Raptured- “not in these earthly bodies”) will appear before the judgment seat of Christ. While the believers are in heaven, those left behind on the earth will experience the trials of the seven-year- Tribulation period. Revelation 3:10 says: Because you have obeyed My command to persevere, I will protect you from the great trial of testing (Tribulation) that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world”(NLT).

In the second phase of Jesus’ second coming, (the glorious appearing), He will return to earth in great power and glory to set up His millennial kingdom. The entire second coming has been compared to a two-act play (the rapture and the glorious appearing) with a seven-year intermission (the Tribulation). Notice the similarity of this time period of the seven-year period to the “Sabbath Year” and the “Year of Jubilee” Leviticus 25:1-13, although in Leviticus the seventh year was a year of rest for the land (although the Bible never indicates that Israel ever complied with the 50^th year of Jubilee- only the seventh year periods).  In the Tribulation, the seventh year is when all breaks loose. The apostle Paul distinguishes between these two phases in Titus 2:13, where he refers to the rapture as “the Blessed Hope” (indicated above) and the return of Christ to the earth as the “glorious appearing”.

Rapture: What does it mean?

Before dealing with the question of the timing of the pending Rapture, let’s see where the term comes from and what it means. Confusion over whether or not there will be a Rapture does exist. One reason for this is that the word rapture is not in the Bible. The word rapture is not in English translations of the Bible. It is an English version of a word that appears in Latin translations. Most of the New Testament was written in Greek which was then translated into Latin and then to English. Several verses of the Bible in the Latin translation contain the word “rapere”, “raptus”, or one of its derivations. It means “caught up, plunked up, or taken by force”. In the Latin Bibles “raptus” is translated to the Greek word “harpazo” which is used 14 times in the New Testament-if read in Greek.   Christians translate this Latin word to mean Rapture. Christians will be both “called up” and “caught up” to heaven just as John was. The basic idea of the word is “to suddenly remove or snatch away”. It is used by the New Testament writers in reference to stealing or plundering (Matthew 11:12; 12::29; 13:19; John 10:12, 28-29) and removing (John 6:35; Acts 8:39; 23:10; Jude 23).

The New Testament has another use- a third use- which focuses on being caught up to heaven. Paul tells us of a “third heaven” experience (2 Corinthians 12:2-4) and Christ’s ascension to heaven (Revelation 12:5). These Scriptures (with the Greek word “harpazo”) describe God suddenly taking up the church from earth to heaven as the FIRST part of Christ’s second coming.

LOTS MORE ARTICLES HAVE BEEN POSTED ON THE RAPTURE !!!

In the meantime check out this following, Copy and Paste:

http://62cbam4wj-1n3n8-6cvefw6y51.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=SPOONFULREVELATION

OR click on the following: