Maranatha! What a word. It means “Even so, come quickly” or “The Lord Cometh”. Jesus is alive and He is coming soon. Are you ready? Are you rapture ready? Over 300 times we are reminded of the glorious promise of Jesus’s soon return.
John 14:1–4 (NLT) “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.”
The coming again by Jesus Christ to gather His Church to Himself is known as the “Rapture” of the Church. Some come to this doctrine and immediately dismiss it because they say, ‘that word isn’t even in the Bible’. That’s a funny statement isn’t it? In order to dismiss the doctrine, they use an argument that doesn’t even fit their statement! Yes, the word “bible” is not found anywhere in the Bible either!
Is the word “rapture” not really found in the Bible? Well it depends on what version you’re using.
1 Thessalonians 4:17 (NKJV) “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.”
The Greek word for the translated phrase, “caught up”, is “harpazo”. Literally it means, “taken by force”, and is used 13 times in the New Testament as, “catch up 4x”, “take by force 3x”, “catch away 2x”, “pluck 2x”, “catch and pull 1x”. It refers to that catching up of the Church to be with Jesus forever. So what about the word rapture? It comes to us from the Latin as many of our English words come from. When translating the Bible into the Latin Vulgate, Jerome used the word “raptus” to describe the Greek word “harpazo”. Why is this important you ask? Because I want you to be influenced by arguments that don’t hold water.
The rapture refers to that time in the near future when Jesus will return without warning to take away His Church from the earth. I believe this will happen BEFORE the coming Great Tribulation period mentioned in depth in the book of Revelation. (I wrote on this in depth here.)
The Bible teaches us that some will not die, but those who are alive and remain will be caught up to be with the Lord in the air.
1 Corinthians 15:50–53 (NKJV) “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 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.”
Those believers in the church who are alive at the rapture will not die, but shall be changed (Greek: ‘allasso’, to change the form or nature of a thing.)
There is a distinction made in the Bible between the RAPTURE of the church and the 2nd COMING of Jesus Christ.
With the rapture, Jesus coming FOR His saints.
In His 2nd Coming, Jesus is coming WITH His saints.
Jude 14 (NKJV) “Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints,”
With the rapture, Jesus comes in the CLOUDS.
In His 2nd Coming, Jesus comes to the EARTH.
Zechariah 14:4 (NKJV) “And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south.”
There is a 7 year period of time in between these 2 events.
That 7 year time is known as the Great Tribulation Period.
Jacob’s Trouble – Daniel’s 70th week.
It’s a time of judgment that the earth has never seen.
Matthew 24:21 (NKJV) “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.”
Are you rapture ready?
John 3:16–17 (NKJV) “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
