What Rapture?

Welcome back, beautiful family!

I think that the best place to jump into the whole Eschatology focus is with what gives us, as born-again, Spirit-filled Christians hope. What is our hope? That, my family, is a simple answer:

While we wait for our blessed hope- the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ – Titus 2:13

Our hope is that Jesus is coming back. He promised us this is the case:

In 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. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. – John 14:2-3

So how does this all relate with the scary, horrific stuff that we talked about yesterday that will be coming?

Well, this my friends, is where the Rapture comes in to play.

The Rapture is an event that was fully revealed to Paul:

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For we say this to you by revelation from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly have no advantage over those who had fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort each other with these words. – 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

The Rapture is that moment when we are “caught up”. Yes, that term Rapture is not in our English Bible. But it is in the Latin translation the “caught up” appears as rapturo. In the Greek the word harpazo is used which means to be snatched away. I have heard a brilliant explanation of this event over the years: it is similar to when a young child is about to be hit by a car and you yank them out of the way.

And just a side note, there are several things in Christianity that we accept as part of our belief system that, while the concept is covered in the Bible, the actual word is not. Prime examples: Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and Bible itself. So the concept of Rapture is most definitely in the Bible, even if the word itself is not in our English versions, the concept most definitely is.

But I was told there is no such thing as the Rapture? There has been a lot of back and forth over the years. And yes, there are some Christians, even pastors, who refuse to believe in the Rapture. Towards the end of the 20th century, there was a theory that a young girl “came up” with the idea of the rapture and that it was pushed by a man named John Darby in the 1800s. However, again, I go back to what I’ve been saying all along: what does the Bible say? The Bible says that we, who are alive and remain, will be caught up with Jesus in the clouds. I don’t think anything is confusing or unclear about that. I believe that Satan has done his best to discourage modern-day Christians. But we worship Yahweh – the One who created everything in the universe. The One who supernaturally rescued His people from numerous circumstances. Why do we limit God by acting like all the supernatural stuff that God is capable off is no longer possible? My friends, I urge you to understand, it cannot be further from the truth. God is Mighty. He is capable of anything. And I fully believe that we will see just how much He is still doing when we continue through this dive into the End Times.

I do want to call out something here. The Rapture and the Second Coming are two entirely separate events. The Rapture will occur before the start of the Tribulation period. Why is this? Because we who are believers do not have to face God’s wrath because we believe Jesus died and resurrected as payment for our sins:

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Thessalonians 5:9

All of this avoidance of God’s wrath is due to Jesus’s payment of our sin debt on the cross at Calvary. It is nothing we earned. It was gifted to us by Jesus, who loved us so much that He died for our sins so that we could be reconciled to the Lord.

Just as Noah avoided death by the flood by obeying God, and having faith, we will avoid the upcoming wrath of God by having faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Second Coming of Jesus will be a glorious event at the end of the Tribulation period. At that time, unlike in the Rapture (where we meet Him in the air), He will step foot again on the Mount of Olives and take up His rightful place over the entire world. But we’ll explore that a lot more in depth over the next posts.

In the Rapture, we who are still alive will change from our current body into our eternal one:

Brothers, I tell you this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and corruption cannot inherit incorruption. Listen I am going to tell you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will be changed, in a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible must be clothed with incorruptibility, and mortal is clothed with immorality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed in victory. – 1 Corinthians 15:50-54

We will go to heaven to be with Jesus and then we’ll return to earth to rule along side Jesus once the Tribulation is over.

All of this is amazing and it truly is our blessed hope. This is the source of peace and comfort in all the chaos that is taking place all over the world. This is how we can lay our head down at night and not be overwhelmed with fear and terror. But, this is precisely also the reason that you must accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and now. We don’t know when the Rapture is going to happen, but we do know that everything that needs to be completed for the Rapture to happen already has been. In fact, we can already clearly see the Tribulation on the horizon. And for that to happen, we have to be out of here first:

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who is restraining will only do so until he is out of the way, and then the lawless one will be revealed. – 2 Thessalonians 2:7

So the Rapture is an exciting event which will only happen once. Once it is over, it’s done. You don’t want to miss this. Please get on the boat while you still can. Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Accept his free gift of salvation which will secure your place in the Rapture. As you will see moving forward, you don’t want to be left here for what is to come. Buckle up, we’re moving into those topics next.

Until next time, beloved.