The rapture
is one of the most controversial topics in all of the end times. Some don’t
believe there will be a rapture, and those that do, cannot agree on when it
will occur. But a careful examination of questions about the rapture and their
answers are for most, quite shocking and will reveal hard truths that you will
wish you had known a long time ago. These rapture truths may even keep you from
making the biggest mistake in your life.
So, let’s
begin our study by first identifying why there are so many conflicting views
about the rapture. I believe that the root of the problem is the failure to
take all of scripture into view, instead of a just a few select passages.
Taking all of scripture into view is essential to forming any correct doctrinal
view. Any correct theological view must agree with all of scripture and
contradict none of scripture.
It is with
this in mind that I will present and answer several important questions
involving the rapture. I warn you that some of the answers to those questions
may go against what you have been taught all of your life. I ask that you to
not reject the answers just because they are different from what you have been
taught, but to let the truths of God’s Word speak to you—for the truth shall
set us free. Let’s begin.
Question: Is the rapture in the Bible
and if so, what does the rapture entail?
The word
rapture is not in the English Bible, however a quick study of the linguistic origins of the word rapture readily show that the rapture is an
event talked about in the Bible many times.
The
linguistic origins of the English word "Rapture" in Christian
eschatology, tracing it back to how Saint Jerome translated 1 Thessalonians
4:17 from the original Greek into the Latin Vulgate:
Original
Greek: ἁρπαγησόμεθα (harpagēsometha), which means "we shall be caught
up" or "snatched away".
Latin Vulgate
Translation: rapiemur, which translates to "we are caught up" or
"we are taken away".
Latin Root
Verb: rapio, meaning "to catch up," "take away," or
"seize".
Because the
Latin Vulgate was the dominant Bible used in the Western Church for over a
thousand years, the Latin root raptura (and the verb rapio) eventually evolved
into the Middle French word rapture, which was then adopted into English to
describe this specific biblical event.
As we will
soon see the concept of believers being caught up or raptured during the end
times is mentioned many times in scripture.
Question: Is the rapture in the Bible
and if so, what does the rapture entail?
Answer: Yes, there is a rapture
during the end times and the word rapture describes the end times Biblical
event where the saints are taken up into heaven.
Question: What is the reason for the
rapture?
Realizing
that during the end times God’s wrath will be poured out upon the world, and
also realizing that God’s children will not be subjected to God’s wrath, which
the Bible clearly states in 1 Thes 5:9.
For God hath
not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
We can
therefore easily conclude that the rapture is for the purpose of removing God’s
children from the earth before His wrath is poured out. God’s children can and
are subject to tribulations but not God’s wrath.
Question: What is the reason for the
rapture?
Answer: The reason for the rapture is
to remove Christians from the earth before God’s wrath is poured out upon the
world.
Question: Where in the Bible is the
rapture mentioned?
There are
many places in the Bible where the rapture is mentioned.
1 Thes
4:16,17
For the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to
meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
2 Thes 2:1
Now we
beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our
gathering together unto him,
1 Cor 15: 51,
52
Behold, I
shew 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 trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Mt 24:30, 31
And then
shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the
tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the
clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And he shall
send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together
his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Mt 24:40 - 42
Then shall
two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Two women
shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Watch
therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
Luke 17: 34-36
I tell you, in that night there shall be two
men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
Two women
shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Two men shall
be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Question: Where in the Bible is the
rapture mentioned?
Answer: It is plain to see that the
rapture is mentioned many times in the Bible.
Question: What specifically happens
at the rapture?
I Thes 4 tells
us succinctly what occurs. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the
dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we
which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds,
to meet the Lord in the air: and so, shall we ever be with the Lord.”
Question: What specifically happens
at the rapture?
Answer: Jesus comes to the clouds, a trumpet
sound is heard, the dead in Christ rise, and the saints are caught up to
heaven.
Question: What phrases or words in
the Bible refer to the rapture?
In reading
the many passages above we see the following phrases that refer to the rapture;
“caught up,” “our gathering together unto him,” “we shall be changed,” “shall
gather together his elect,” “one shall be taken.”
Question: What phrases or words in
the Bible refer to the rapture?
Answer: “Caught
up,” “our gathering together unto him,” “we shall be changed,” “shall gather
together his elect,” “one shall be taken.”
Question: What other name is given to
the rapture event?
Another name
given for the rapture event, which also helps to identify when in the end times
it will occur is the phrase, “the Day of the Lord.” This Day of the Lord—rapture
connection is quite readily seen in first and second Thessalonians.
1 Thes 4:
15-5:2
For this we
say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto
the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to
meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore
comfort one another with these words.
But of the
times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
For
yourselves know perfectly that the day
of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
2 Thes 2:1,2
Now we
beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our
gathering together unto him,
That ye be
not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by
letter as from us, as that the day of
Christ is at hand.
The phrases
the Day of the Lord and the Day of Christ use the same Greek words, so they are
synonymous terms. And those terms are used to describe the rapture as evidenced
in the Thessalonian passages above.
Question: What other name is given to
the rapture event?
Answer: The synonymous terms the Day of the Lord or the Day of Christ.
To be continued...
"Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." — Luke 21:36
Are you uncertain about your eternal destination?
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- The true nature and timing of the Day of the Lord.
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