RAPTURE

What is the rapture? The rapture is the thought to which the church will be removed off the earth. There are several ideas, one idea is, Jesus will rapture the church at the end of the tribulation, the second is Jesus will rapture the church in the middle of the tribulation and third is Jesus will rapture the church before the tribulation. I believe the last is the proper teaching of the scriptures, and I will tell you why.

One reason I believe this is, because we have types in the scriptures. What are types? Types are pictures which portray a future event coming. Like When Abraham sacrificed his promised son Isaac on the mount of Moriah (Genesis22). The portrait is of God the Father sending his promised Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins on the cross, on Mount Moriah 1800 years later.

The first type is in Genesis chapter five.

(Genesis 5:22-24) After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.  (NKJV)

Here Enoch has a son realizes he needs to walk with God and he does. When in his walk with God, God removes Enoch from the earth. When did God remove Enoch from the earth? He removed him before the great flood judgment. In Hebrews chapter 11, it speaks of Enoch walking and pleasing God and I want you to remember this.

The second type of the rapture is when the wrath of God came upon Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19). Here Lot is in the city of Sodom and the angels are there and the people of the city came out to perform homosexual acts of rape upon Lot’s guest. The angel strikes the people with blindness and tells Lot to leave the city. While Lot was questioning about leaving, the angels had to pull Lot and his family literally out of the city by the hand.

(Genesis 19:16) And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.  (NKJV)

(2 Peter 2:7-9) and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) -- then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, (NKJV)

If you look at both these scriptures, Lot was a righteous man because he believed God. God was merciful to Lot and delivered him out of the wrath of God coming upon Sodom and Gomorrah before it happens. Notice who God delivers; He delivers the righteous out of temptation and delivers the ungodly to judgment, just like it was with the flood. Enoch was removed and the judgment came upon the ungodly, only Noah and his family were saved through the judgment. Noah is a type of Israel who God shall preserve through the Great Tribulation (Revelation 7).

Now types are not used to prove doctrinal belief, but they do give a clue to what scriptures are speaking about when someone like Jesus says.

(Luke 21:36) "Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."  (NKJV)

When Jesus was speaking these words, he was finishing his teaching about the end times. If the church was to be raptured in the middle or the end of the wrath of God spoken about in Revelation, then why did Jesus say this to them? Why did he say pray you may be found worthy to escape? Why, because he says there is an escape, which is through the rapture.

Jesus in Revelation chapter three is speaking to the Sardis church. He warns them to watch out for he shall come as a thief in the night and if they are not watching they will miss his appearing.

(Revelation 3:3) "Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.  (NKJV)

(Revelation 3:10) "Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.  (NKJV)

Then He says to Philadelphian church because they have persevered to keep his commands, He will keep them from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world. This is speaking about the tribulation which is spoken in Revelation chapters six through nineteen. How will Jesus keep them from the hour, He did not say he would save them through it but from it? This can only be the rapture.

Why would Jesus want to punish his children through his wrath upon man? I can see why he would want Israel to go through it because he wants them to come to repentance, and God places the two witnesses in Jerusalem to proclaim the truth, but God would not leave his church in the tribulation which is his punishment upon the wicked. Jesus certainly would not leave his spotless bride upon the earth to have to go through his wrath. Paul said,

(1 Thessalonians 5:9) For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, (NKJV)

The bride of Christ are those who have confessed their need for a Savior and have changed their ways to walk and please God. John the Apostle was one of those men. He was given a vision of Jesus in Revelation.

(Revelation 1:10) I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, (NKJV)

I want you to remember the voice as a sound of a trumpet. This is Jesus speaking and his voice sounds like a trumpet.

(Revelation 4:1-2) After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this." Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.  (NKJV)

What does he mean here, “After these things” meaning after the church periods in Revelation 2 and 3. From here on there is no mention of the church in the tribulation other than speaking of the redeemed people in heaven (Revelation 5:9). What does Jesus voice sound like? It sounds like a trumpet. He says come up here to John. This is a picture of the redeemed church being raptured off the earth and in the presence of her husband. John is where? He was in the spirit on earth, now he is in the spirit in heaven. Jesus even says to John, “I will show you what must take place after this.”

Now there are two scriptures speaking about the trumpet sound. A trumpet is used for many things; in Exodus before the mountain of God when the trumpet sounded it was a call to assembly (Exodus 19). The trumpet was also used to assemble the people to war, to assemble just the elders of Israel and to call the people to the assembly of the feast (Numbers 10). When Israel would blow the silver trumpets, the call was for all to assemble to the feast. Silver represents the redeemed. The church is the redeemed. Jesus is the Bridegroom who comes to get his bride and bring her to the feast, the Marriage supper of the Lamb.

(1 Corinthians 15:52) 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.  (NKJV)

Here the trumpet call comes and what happens? The resurrection happens for those dead in flesh, but alive in Christ, and those still alive to be changed into their resurrected bodies. This shall all be done in a moment, so fast, not even a blink of the eye is fast enough to describe it.

Now this is where I want you to remember the importance to walking and pleasing God. I call 1 Thessalonians 4 the Enoch chapter, because as Enoch walked and pleased God and was raptured of the earth; so 1 Thessalonians 4 speaks about walking and pleasing God and then the rapture. Read the whole chapter for yourself.

(1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) 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.  (NKJV)

Here we have the same idea as 1 Corinthians 15. The trumpet will sound and those dead in Christ shall rise first and then those alive in Christ shall rise second to their resurrected bodies. The phrase “caught up” is the Greek word “Harpazo” meaning to be snatched up or to be pull out, like being pulled out of a fire. The Latin word for Harpazo is “raptus” or rapture in the English. Paul said we would not be caught off guard if we are watching for Jesus coming (1Thessalonians 5).

This is why we use the word rapture, it is not in the Bible as a word, but is used in the Latin Bible and is well described in our English Bibles.

Now to make sense of this more, 1 Thessalonians 4 says, “Thus we shall always be with the Lord.” Well, when Jesus comes back to the earth, who is coming with him to sit on thrones judging the nations of the earth? The church is. Enoch spoke about this as Jude mentions. Look at these scriptures: 2 Thessalonians 1:7; Matthew 25:3; Zechariah 14:5; Revelation 19:14;

There is another interesting type in the scriptures. John is known as the one, “Whom Jesus loved. (John 21:7)” John called the saints beloved in third John. There is a man who is also called beloved of God. When the three Israelite men were thrown into the fire, they were originally a party of four. Where is the fourth person and who is he? He was Daniel mentioned in Chapters one and two, but is not mentioned when Shadrach Meshach and Abednego were cast into the fire. These three men were preserved through the fire not saved from it. Yet where is Daniel; we know his integrity, and we know he would have been in the fire with them. I believe God wanted to show Daniel was beloved of God, as John and the church is, and placed Daniel out of the scene, to show how he saves the righteous from judgment. This being the rapture. (Daniel 3, 9:23)

Ask the question? Why would Jesus have to rapture the church at the end of the tribulation, if the saints are just coming back immediately? He wouldn’t. Jesus would not need to rapture the church if he comes at the end of the tribulation; all he has to do is resurrect us into our glorified bodies, when he returns.

The reasons many have a problem with a pre-tribulation rapture is because we do not take in account the whole scriptures. When you can look at the types of those who endure through the judgment as God did with Noah in the flood and Israel in Goshen, Egypt during God’s judgment against Egypt to deliver Israel out of bondage. You can now understand there are two pictures given; one to escape before the tribulation, and the second to be saved or preserved through the tribulation. There are no types in the scriptures portraying a mid tribulation rapture.

Even Jesus said, He was to go, to prepare a place for the church and will bring you the church to him. This is the rapture and the marriage to the bridegroom, Christ Jesus.

John 14:2-3 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 ye may be also.

Here is another picture of the rapture, not that the bride was pulled out before the wrath, but that the bride was gathered to the groom, just as Jesus said, in John 14, Abraham being the father, had Isaac, the son prepare a place, his mothers tent, sent the unnamed eldest servant (a picture of the Holy Spirit), to get a bride for the son. The Holy Spirit travels finds the bride, invites, gives the gifts, she doesn’t wait days, but leaves father mother and siblings immediately behind for the groom, not even have seen him, she believes, she responds to be with him, goes with the servant and weds to the groom. Genesis 24

(Revelation 22:20-21) He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.  (NKJV)