WHAT IS THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH

Rapture of the Church

THE RAPTURE

This is one of those many things that people confuse in the scripture. The rapture of the Church is different from the second coming of Christ. And, by the way, you will not really find the word ‘rapture’, especially in the older translations [of the Bible], because rapture means ‘to catch away’, ‘to take away’, ’to be caught up, but you’re going to find that term [‘to be caught up] even though you don’t find the word ‘rapture’ in itself. But, let’s just talk about where these things are in the scriptures so that we can distinguish between them, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.

In 1st Thessalonians…if you go into your Bible in 1st Thessalonians Chapter 4, reading from verse 13, the words of Paul the Apostle: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 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 [now notice] 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 [that’s where the word ‘rapture’ comes from] 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.” [1 Thessalonians 4:13-18] Beautiful words! That 17th verse tells the whole story…it says, “then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them”. It tells us about this rapture; it says Christ will descend. He will descend himself from heaven with a shout and with a voice of the archangel and with the trump of God. And, the dead in Christ shall rise. Those Christians who have died would rise – come out of the graves – from wherever they were…wherever their bodies were buried, or even if their bodies were burnt, they’ll come together.

Get ready for the Rapture

And, then it says, “the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air” [1 Thessalonians 4:16-17]. Now, I want you to notice a striking thing here; it says the Lord will descend, the dead in Christ shall rise, those of us who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall be caught up together with the dead in Christ that have risen, and we shall all meet the Lord in the air. He will be waiting in the air, so we’ll be caught up to meet him in the air. And, then [you know], we’ll be with him. And, that’s the way we leave; we are ‘caught up’ – that’s the rapture.

Now, there’s another portion that refers to the same thing, and it’s in 1st Corinthians Chapter 15 [I want to read that to you], from verse 51: “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep [that means everybody is not going to die; it’s talking about Christians. Not every Christian is going to die], but we shall all be changed.” And this change is not the same change that you have in metamorphosis where we are transfigured. No! This is not that kind of change from one glory to another in terms of a metamorphosis but a transformation. The Greek here [for ‘transformation’] is ‘alasso’. It’s a transformation. It’s like you putting on something else. So, your body is going to be changed. That’s what it’s talking about.

So, it says here, “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.” [1 Corinthians 15:51-52] Isn’t that wonderful? So, that’s the same thing it talks about in 1st Thessalonians 4. Now, these two portions of the Bible refer to the rapture of the church, when we are caught away from here – we are suddenly taken away from the earth. Now, according to the scriptures [because of time, we may not be able to go into all the details], what’s going to happen is this: first comes the rapture. In fact, the major sign that we’re waiting for in the world today is the rapture of the church, which means anytime soon, this is going to happen…anytime soon, this is going to happen [quotes 1 Corinthians 15:52 again]. That’s remarkable

CONCLUSION

So, prepare of the rapture rather than the second coming, because we are going to be coming together with him. Those who will be joining us at the second coming will have had to go through the tribulation. Alright! Tribulation [by the way] is a time of trouble, trouble and persecution, hardship like never before and terrible persecution because of Jesus.

I hope you've been blessed tremendously, praise be to the Lord!!!!