The Rapture

  

Christians use the word rapture to refer to the coming of Christ for his followers. We have a firm base for this belief in the word of God.

John 14:1-3 Do not let your hearts be troubled. Exercise faith in God, exercise faith also in me. In the house of my Father there are many abodes. Otherwise, I would have told you, because I am going my way to prepare a place for you. Also, if I go my way and prepare a place for you , I am coming again and will receive you home to myself, that where I am you also may be.

This part of the scripture is our base for believing that Christ is preparing a place for us in heaven and that He will come for us to take us to where He is.

John 14:27-28…do not let your hearts be troubled nor let them shrink for fear. You heard that I said to you, I am going away and I am coming to you

Luke 17:26-31 ….just as it occurred in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of man. Thy were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until that day when Noah entered into the ark and the flood arrived and destroyed them all. Likewise just as it occurred in the days of Lot., they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, …but on the day that Lot came out of Sodom it rained fire and sulfur from heaven and destroyed them all. The same way it will be on that day when the son of man is to be revealed. On that day let the person that is on the house top but whose movable things are in the house not come down to pick these up 

Luke 17:32 and the person out in the field, let him likewise not return to the things behind…..
Luke 17:34 in that night two will be in one bed, the one will be taken along but the other will be abandoned
Matt 24:40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 

Luke 17:36 Two men shall be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left.

Matt 24:41-42 Two 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 

These Words Imply the Following:

1. It will occur without previous notice to the bulk of humanity

2. Not everybody will be taken from the same group of "friends" or "family".

3. The ones taken will have very short time to leave.

4. The ones left behind will suffer destruction similar to what happened in the days of Noah or the days of Lot.

Christ also refers to this time with these words Re 3:3 "I will come upon you as a thief." 

 

Matt 24:43-44 But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. 

Not only does a thief come at a time when he is not expected, he comes to rob. What is Christ robbing? He will be robbing or abducting part of humanity and He will be taking them somewhere else.

Do we have evidence of this sort of thing happening before in the history of man?

Yes, we have the testimony given in Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was transferred so as not to see death, and he was nowhere to be found because God had transferred him. So Enoch was taken  to another place away from earth.

Elijah was taken to heaven in a chariot of fire as seen by the prophet Elisha. 2Ki 2:11 And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 

 

Elijah was seen leaving in human form; he did not suddenly "disappear" as people think the rapture will be.

Paul tells us of a man he knew that was taken to paradise. 

2Co 12:2-4 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

In the same way the God took Enoch, Elijah, and Paul's friend to paradise. God will also take us to paradise, when he comes to Earth to pick people up. 

We will be taken in human form, not as a spirit. The resurrection does not occur till after the seven trumpets and seven bowls of wrath have been fulfilled as explained in the Revelation timeline.

At the end of the bowls of wrath, the battle of Armageddon occurs and Christ returns with his saints to establish his millennial kingdom.

We believe the word of God and are waiting for Christ's return to gather His people.

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