THE RAPTURE-THE CATCHING AWAY OF THE CHURCH (1) 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 What is the rapture all about? What does it refer to? Some think that the rapture is a new subject. Other people don t believe that the rapture exist. But when you look at the clear teaching of Scripture, God better than 2000 years ago spoke to Paul, and told him about an event that would come the catching away of the church into heaven without death. The world rapture is not found anywhere in Scripture, but rather the word rapture is from a Latin word rapere which is the Latin translation of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 refers to the catching away of God s people. Because there is so much to study and to see in light of last things, it is our desire in this study to focus introduce the reality of the rapture, and then we are going to examine from Scripture, passages that refer to the Rapture, and ultimately we are going to answer the question as to when will the Rapture be? 1. AN OVERVIEW OF END TIMES. After Jesus ascended into heaven, two angels appeared to His disciples declaring this sobering and wonderful truth in Acts 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. This is the first prophetic word of Christ return after He went back to heaven. Throughout Scripture there is the continual reminder and declaration of the Lord s return. However, prior to Christ literal return to the earth, Christ is coming for His church. The church is called the bride of Christ As a bride awaits the day she is to be united with the groom, so it is with the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ comes, He will first come and Rapture His church to be with Him in heaven. The uniting of Christ and the church will result in the marriage supper of the Lamb as mentioned in Revelation. When Christ comes to Rapture His church, then the conscience of God upon this earth through His Christians will be gone. When the Rapture takes place, gone will be the millions who have a godly conscience, and thus all out tribulation will take place. As Dr. David Jeremiah so aptly points, The Rapture will bring about the start of the Tribulation. Why? First, God s people who are the salt of the earth are gone. Second, the Holy Spirit s restraining power will be removed from the earth. When the Rapture removes every Christian off the planet, the earth will be left without any influence of the Holy Spirit. (Dr. David Jeremiah). If we think things are bad now, this world now is like heaven to what it will become. The Tribulation is spoken of in detail in Revelation, and also introduced is the Man of Sin. The time is coming when on this earth there will be a man completely and totally devoted to sin, and Satan s activity. He will be have his way for a season of time, and then Christ will wage war with him, and bring him and his Satanic kingdom to an end. After the Man of Sin is dealt with, the Bible speaks of a millennium reign of Christ. The word millennium literally means a thousand years. After Christ raptures His church, and all tribulation has come to an end, He will establish a reign on the earth in Jerusalem for a thousand years (literal years). Since Christ raptures His church, He will bring His saints with him to rule and govern in His new kingdom. According to Isaiah 11, during this age, knowledge and worship of God will fill the earth. Peace, plenty, and righteousness are the rule of the land. After the 1000 year reign of Christ on the earth, Scripture teaches that Satan will be loosed for a short time, and then he will eternally doomed. Also the wicked will rise at the end of the 1000 years and be judged before the Great White Throne Judgment. Revelation 20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. But let us look now at the revelation through Scripture of The Rapture 2. WHAT IS THE RAPTURE? First, if we are to understand a study on the Rapture we first need to understand what it is. The rapture is that catching away of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, those true believers at God s appointed time, to be with the Father without seeing or experiencing death. All throughout Scripture, there was the realization and the understanding that saint who did die would be raised again. Even in Jesus time, there was the belief in the resurrection, the coming back to life from the dead. On another occasion, Jesus dear friend Lazarus had died, and when Martha confronted Jesus, she declared, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. (Jn. 11:24) The doctrine of the resurrection is taught and believed in both the Old and New Testaments. The resurrection of the person from death to life is a truth that has been addressed for centuries. But here is where there is a distinctive difference. In the Old Testament no believer was ever promised translation without seeing death. While those that were righteous knew they were going to see God, they knew that the only way that they would see God was through the reality of death. There was no prophet who knew of or spoke of a rapture experience in the Old Testament. Yet in the New Testament, after Jesus established His church, Paul make a sobering and an astonishing statement that no one could comprehend apart from the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 15:51 Paul
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says, Behold I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Second, the Rapture is a singular event and is described throughout Scripture in such places as 1 Thessalonians 5, 1 Corinthians 15 and John 14. Third, It is that point when all in Christ (genuine, authentic believers washed in the blood of Christ) are caught up. 3. IS THE RAPTURE A NEW SUBJECT? Some would declare that the Rapture is a new phenomena and since it is not mentioned by the word rapture in the Bible is doesn t exist. However, to take that line of thinking would mean that the word Trinity would have to be removed as well, since it is not mentioned in Scripture by the word Trinity. By the way, the doctrine of the Trinity didn t receive a permanent statement until the 4 th century by the early church fathers. The rapture is by no means a new phenomena or idea. An early Christian, Clement of Rome wrote in the first century, Of a truth, soon, and suddenly shall He will be accomplished, as the Scriptures also bears witness, saying, Speedily will he come and will not tarry. The Didache (120 AD document in early Christianity) contains these words, Watch for your life s sake. Let not your lamps be quenched, nor your loins unloosened; but be ye ready, for ye know not the hour in which our Lord cometh. While the early church was growing and learning, the point is this the idea of the rapture, and the immanency of Christ was founded in the very first century. The picture of a rapture is found in Scripture. The Bible records in Acts 8:39, And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. The very word caught away here is the same word that God gives to Paul to use in the catching away of the church. Notice in this passage what took place when Philip was caught away. First, he was doing the normal daily agenda of the Lord. He had just finished baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch. Second, Philip had no idea what was next to happen to him. He was coming up out of the water ( a common activity). Third, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip. He was immediately invisible to the eunuch. Scripture declares that the eunuch say him no more. Fourth, Philip was immediately transported to another location. Scripture reports that he was found without incident near Azotus (some 30 miles away) While this passage in Acts is not designed to formulate a doctrine on rapture, it points to a very real situation whereby God caught up Philip and took him to his next assignment. The sobering reality is this God s world is so designed for all His miracles to take place without incident, conflict or problem with His ordained laws. The earth had no problem with the catching away of Philip. There was no disturbance, but rather Philip continued on preaching, realizing that the Father had moved him into his next assignment. It is important to note that the same Greek word used for Philip harpazo is the same word that Paul uses in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Paul declares, 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. 4. WHY SHOULD THERE BE A RAPTURE? First, the rapture is not the making nor the idea of man. It is the doing and the mystery of Holy God. It is His design, His making, and will take place on His agenda of timing. Second, throughout the book of Revelation, John is given by God a panoramic view of the end times and the graphic horror of what is to take place as the world draws closer to the end. The events outlined in Revelation that will take place on this earth are known as the Great Tribulation. There is coming to the earth, massive death on earth and in the seas, destruction in the heavens and on the earth, the rising Antichrist, heavenly bodies moving out of their space, and much more. At a time in the future the world is going to experience unparalleled since the beginning of time. If there is no rapture, then the church is assured of walking through the Great Tribulation and experiencing the reality of what is to come. However, since Scripture speaks of a catching away, then Scripture speaks of believers being saved from that our of testing. In speaking to the church at Philadelphia, God makes this sobering and wonderful statement in Revelation 3:10, Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Notice that Scripture doesn t say from the testing but rather from the hour of testing. God is speaking to His church at Philadelphia. In other words, God is speaking to part of the body of Christ that they will be kept from the hour of testing which will be known as the Great Tribulation. It must be remembered that though the church has existed through countless centuries, it still is called the body of Christ. There is not bodies of Christ but the body of Christ, namely the church. God is expressing to this church at Philadelphia that they will be kept from the hour of testing. This is specifically a message to the church.
WHAT IS THE MYSTERY? Prior to Paul making this statement under the leadership of God, all mankind knew they would face death. All mankind anticipated the reality of death. No believer eve thought or comprehended the reality that he could possibly leave this world apart from death but here Paul paints a completely different picture for a specific and special generation. Here the church is promised the comfort of translations, and in 1 Thessalonians, Paul would declare that it appeared to be imminent, or close at hand. There was nothing in the Old Testament that encouraged a single believer to expect translation, but rather all faced the thought and reality of death. However, in the New Testament, Paul declares to the church, the ekklesia the called out people from the world who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and live under His Lordship that there is to be catching away or rapture of the church. In other words there is going to be a generation that is living on this earth prior to the Second Coming of Christ, and when Christ is ready for His church, He is going to come and remove His church from the earth, and many of them will be translated, they will enter the presence of Christ, without having to taste death. Another mystery that Paul declares that was unthinkable to the Jews, is that Gentiles, (all non Jews) are now heirs of the gospel (the indwelling of Christ) along with Israel. While the Jews thought highly of themselves, God had a purpose for all Gentiles. He desired to draw all who would believe in Him and place their faith in Him. The ultimate mystery is this the Gentiles enjoy a status of complete equality with the Jews. WHO IS THE RAPTURE FOR? In the New Testament, Jesus declares by His own mouth that He is going to create a new entity for Himself and for His purposes. On this rock I will build my church. (Mt. 16:18) Jesus didn t say I am building but rather I will build. The point is this the church belongs to Christ, and it is a future undertaking of Christ. The church never existed in the Old Testament at all. The reality is, Christ has established a new people and those people are known as the body of Christ. The body of Christ
is composed of genuine believers who have confessed genuine faith in Jesus Christ, and live under His Lordship. While there are reference to saints in the Old Testament and even in the latter part of Revelation, the church is the body of Christ, where Christ is the head, Lord, and Master. If we could walk back in time, and ask the Old Testament Jews what the church is, they would have no clue nor idea. Why? Because the church is a mystery, birthed from the very heart of God. In the Old Testament, God s people never lost their national identity, but rather in the church, God has formed one church out of every tribe, language, color, culture on the face of the earth. Why is this important? Because it is the church that Christ will come back for. Christ will not come back for the American church, English church, African church, Chinese church, but rather, the church is the body of Christ in ever language, tongue and dialect. This would not have been something that Jews would have comprehended. Neither would they have desired to have anything to do with it. THE MYSTERY OF TRANSLATION? In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul has finished a discussion on the resurrection of the human body. Then in a first in all recorded Scripture Paul states a new truth, that comes to him by Lord. First, He encourages the church to listen. In other words, he tells them to give as keen attention to what he is saying as they possibly can. They are to bend their ears and their hearts to what Paul is now saying and listen to him speak to them divine truth from the mouth of Holy God. Second, He declares that we will not all sleep. It is important that he put the pronoun we in front of what he said. Paul didn t say they will not all sleep, but rather he seemingly included himself. In other words, he believed that what he said, could and would possibly happen during his time on the earth. If Paul believed that he possibly would be alive when that time comes, how much moreso is it closer even today. Third, He declared that a change would happen. Here is the mystery there will be saints alive but in a flash they will be changed from vile bodies to imperishable bodies. Now it needs to be said here that this picture is not the Second Coming of Christ but rather a picture of the Rapture. We talk about the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ as though they are one in the same thing, but they are not. And we will discuss some differences between the two. But at this point we are talking about the Rapture. Christ comes from heaven and we are changed or that generation of the church when Christ comes. WHEN WILL THE RAPTURE TAKE PLACE? There are different opinions when the Rapture will take place. Some believe that the church is bound to go through the tribulation, and then the Rapture will take place. Some believe that when the Great Tribulation begins and then the church is removed in the middle of the Great Tribulation or 3 ½ years into this time. There are others that hold to the belief that the church will not go through the Great Tribulation, and that is where I honestly sense the evidence of Scripture comes down. What is the evidence that the church doesn t go through the Great Tribulation? First, in Revelation the church appears in chapters 1-3 on earth. Chapter 4 church never appears again until Christ returns in chapter 19. Remember Revelation is a chronological book of events that are to take place. Why is the church not mentioned after chapter 3? The church is gone from the earth. Revelation talks about God s war machine, plagues, wrath, and even Jewish evangelists, but not the church after chapter 3 Second, In all the New Testament the church is given no specific instruction regarding the Great Tribulation. You would think that Jesus would say something to the church to prepare the church for the time of the Great Tribulation, but Jesus never does. On the other hand church is told to look for Christ, for her Blessed Hope, for her Redemption. In other words, the church is looking for Christ not the Great Tribulation. However, it needs to be pointed out that there will be persecution, but there is a radical difference between persecution and the Great Tribulation. According to Scripture the future trouble or Great Tribulation will concern three classes of people the nation of Israel and the pagan Gentile world. Also it will involve the saints who will live in that time of trouble. In Scripture there are two purposes in the time of Great Tribulation. 1) To bring to the conclusion the time of the Gentiles. 2)To prepare for the restoration and the regathering of Israel in the millennial reign of Christ. Third, if there is no rapture until the end of the Great Tribulation, then the question has to be asked What is the church raptured from? It appears according to Scripture that at the end of Revelation 3, the church is raptured. Christ comes
for his saints. When will this be? No one knows exactly, but it could be even today. While you will find the term elect in Jesus reference to end times, there is no reference to an entity known as the church. When you read Revelation 4-18 you will find the most unprecedented time of trouble, on the face of the earth. But again you will find no mention of the church. Revelation speaks of God dealing with Israel, and the time of Jacob s trouble.