Someday I'll Be All Caught Up

Since I first became a Christian I was taught that one day, the Lord would remove His church from the earth in this event called the Rapture. It was something my churches believed in and taught, and it sounded to me to be the most exciting thing I've ever heard, and still is.

In more recent times , I have encountered many Christian pastors and teachers who either, aren't enthusiastic about eschatology, or they flat out reject the understanding of the rapture. It really saddens me.

One thing I hear a lot is " The word rapture isn't in the bible", which of course is true. Not in our english ones it isn't . But as with the word "trinity", there are concepts in sound Christian theology that are clearly shown to us by the Spirit of God in His word, and in reality the other 774,744 words of most bibles aren't there either. The bible wasn't written in english.

The Latin Vulgate of Jerome, was the main Bible of the medieval Western Church until the Reformation. It continues to this day as the primary Latin translation of the Roman Catholic Church. Yet it was Protestants who introduced the word "rapture" into the English language from the Latin "raeptius". It was Jerome's Vulgate that translated the original Greek verb "harpaz" used by Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, which is usually translated into English with the phrase "caught up." The leading Greek Lexicon says that harpaz means "snatch, seize, i.e., take suddenly and vehemently." This is the same meaning of the Latin word rapio "to seize, snatch, tear away". It should not be surprising to anyone, that an English word was developed from the Latin which we use today known as "rapture."

I believe it is important to study the bible closely for whatever length of time it takes, to begin to hear what the Author of it ( The Holy Spirit ), really wants to teach us in it.

"The letter of the law kills, but the Spirit gives life"

The word of God is alive,...... and Jesus said in John 6:63 - " The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."

Another reason anti-rapturists give is that the idea of the rapture wasn't taught until the early 18oo's, it's a "relatively new doctrine" they say.

Yeah?.. so what. Where is it written that the bible is completely understood by all from the day it was written?...

Learning the meanings of scriptures as we study them which weren't clear to us the first time we read them, is not the same thing as "adding to or taking away from" God's word. Conversely we have no trouble pointing out the fallacy of things believed further back in time by early church fathers and whatever, right?. So where is this magical era of perfect bible understanding. Is it today?...is it the first century church?

As with any teaching we believe to be true in God's word, there needs to be ample scriptural backing for it. Obviously one verse does not a sound doctrine make. The teaching of the rapture has a rock solid biblical basis for believing in it. The hallmark verses for the rapture concept are the two Paul gives us, which most people are quite familiar with, and for me,...I don't see how they can be twisted to mean anything else. they are..:

"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." (1 Thes. 4:16-18)....&

"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. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality" (1 Cor. 15:51-53).

These are not the only bible passages that I base my rapture belief on. Most of us adhere to the belief that there is an immanent period of time where God delivers His wrath on earth we call the tribulation. Found in ezekial, daniel, other prophets and clearly in revelation, this missing week of years Daniel spoke of is surely on it's way. In large part my rapture belief is based on my feeling that Christians can not be around to suffer those things called for, as Christ's suffering was sufficient once and for all. Although the majority of earthdwelling humans will be those for whom the bell tolls, for Christians the score has been settled already on Calvary. "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:9)

God told Abraham that if there was even 10 righteous in the city He would not destroy that city for their sakes. Surely in our larger cities today there are many more than ten born again Spirit-filled believers found in them, and again paul wrote "God hath not appointed us to wrath". He will surely come once again to judge the earth in a terrible way, but there needs to be a massive evacuation before the sin pandemic is cleansed by wholesale God-wrought euthanization.

Then you have Jesus speaking in Matthew and Luke of the two in the field, and two in the bed...one taken, the other left. One Pastor tried telling me this was a reference to an invading army attacking Israel and taking only half the people captive. pppffftt. :) paalease.....We need always to make sure we don't pluck one verse out of context to bolster our ideas, and in that case it's clear from the classic last days chapters of Mat 24 and luke 17, that this is an end times event. It is preceded by the example of Noah being saved from judgement and followed by the "thief in the night " reference who many believe is Jesus coming to steal the "you know what" away.

In conclusion I submit that there are several rapture archetype examples given in the Old Testament to demonstrate that God always removes the righteous before judgement. Rahab, Enoch, Lot, Moses and the Israelites, and Noah who's arkdoor was shut the same way the door to the wedding feast was closed too late for the 5 foolish virgins.

" My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away".......Song of Solomon 2:10&13

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