We are living in what the Bible calls the end times... and for the Christian even in the midst of all the doom and gloom, they are exciting times.
The Apostle Paul gives us interesting details about an extraordinary event that can take place any second... at any moment.
This event... called the "Rapture" or 'harpazo'... is the next major happening on God's prophetic timeline for planet Earth.
Any tick of the clock, at His Father's beckoning, Jesus (the Bridegroom) is coming down from Heaven to "snatch away" His beloved Bride... the Church.
These details are found in ☆ 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18... and ☆ 1 Corinthians 15:50-54...
Right from the outset... I need to say the following...
The Rapture is not escapism as some say or call it.
● The Rapture is a Scriptural truth... Scriptural teaching...
● The Rapture is a call to walk the walk and talk the talk of holiness.
● The Rapture is a call to urgent ministry to the unsaved.
● The Rapture is a call to excitement that Jesus is coming again for His beloved Bride the Church.
Courtesy of Mark Hitchcock's book entitled "Could the Rapture Happen Today?" I'd like to share with you 10 R's of the Rapture.
These are all found in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
1 The Reason ☆ 1 Thessalonians 4:13...
"But I (Paul) would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep (Christians who have died), that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope."
Paul taught about the Rapture, the Second Coming and about the up-and-coming Antichrist when he was with the Thessalonian Christians.
What a seminar that would have been!
However, sometime later, Paul hears from Timothy that the Christians there had some serious concerns about the Rapture.
And so he writes this letter to eliminate any ignorance... to keep them informed about this truth.
(Paul wrote this letter to the Thessalonians when he was in Corinth).
Since Paul's departure from Thessalonika some of the saints had died and the remaining ones wondered what would happen to their deceased loved ones when the Rapture takes place.
• Would they miss the Rapture?
• Would they miss out going to Heaven?
• Would they miss out on the spiritual blessings that those who were alive would receive when the Lord came?
And so Paul gives this teaching... to assure them... to allay their fears.
He tells them that not only will they be Raptured, but that the dead in Christ will rise first... they get a head start.
2 The Root ☆ 1 Thessalonians 4:14a...
"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again..."
Our belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus is at the very root, the very foundation, the very core of Paul's teaching on the Rapture.
Christ's death on the Cross, His shed blood that paid the price for the forgiveness of our sins... has secured for us a place in Heaven. The fact that Jesus rose again from the dead proves that every single sin, past, present and future had been atoned for.
God accepted Christ's death on our behalf.
And because Jesus rose again from the dead... so shall we be raised one day. The Bible calls Christ's resurrection the first fruits, the guarantee, the blueprint for the resurrection of His people.
☆ 1 Corinthians 15:20...
"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept (died)."
The root (very crux) of the Rapture is Christ's death and especially His glorious resurrection.
3 The Rejoining ☆ 1 Thessalonians 4:14b...
"... even so them also which sleep (those that have died) in Jesus will God bring with Him."
At the Rapture, something spiritually amazing happens.
The perfected spirits of believers in Heaven will be rejoined (reunited) with their glorified bodies, which will be raised... (mortality puts on immortality and corruption puts on incorruption).
Death in the Bible always means separation.
When Adam and Eve sinned back in the Garden of Eden they began to die physically. But... they died spiritually immediately (there and then)... they were separated from God their Creator.
A person who is spiritually dead is spiritually separated from God.
When a person dies physically, he or she does not cease to exist. There is a separation between the body and the spirit of that person.
The body is buried (goes to the grave... ashes to ashes, dust to dust... asleep).
And the soul/spirit, the immaterial part of the person, goes immediately to heaven if that person is a believer.
☆ Ecclesiastes 12:7...
The Bible, clearly teaches that when a believer dies his or her soul goes immediately into the conscious presence of the Lord.
☆ Luke 16:19-31; 23:39-43; ☆ Acts 7:56-60;
☆ 2 Corinthians 5:8; ☆ Philippians 1:23.
So...when the Rapture takes place... the immaterial (spirit) and material (body) will be rejoined... reunited.