THE RAPTURE



The fact that God removes His children to a safe place above the destruction He is about to pour out on those in rebellion against Him, can be clearly seen from the Old Testament characters of Noah and Lot.  In Noah's case, the "waters...bare up the ark," and God's wrath occurred below in the waters.  In Lot's case, God sent His messengers to make sure Lot and his family were removed from the plain He was about to be destroy; at their bidding, Lot eventually went up into the nearby mountains.  And God, being no respecter of persons, has promised to do the same thing for His Church before the seven-year Tribulation, a.k.a. "the Time of Jacob's Trouble" (Jer. 30:7), and "Daniel's Seventieth Week" (Dan. 9:27). 

 

THE RAPTURE AS PICTURED BY NOAH AND LOT

*     "In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; and the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth." (Gen. 7:13, 17).
*     "And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.  And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters" (Gen. 19:29-30). 

JESUS PROMISES TO RETURN FOR HIS CHURCH

*     "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (Jn. 14:1-3).

 

THE APOSTLE PAUL PROMISES CHRIST WILL RETURN FOR HIS CHURCH

*     "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" (1 Cor. 15:51-52).
*     "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. " (1 Thes. 4:16-17).

 

THE ANGEL HAS THE APOSTLE JOHN SYMBOLIZE US GOING UP 

*     "After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter" (Rev. 4:1).

Born again believers will soon see our "Ark," and our "Mountain" coming in the clouds!