THE RAPTURE: OUR BLESSED HOPE!

In light of the chaotic world we live in, a world where nations deliberately invite members of the "religion of peace," those who have sworn to kill all who reject their god, to come by the thousands and live within their boarders, is it any wonder that born again believers long for the Lord to come gather His Church?  Even "professing Christians" accuse us of a lack of brotherly love, of escapism, and they even deny that the Bible teaches the event commonly known as the Rapture!  And yet, the Lord Himself said this in John 14:1-3:
 
"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."

The Apostle Paul described the good news of the Rapture in two passages:

"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.  Behold, I show 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. 15:50-53).

"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.  For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not (precede) them which are asleep.  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 Th. 4:13-18).

Notice that both the Lord and the Apostle declare that their teaching is meant to comfort those who wish to be "absent from the body and present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8)!

The words "caught up" in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, are translated from the Greek word "ἁρπάζω" (harpazō), which occurs 17 times in 13 verses in the Greek concordance of the KJV.  In Matthew 11:12; John 6:15; and Acts 23:10, "ἁρπάζω" is translated "to take by force."  It is translated "caught away/caught up" in Acts 8:39 and 2 Corinthians12:2, 4.  And in Jude 1:23, the idea is a rescuing by force.  In all of these examples, those being removed are the direct objects of the action. 

Titus 2:11-13 says it best:

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ."

MARANATHA!  COME LORD JESUS!