BIBLICAL SIGNS AS THEY RELATE TO THE RAPTURE

Here are a few observations regarding the current obsession with declaring the date of the Rapture.

1.  The Rapture, the Body of Christ being caught up to meet Jesus in the clouds, differs from Christ's Second Coming.  One occurs prior to the Tribulation and the other happens when Christ ends the Tribulation and establishes His Millennial (1000 year) Kingdom - John 14:1-6; 1 Corinthians 15:50-54; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Titus 2:13; Revelation 3:10 verses Matthew 24:29-31; Revelation 1:7; 19:11-20:15.

2.  Because there is a defined order of events (Rapture - Tribulation - Second Coming - Millennium), we know that there will be 1007 years from the beginning to the Tribulation and the ending of the Millennium (Daniel 9:24-27; Revelation 20:1-7).  What we do not know is the length of time between the Rapture and the beginning of the Tribulation.

3.  All the biblical signs people describe as happening now, (false christs, wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, have nothing to do with the Rapture of the Church; they are referring to the signs leading up to Israel's Tribulation; the "beginning of sorrows" (the Greek ὠδίν (ōdin), which is defined by Strong's Concordance as "the pain of childbirth, travail pain, birth pangs; intolerable anguish, in reference to the dire calamities preceding the advent of the Messiah" (Daniel's Seventieth Week in Daniel 9:27; the Time of Jacob's Trouble in Jeremiah 30:7; Matthew 24:4-29; Revelation Ch. 6 - 18).

4.  There are no signs specifically related to the Rapture of His Church!  However, because God has not appointed the Church to suffer His wrath, and because His coming for us is our "blessed hope" (Romans 5:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:9; Titus 2:13; Revelation 3:10), it must occur prior to the trial that is coming upon all the earth!  However, the Church of (ruled by) the Laodiceans, having excluded Jesus as their Lord, will continue on earth after the Rapture (Revelation 3:14-22). These persons are described in Matthew 13 as "tares" (v. 24-30, 36-43); and sea creatures unfit for consumption (v. 47-50).

Further evidence that the coming of the Lord for His Church is a positive event for us, is that we long for it to happen; if we had to go through the Tribulation to see Christ, I am absolutely certain I would prefer to die, than to await His Second Coming!  Here are several verses that speak to the imminent return of us:  1 Corinthians 1:7; 16:22; Philippians 3:20; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 2 Timothy 4:8; Hebrews 9:28; 1 John 3:1-3; and Revelation 22:20!

BOTTOM LINE:

THE BIBLICAL SIGNS ARE FOR THOSE WHO REMAIN

AFTER THE LORD HAS REMOVED HIS CHURCH!