THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH!
Question: Is the word "rapture" found in the Bible?
Answer: Yes and no. It is not found in the King James Version, but it is derived from The Latin Vulgate as rapiemur, meaning to snatch away or seize. It was used to translate the Greek verb "caught up" (harpazô) in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. It is very interesting to see how this verb "caught up" is used in the New Testament. Study the following verses: Acts 8:39 ("caught away"), 2 Corinthians 12:2, 4 ("caught up"), Revelation 12:5 ("caught up"); John 10:28-29 ("pluck out of").
PASSAGES THAT CLEARLY TEACH THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH!
John 14:1-3 - Let not your heart be troubled: you 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 you may be also.
1 Corinthians 15:50-54 - 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. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
[Note: The last trump is not the seventh trump of Revelation 10:7, for the description of the events each signals are totally different. I believe the last trump of 1 Corinthians is the last the Church hears, as God calls us heavenward. In the Revelation passage, the seventh trump occurs prior to the two witness of Chapter Eleven, the removal of the Child in Chapter Twelve, and the revelation of the Antichrist in Chapter Thirteen. The Church has not been mentioned or eluded to after Chapter Four, Verse one. The Tribulation (Chapters Six through Nineteen) is focused upon the Jewish people; hence, the Tribulation is also know as the Seventieth Week of Daniel (Daniel 9:24-27), and The Time of Jacob's Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7).]
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 - But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you 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 prevent (precede; go before) 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.
THAT IS WHY TRUE BELIEVERS LOOK FORWARD TO CHRIST'S COMING!
Titus 2:13-14 - (We are) Looking for that Blessed Hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
ARE YOU LONGING FOR CHRIST'S RETURN,
OR ARE YOU DREADING FACING HIM?
READY OR NOT; HE IS COMING!
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