Help me to find Rapture please.

[johnpaul]

I've been a Christian for a number of years now. I consider myself as being Born again. I love Jesus Christ with all my heart and have read two or three versions of the bible: NIV, KJV and Good News.
Try as I might, I can't find tangible evidence of 'rapture', although I believe it is probable that our loving God would do this. I want to believe in rapture but I can't find evidence of it in the Bible.
Please help me. Show me were to look!
:embarasse

 

[jari]

Hello

this is the verse

1Th 4:17 KJVA 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.

this is the only verse thats speaks using words "caught up" which i know of.

 

[johnpaul]

Thanks

Hello

this is the verse

1Th 4:17 KJVA 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.

this is the only verse thats speaks using words "caught up" which i know of.

Thank you jari, I have of course read this verse but didn't associate it with rapture before.:embarasse

 

[stephen]

The Rapture

1 Thessalonians ch 4 v 13 - 18 please read

It has been suggested that Paul wrote 1Thessaloinians because the church was in despair, and it is also suggested that he wrote 2nd Thess. because they were being deceived! 1 Thess. ch 4 informs us that no Saint will be going through the Tribulation.

The 'Rapture'. This is an interesting word which means to seize, to snatch.

The English word rapture is not used or mentioned. But the teaching of the Rapture comes from the meaning of the word which is used in this text.

Today the word rapture means expressive joy and extacy, the fullest joy ever known, joy unspeakable. Paul wants us to understand some things about this passage.

Preview of the Rapture 1Thess4.13:14** "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 them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him". Paul says ''don't want you to be ignorant brethren'' The 1st thing Paul wants to do is Dispel the Ignorance Paul uses that phrase in other places, He wants to dispel ignorance and lack of knowledge.

Describes the believers Death v13 'fallen asleep' sleep of the body in death. Jn 11:11 Lazerus 4 days dead. (fallen asleep) Stephen Acts 7:60 as stoned he fell asleep. As in physical sleep we expect to awake, so in spiritual realm when we die, we will be awakened by the Lord

Defending the Believers Hope 3rd part of verse ''lest ye sorrow as others who have no hope' Paul wrote this letter to the Thessalonians to dispel their sadness. Some had lost loved ones, they had stood by the grave, so they asked the question "what about my dad"? If Rapture comes he's already died what is going to happen to him? Paul said there was no need for them to sorrow as others who have no hope. Thess 4:13 Not that we should'nt sorrow of course, we do sorrow when loved ones die. This passage is a commentary on 1Cor:15 which explains how Christ took the sting out of death. When Christ took the sting out of death, he changed death, from death to sleep for the Christian. Jesus has taken the sting out of death. He triumphed over death on the cross. Death is no longer final, death is a reclining, a falling asleep, waiting for the day of resurrection to come

The dead in Christ are not left out of the Rapture. The dead in Christ have a prominent place in the Rapture, what a comforting truth this must have been when Paul wrote, and said the Beloved dead, are not going to be forgotton they are going to be in place no 1. Notice what he says as he gives the certain promise of the Rapture. 1Thess4:15 Paul says let me give you some truth here, not only are they included in the Rapture they are going up first.

Chronological Programme of the Rapture 4 or 5 things come in rapid fire here in this passage
(A) The Return v16 'the Lord Himself'' God is not sending Angels, He is not sending the Holy Spirit. It is Jesus who is coming back, the emphasis is upon the personal return of the Lord Jesus. Remember the words of the two Angels when they spoke to the followers of Jesus at the ascension. "This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go" Acts ch 1 v 9-10-11 (read)

If Jesus is to descend, as the scripture says, in same manner in which he ascended, we can expect his coming. His Coming is to be Personal, Visible and Physical. Not the Holy Spirit, Not the Angels. But the Lord Himself thats the message of the bible. Jesus is leaving heaven again, this time to catch up His bride ''the Church'' to be with Him. The detail of this passage is so complete, given all the sounds that will be heard 'Shout' 'Voice of Archangel' 'Trump of God'

There has been discussion about these sounds but as I see it as just one sound described in three different ways. Lord will come with a shout, which is such a thing as Voice of Archangel, which is such a thing as Trump of God. One sound that is a 'Shout a Voice' a 'Trumpet' I don't know what that will soundlike but it will not be misunderstood by those who belong to Jesus. It will be a sudden stupendous event just as His ascension was a sudden stupendous event. And after His Return there will be a resurrection.

B The Resurrection end v16 ''dead in Christ'' this is not a resurrection of all the dead but a resurrection of those who are in Christ. There is another resurrection coming later on that will be the 2nd resurrection...... we don't want to be a part of that one. This is the first resurrection, the resurrection of the dead in Christ. After this Resurrection there will be a Rapture.

C. The Rapture v 17 ''caught up'' the word rapture comes from that ''two word'' phrase, 'caught up'. An interesting Greek word, which has a number of meanings. These meanings all point to something thats important, to whats going to happen. The word is 'harpadzo' Sometimes this word means........

(a) 'to carry off by force' This means that the devil and powers will do all they can to keep Saints upon the earth, but Jesus will overpower him delivering us by His omnipotent force. The Lord is Almighty, able to overcome all resistance to the Rapture.

(b) ''to claim for one's self eagerly'' This second meaning informs us that Jesus will claim us as His very own.. He redeemed us by shedding His blood, and He will surely come for us.

(c) ''to snatch away speedily'' This emphasises the sudden nature of the rapture, It will be in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. 1Cor.15:52 In a split of a second of time, the Lord will call all believers to Himself to share in His glory. Tim Lahaye is absolutely right about this in his book, the first one 'Left Behind''. People will be going about life as normal, then one day a segment of the population will be missing. Drivers will be gone, believing air pilots will be gone, the bible says the Lord is going to hover over the universe and believers will be snatched up, like the pull of a magnet out of the population. It will happen in a moment, without warning, no time to left to get ready, immediately the whole church will be gone. God is going to send His son to catch us up out of here.

(d) ''to rescue from the danger of destruction'' It is very important that if a person believes in the inspiration of the scripture, he must believe that the Holy Spirit chose this special word (caught up, harpadzo) to tell us that believers will be taken out of the danger of destruction. That is we won't be in the coming tribulation, we will be caught up out of the Tribulation before it happens. So there is The Return, The Resurrection, The Rapture, then The Reunion 1Thess 4.17**

What sort of a reunion? Dead bodies are going to be reunited wirh their spirits. What happens when a Christian dies? Well who is the real person? The body? No the real person is Spirit & Soul. When Christians die they leave the body and go to be with the LOrd. The body lies in the grave. But God cares about the body so in the Rapture the dead will rise and be Reunited in a glorified body with their Soul & Spirit. Thats the first part of the reunion.

Then the resurrected believers are going to meet the living believers in the air. There will be a Meeting in the air! All of us together ushered into presence of the Lord. Such an exciting thing, there is going to be this re-union. We are going to meet those who have gone before. Re-union in the air, outside of heaven, ushered as one great group of people into presence of the Lord.

The Comforting purpose of the Rapture 1 Thess4.18** The great purpose of prophecy is that we might comfort one another. To show people the Hope, which is sure, and which we have in Jesus.

We sorrow not as those who have no Hope. We have a Hope. A Surety. Where do we get such a Hope?
From the word of God. After the Rapture we will never know meaning of separation again never- never- never.
We should be looking for the LOrd....... Living for the Lord.......... always ready

"Be ready" said Jesus

 

[Grace]

According to the Bible, Jesus will one day come down out of heaven and then He will "snatch up" all Christians (living and dead) off of the earth to meet Him in the clouds. This "snatching up" of Christians is often referred to as "the Rapture of the Church." Here are two of the main passages which describe the Rapture:

"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)

"I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep [die], but we will all be changed--in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality." (1 Corinthians 15:50-53)​

These passages tell us that Jesus will come down from heaven (with a loud command and the trumpet call of God), and then everyone who had died in Christ will be physically resurrected from the dead and will rise to meet the Lord in the air, and then all living Christians will rise to meet the Lord in the air. In "the twinkling of an eye" our physical, mortal bodies will be transformed into immortal bodies, and we will be with the Lord forever.

The Greek word harpazo means "to seize ... catch (away, up), pluck, pull, take (by force)" (Strong's Greek Dictionary), and it is translated as "caught up" in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:

"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up [harpazo] together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)​

In the Latin Vulgate Bible, the Greek word harpazo is translated as rapiemur, which comes from the same Latin verb as raptus, which means "to seize, snatch; to carry off". This Latin word is where we get the English word "Rapture."

Some people do not believe in the Rapture because they say that the word "Rapture" does not appear anywhere in Scripture. However, the words "Trinity" and "Second Coming" (for example) never appear in the Bible either, yet all of these concepts are taught quite clearly in Scripture even if those specific terms are not used. Strictly speaking, though, the word "Rapture" does appear in the Bible, just not in any English translation. Again, the English word "Rapture" comes from the Latin word raptus, which appears in the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible (using the rapiemur form of the verb).

Most people believe in a rapture...they just do not agree when we will be snatched away.

 

[Fellowservant]

The word rapture should be considered resurrection, as this is what Paul was referring to in all his letters on this. But God could implement a rapture here as well, but only he could implement it. We look at the book of revelation for the timing of this.

Dispensational rapture teachers believe the rapture takes place when John is caught up to heaven to see and write about what he is seeing. A door is opened in heaven is what they use for a rapture teaching. The problem with this is that John was already caught up to heaven almost 2000 years ago, and he was caught up in spirit, not in a bodily resurrection.

There is another rapture teaching as well, rev 12 may be showing a rapture and an exodus, the man child and the woman. See also Isaiah chapter 66 on this woman and child, as they seem to parallel each other. The word caught up is used in rev 12, but its the man child who is caught up, we have used Jesus as the interpretation for this.

But Isaiah 66 seems to be saying that this man child is the children of Zion. And i think some reformers used this as a rapture teaching for the Church. And the woman is a remnant of literal Israel, who flees to the mountains from the abomination of desolation Mark 13:14. And is protected by God for 3 1/2 years in a wilderness (Ie the great wings of an eagle) can be found in the old testament as well, i don't think its referring to the USA.

Either way, as far as a rapture before the resurrection, only God himself could implement it. So this is going to be a mystery until it comes to pass, if it does come to pass. And then there are people who believe in multiple raptures, so it gets complicated and contradictory either way. Right now im pan- trib, as it will all pan out in the end

God bless

 

[Stephen1]

johnpaul,

The catching up [Greek "harpazo"] is recorded like this in 1Thessalonians 4 and in Revelation 12

The Lord Himself was caught up in the first century and the church of today awaits the same at His second advent .... first the Lord .... and then those at His coming [1Corinthians 15:23-58] .... notice the sequence of events in this passage of scripture

The catching up .... then the time of the end [the tribulation period] .... then His millennial rule on the earth .... then eternity

This process is one of immortalizing and both those believers asleep and living at the moment of the Lord's intervention will be taken together .... this action will come with no warning or signs as He states in Matthew 25:1-13 ..... and there will be a definite separation of professing christianity

The early Thessalonians were troubled by the false teaching that the Day of the Lord has already come and was in process .... and they were concerned that they had missed the Lord's promise to catch them away [the gathering] .... Paul has to redirect their thinking and to tell them that the Day of the Lord's judgment was not in play ..... hence they had not missed the gathering .... and he proceeds to tell them why .... the conditions for the time of the end, which is still future, were not present and had not begun yet [2Thessalonians 2:1-17]

The evidence for this event occurring before the coming tribulation period is presented in Revelation .... first the Lord tells that He will keep the living believers from His hour of trial [Revelation 3:10] .... those who profess only will be rejected [Revelation 3:16]

The presence of today's church in the immortal state of existence just before and during the tribulation period is noted in the following scriptures:

Revelation 4:4; 5:5-10; 7:9-17; 11:1; 12:12; 13:6; 17:14; 19; 1-14; 20:4 [those on thrones .... the symbol of the Lord's government]

The careful reader will find the church of today in heaven with the Lord to observe His removal of the seals .... the scroll will not open until all of the seals are moved ....then the tribulation period begins in chapter 8

Those who dwell in heaven can be found in each of the verses given above as Revelation unfolds

Keep in mind that Revelation is written in a repetitive structure like all visionary prophecy in scripture ..... for example; chapter 14 returns to the beginning of the period [note chapter 7] and then covers certain details to the end of it .... chapter 19 has the same structure and returns to the beginning of the period viewing the 24 elders and the great multitude as they observe tribulation events upon the earth and their preparation to come to the earth with the Lord at the end of the period

Revelation 20:4 presents them as those on thrones and given the judgment .... these will rule with the Lord over His millennial kingdom of mortal nations [the believing mortal survivors of the tribulation period] .... the same passage notes the martyrs of the tribulation period of those who will become believers during the tribulation period and killed for their faith in Jesus Christ

There are two trumpet soundings for the church .... the first is recorded in Revelation 1:10 related to the first formal communication by the Lord to the newly formed church [Revelation 2 and 3] .... the last is revealed by Paul in 1Corinthians 15:52 and 1Thessalonians 4:16

Lexicon Results
Strong's G726 - harpazo

Outline of Biblical Usage
1) to seize, carry off by force
2) to seize on, claim for one's self eagerly
3) to snatch out or away

Authorized Version (KJV) Translation Count — Total: 13
AV — catch up 4, take by force 3, catch away 2, pluck 2, catch 1, pull 1

 

[stephen]

Amen......Brother Stephen



God be with you