It was years ago, not long after I became a Christian, when
someone first mentioned the rapture to me. I can’t tell you how much time
I wasted trying to find the word in my Bible! It was only much later that
I discovered that it wasn’t actually used in the Bible. The word that is
used is a Greek word meaning, “caught up”.
With all the hoopla this past weekend about the Rapture and the
countdown to the end of the world, supposedly on May 21, I thought there may be
those whose curiosity was really stirred by all the speculation. So, here
is my humble explanation. Call it, “The Rapture for Dummies”, if
you will.
The Rapture is spoken of in a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote
to believers in Jesus in the city of Thessalonica (in Macedonia) around 51
AD. The church in that city was young. The Christians needed
instruction so as to mature in their faith. In addition, there was a
misunderstanding concerning Christ’s second coming – some thought He would
return immediately, and so they were confused when their loved ones died
because they expected Jesus to return beforehand. In his first of
two letters to them, (called 1 Thessalonians in the New Testament), Paul
addresses both of these issues.
Beginning in chapter 4, verse 13 through verse 18, Paul says the
following:
“We do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep (by this Paul means those who have already
died), or to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope. We
believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring
with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are
still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not
precede those who have fallen asleep.
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.”
Paul explains that because Jesus died and rose again, all who
believe in Him will also rise from the dead, which is why we who love them
don’t need to grieve over their deaths as those who have no hope – we know they
WILL live again.
Paul says that Jesus is going to return for those who belong to
Him. His coming to “rapture” His own will begin with His coming
down from heaven (as the angels said He would in the account of his ascension
in Acts 1:11), and will be heralded by a loud command, with the voice
of the archangel, and with a trumpet call of God – and THEN
the dead in Christ will rise FIRST to meet the Lord in the air.
After that Paul says, believers who are still alive and are left
will be CAUGHT UP (raptured) together with the believing resurrected dead to
meet the Lord in the air. And so they will all be with the Lord FOREVER.
Instead of telling Jesus’ followers to get busy trying to
calculate when this event would occur, Paul devoted the entirety of chapter 4
to encouraging them to live godly lives while they waited.
He said things like:
v. 1 “We instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in
fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do
this more and more.”
v. 7 “God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.”
v. 9 “Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to
you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. . . .we
urge you to do so more and more.”
v. 11 “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your
own business and to work with your hands. . .so that your daily life may win
the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”
v. 14 “Warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the
weak, be patient with everyone.
v. 15 “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but
always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.
b. 16 “Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks
in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
I firmly believe that the Rapture of believers in Christ IS
coming, that the events Paul mentions in 1 Thessalonians WILL happen just as he
says. But since he doesn’t tell us WHEN these events will happen,
presumably because the Apostle Paul didn’t know (Jesus Himself didn’t know – see
Matthew 24:36), there are two things we CAN think about:
#1 We need to be sure that we belong to Jesus so that we can have confidence of being
included in the events Paul records here. Belonging to Jesus is not the
same as being religious – simply believing things ABOUT Jesus, or doing things
like going to church, or being baptized in order to gain God’s favor, hoping
that our “good” outweighs our “bad”.
The only way that we can be sure we are a child of God, that
we belong to Jesus – is by God’s grace through faith. A right
relationship with God can’t be earned by doing good things, or not doing bad
ones.
Paul says this in Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace you have
been saved through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God
– not by works, so that no one can boast.”
What we do need to believe is that we were born with bad DNA –
inherited from Adam – who first sinned against God by disobeying Him in the
Garden of Eden. But, our sin isn’t just the fault of our DNA. We
also sin because we just plain want to! Once we recognize that, we
need to deal with the fact that Jesus, the only sinless person who ever lived,
fulfilled God’s expectations of righteousness because we couldn’t.
And that He took the punishment for sin that belonged to us in His death on the
cross, to satisfy the justice of a holy God. His resurrection from
the dead demonstrated God’s acceptance of His sacrifice on our behalf.
And in exchange, for those who accept this truth, the
righteousness of Jesus is imputed to them – God declares that his/her sin has
been forgiven based on the sacrifice of His Son. Those who believe these
things, not just with their minds, but with all their hearts, have their sin
forgiven. God declares them His own children. The penalty for their
sin has been paid in full and their relationship with God restored.
For them, the coming of Jesus Paul says, is called, “the
blessed hope”. The hope he speaks of however, isn’t a “cross your
fingers and hope for the best”. Rather, it’s a CERTAIN hope, that
WILL come to pass, and it’s one those who belong to Jesus will not need to
dread.
#2 Those who belong to Jesus need to be ready for His coming
because it could be at any time. If you or I had received notice to expect a visit
from the President “at any time” but had no idea how long that could be,
we’d keep our houses neat, we’d dress in our best clothes, we’d be ready
whenever! So it is with the coming of Jesus. When He
returns , don’t we want Him to find us living lives that honor Him, keeping
busy with the work of His kingdom, waiting expectantly for His
coming?
The Rapture WILL come, although when, no one really knows.
The REAL question is: Will you be among those to SEE the Lord as He
comes, to HEAR the sound of the trumpet, and the shout of the archangel, and
EXPERIENCE being CAUGHT UP? If you’re not sure, you and God have some
talking to do about sin and your need for a Savior.
If so, then the question is: How will you honor the Lord now with
your life so that when He comes, you will not be ashamed?
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