Submit your own questionBack Q: I have heard about the rapture and would like to be prepared for it. Does the bible gives us a good indication of when it will happen?
Submitted by Igor Schmigalo 8/19/2003 9:36:06 PM
A: August 29/03
Dear Igor:
One of the places that the rapture is referred to is 1 Thessalonians 4:16 ‘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; :17 then we who 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.’
At the moment of the rapture our bodies will be changed from the corruptible to the incorruptible. 1 Corinthians 15:51 ‘ Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, :52 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. :53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.’
Then it continues to state in 1 Thess. 5:1 ‘But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all sons of light; and sons of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness, therefore, let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober-minded. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that are drunk are drunk in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and, for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.’
(If you do a study on the ‘Feast of Trumpets’ which is celebrated during Sept/Oct, you will find that it is very possible that the rapture is likely to occur during this Jewish Festival)
Thousands of prophesies in scripture have been fulfilled and confirm that we are living in the last days, the most important one being that the generation that sees Israel formed as a nation shall also see the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. This is why ‘we who have read the scriptures’ are NOT in darkness about the time of His coming. (The Rapture is not to be confused with the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ which occurs at the end of the Tribulation Period and can be calculated according to actual numbers of days from the events that happen in the Book of Revelation. Then Jesus will come in all His Glory with all His saints and angels)
Because God is not going to pour out His wrath upon the ‘believers’ (we who are the body of Christ which make up His church) but He will translate (rapture) us, just as He did Enoch and Elijah, to heaven, to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb during which time the world will be going through the terrible 7 year tribulation period, and ‘except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved;’ (read Matthew chapter 24 in it’s entirety)
In that same chapter, which deals with the Second Coming of Christ, verse 36 says; ‘but of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken and the other left. Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come."
In summary, the best way to ‘watch’ and to be ready is to ask Jesus Christ to forgive us our sins and then to surrender our lives over to Him and ask Him to be our Lord and Savior. From that moment on we become the ‘Children of God’ and the Heirs of Salvation.
If you need further clarity, please feel free to contact me again.
