Rapture Verses

                Matt. 24:29-31,  “Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other.”

                I Thess.4:16-17,  “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 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 thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

                I Cor.15:51-52  “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep (physical death) but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’”

Can you Answer these?

                Please answer these next questions based on the verses you just read; NOT on what you have been told or what you always thought.

These first three are on Matt. 24:29-31.  

               (This verse says we are leaving after the tribulation, but hold on!  There isn’t going to be a seven-year tribulation like has been taught.  Keep reading and you will see it.)

These next three are on I Thess.4:16-17.  

These are on I Cor.15:51-52.

Two separate Events

                My first brochure on the rapture showed you how very many verses point to the removal of the wicked while we are here.  This event is called in scripture, The DAY of the Lord, the Day of Vengeance, the Day of Wrath, or sometimes just The DAY.  If you were to look up those references, you would see words like destruction, cruel, burning anger, and fierce or fiery wrath. A mistake is in Acts 2:20 quoting Joel 2:31 about this Day. In Joel 1:15, 2:1-3, 10-11, and 30-31 (KJV) you’ll see the terribleness of that Day. This is His thief coming.  If you were to look up the verses about His coming as a thief, you’ll see they are all bad.  It’s invisibly, to steal, kill, and destroy the wicked, and it’s terrible; not awesome.

                Then there is another event which is Jesus’ glorious return with the clouds when every eye will see Him, and we will meet Him in the air. These are two separate events, and there are many scriptures for each one.

                It is thrilling to me that there are two different Greek words for coming, and they are consistent with the two separate events! A point of interest along that line is the fact that in the Old Testament God said many times that He would come down and do this or that, but there is no indication that He was seen.  That only shows that coming doesn’t necessarily mean we will see Him -- like on the Day of the Lord!

            If you want to read a small book about this view, there is one available.

Misinterpreted Verses

                II Thes.2:3-7,  “Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition (destruction) who opposes and exalts himself  above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.  Do you remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?  And now you know what is restraining, the he may be revealed in his own time.  For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.”  (And the following two verses continue talking about the lawless one.)

Who’s restraining?

                The force that is mentioned here is assumed by most to be the Holy Spirit or the Church.  They reason that He or we restrain sin now, but will be removed from the earth with the rapture.  Some Bible translators have fixed these verses so that it seems to say that.  This is why the above verse was taken here from the New King James Version.  The old King James Version says it like this for verse 7:  “… only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.”  The word “let” meant to hold back, hinder, or restrain.

                Paul didn’t say who that is, but he said they know!  How could they know except that he’d mentioned this before?  This is his second letter to these same people, so did he refer to a hinderer or restrainer in his first letter?  Yes!  It’s in I Thes.2:18.  “We would have come to you again and again, but Satan hindered us.”  The word “hinder” here is not the same word, but is another word meaning the same thing. So it looks like Satan is the hinderer or restrainer that is going to be taken out of the way!  Rev. 20:1-3 says it will be for 1000 years.

In the days of Noah

                Matt.24:37-42,  “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away. So will the coming of the Son of Man be.  Then two men will be in the field, one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and the other left.  Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.”

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