The Rapture of the Church
The catching away of believers by Jesus Christ
We start off by admitting that the word “rapture” is not in the Bible as many are very quick to state, but that is only partially true. The words “caught up” in First Thessalonians 4:17 was translated from the Greek word “harpazo” which means to be caught up in the Greek language. So the word “rapture”, as well as the words “caught up” are both acceptable translations of the Greek word “harpazo”
Paul the Apostle wrote about the rapture of the believers and the First Resurrection of the dead in his letters to the Thessalonians and the Corinthians. John wrote in the book of Revelations a description of what was shown him about the believers right after the rapture and the First Resurrection.
We start our examination of this phenomenon of what we call the rapture by first looking at First Thessalonians Chapter four verses 16 and 17 as follows:
“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:”
These two verses clearly state that the Lord Jesus Christ shall appear in the sky above us and with a shout shall call us up to meet Him in the air. When this event occurs, those believers who have passed away will rise up out of their graves and those believers who are still alive will rise up with them in the air to meet the Lord. That’s about as clear as it can be, that there will be a rapture of believers, a catching away from this Earth without those still alive having to die.
One of the first questions that is asked about those who have already passed away is; do their physical bodies rise up out of the graves? Let’s look at another scripture that sheds some light on this. First Corinthians Chapter 50 verses 50 to 53 states as follows:
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption. 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.”
Clearly the answer is that those mortal, physical bodies will not rise out of the graves, but they will be changed into immortal bodies, bodies that are incorruptible having no flesh or blood. Neither will the mortal physical bodies of those who are still alive when that occurs. Those bodies will be also changed into immortal bodies.
There is some scripture in the book of Revelations that pertains to the rapture also. Revelations 20:4-5 gives us some insight into what occurs right after the rapture. Let’s look at what it says:
Verse 4 John said: “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
Who are these people that John saw? They were those who were taken up in the rapture. Some of those John saw were the believers that had died before the rapture occurred. Some were those who were still alive at the time of the rapture.
John also said:
Verse 5 “but the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.”
John realized that what he saw was only the first resurrection of the dead. Those raised in the first resurrection were to spend the next one thousand years in Heaven with Christ. Also John recognized that all of the dead were not raised, as he said the rest of those who were in the graves would not be resurrected until the one thousand years was over. This means that there would be a second resurrection after the thousand years was over.
But then, look at verse 6.
John said: “Blessed and holy are they that have part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.’
Those who are taken in the rapture and the first resurrection will not face the second death because they will not face the great White Throne Judgment. They are members of the body of Christ and because Christ has redeemed them they will not be judged.
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