Everything You Wanted to Know about the Rapture
There is much debate and confusion regarding the topic of the Rapture. Sadly, it has gotten so bad that most churches have just decided to avoid the topic of our Blessed Hope altogether. Nevertheless, because of the way Scripture is often misinterpreted, there are multiple ways one could construct a Rapture-theory. Truth be told, many doctrines are abused by misinterpretation. With that said, there is only one doctrinally accurate Rapture, and that is the Pre-Tribulational view, or if you prefer, Pre-70th Week view.
Author’s note: Apologies for the length of this post, however, please take your time and use this as a one-stop-shop for resources should you ever need it in the future. There are also links at the bottom which I would encourage you to go through as well that will greatly bless you.
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell 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 trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 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.” – 1st Corinthians 15:51-54
Now, what Paul’s discussion here centers on in the entire chapter (1 Cor. 15), is that the Church cannot physically go to Heaven in our present condition. We, in our mortal frames, and are very limited to where we can actually live without dying. Apart from death, we must be changed in order to go where Jesus is. This is WHY we must be changed.
In Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, the ‘harpazo’ primarily deals with answering the troubling question about what happened to those brothers and sisters in Christ who had already died. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he primarily deals with the instantaneous transformation of the living. We in our fleshly tents cannot physically enter heaven; our physical, earthly bodies could not survive it. We have to be transformed into our glorified bodies. Paul mentions this process in Romans 8:23, and the Apostle John references this in 1st John 3:1-3. What was conceived at Pentecost (the conception of the Church-Acts 2), will finally be born into glory at the Rapture. Instead of using the letter to comfort one another, as Paul does in his epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul ends this Corinthians letter with an almost exuberant declaration….”Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” – John 14:1-3 (emphasis mine)
As we see the signs approaching with ever-increasing intensity and frequency that mark the beginning of the Tribulation, lift up your heads, for your redemption draws nigh. As John saw the open door in heaven, and heard the command, “come up here,” so too shall we hear the words one day.
1 comment:
Just a few more days
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