What Is the Rapture and Why we should be ready for it
Everything that God ever did and will do is always intentional and with a purpose. God carries out His sovereign plan according to His infinite wisdom and divinely good intention for His children on His designated timetable.
In the big picture plan of God, He created man and his descendants, gave him dominion over all creation, enjoy it and enter into fellowship with Him. He was given the choice to follow or disobey God. As you know, Adam chose to disobey. This resulted in sin and the curse of sin which is sickness, death and hardship entered creation.
From then on, God put into place a plan to redeem man from his sin, clean up the mess that was created and bring about the result He originally intended. From the fall of Adam, God used Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), Moses and David to bring about the first coming of His Son.
The Jewish people of today are the descendants of Abraham. God blessed Abraham and his descendants with the land of Israel, which they miraculously occupy today after a long absence. As you know, the children of Israel rejected His Son, Jesus and had Him crucified.
But in His grace, God used the death and resurrection of His Son, not only to pay for the sin of Israel but to adopt, graft into the vine, a new set of people who will believe in Him. These are the Gentiles, the non-Jewish believers who (along with some Jews) made up a mystical body which is the Church.
The beginning of the Church was on the Jewish Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), which ushered-in the Church Age. After 2,000 years and when the church has accomplished its purpose, a time we believe is now here, God will bring her home in an event called the “rapture”.
In the heavenly plan, the Lord Jesus, coming from heaven, fetches His Bride, the Church, meets her in the air, and brings her to heaven. The bible says, at the sound of the trumpet, the dead in Christ will rise from the dead and be joined to their soul and spirit in the resurrection. Then they will be caught up, supernaturally by force to the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
In quick order, the believers who are alive and remaining will also be changed from mortal to immortal and they will likewise join those who have been resurrected to meet the Lord in the air. Then the Lord will bring them both with Him as one in heaven. This is called the rapture of the Church.
In the rapture, note that the Lord does not land on earth but stays in the air gets His bride from the earth supernaturally to a meeting place in the clouds, and returns to heaven with her.
When the Church is taken away, the world will plunge into an accelerated moral decay and chaos which will usher in the Second Coming of Christ. Unlike His first coming which was to save the world, the Lord Jesus comes the second time to judge the world and establish His millennial reign, a literal one-thousand-year reign on earth.
God’s purpose for the rapture and when is he coming?
For centuries the timing of the Lord’s return has troubled many. When is the Lord coming for the rapture of His Church? Is there even a clue? There is. If we try to understand God’s purpose for the rapture, we will have a clue as to the timing of it and this will stir us up to be ready.
-
To remove the restrainer (2Thes 2:7)
Since its establishment, the Church was and has been the salt and light to the world, spreading the good news of the kingdom, proclaiming His message of salvation, and being a positive influence over the culture. The church working with the Holy Spirit was a restrainer preventing the advance of evil.
At the fulness of time, when the time He allowed for the working of His grace has expired, God will stop the work of the Church and judge those who rejected His invitation and offer of grace. Since the Church is no longer needed then, it will be taken away in the rapture.
-
To keep the Church from the hour of trial (Rev 3:10)
The judgment by God on this Christ-rejecting world is referred to as the “Great Tribulation”. It is the unleashing of the wrath of God on His enemies written about in Rev 6-19. God does not punish the guiltless with the guilty. We have seen this during the exodus from Egypt.
God shielded the Jews from the plagues He unleashed on Egypt. He also saved Noah from the flood and He delivered Lot from destruction in Sodom. He will not destroy the righteous with the wicked (Gen 18:23).
So, in the same way, the Lord will deliver His Church from the Great Tribulation and the way He will do it is by bringing Her to safety in heaven in the rapture.
-
To bring His Bride, the Church to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb
In the plan of God, at the appointed time, the Church will be given away to the Lamb as a bride as in a traditional Jewish wedding. In the Jewish wedding tradition, the groom comes to the bride’s house, pays the dowry, and makes the betrothal vow with his bride.
Afterwards, he leaves the bride at her parents’ house, comes home to his father’s house, and prepares a place for themselves to live in as a couple. When the father sees that the place is ready, he tells his son to come back for his bride and bring her home to celebrate the wedding feast and consummate their marriage.
Do you see the parallel? Jesus redeemed His bride, the Church, with His own blood thus paying the dowry and left her for a while to prepare a place for her. When the place is ready, He will return to take her and celebrate the wedding. That time is at hand.
Closing Words
There are many other signs that we see presently in the world which the Lord called the beginning of sorrows. These will all take place before He comes for the Church. Look around and you will see some these are all here:
-wars and rumors of wars
-nation rising against nations and kingdom against kingdom
–famines, pestilences and earthquakes
-many false prophets rise up and deceive many
–lawlessness abound, the love of many growing cold
Then Paul also warns of a falling away (apostacy in the church) that comes first before His coming. Also, a third temple is about to be built, a necessity so what Daniel prophesied in Daniel 9:27 can be fulfilled. The arrival of the 5 red heifers in Jerusalem are a clue that preparations are being rushed for the construction of a third temple. A red heifer is required as a sacrifice in dedicating the temple and from these 5 they will choose the one without blemish.
So, there you are. These clues and the purpose for the rapture above, when considered together make up a strong argument for the nearness of the rapture.
Jesus said these in John 14:3 “I am coming back to receive you to Myself”. Yes, the bride has waited this long. But, the time is at hand and the groom will soon come back to take her to His Father’s house and there celebrate their wedding.
A great feast is planned and scheduled and the bride, the Church, you and me, should be getting ready. (Rev 19:9). The parable of the wedding feast (Matt 22:1-14) gives us a vivid picture of this heavenly event. In the parable, we are reminded that we are to wear our wedding garment to gain entry. This is the robe of righteousness that the Lord gives to those who have received Jesus as Lord and savior. Without it we cannot enter into the banquet.
Ask the Lord if He has granted you to be worthy of your wedding garment. That is to say “Is your righteousness of (from) Christ? or “Is your conversion True or Superficial?” Make sure He has, for, without it, you cannot enter the banquet hall.
Bibliography:
Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, a Messianic Jew wrote an excellent piece about the rapture. I have not seen a better rendition than his. You may read it here: http://www.arielcontent.org/dcs/pdf/mbs039m.pdf
