The Rapture is Real :: By Jonathan Brentner

Published on: July 4, 2021 by RR7

I will never forget sitting in church listening to an assistant pastor mock the rapture. Up to that point, I had assumed that I was attending a premillennial church where the only debate regarding the rapture was its timing. But as I learned from my follow-up email conversation with this man, such was not the case. He told me that he held to an amillennial viewpoint and did not believe in the rapture.

Since that encounter, I have come to the conclusion that one cannot say he or she believes the Bible and at the same time assert that the rapture is not a biblical event.

Please allow me to explain why this is true.

The Rapture is a True Biblical Event

The event we refer to as the “rapture” is an actual biblical event for which the apostles provide much supporting detail.

The word “rapture” comes to us from a Latin translation of the Bible from about AD 400 called The Vulgate. The Vulgate uses the Latin word rapturo to translate the Greek word harpazo in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

Starting sometime in the late 1800s, Bible teachers began using the word “rapture” to describe the event Paul wrote about in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 as well as in 1 Corinthians 15:50-56 and Philippians 3:20-21. These students of Scripture chose a word, based on the ancient Latin translation of the Bible, to describe the event that the apostle Paul wrote about in these texts and also referred to in many other passages.

The rapture is the “blessed hope” of Titus 2:11-14; it’s the means of our deliverance from ‘the day of the Lord’ wrath as the Lord promises us in 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 and 5:1-10.

Jesus’ appearing to take us home to glory is the substance of our hope in a troubled world. It’s critical that we understand it and not dismiss it as though it’s not essential to our Gospel hope or cast it aside as something not important to our faith. The rapture is the substance of our hope as we journey through a dark and increasingly dangerous world.

What Happens at the Time of the Rapture?

Here are the key elements of the event we refer to as the “rapture”:

The rapture will begin with Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 begins with these words, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven.” That’s why the apostles often referred to it as “Jesus’ appearing.” He sets everything in motion as He returns with “those who have fallen asleep” in Christ (1 Thess. 4:14).
We will hear Jesus’ voice and the sound of a trumpet. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 also tells us that Jesus “will descend … with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.” I believe that all of us who are in Christ will hear these sounds; I am not sure about those who do not know Him.
The dead in Christ will rise first (1 Thess. 4:16). Jesus will raise from the dead all those who have died “in Christ” from the Day of Pentecost to the time of the rapture. They will be the first to meet the Lord in the air as Jesus joins their resurrected bodies with their souls.

The resurrection of church-age saints happens immediately at the start of the rapture.

The Lord will give immortal and imperishable bodies to believers who are alive at the time of the rapture (Phil. 3:20-21; 1 Cor. 15:51-53). This will be our resurrection in a sense as we receive glorified bodies that will never get sick, grow old, or die.
The rapture will happen quickly! For those of us who are alive at the time of the rapture, the change in our bodies will happen “in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:52). We will instantly receive our glorified bodies.
At the same moment He gives us immortal bodies, Jesus will catch up those of us “who are alive, who are left … in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:17). We will join those saints resurrected from the dead, and we will forever “be with the Lord.”
Our destination will be heaven. In John 14:3, Jesus said, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” The Lord is preparing a place in heaven, and He will take us there when He appears. Later, in John 17:24, we see that one of Jesus’ requests in what we call His “high priestly prayer” was that someday we would see the glory He possessed “before the foundation of the world.”

I love the way Colossians 3:4 puts it: “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” When the rapture occurs, we will appear in glory, aka paradise. In other words, it signifies our departure from earth to heaven.

The above seven points provide a brief summary of what we will experience when Jesus comes to take us home. All these things make up the event that we as believers refer to as the “rapture.” It is a wholly biblical occurrence; it will happen just as the Bible says it will.

The Only Matter Open for Debate is the Timing

Most of us who are premillennialists place the rapture before the start of the seven-year tribulation. Premillennialists are those who hold to a literal understanding of biblical prophecy that includes the seven-year tribulation and thousand-year reign of Jesus.

Some premillennialists, however, place the rapture in the middle of the tribulation or toward the end of it. The biblical description of Jesus’ return for His church clearly differentiates it from the Second Coming. The two cannot be the same event.

I have written much in support of a pretribulation rapture. You can find two more recent posts on this matter by clicking here and here.

The rapture is not a “third-order” doctrine that we must shelve in order to preserve unity with other saints. No, that’s what the scoffers tell us (2 Peter 3:1-4; Jude 18-19); they are wrong!

Paul commands us to “encourage one another” with the hope we possess in the rapture (1 Thess. 4:18, 5:11). In other words, the Lord intends for us to build up each other in the faith with our shared hope in Jesus’ appearing to take us home to heaven.

How is mutual encouragement based on the rapture even remotely possible if we relegate it to quiet backroom discussions so as not to stir up controversy in the body of Christ?

The Rapture is the Substance of Our Hope

Let’s dig a bit deeper into this hope that the Lord tells us to use in encouraging “one another” (1 Thess. 4:18, 5:11).

The rapture is our “blessed hope”; it’s the hope into which Jesus saves us. I say this based on the words of Romans 8:23-25:

“And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

In the above passage, Paul connects the “redemption of our bodies,” which, as we saw, happens at the time of the rapture, with the “hope” of the Gospel. The resurrection event for all New Testament saints happens at Jesus’ return for His church, the rapture. It’s at this time He will redeem our bodies by giving us immortal ones that will never perish or grow old (1 Cor. 15:51-55).

That’s why I like to refer to Jesus’ appearing as the “Gospel future.”

We see further evidence of the close association of the Gospel with the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10. There, the apostle reported how the Thessalonians “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven….” These new believers immediately placed their hope in the rapture.

During Paul’s stay in Thessalonica, the rapture was Gospel 101. He did not divorce our hope in Jesus’ appearing from his proclamation of the good news as almost everyone does today. It was front and center in his preaching.

The New Testament saints eagerly awaited Jesus’ appearing (Phil. 3:20-21; 1 Cor. 1:7-8, 15:50-56; 1 John 3:1-3). It constituted the substance of their hope; it signified the time when they would experience the eternal life that became theirs through faith.

I cannot say when the rapture will occur because I do not know. As believers, we may face increasing persecution because of our faith and perhaps suffer physically as a result. Or Jesus may come for us this very day.

Regardless of what the future holds, we trust God’s sovereignty and grace. Because the Lord remains in control of all things, we can rest in His promise to take us home before the start of the tribulation. Because of His grace, we know that we will forever experience joy in His presence as the result of His favor that we most certainly do not deserve (see Ps. 16:11; Eph. 2:1-7).

In my email discussions with the associate pastor at the church I formerly attended, he told me that at one time he agreed with the pretribulation rapture position after a pastor took him through the biblical passages pertaining to it. However, after reading a few books by amillennial authors, he ditched both his premillennial and pretribulation views in favor of what he read outside of God’s Word. His new understanding came from human wisdom rather than the words of the Bible.

When we look to Scripture, however, we see that the rapture is indeed a real biblical event. It’s not something that coincides with human wisdom, but it’s something the Lord revealed to His apostles (1 Thess. 4:15; 1 Cor. 15:51a) so that we might have hope and encourage each other regardless of what we face as we journey through a hostile world to our home up above.

Jonathan Brentner

Website: Our Journey Home

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Email: Jonathanbrentner@yahoo.com

The Force :: By Steve Meehan

Published on: July 4, 2021 by RR7

The year was 1985. A TWA 727 had been hijacked in the Middle East. The Islamist hijackers had forced the flight crew, over a three-day period, to fly between Beirut and Algiers. Passengers were held hostage for two weeks. A US Navy diver passenger aboard the plane was shot and his body dumped on the tarmac in Beirut. The hijackers had a list of demands that included the releasing of 700 Shia militants held as prisoners in an Israeli security compound. The situation was at a stalemate for almost half a month.

The Pentagon, early on in the ordeal, issued a directive to send in the Delta Force to the region to, if need be, storm the aircraft, free the hostages and crew, and “dispatch” the hijackers. I was part of a USAF C-141 transport crew that was tasked with flying from Charleston AFB SC, to pick up that elite commando unit from Fort Bragg NC, and under cover of darkness, in the dead of night, secret them away across the Atlantic, down through the Mediterranean and into a staging point at Sigonella Air Base in Sicily. There, our crew stayed for two weeks with those guys in case they had to be transported to another locale in that region of the world. Fortunately for all involved, their services for that incident were not employed, and the situation was eventually resolved somewhat peacefully.

The Delta Force is a highly trained, very skilled group of service members, who at any time, can be covertly moved throughout the globe and put in harm’s way to try to quell a sudden uprising or hotspot, usually in an effort to secure the freedom of individuals held captive in a dire situation. Their lives are constantly on the line when the orders come from on high, putting them in a very compromising position to reach an almost “no other option” choice and to hopefully effect a positive outcome.

Those men on our flight were very tough-looking hombres, physically fit individuals, and had a determined, purposeful look about them. They were not open to small talk and probably sensed, as in most of their operations, that not all may make it back on the return trip to the US. Can you imagine living a life where yours is constantly on the line, never knowing what a day may bring, in the hopes of saving other lives?

A force can be a positive thing. We have police forces to protect citizens from harm, although recently, some on the left have ridiculously called for defunding some police units throughout the USA. The US Air Force is a military service branch that protects our country against threats from enemy aircraft invading our airspace and our bases overseas. A show of force is usually a military tool implemented to try to make an evildoer think twice before acting irrationally. There are forces for good, but conversely, there are forces of evil in this world.

You and I, as believers in Jesus, are members of the Body of Christ. His Holy Spirit indwells each true believer. We can be a force for good in this world with Christ abiding in us. Military groups like the Delta Force operate in a purely physical sense to hopefully ensure a positive outcome in their theater of operations. We, with Christ acting through us, make up His Alpha/Omega force, if you will, to make a difference in this world as we conduct our operations, both in the physical realm of life as well as in spiritual campaigns throughout the globe.

The Delta Force squads are comprised of both commissioned officers and enlisted men who have made themselves available to the country’s call of duty. As part of Christ’s body, we have been commissioned to carry His gospel throughout the world in hopes of saving the lost from a disastrous eternity. We are trained through the Word of God to be aware of the enemy’s tactics and are strategically maneuvered to be at the right place at the right time, as we are positioned by the Holy Spirit to attempt to rescue a lost soul from the enemy’s grasp.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 28:18-20: “All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

This is what we have been commissioned to do. These are our orders from on high. And the last part of that commissioning is where we find ourselves today: “even unto the end of the world.” We are at the precise moment and time when things on this side of His soon 1,000-year Millennial reign are wrapping up. The world will soon be in the dark days of the Tribulation hour. We have been tasked with getting out the gospel just before the end of the Church Age.

Have you ever considered why we are here on this planet at this precise time, instead of maybe living during some other period over the past 2,000 years of the Church Age? We are here to see the finish and hopefully make a huge difference in the lives of those around us. It is exciting to think that we have been planned to have our existence take place in this world at this present time, but also, it is a huge responsibility on our shoulders to fulfill our role now in His ranks. We must be a force for good, especially now, as we see end-time events starting to jump from off the pages of scripture and land squarely on the globe around us in these exact days and times that we are living in.

But the enemy, Satan, and his contingent of fallen angels comprise the forces of evil and are hell-bent to see that we are not successful in our attempts to save people for Christ. He has most of the people of this world right where he wants them: blinded from the truth of the Gospel and firmly on their way to an eternity without Christ. His forces will throw up a gauntlet in every direction we turn to try to witness to others the love of God and how Jesus went to the cross for their sins. He is not very appreciative of our efforts to try to win the lost. In these end times, he is pulling out his complete arsenal of spiritual weapons to impede our mission.

But Jesus again confirms to us in His Great Commission that He is with us unto the end of the world. In 1 John 4:4, we also read that the One who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. His force for good triumphs over the enemy’s forces of evil. As we see the world around us getting darker with each passing day, it appears that not only are we drawing ever closer to the start of that dreadful last seven years of end-time events, but that Satan and his forces seem to be running completely roughshod across the planet. But ultimately, it is Christ and His forces that will triumph, and we will be co-heirs with Him and His creation.

So, will we go out in a blaze of glory – “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14) – or just sit on the sidelines and watch it all transpire without reaching out to a lost soul?

I remember a sermon I heard years ago from the late Adrian Rogers. He tells of a father and his little girl looking at a painting in a museum depicting a rescue boat getting ready to help people out of the tempestuous waves of a roaring ocean after their vessel had capsized. The little girl, seeing one of the men in the boat extending his hand to a person in the water, asks her father if the man is trying to save them or to just shake their hand.

We have been put here in this world, at this particular time, to be a force for good. Christ wants us to reach out to a lost and dying world with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We know and sense that the time is at hand for when Christ will call his Body of Believers out of this world and for prophesied end-times events to unfold. Many souls are lost, and only a few, relatively speaking, will make it into Heaven.

While these are exciting times to be alive – because we know what is coming – it is also a bit disconcerting to know that not all our friends or loved ones are going to make it. They will be here enduring suffering after the Church is removed, and some will wind up in a Christ-less eternity.

We can each make a difference. Praying for our lost family members or unsaved friends; reaching out to them in an email, a phone call, a text or even a letter to inform them what lies ahead and how to avoid it; writing an article like this or on other topics in the hopes that people will see it and heed its warning; leaving Bible tracts where people can find them; or even inviting them to your local church worship service and praying the Holy Spirit will inspire them to take the free gift of salvation that only Christ has to offer.

Let us be a force for good. Let us make an impact for the Kingdom of God. Let us bring souls with us. Reach out and grab onto someone’s hand and rescue them from the fate that they would otherwise have to endure. Time is short. We are here for a reason. We must do what we are called to do. We have to live out the Great Commission. Christ could have called us home immediately after our conversion, but we were left here to further His Kingdom. He left His Body of Believers here to thwart the enemy’s desire to ruin as many lives as he could.

When we flew the Delta Force guys into Sigonella, our crew was ushered into a room, and we were forced to sign a non-disclosure form. We were ordered by a Major at the base not to discuss who we had just flown in. We could not tell loved ones or friends about the group of guys that were now in striking distance of the enemy.

The Lord’s Great Commission is somewhat opposite of that. We are to go out into the world with the news of the gospel. We are not to hide our light under a basket. The Lord is with us; He is watching us. Conversely, the enemy is also watching. He is not unaware of our attempts to get people saved. The more of an impact that you are making, the more that he will attempt to trip you up. IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) of doubt and discouragement will be laid before you. Grenade launchers of ridicule and scorn will be fired your way by family members and friends who will be whispered to by the enemy to stop you in your tracks. Timed explosives will be set off at just the right time to try to derail any good intentions that you are attempting to carry out.

These types of things do upset us and totally blindside us at times. They can render us immobile and not effective at all in witnessing to people. But we our told not to be ignorant of his devices. We are on a mission, and the enemy’s goal is to subvert that. Let us not faint from what we are to carry out. The end is near, and glory awaits. That does not mean that it will not get painful during the time left. But any suffering endured now cannot compare to the glory that awaits us.

You might be the only person that can present the gospel to a particular individual. Maybe they have never been exposed to it before by anyone else, and maybe no one else after you will come their way. You could be the difference-maker.

Let us be about the Lord’s business. Join forces with your brothers and sisters in Christ to offer a lifeline to those who are perishing. Steal away from the enemy what he thinks is now his. Storm his strongholds with prayer. Secure the freedoms of those around you. And when Christ ultimately returns to this planet, you will be included in His host and forces and will witness Jesus dispatching the enemy with the “spirit of His mouth and the brightness of His coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:8).

“And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the World” (Matthew 28:20).

stevemeehan1225@gmail.com