THE RAPTURE

What’s a rapture?

There is some controversy in the church circles about the rapture. Some say it is before the tribulation, some say mid-tribulation, and some after the tribulation. Some even say that the Christians who believe in the rapture are drinking their bath water as there won’t be a rapture. Nevertheless, I will tell you about the pre-tribulation rapture.

I’m anxious to tell you about what heaven looks like, but I first need to talk about the rapture. It is the most important event and I believe it will happen in my lifetime. Why do I think that? Well, if you’re following the news and are aware of what’s happening in the world, you can see the signs of the end times that Jesus talked about, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, closer and closer together. And not just “acts of God” events, but also changes in our economy, laws, the music you hear and the movies you watch. I mean, a show titled “Lucifer”??!! you can’t get any clearer than that. Hollywood doesn't even attempt to disguise it any longer. Not to mention Israel and the conflict with Palestinians and the whole Arabic world… Actually, you don’t need to look any further than our own Christian country, the US. Currently, people coming from South America, and even the middle east through the southern border are being released into the country (US), taken by buses and air planes with nothing more than a piece of paper with immigration contact information. Like these people that have no asylum reason to escape their own country’s persecution, are willingly and voluntarily going to identify themselves. It’s a big problem and the Congress is brainstorming on how to “mark” all those thousands (I believe it’s into the millions now) of masses. The first thing that comes to mind is a chip inserted into a body of that individual. Obviously, it has to be something that is attached to the person that can be tracked by GPS and identified that cannot be easily removed. The technology is certainly there and every little change to the law that takes away our freedom has a ripple affect… Enough said. We are so close.

The Bible clearly states that not everyone will be raptured and I would very much hate to see you be left behind and remain on earth during this horrible period of 7 years called the tribulation. But Jesus promised that whoever reads or hears the words written in this book, will be blessed, so I hope that you read on even if you have never read the book of revelation, for whatever reason.

So, before we talk about heaven and what the throne room looks like, there will be a world-wide event when all Christians are raptured. What in the world does that mean? Basically, it means that there will come a moment when Jesus will say “Come up!” and all those that believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, that He was born of a virgin and died on the cross for our salvation will be met by Jesus in the clouds and taken up to heaven. No one really knows whether we’ll die a sudden death and there will be dead bodies all over the world, or nothing but the clothing we wore will remain. Personally, I think we will be taken with our bodies and here’s why.

Three days after Jesus was crucified, He was resurrected and His body could not be found. He then appeared to His disciples on several occasions, not as a ghost, but as a human in a human body. He even let Thomas examine His wounds. Plus, we will come back to Earth just as Jesus did, to rule and reign with Him for a 1000 years.

Also, there are people that the bible talks about who lived and “were no more”. Those were Enoch, Moses, and Elijah.

• The bible says “Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him” in Genesis 5:24. I don’t know how significant this fact is - he’s only mentioned once, really.
• Now, the bible says that Moses died and was buried, but he is very significant. Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt and around the desert for 40 years, well 38 to be exact. God told Moses to go up a mountain and die there, but no one knows where his grave is and no one had seen his dead body.
• Elijah was a prophet and lived during the reign of king Ahaziah. King Ahaziah was not a Godly man. In 2 Kings 2:11 Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Normally I would dismiss Moses because he died, but he and Elijah appeared to Jesus and Peter, James, and John (Mark 9:4) when they all went up on a high mountain. I also think that the two witnesses that will prophesy in Jerusalem for 1,260 days (3.5 years - the first half of the tribulation period) Revelation 11 talks about, are Moses and Elijah. But that’s just my opinion and I could be wrong…

The Bride of Christ

When Jesus spoke to John in Revelation 1 and said “..the things which will take place after this..” He was standing in the middle of His churches (seven stars which represent the angles of the seven churches and seven lampstands which represent the seven churches).

So, “after these things” or the Greek word metatauta, means after the church history is complete, the last person living on earth gets saved, the seven years of tribulation will start. If we are the bride of Christ, the believers of Jesus Christ, we are not appointed for the wrath of God (1 Thessalonians 5:9). The logical explanation is that we will be taken out before God pours His wrath on the unbelieving world.

So, who gets to go? The New Testament believers are His bride. To understand what this means, you must understand the Jewish wedding ceremony. But, a little later about that…

Jesus said in John 6:43 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day”. Our lives have been predestined from the beginning. Each one of us who are chosen have been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb, which are those who believe in Jesus Christ. You believe because the Heavenly Father chose you, and He chose me. Frankly, I wouldn’t have chosen me if I were God, due to all the horrible sin I’ve done in my life. But God is so merciful and gracious, how can you not love Him..??

Anyway, we are still waiting for that last chosen person to get saved then the church history will be completed. How do you know if you are chosen? If you believe in Jesus and make a decision to give your life to Jesus, you’ll be saved so, you can know you were chosen. God is love and love demands a choice, so it is your choice whether or not you want to go to heaven. So, how was I predestined from the beginning of time if it’s still my choice? Great is the mystery of Godliness and our earthly brains may not comprehend it now. However, I have a theory… I suppose one explanation could be that there is no time in God’s economy and everything happens now, so He just knows what we don’t. Personally, I’m very intrigued to find this out, so I’ll need to stream it when I get to heaven 😉

There is one very interesting story in the Old Testament , which gives me great comfort about me and you. I think it resembles the rapture and I very much hope it applies to every family. That is the story of Sodom and Gomora.

Jewish Wedding Ceremony

I saw this documentary once about the traditional Jewish wedding ceremony. We are talking about the Hebrews living in Israel even long before the Christ was born, as Jesus often uses it in His teachings throughout the Gospel to make it easy for the Jews to understand, I suppose. I think some, maybe all of it is still preserved in some cases. It is important to know this, because the wedding ceremony is a perfect portrayal of the rapture.

So, the groom’s father chooses the bride for the groom, his son. Needless to say this an arranged marriage. The groom meets his bride during the day and the chosen girl has a chance to accept the bridegroom or not. If she accepts, they are “married”, but still live in their parents houses for one year. While the groom prepares a place for them to live (builds upon his father’s house), the bride gets ready for the actual wedding ceremony. She looks through the wedding magazines to find the best dress, selects her bridesmaids, makes appointments with her hair stylist, etc. Once the year is up, the bride awaits impatiently as the groom does also, since only the groom’s father makes the decision when this is going to happen. It happens in the middle of the night. The father wakes his son and tells him “go get your bride”. Then the groom immediately sounds the trumpet that he’s coming. The bride wakes up and runs out of her house toward her groom and the groom meets her half way. The bride must be ready, as she does not know which night, she’ll hear the sound. of her groom coming for her. She and her bridesmaids get all dressed up in their wedding attire before they go to bed every night, because when she awakes when she hears that trumpet, there is no time to wash her hair, do the makeup, do the manicure, put on the white dress, etc. All parties that are invited to the wedding must likewise be ready, becuase when the groom meets his bride half way, he immediately takes her to his father’s house for a wedding reception and the doors get shut. Those that are late, well they are unfortunately left outside. Left behind… So, while there is feast going on inside the father’s house and everyone is having a good time, those left outside may be knocking, crying, throwing rocks (probably not), but are not let inside.

Church Taken to Heaven

The church is mentioned 19 times in Revelation chapters 1 through 3, but chapters 4 through 22 there is no mention of the church. Again, we must be in heaven because chapters 4 and 5 talk about what’s going on in heaven during the 7 years of tribulation on earth (chapters 6 through 19.) So how do we get to heaven? We get raptured. Just like in the Jewish wedding ceremony, one of these nights, our groom, the Lord, will say “Come up!” and meet us half way, in the clouds with the others who are now sleeping (believers that died after Jesus was crucified) 1 Thessalonians 4:17 is a clear verse about that. Also, in Revelation 4:1 when John who is writing the book of revelation is taken to heaven in like manner - “come up here” and is the representation of how it will happen for us. John said he was in the spirit, however he did not die or cross over to heaven permanently, so his body must have stayed on earth. Maybe we go without our bodies or with our bodies, it doesn’t really matter because we will receive a new body and a new name when we get there, which is super awesome. I’m really looking forward to that. No more pain, no more doctors or dentists, yippee!! In any case, the love of God is so intense, so bright, that our fragile earthly body would not withstand it and our tiny, fragile heart would burst if we were to be in the presence of the Lord in our earthly body. So maybe there will be dead bodies everywhere after the rapture. Good time to be in the funeral business, I suppose. Ok, I derailed a little from the subject...

There is one fact that is somewhat troubling me and that is when we get raptured and the tribulation period begins, the Holy Spirit will be taken out of this world. It’s going to be a very scary time for those that are left on earth. But the good news is that everyone who is born again and have the Holy Spirit in their heart will hang out with the Lord in heaven while the wrath of God is poured on the unbelieving world. I’ll explain later what that means.

Who is Left Behind?

Ok, so who is left behind?

It would not be right for me to say who gets left behind as the last chapter of the book says that whoever adds to these writings God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book, and whoever takes away from the words of the book of this prophesy, God will take away his part from the Book of Life. So, rather than just listing who I think shall be thrown into the tribulation, I will go through some verses in the Bible then you can decide for yourself. which one you are…

• We know for sure that there is only one way into heaven and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life (John 3:16)
• The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven (Matthew 12:31-32)
• If you do not forgive your brother his trespasses, God will not forgive you yours (Matthew 18:35)
• Again, there is only one way to eternal life and it s not easy to find it, because it’s so much easier to get caught up in this world’s stuff, which by the way, is Satan at work 24/7 (Matthew 7:14)
• Many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 22:13)
• The unprofitable or unfruitful servants will be cast out to outer darkness (Matthew 25:30)
• If you’re not looking out for His return, for Jesus to take you - again this refers to the Jewish wedding when the bridegroom comes for his bride (Matthew 25:10)

These are just a few. There are many, many more verses throughout the Bible, and especially the Gospel. Jesus talked more about hell, than He did about heaven. This is not to scare us, but to teach us that hell is real and He does not want any of us to end up there. Hell was created by God for the demons, the angels that followed Lucifer when he fell. The Bible says God desires all people to be saved and go to heaven. It’s up to us where we end up. But that's for another blog post...