In the simplest of terms, the Rapture is when Jesus gathers His Church in a single moment and takes them instantly to Heaven prior to the 7-year Tribulation period. The Rapture was first revealed to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 which says:
“Behold, I shew 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. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”
And in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 17:
“For 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: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
If this seems a little crazy, that is okay - I used to think so too! However, once you realize the purpose for the Rapture, then it makes perfect sense. I won’t go too deeply into Bible prophecy in this lesson, but a general understanding is important to get why Jesus will take His believers instantly to Heaven.
A time will come soon when a man will come to power that is the Antichrist. The world will fall in love with him, but he is evil incarnate. He will deceive the world and will strike a 7-year peace treaty between Israel and the Middle East (and possibly Russia). The Jews will rebuild their temple and will reinstate animal sacrifices to atone for their sins. Three and a half years later, the Antichrist will sit in the temple and declare himself to be God and will begin the greatest time of antisemitism that the world has ever seen. The Bible calls this the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7; God changed Jacob’s name to Israel in Genesis 32:28). From the rise of the Antichrist to the return of Jesus to the earth is seven years.
The Jews have rejected their Messiah for over 2,000 years. During the Tribulation period, they will finally see that Jesus is the Christ and will finally accept Him. Sadly, they will first accept the Antichrist as their Messiah.
Did you notice that I did not mention the Church? During the Tribulation period God is judging the wickedness of humanity with 21 judgments that get progressively worse. Why would He punish those that have accepted Him? He wouldn’t and He doesn’t. The first purpose of the Rapture is the snatching away of those that have accepted Him to spare them from the Tribulation period.
The second purpose is to give us our glorified bodies (see 1 Corinthians passage above). We were never meant to die. Prior to Adam and Eve’s sin, there was no sickness or deformities or hair loss or blindness or any other ailment that exists. In the blink of an eye, our bodies will be transformed into what they were meant to be: sinless and perfect.
So where did the term Rapture come from? If you look for this word in the Bible, you will not find it. As you can see, though, the doctrine is still there. In the 1 Thessalonians passage mentioned above, the phrase “caught up” in the Greek is harpazo which means “a sudden snatching away”. In the Latin, the term used is rapio from which we get the term Rapture.
Before I close, I want to paint a picture for you of what is going to happen, so that it is clear just how beautiful (for believers and children) and horrific (for those left behind) it will be.
There are roughly seven billion people in the world. Various studies state that 30% are Christian. That doesn’t mean they are true believers, but just state Christianity as their religion. For simplicity sake I am going to use 30% as my total number because children and babies will be raptured too (see Jesus’ love for children in the four gospels). In an instant, roughly two billion men, women, and children will be gone. What does that mean?
It means that Christian doctors, police officers, business owners, teachers, transportation workers, engineers, technicians, physicians, nurses, paramedics, operators, firefighters, etc. all gone.
Reflect upon two billion people disappearing for a moment.
All traffic will come to a halt due to cars all over the world going various speeds that are suddenly driverless crashing into buildings, other vehicles, and power lines. How will understaffed medical and safety personnel get to the injured? Who is going to wade through the chaos to get to work when their children just vanished before their eyes? How many of those people are going to commit suicide out of fear and how many will kill themselves because they knew the truth? Rotting corpses that have no way of getting removed will litter the world for weeks. Imagine the smell. Imagine the maggots and flies.
There will be a death toll that has never been seen before.
There will be economic collapse.
There will be mass famine.
The world will cry in pain and that is when the Antichrist comes upon the scene. If you find that absurd, just remember that Adolf Hitler was Time Magazine's 1938 Man of the Year. He will not seem evil. He will appear to be a man of peace, but will only bring war and death.
Those that have put their faith in Christ (click here to do so) will not see any of these horrors.