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Is The Rapture Mentioned In The Bible

Giving Up Sugar Tasting God’s Goodness

Why is the Rapture not mentioned in the Bible? (With Greg Laurie)

As a latchkey kid, Wendy Speake turned to sugar for comfort. Every Friday, she would pedal to the candy show and use her allowance to fill her bag with candy. And one day, when she was older and a mom of three young boys, she came to realize that she was still pedaling away from her stress and using sugar as comfort, instead of turning to Jesus. She was joyless, worn out, tired, and in need of a change. In this interview, Wendy will challenge Christians to take 40 days to focus on fasting from something they turn to instead of Jesus for comfort. She invited people to break free from a dependence on sugar and taste the goodness of God.

Where Does The Bible Talk About The Rapture

Rapture is not a word that is found in Scripture. But it is used to describe a very biblical doctrine the return of Christ and the gathering up of his elect. This doctrine is central to the hope that we have as believers.

There are many scenarios of the end times that have been drawn from Jesus Revelation to John. But I do not find that there are any unambiguous references to the rapture contained in Revelation. Much of how one interprets Revelation is based upon their eschatological perspective. So, for that reason, I have chosen not to include anything from Revelation in this discussion. But there are three passages in the New Testament that do provide us with explicit information about this event.

Matthew 24:30-31 is a portion of Jesus teaching about his return. In this passage he says that all the peoples of the earth will see him coming in the clouds. And that with a trumpet call, he will send his angels to gather his elect from throughout the earth.

In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul defends the future resurrection of believers. And in verses 50-55 he describes what that will be like. It will happen in a moment, at the last trumpet. When the trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised, and the living believers will be changed.

Is The Rapture Separate From The Second Coming Of Christ

No discussion of the rapture would be complete without pointing out that there is a relatively recent school of thought that separates the rapture and the visible return of Christ by a seven-year tribulational period. As an amillennialist, this is not something I agree with. But apart from that, there is agreement among the different eschatological views concerning the rapture the gathering of believers at the end of the age.

So, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:54, Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Because of the hope we have, we should let nothing move us from serving our Lord. Know that our service will not be in vain.

Further Reading

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Jesus And The Destruction Of Jerusalem Not Rapture

To be clear, because I can anticipate some of the feedback that will come in: I affirm a future second coming. I believe the ultimate reason for Christs return is to: resurrect, purge, heal, and eternally reign in the renewed creation .

The rapture is simply not part of the biblical picture. And, it often leads to problems today like a desire for escapism, and sometimes a lack of concern for this planet .

The problem I have then, is not with the second coming. My issue is with attributing Mark 13 to pointing to anything other than something that already happened in history: the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.

In a longer article on Jesus and Mark 13, I plan to get heavy into this topic .

All of Mark 13 describes how Jesus acted as an apocalyptic prophet to declare that Gods judgment on unfaithful Israel was coming within this generation . This generation doesnt mean nowit means the generation of the disciples who sat and listened to Jesus answer to their questions about:

  • When will these things happen?
  • What will be the sign that they are about to be fulfilled?
  • These questions follow Jesus prophetic statement that not one stone will be left unturned. If those are the questions to be answered in the whole of Mark 13, then what ramifications for interpretation does the text leave us with?

    After the questions, the chapter continues by answering with the kind of things that will take place leading up to the destruction of the Temple:

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    The Word Rapture Does Appear In The Bible

    It is commonly asserted that the word rapture doesnt appear in the Bible, and this absence is held forth as evidence that the teaching of the rapture is a falsehood. But this claim is untrue. The word rapture does appear in the Bible. It appears in the exact same way that words like angel and apostle appear in the Bible. he word rapture is simply the anglicized form of the Greek word that appears in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 in the original text.

    To begin with, the English word rapture is derived from the Latin participle raptus from the verb rapio. And Latin rapio and Greek are cognates they are the same word. Dont be fooled by the superficial differences between Latin rapio and Greek harpaz. The – on the end of is not part of the shared stem but a common Koine Greek verb ending. And the rough breather, the h, at the beginning, is not part of the shared stem either. The shared stem is simply raprap in Latin and – in Greek.

    The fact is, harpaz and rapio belong to a class of Greek and Latin cognates where Greek adds an h to the shared stem. Another example from this class is Greek and Latin sto. Here again, neither the h at the beginning nor the – verb ending are part of the shared stem. The stem is st in Greek and sto in Latin. And it is sta in English, from whence we get words like stand and standard.

    Watch my brief video treatment of the subject on .

    Eyes wide open, brain engaged, heart on fire.

    Lee W. Brainard

    Is There Any Relationship Between The Rapture Trumpet Of 1 Thessalonians : 17/1 Corinthians 1: 52 And The Trumpet Of Joel : 1 Or The Trumpet Of Matthew 2: 31 Or The Trumpet Of Revelation 1: 15 If So Does This Not Contradict A Pretribulational Rapture

    A careful study of the almost one hundred uses of trumpet/trumpets in the OT will quickly advise the student of Scripture not to equate the trumpets in any two texts hastily, without a great deal of corroborating contextual evidence. For example, there is the trumpet used for warning , the trumpet used for worship/praise , the trumpet used for victory , the trumpet used for recall , the trumpet used for rejoicing , the trumpet used for announcements , and the trumpet for dispersement , to name a few.

    After looking at the texts in question, it appears that each trumpet is used for a purpose that is unique and different from the other three. The trumpet of Joel 2:1 is a trumpet of warning that the Day of the Lord is near . The trumpet of 1 Thessalonians 4:17/1 Corinthians 15:52 is a trumpet which announces the approaching king so that people may go out to greet Him. The trumpet of Matthew 24:31 is a trumpet call to assembly . The trumpet of Revelation 11:15 is the seventh in a series of seven and is a trumpet that announces victory . There is no compelling reason to equate the rapture trumpet with any of these other three trumpets. Therefore, these texts cannot be used to determine the time of the rapture.

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    When Jeremiah Writes And It Is The Time Of Jacobs Distress But He Will Be Saved From It Is This Not The Same Kind Of Language Used In Revelation : 10 And Would Not Revelation : 10 Then Point To A Posttribulational Rapture

    The Septuagint translates the Hebrew text of Jeremiah with the verb and preposition combination sozo apo in regard to Israel. They will actually be saved through the judgment and emerge out of it as the people of God over whom Christ will reign as promised to David and prophesied by Ezekiel . Because sozo apo means protected in the midst of, this has no bearing on the meaning of a different verb and preposition used in Revelation 3:10 . See the earlier discussion on the actual verb/preposition combination in Revelation 3:10. Finally, there is no necessary equation of the outcome to Israel and Gods plan for the church.

    Where In The Bible Is The Rapture Mentioned

    Is the Rapture in the Bible?

    The word rapture is not in the Bible. For more detail on this, see PREWRATH > The Rapture. But the concept of the rapture is in many places. The most definitive description of the rapture is found in 1 Thess 4:15-18.

    1 Thess 4:15 According to the Lords own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words .

    But there are many more passages which describe the rapture.

    Matt 24:29 Immediately after the distress of those days ´the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 30 At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

    Also

    Also, in 2 Thessalonians 2

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    Why Invoking Doomsday Scenarios Can Be Harmful

    Invoking end-times biblical passages may actually bolster some peoples faith by giving meaning to events that seem cruel and arbitrary.

    But people who invoke the terrifying imagery of Revelation in connection with COVID-19 can do more than get scripture wrong. They can damage others psychological health, Beal says.

    I had one student who was reading Revelation outside on the waterfront and she fell asleep and woke up in the middle of a thunderstorm. She had an absolute panic attack because she felt like she was in the book, says Beal, a religion professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.

    Doomsday predictions from the Bible can also lead to another danger doing nothing, Beal says. He believes people who are seized with panic over something like COVID-19 may ignore other chronic issues threatening humanitys survival, such as climate change.

    It can lead to a call to inaction, Beal says about misinterpretations of Revelation. That is to say, people will say this is all happening because of Gods plan and its going to get worse before it gets better so theres nothing we can do about it because its Gods will.

    But that probably wont stop people from invoking Revelation when a pandemic hits. For centuries its been the go-to book for doomsday prophets warning about the spread of end-times plagues and bizarre weather patterns.

    The book of Revelation is not a book about predictions but a book of consolation, Lehner says.

    The Rapture Is Rendered Inconsequential If It Is Posttribulational

    First, if God miraculously preserves the church through the tribulation, why have a rapture? If it is to avoid the wrath of God at Armageddon, then why would God not continue to protect the saints on earth just as He protected Israel from the wrath He poured out on Pharaoh and Egypt. Further, if the purpose of the rapture is for living saints to avoid Armageddon, why also resurrect the saints who are already immune at the same time?

    Second, if the rapture will take place in connection with the Lords posttribulational coming, the subsequent separation of the sheep from the goats will be redundant. Separation will have taken place in the very act of translation.

    Third, if all tribulation believers are raptured and glorified just prior to the inauguration of the millennial Kingdom, who then will populate and propagate the Kingdom? The Scriptures indicate that the living unbelievers will be judged at the end of the tribulation and removed from the earth . Yet, they also teach that children will be born to believers during the millennium and that these children will be capable of sin . This will not be possible if all believers on earth have been glorified through a posttribulational rapture.

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    The Rapture Is Different From Christs Second Coming

    Revelation â Baptist Bible Graphics

    Will the Rapture occur at Christs Second Coming? The short answer is, Yes, but. The Rapture sets in motion the End-Time events leading to Christs Second Coming. The two stages, Rapture and Return, will be separated by a seven-year Tribulation on earth. The purpose of the Rapture is to spare Christs own from the horrors of the Tribulation according to Revelation 3:10.

    The prophets saw what appears to be the Tribulationthe time of Jacobs trouble not the Rapture. But that is not surprising they didnt differentiate clearly between the First and Second Advents of Christ. The prophets inquired and searched carefully , but they saw more of the big picture than the details. And they didnt see the Church at all, which is who the Rapture affects. The prophets saw the future like seeing successive mountain peaks through a telephoto lens. They saw the peaks , but not the distance that separates them.

    Three New Testament passages tell us about the Rapture: John 14:1-3 1 Corinthians 15:50-57 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Pauls words in 1 Thessalonians are the most complete and form the basis for this discussion.

    First, we must note that Paul gained his understanding of the Rapture via special revelation from Godhe called it a mystery in 1 Corinthians 15:51, meaning a truth not previously revealed. The revelation was by the word of the Lord .

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    The Epistles Contain No Preparatory Warnings Of An Impending Tribulation For Church

    Gods instructions to the church through the epistles contain a variety of warnings, but never do they warn believers to prepare for entering and enduring the tribulation of Daniels seventieth week.

    The Martyrs in Revelation 6:911 and 7:14

    If Revelation 3:10 means immunity or protection within as other positions insist, several contradictions result. First, if protection in Revelation 3:10 is limited to protection from Gods wrath only and not Satans wrath also, then Revelation 3:10 denies the Lords request in John 17:15.

    Second, if it is argued that Revelation 3:10 means total immunity, then of what worth is the promise in light of Revelation 6:911 and 7:14 where martyrs abound? The wholesale martyrdom of saints during the tribulation demands that the promise to the Philadelphian church be interpreted as keeping out of the hour of testing, not keeping within.

    Summary

  • Ek can mean emergence from within, or it can mean a continued state
  • Tereo en is used in Acts 12:5, 1 Peter 1:4, and Jude 21, and implies previous and continued existence within. Therefore tereo ek logically must be understood as continued existence
  • If the immunity of saints to wrath through the tribulation was intended to teach a posttribulational rapture, then John would have used tereo en, eis, or dia in Revelation 3:10.
  • Consistent with the previous observation, tereo ek meaning to keep within in John 17:15 would contradict 1 John 5:19 if, in fact, it implied previous existence
  • The Rapture Theory Is False Teaching The Bible Proves That Fact

    Advisory: Be careful of what you read on social media. The algorithms used by these platforms have no regard for Biblical truth. They target your emotions to keep you engaged on their site so their advertisers can drop more ads. These platforms exist to enrich their stockholders. Consider Gods promise to Believers in James 1:5, If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

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