photo credit: John Henry Mostyn
The Rapture Day!
As the last note of the trumpet is played we will be changed!
1Co 15:51-52, 1Th 4:15-17
By Craig C. White
Definitions are from Strong’s Hebrew and Greek dictionaries.
The Rapture is a term used to describe the bodily resurrection and taking away into heaven of Church age believers. What hope do we have that we will be resurrected? Because Jesus rose bodily from the grave we have confidence that one day we will rise likewise! That is incredible news. But wait, it gets even better! Not every person who lives will die! Christians who are alive at the time of Jesus’ return will not suffer death but will be instantly transformed into a perfect undying body then taken up into heaven. That event is called the Rapture!
1Co 15:51-52 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 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.
In the Rapture we shall be changed in an instant, but not without warning. We will all enjoy a long trumpet call before we are changed, kind of like waking up with a bugle call at boot camp. The whole world will hear the noise and take notice. The bugle call will continue while an astonishing event occurs. Millions of dead people will stand up out of their graves; alive! Wow, that will certainly get a lot of attention. The Rapture will not be a quiet affair. Our bodies won’t be changed until the trumpet call is finished so please don’t worry if you are driving. You will have plenty of time to pull over. The second part of the verse above puts the Rapture in chronological order. 1) We will all hear a long loud trumpet call. 2) As the trumpet plays, the dead will rise (these are people you know, and folks who have trusted Jesus since his resurrection). 3) As the last note of the trumpet is played we will be changed!
There is even more said about the Rapture in 1 Thessalonians. We will not be caught up with Jesus in the air until the dead are raised alive. In the verse below “prevent” means to come beforehand. So the living will not meet Jesus until the dead are raised. All church age believers must be present and accounted for before we are taken up together in the Rapture.
1Th 4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
The Rapture continues in the verse below. Jesus will come down into the sky. Michael the Archangel will yell for all believers to prepare themselves. At the same time there will also be the long trumpet call. The trumpet call will be the announcement that it is time for the church to meet Jesus in the air! The dead in Christ will rise out of the grave first; then we will all meet Jesus together.
1Th 4:16 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:
During the Rapture, people who were previously dead, will be together with people who have never been dead (I hope that is me). they will all be taken up into the air to meet Jesus. Now that is a church bus!
1Th 4:17 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.
The words caught up in the verse above is the Greek word harpazo (har-pad’-zo). Harpazo means to seize, or catch (away, up), pluck, pull, take (by force). Harpazo is the word that we get our English word rapture from. As you can see from the definition of Harpazo it means to be taken by force. So we won’t be floating weightlessly into the sky while defying gravity. We will be lifted by some strong force. May I suggest that we will be taken to heaven the same way that every other person in a human body has been taken? In storm cloud, and cyclone, and chariots of fire!!!
2Ki 2:11 And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Here is what an eyewitness had to say about the rapture of the prophet Elijah!
2Ki 2:12 And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.
In the Rapture we will be changed instantly, but not at first. We will be taken, but not until all have been raised. We will be taken by force, and not without fanfare. The rapture is an event that will take some time and gain the world’s attention.
Lord, bring peace to Jerusalem; and even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen.
High Time to Awake 
And which group of people, specifically, will be the ones who are caught up in the air to meet Jesus? Jesus plainly tells us:
Mark 13:14 KJV
14 But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:
15 And let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein, to take any thing out of his house:
16 And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment.
17 But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
18 And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter.
19 For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.
So the tribulation starts with the antichrist standing (probably on the temple mount) Where he ought not. In prior iterations they defiled the temple, so its likely it will be on the temple mount, or inside a third temple if one is built.
Mark 13 KJV
24 But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,
25 And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.
26 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
27 And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.
28 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near:
29 So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors.
30 Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.
Let’s break it down-
-After the tribulation of those days.
-The sun and moon will stop shining!
-The heavens fold up, and the stars fall to earth. (likely the host of heaven -angels, good and bad?) in the same way figs fall from a tree, straight down.
-When (If) you see these things (the sun stops shining, and the host of heaven falls to the earth) -this- generation shall not pass, they will see the son of man coming.
I can also make the argument, that on the Day of the Lord, when the heavens and earth pass away, that our bodies will (pass away) too. We will be in need of our new bodies, because we will be standing in the spirit, without a physical body. How could our physical bodies remain, when every other physical thing in the universe just disappeared?
2 Peter 3:10
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
On the Day of the Lord, the heavens and the earth shall pass away.
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I think that Mark 13:27 describes the gathering of the Jews back to the land of Israel. I don’t think that the Rapture is described here.
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