If you have ever spoken to a Christian, especially a Protestant Baptist, you will have likely heard them reference the Rapture. The word rapture isn't in the King James Bible. In fact, that word would only be found in an early AD 400 edition of Jerome's Latin Vulgate. Though the word itself is not in the Bible, the teaching or doctrine of it is.
There are three main passages that teach the Rapture.
John 14:1-3- Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
In this passage, it's not exceptionally clear that Christ is referencing taking both the dead and the living. Some people read this as if Jesus was speaking of our eternal dwelling place in heaven after our soul departs from our body at death.
The concept of the rapture was a mystery until Paul. It is in his letters to the churches that we find the Scriptures that detail exactly what it is.
I Corinthians 15:50-57- Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 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. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
In this passage, Paul is telling us a mystery that has been revealed to him. There a few mysteries in the Bible that Paul has the privilege of sharing with the world. The mystery is that not all of us will die (sleep). When the Bible mentions "sleep" in reference to death it has to do with the soul's relationship with the body. If the soul is still in the body, or will once again be in the body, the person is considered asleep.
John 11:11-13- These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
Lazarus died, but Christ was going to call his soul back into his body and raise him from the dead. So, when Paul talks about someone being "asleep in the Lord" what he means is they are dead, but they won't stay that way forever. At some point in time their soul and their body will be brought back together.
In I Corinthians 15, Paul is saying that those that are dead will be raised. Their bodies will be brought forth out of the ground, all the atoms reassembled in a way that it will be the same body, but it will be an eternal, perfect, undying one. The people who are still alive won't die. Their atoms will be changed from mortal to immortal and they will raise in an eternal, perfect body.
I Thessalonians 4:13-18- But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 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. 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. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
This passage gives us more of the protocol of the rapture. There will be a shout from heaven, where Christ is at the right hand of God. It will be accompanied with the voice of the archangel (Michael- Jude 1:9) though we don't know what it is that he is saying. And the trump of God (the sound a trumpet makes). When God speaks it can sound like rushing might waters, loud thundering, or a trumpet blasting out a note.
Many people believe that God will say "Come up hither" because that is what He said to John in Revelation 4:1, and John describes that hearing this sounded like a trumpet speaking to him.
After the loud noise, the dead will be reanimated and raised from their burial spots, and the living will be taken up from wherever they may be at the time to come together as a great host in the atmosphere. There we will meet the Lord Jesus Christ in person and be escorted into the spiritual realm of the Lord God Almighty.
There are types, or pictures of this in the Old Testament, however no one understood what they were or what they meant at the time. Enoch was a human that was translated from the earth to live with God in heaven before God sent the flood of waters to destroy the earth in Noah's time. Lot was a Gentile living in a wicked city that was taken with his wife and two daughters out of the area before God rained fire and brimstone on the place to destroy it for the evil that was prevalent in it. Rahab was a Gentile who lived in Jericho that had gone against the orders of her people and saved the two Jewish spies lives; she and her family were safely taken out of Jericho before the Israelite army slaughtered the town.
Those are just a few in the first part of the Bible. I'm certain if you know any Bible stories that you could come up with more examples. But the important part is this- they were taken out before God's wrath fell. What does that mean? The rapture will happen before the Tribulation.
I Thessalonians 1:10- And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
I Thessalonians 5:9-10- For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
There are a few other verses scattered throughout the New Testament that allude to the rapture: Philippians 3:20-21, Colossians 3:4, II Timothy 4:8, Titus 2:13, Hebrews 9:28, I Peter 5:4, and I John 3:2.
What do all these verses have in common? They reference Christ's coming and that we will get a reward if we are looking for Him. If you are saved, you should not only be living like a Christian and working to tell others about the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, but you should also be anticipating and hoping for the time when He calls your name and takes you to live with Him for all eternity in Heaven.
