The Reason for the Rapture

For some reason there are lots of people who call themselves Christians yet are angry at and critical of any other Christians who believe 1 Thessalonians 4.  This is the passage that speaks of Christ coming for all believers and snatching them, with force, off this hell-bent planet.

It may be because of the great apostasy that Jesus warned us about?  Maybe some of these angry folks aren't followers of Christ at all?  Maybe they are the scoffers that 2 Peter warns us to watch for?

I must admit that it is a fantastic thing to think about!!  A loud trumpet coming from the sky. The graves break open and the dead believers get their new ETERNAL bodies first and then those of us who are left and alive, get our MORTAL bodies transformed into IMMORTAL bodies in the twinkling of an eye.  Fantastic!!

If God can create the world and all the life upon it, then destroy most of it with a flood, He can certainly do something so fantastic as to give us similar bodies to what Christ has right now.  He IS the example of what kind of bodies we will all get at the rapture.

Each day brings us closer to the day of resurrection … the rapture of the Church. Certainly, there is nothing new about this, except for the accumulation of critical indicators. Mystery Babylon is poised to rise again, national Israel becomes daily more resolute and the Middle East is positioning itself along the lines of biblical prophecy. Russia and Iran (old Persia) are at the forefront of agitation. Most especially, the world is increasingly characterized by raging apostasy. Our reason for excitement is much greater than in past generations. 

Since the days of the Apostles, Christians have watched for the return of the Lord with great expectancy. Paul even wrote to the Thessalonians, warning them against misguided agitators, who were spreading false information that God’s judgment (the Tribulation) had already begun! Essentially, these foolish “authorities” were throwing cold water on the greatest hope given to the Church. 

And this was around AD 51! It would be well over ten years before Paul finished and circulated his complete teaching about the life and destiny of the Body of Christ, the Church. We should never forget that from the very beginning of the Church Age, believers have been frustrated, confused and puzzled about the order of prophetic events. 

It is the business of Satan and his minions to sow the seeds of confusion. Furthermore, there are many “church authorities,” who present themselves as eschatological experts, and are quite bombastic about naming particular dates or windows of time for the rapture. 

In the past, the subject of the rapture has waned almost to the level of being forgotten for a little while. Then, for a variety of reasons, interest in it rises again. Occasionally, it escalates to the point that it becomes a vital issue, with accompanying emotion and vitriolic disagreement. At each peak, several competing camps weigh in upon the matter, bombarding each other with proof texts and theoretical challenges. 

We seem to have reached such a peak again, when many have established prophetic proofs, measured by a number of standards, which we shall discuss later in this article. 

Something we often recall is the year 1988, when a variety of “proofs” were published. This was the year that brought us the ubiquitous little white booklet (3.2 million copies), with its distinctive red-letter title, offering “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988.” 

This particular year also happened to be a year of great excitement among Christians. About two decades before, in 1967, Israel had won a war that allowed them to reclaim the Temple Mount, if only briefly. Then, in 1973, fighting against astronomical odds, Israel had won the “Yom Kippur” war. To prophetic observers, it seemed that Israel was favored by the Lord, and poised to take charge and reclaim the land grant that God promised Abraham. The mechanism of this process is clearly described by the Old Testament prophets. 

In 1988, excitement rose to fever pitch. It had been forty years since Israel’s statehood in 1948 – forty years, the number of testing! Many of the faithful expected the Lord’s return in that year … soon! 

Why is there such disagreement upon a subject that seems so clearly laid out? Paul writes, “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Th. 5:9). The “salvation” mentioned here is not the initial receiving of Christ by the believer, but the act of being removed from the earth before the Tribulation. Still, there is a great misunderstanding of the rapture. And His wrath begins with the opening of the first seal. 

Add to these the unprecedented famines and plagues that wrack the entire globe, and you have some idea of the Day of the Lord. The Church will be taken out of the way precisely because it is the Spirit-filled body of Christ, and must be removed in order that the program of God can proceed as prophesied. That program will establish Israel – not the Church – as head of the nations. And that is the clear and unequivocal reason for the rapture! 

Read entire article here;  https://prophecywatchers.com/the-reason-for-the-rapture/

As we look around at the stupidity unfolding around us, the lies, the filth, the perversion, the scoffing and godlessness, it gets very exciting to think about a loud trumpet blowing today, tomorrow, next week, next month or next year and Jesus coming to claim us and take us to the place He has been these past 2000 years...just as He promised!

John 14
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

The words from a hymn have run through my mind quite a bit these past 10+ years we have been blogging.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.