What does "Rapture" mean?
The teaching of the rapture is most clearly presented by Paul in the first books and Thessalonians and Corinthians:
"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." (1 Thes. 4:16-18).
Rapture critics like to claim that the word "rapture" is not located in the Bible. It may not be in the King James, but the word "rapture" is found in the Bible, if you have the Latin Vulgate produced by Jerome in the early 400s. The Vulgate was the main Bible of the medieval Western Church until the Reformation. It continues to this day as the primary Latin translation of the Roman Catholic Church. It was Protestants who introduced the word "rapture" into the English language from the Latin raeptius. It was Jerome's Vulgate that translated the original Greek verb harpazo used by Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in 1 Thes. 4:17, which is usually translated into English with the phrase "caught up." The leading Greek Lexicon says that harpazo means "snatch, seize, i.e., take suddenly and vehemently." This is the same meaning of the Latin word rapio "to seize, snatch, tear away." It should not be surprising to anyone, that an English word was developed from the Latin which we use today known as "rapture." (1)
To Summarize:
Ok, well that means that my understanding was correct (and explains why I couldn't seem to find "rapture" in my bible.) The Rapture is the time when Jesus will come like a thief in the night, and all the Christian dead will rise and be caught up, along with all the Christian living in a blink of any eye. This does not mean zombies, for all of you with weird imaginations. The corrupt bodies of the dead will become incorruptible, and ours as well. All will become immortal. When you think of Jesus, having been resurrected from the dead, do you see Him as a zombie- No, you don't. Same concept here.
“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” (1 Cor. 15:51-53).
That leads me to my next question though: If the dead will be caught up with the living, what does that mean? Does that mean that the dead were just "waiting somewhere?" and where was that "somewhere," if they were? If they weren't waiting somewhere, why do they need their bodies? Even if they are to become incorruptible bodies, as Jesus' is? Is it because of the 1000 years that Jesus will reign on Earth, before we all spend Eternity in Heaven? And what is the reason for the 1000 years on Earth? Is there one- I'm sure that there is, because God has a reason for everything He does. So.....Answers to come in my next post, if the answers are to be found. Blessings to you all.
--Lord, I thank you for your providence in giving me the anwswers I sought to my questions. I ask that you give me wisdom and discernment to find the answers that You have provided, if we will but seek them with a pure and willing heart. I pray blessings upon those that read my words, and that You will be glorified in all. I pray these things in Jesus' Holy Name, Amen.
Sources:
(1) www.raptureready.com ABC's of Prophecy
I'll always do my best to understand the rapture and the book of Revelation, but one thing I've learned is that we don't always have to understand all the details. The thing that really matters is the hope we find in the return of Christ.
ReplyDeleteWe always approach this subject in a future perspective. There is no group anything in our walk with the Lord. As Jesus answered Martha in John 11:25-26 I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die...
ReplyDeleteAs concerning the dead in Christ, they were raised already when Jesus broke the 5th seal.
The first seal was our instinct to conquer everything that offends or discourages us. If a mouse runs across the floor, the first reaction is to conquer it. We do not give thought to the mouse or why it exists or why it was even running across the floor in the first place.
This carries over to much bigger and more important things. If we are a part of a group or country and another group or country offends or challenges us, our first thought is to conquer them. We consider this to be our best defense against all the things that we do not like or want. The world or Satan teaches us that we must conquer everything; our fears, our emotions, our enemies, our sins, and even our fear of God.
The truth is nothing can be conquered by us. You may force it to move or bow to your will but it will always come back around again. The only way to truly be free of all the things that are against us is through Jesus Christ. He can conquer anything and we can conquer nothing.
The second seal on this book stems from the first one. It is our ability to take peace from the earth and to kill one another. Nowadays this is done on a massive scale but it begins in us as individuals. I do not know anyone who would not kill if given the right circumstance such as someone threatening your family, your life or just your comfort. You can never read this book while this is so.
The third seal is that all of the gifts of God now have a price. The food He gave us, the earth He gave us, and the time He gave us. If we desire something and we don’t have the money to get it, we are disappointed. When or if we receive that same amount of money then we are overjoyed or happy. This leads us to begin loving money. The love of money is the root of all the evil in the world. The lack of money that we “need” or want also leads us back to the first two seals.
The fourth seal on the book is our inevitable death. Statistically speaking, one out of every one dies. We desperately try to get as many of our lusts as we can in our limited time. To add to this, approximately one fourth of the people do not make it to the natural end of their lives. This is due to disease, accidents, hunger, thirst, war, wild beasts and so on. This causes us to fear. That fear causes us to do things that are displeasing to God.
The fifth seal on the book is that, throughout history, the ones that show forth praises to God and keep His commandments have been treated poorly. They have been mocked, ridiculed, locked up, cast out, and killed for their beliefs. Because of fear of this, people do not want to know the things of God.
The sixth seal was the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because of their wickedness, man is very fearful of this. All men have sinned and do sin, so the coming of Jesus was not good news to them. Jesus is not only the forgiver and rewarder of those that love him; he is also the judge and punisher of those who do not.
The seventh seal is that, because of our sins, we fear what is going to happen next…
This book remained unopened since the beginning of time. No one in heaven or earth could get past these seals. This caused great grief to all those who wished to know all the wonderful things of God.
Jesus got past all the seals and was found by God to be worthy to open the book. He was now able to know everything about all the wondrous things in the kingdom of God. Because of this, we are now able to look into these wondrous things through him. If we love God and keep His commandments we are able to know all the deep things of God.
Witness, it does not seem as though we believe the same things. We may both believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and Savior of all mankind, but I do not believe that there is no Rapture to come I will not debate the subject, because one, I'm not learned enough to do so, but two, I have been reminded recently that the bible tells us we are not to debate. I take the Bible to be His Holy Word in the literal sense, not interpretive. God's blessings to you.
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