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
