Tuesday Truths~By Kyle

Hi everybody! Starting this month I have decided to write more meaningful posts on Tuesday (Tuesday Truths) and Thursday (Thoughtful Thursday). Feel free to comment any other good names you may have for those days as well;0).

 What is the Rapture? When will It happen?

 

Ever since we watched a "Left Behind" movie on Sunday I have committed myself to study the end times prophesy found primarily in Daniel and Revelations; after all some suggest we could be rapidly approaching that cataclysmic period in history. First off though I wanted to study about the rapture. Our family has never really done a deep study on this, and I wanted to know what the bible says about it. The word "rapture" ironically though never appears in the bible, but there are several verses along with parables told by Jesus that support it.

 

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

 

1 Corinthians 15: 50-55

Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?"

 Mathew 24: 40-42 (the whole chapter is great)

"Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming."

Here is a verse on the tribulation period:

Luke 21: 20-26

"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people; and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

As you can see, if you believe the bible is true, you must believe in a rapture and the tribulation period.

There are three different views on when the rapture will accur in or before the tribulation; either the true believers will be raptured before the tribulation period, in the middle of the tribulation period before things get really bad, or after the tribulation period. I always believed that the former was true mostly because I greatly fear the tribulation period, but after reading an article online on the issue I am convinced that this belief that we will be raptured before the tribulation is biblical and correct. Here is the link to the article;

http://www.truthablaze.com/pretrib.html

Here are the points the writer makes;

The Church is not apointed to God's wrath

The doctrine of Imminence is only maintained with a pre-trib view

The restrainer must be removed before the antichrist can be revealed

We can look at past examples of God removing His people before judgement

The church meets the LORD in the air, not on the earth

I will not take the time to paste the verses that support or give my own take on these points, but I strongly suggest you read the article above. Once you read it it will be hard for you to make an argument otherwise (and why would you want to?).

So what? If this is true we do not have to worry about the tribulation period, Right?  Wrong! We should be very concerned! We should make sure we are God's children; that we believe we are all sinners that deserve death and hell, that there is nothing we can do on our own to get to heaven, but that we have a new life in Jesus' totally sacrificial death for us; and we should seek to follow Him and become more like Him. Then, if we believe in the tribulation and hell, we should be very anxious for our family members and friends who have not yet accepted Jesus. We should be driven to show them Jesus' free gift in his death so that they might be saved. Not only this, but Jesus commands we witness to others! So if you are one of my brothers or sisters in Christ I urge you to at the very least pray for unbelievers and work at witnessing... we all need to work at it because for some reason we find it scary. A great book to read on witnessing is the book I am currently reading, "Will Our Generation Speak", by Grace Mally.

If you have not accepted Jesus as your savior and lord yet I beg you to consider the consequences. Please contact me at Crossroadsranch@tds.net if you have any questions about salvation; I will do my best to answer them. Also, look into getting involved in a church that holds to God's word... you will be eternally glad you did.

Luke 21:36
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.