I started writing my response to “Will I Be Taken in the Rapture” and did not intend to insert these scripture references but when I began to read I realized that nothing I could say would ever give a better description of exactly what the Rapture of the Church actually is. Now the Bible does not call this event the Rapture but this term was loosely coined by Miss Margaret Mac Donald in Scotland in 1830 in a vision she had of the coming of the Lord.

John Nelson Darby a curate during the early 1800’s also had a hand in bring about the currently known term “Rapture”. After a bit of searching for information about Darby, I felt that the Wikipedia discussion was as good as any and did not seem to be as slanted as some other discussions that appeared to be more of an attack on Darby, or the Rapture topic.

My position is that believers who are filled with the Holy Spirit and have prepared themselves by pursuing a holy life will be taken in the Rapture of the Church. When I was younger I spent a lot of time in fear of missing the Rapture because I did not understand what it really meant and the motivation behind the rapture. I Thessalonians 4: 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words. These words appear at the end of the discussion of the Rapture. I never understood why we should use these words for comfort when to me they instilled fear. Today I have a different perspective as I have years of experience in Christian living behind me and now understand that this promise is actually meant to be the great hope of the church (believers) living at the end of the age. We are not to seek to be ready for the Rapture. We must seek the Lord with our whole hearts. When we do this we will not need to worry about missing this great event in the church age.

Will Our Clothes Go With Us in the Rapture?

No, our bodies will be changed to a spiritual body and we will be given white robes to wear.

The Coming of the Lord

I Thessalonians 4
13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For 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. 17 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.
18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.

I Corinthians 15

The Resurrection Body
35 But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

Many believers are thrilled and excited at the prospect of the Rapture. For us, we consider this to be the most wonderful and exciting thing that could ever happen to us! Please do not believe that we do not treasure the moment or our lives we now live. We do. The same Bible that teaches us about the great catching away also advises us to occupy until the Lord's return. This means that as a people we should live every day as if He is coming today, but work like we do not know when He is coming. In fact, we do not know when the Lord will come and if anyone states they do know when the Lord is coming they are not telling the truth! No one knows the day or the hour when the Lord will return to earth! No one!

Revelations 20 gives a bit more information about what will happen during the final years and days before the end of the age.

Disclaimer

My first attempts at publishing this piece came back with information that much of my work appears at other sites on the internet. Well, I feel that it is important enough to show the exact wording of the scripture verses that I have chosen to leave these verses in the text.

Image Credits

Google Images, Creative Commons