What is the Rapture?
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
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.The word rapture comes from the words caught up in Verse 17. The words caught up are translated from the Greek word harpazo, which means "to carry off," "snatch up," or "grasp hastily." The translation from harpazo to rapture involved two steps: first, harpazo became the Latin word raptus; second, raptus became the English word rapture. The rapture is when Jesus comes back to earth and gathers His elect, dead first then those alive. The elect are the true believers that have asked Him to enter their lives and have followed His commands.
And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. Mark 13:26-27
Many churches today teach that Christ will return and gather His elect secretly. It is depicted in movies such as the "Left Behind" series that Christ will rapture His believers secretly and leave behind chaos such as pilotless planes and crashing cars with no drivers. Families with loved ones who suddenly disappear and no body knows what happened. Is this how the Bible says it will be? Jesus said that when He returns all the tribes of the earth will see him and then His elect shall be gathered. Paul says Jesus will return with a shout. Does this sound secret?
There are many beliefs about the timing of the rapture. The most common are the Pre-trib and Post-trib.
Pre-trib is the one being taught by many of todays
churches and
evangelists. The secret rapture where God's elect will not have to
endure the hardship of the tribulation. They will be raptured before
any of the tribulation begins. Then they will live and reign with
Christ in heaven during the final seven years while the people on earth are
left to suffer God's wrath. After seven years Christ will return with
His elect and destroy the antichrist and all those that took the mark,
then Christ will set up His kingdom and reign, with His elect,
over all those that repented or did not take the mark during the tribulation. They believe the tribulation is God's wrath.
Post-trib is the one where God's elect will endure the hardship of the tribulation. Through strength and faith in our Lord Jesus they will overcome the hardship. They will be trialed and tested by Satan and persecuted for their faith. They will not be able to hold a job, pay bills, or make purchases unless they take the mark of the antichrist. If they take the mark, Jesus will destroy them at His second coming. At the time of the end Jesus will come back and gather His elect from the earth, destroy the antichrist with the wrath of God and set up His kingdom. They believe the tribulation is Satan's wrath and God has a separate wrath at the last day.
Which of these does the Bible actually teach? While the Pre-trib version sounds nice, like a fairytale, does it really line up with Biblical history or is it a fable? Does it follow what the prophets, the disciples or even Jesus taught? Here are a few debates between the two beliefs:
These pre-trib topics are from raptureready.com. Within each topic is a post-trib answer in blue. Click on them to view the pre vs post debate.
