Prophecy Outline 7
The Rapture - What Is It?

What is the Rapture?

• If the Lord stopped the clock on Israel's 490 years to introduce the church, oughtn't we to expect that the clock will stay stopped as long as the church is on the earth?
• The Bible tells us that that is exactly what will happen - the Lord is going to end the Great Parenthesis of the church by removing the church from the earth - and then Israel can have her last 7 years
• This removal of the church is what we call "the rapture"
• Jn 14:1-3 - the promise of the rapture
• 1 Cor 15:50-58; 1 Th 4:13-18 - the description of the rapture

What Takes Place at the Rapture?

• 1 Th 4:13-18
• The Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God
• Those church believers who have already died will be raised
• The believers who are still alive will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air
• 1 Cor 15:35-58 - describes how we will be changed at the rapture
• 1 Jn 3:2f - we will be like Him for we will see Him as He is
• The future aspect of our salvation will be accomplished: sanctification (1 Th 5:23; 1 Pe 1:5); adoption (Rom 8:23; Eph 1:5); redemption of our bodies (Rom 8:23; Eph 1:14; 4:30); glorification (Php 3:21; 1 Cor 15); conformation (Rom 8:29; 1 Jn 3:2; Php 3:21)

The Importance of the Rapture

• 1 Cor 15:58 - encourages us to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord
• 1 Th 4:18 - comfort one another with these words - [parakaleo - encourage - we need that today]
• 1 Th 5:11 - encourage & edify
• Tit 2:12f - deny ungodliness and worldly desires and live sensibly, righteously and godly
• 1 Jn 3:3 - encourages holiness

The Main Point of the Rapture

• We can look forward to the rapture because we look forward to an end of suffering, sorrow and sin, but the main reason to long for the rapture is more important than any of these
• It's interesting that the Bible doesn't talk much about what place we'll go to when we're raptured. This is because our future is in a person, not a place. When the Bible speaks of our destination after the rapture it puts the emphasis not on the place but on the Person we'll be with.
• Being "with Christ" is the main point of the rapture - "that where I am there you may be also" (Jn 14:3); "that they may be with Me where I am" (Jn 17:24); "and so we shall be forever with the Lord" (1 Th 4:17); "our gathering together to Him" (2 Th 2:1)
• The main reason to look forward to the rapture is because we long to be with Him. This is the blessed hope of the Christian - Tit 2:13