THE RAPTURE

Some years ago we received a book of compilations of Berean Searchlights from the editor, Cornelius R. Stam. Following is a brief summary of The Blessed Hope of the Rapture from that book:

 “The first and most significant reason why the apostle (Paul) designates this hope as “that blessed hope” is because “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven” to come for us (I Thes. 4:16). And best of all, this condescension is prompted by nothing less than His Love for us. This condescending love is the consummation of His infinite love and condescension in dying for our sins at Calvary. Yes, “Christ…loved the church, and gave Himself for it” that some day He might “present it to Himself” (Eph. 5:25-27).

“The order here (in I Thes. 4 and 5) would itself indicate that the rapture will precede the “day of the Lord.” And, indeed, it must precede it by some considerable length of time for, whereas not a single sign is given for the rapture, and believers throughout this dispensation have been exhorted to look for their Lord to come for them at any moment, the “day of the Lord” and His coming in judgment will be ushered in by spectacular signs in earth and heaven.

“Does not the fact that we shall be caught up into the atmosphere above us indicate that some great physical change will take place at our Lord’s coming for us? Will the law of gravitation be suspended? No, it is we who will be changed, and this too is part of “that blessed hope” (I Cor. 15:51). Thus it is that the apostle writes to the Philippians (Phil. 3:20,21):

“For our conversation (or, citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
“Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.”

We believe that the Rapture will be the culminating event of the “dispensation of the grace of God.”

Following the Rapture, Daniel predicts there will be a false peace treaty signed between Israel and her enemies. The signing of this peace treaty will begin the seven-year long Tribulation period.

The peace treaty will only last 3 1/2 years and then it will be broken by the antichrist. The remaining 3 ½ years is called The Great Tribulation and encompasses all the seal, trumpet and vial judgments. It will end in the Battle of Armageddon and the return to the earth of Jesus Christ to set up His millennial Kingdom.

The Tribulation is the time of the wrath of God. We will not go through the Tribulation because God says in I Thes. 5:9: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We do not look for God’s wrath but Titus 2:13 says: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” Keep looking up, He is coming soon!

Following are voices from the past from others that looked forward to “the blessed hope” of the Rapture of the Church:

“The expression, “caught up” is a new special revelation, “by the word of the Lord” in I Thes. 4:17. The members of the Body of Christ, “the church of God,” will be caught up “to meet the Lord in the air” before His coming in Judgment.

“This rapture is called in II Thes. 2:1 “our gathering together unto Him.” His coming “in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”(II Thes. 1:8), will be “when he shall have already come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all them that believe in that day” (v. 10).

“When he shall come” in this 10th verse is the Aorist tense, Subjunctive mood, and can mean only “When he shall have come,” thus proving that the coming of Christ to gather His saints to Himself takes place before His coming in judgment. Words are useless for the purpose of revelation if this be not the meaning of them here.

"How long we shall be with Him in the air before we come with Him to the earth, is not revealed; and therefore no one can know. It is the main object of Things to Come to make known this catching up of the Saints as the great and blessed hope of the Church of God."
Things to Come,  November, 1904

“This same Jesus…shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11)

"A glance at this prophecy will suffice to show that the event it speaks of is wholly different from the Coming of the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. It is the same Lord Jesus, truly, who is coming for His Church of this dispensation and coming to His earthly people gathered in Jerusalem in a dispensation to follow; but otherwise these “Comings” have absolutely nothing in common.

"The later manifestation - His return to the Mount of Olives - is an event as definitely localized as was His ascension from that same Mount of Olives; and its purpose is declared to be to bring deliverance to His people on earth in the hour of their supreme peril. The earlier Coming will have no relation to locality at all. All the wide world over, wherever His dead have been laid to rest, “the trump of God” shall call them back to life, in “spiritual bodies” like His own; and wherever living “saints” are found, they “will be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” and all shall be caught up together to meet Him in the air. And this event, which is the Church’s proper hope, is as independent of the chronology, as it is of the geography of the earth."
The Coming Prince,  Sir Robert Anderson  1876

We have always believed in the imminent rapture; that Christ could come at any time to catch us away unto Himself. As we watch events rapidly unfolding in the Middle East and see the pressures on Israel to sign a peace treaty, reminiscent of Daniel’s covenant (Dan. 9:27), we can’t resist the hope that our meeting with our Lord in the air is coming soon.