I heard that the Rapture is coming soon:
I'm scared of being left behind. How can I prepare for the rapture? Can I still be saved if I don't make it? What will happen if I am left behind?
How do I not fear the Rapture? Well, not so much as being scared of the Rapture itself, but being left behind. Some say it will be worse than the days of Gomorrah.
First and most importantly, to be raptured you just have to be saved, just have faith in what Jesus did for you. After that, the timing of it is irrelevant, if you die before it happens, you'll still be raptured, in fact you'll rise first, ahead of those who are still alive. (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
After that, you can prepare as best you can, read the bible, pray, try to win souls, go to church, praise the Lord, and avoid sin as much as humanly possible and try to walk in the spirit as much as you can which is no different than if you knew for sure the rapture wouldn't take place in your lifetime.
You can have different eschatalogical views, some people believe pre trib and believe the entire daniel's 70th week to be a 7 year period of tribulation, others believe in that same 7 year tribulation period and believe rapture is at the end..
myself I'm what is known as pre wrath rapture, which is to make a distinction between the tribulations (caused by men and the antichrist) and the wrath of God (the 7 vials and 7 trumpets of divine wrath poured on the earth caused by God), which means that the rapture takes place after the tribulations (Matthew 24:29), but before the wrath of God (1 Thessalonians 5:9). Which lines up with the events of Revelation 6:12, and also makes sense in that Revelation 7 there are suddenly a great multitude of people appearing in Heaven that weren't there before, which precedes the releasing of the 7th seal and the 7 trumpets and 7 vials judgements.. Some pretrib (and even a post trib I've talked to) like to point out the "thief in the night" verses to try and disclaim any rapture where you'd have signs of it coming, because you'd have years of tribulation and the abomination of desolation (the Antichrist setting up in the 3rd temple) to warn you so for people who have read the bible and know the signs to watch for, they'll anticipate the rapture, instead of it coming as a thief in the night.
But to defend that, I give you Luke 21:25-29 which tells you there will be signs and you should look for them to anticipate your redemption, and Paul tells us to NOT be taken by surprise when it happens (1 Thessalonians 5:4-6)
So for the world, some bad things will be going on, 1 world government being set up, cashless economy being set up, a bunch of religious persecution and even executions.. then suddenly Jesus in the clouds and believers dead and alive being caught up into the sky. So for the nonbelieving world, it'll seem really sudden and out of nowhere.
But for those watching and waiting.. we'll know, 1 world government, 1/4 of the world's people dying from war and disease and famine, cashless economy, severe religious persecution against Christianity.. we'll know then, Jesus is on His way back.
That said, it's my current position on timing of the rapture, but you should always be willing to change your rapture position in mid air.
