When I was in college, I was all up into Nostradamus prophecies. One day, I picked up the book "Armageddon, Oil, and the Middle East Crisis" by John Walvord. It opened my eyes to Bible prophecy. For example, I did not know that every prophecy in the Bible has come true with 100% accuracy. The Bible is the only Holy Book that can predict the future with such precision. Also, I did not know that so much of the Old and New Testaments were devoted to specific prophecies about the future.
One prophecy I love is about Jesus. Isaiah 53 talks in great deail about the life of Jesus WAY before Jesus was born. It is such an accurate prophecy it will put your haris on end. How could it be? How could words written in a book come true so accurately? It could only happen because a supreme being outside of time penned His word through men.
While we can all agree at Christmastime that Jesus was a fulfillment of dozens of Bible prophecies, one prophetic doctrine has been causing significant controversy within the Christian community - the Pre-Trib Rapture. The Pre-trib rapture teaches that believers in Jesus Christ will be supernaturally transformed into spiritual beings and taken up to be with Jesus just before the Tribulation judgements of the Book of Revelation begin. So just what ARE the evidences for this belief? Let's take a brief look.
God's promises of the pre-trib rapture are many. Revelation 3:10 promises us that God will keep us from the Tribulation to come. In Titus 2:13, Paul refers to the pre-trib rapture as our "Blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Paul would not have said our "hope" is to go through the Tribulation -what kind of hope is that!). And in 1 Corinthians 15:52, God tells us that living believers will be "changed" and taken up in the Rapture.
But most notable is 1 Thessalonians 4:17: "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." Now if THIS isn't a description of what we know of as the Rapture today, I don't know what is. We who are ALIVE will be CAUGHT UP! So what should we do with the knowledge of the Rapture? The next verse sums it right up:
"Wherefore comfort one another with these words." We are to TALK about the Rapture and COMFORT ONE ANOTHER with the hope of the Rapture!!
So we know what the Bible says about the pre-trib Rapture. But has anyone ever actually been raptured before? Surprisingly, the answer is YES. In 2 Corinthians 12:2, Paul was raptured to receive visions. In Revelation 4:2, John was raptured to receive the vision of the end times. Enoch and Elijah were both raptured or "taken up." So as you can see, the Rapture is most certainly in the Bible.
Some say, "Ah no, we can't predict when Jesus will come back because He told us not to set dates, and that we wouldn't konw anyways."
Not so fast. Jesus told us we would not know "the day nor the hour." But then why did He give us signs in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21? Why would he spell it out for us if he didn't want us to know? Why did He give us so many "be on guard and watch" parables just after His prophecies of the end times? We are not to set dates, that's true. But Jesus gave us these signs to watch for so that we would realize what is happening and prepare ourselves spiritually for it.
In fact, Jesus commanded us to WATCH for the Rapture. After Jesus brings us through all the signs and prophecies of the end times in Mark 13:37, he ends the discourse with this command: "And what I say unto you I say unto all, WATCH."
So yes, the pre-trib Rapture doctrine IS Biblical. The Rapture IS in the Bible. Let's look forward to our Blessed Hope, because it's COMING SOON!!
One prophecy I love is about Jesus. Isaiah 53 talks in great deail about the life of Jesus WAY before Jesus was born. It is such an accurate prophecy it will put your haris on end. How could it be? How could words written in a book come true so accurately? It could only happen because a supreme being outside of time penned His word through men.
While we can all agree at Christmastime that Jesus was a fulfillment of dozens of Bible prophecies, one prophetic doctrine has been causing significant controversy within the Christian community - the Pre-Trib Rapture. The Pre-trib rapture teaches that believers in Jesus Christ will be supernaturally transformed into spiritual beings and taken up to be with Jesus just before the Tribulation judgements of the Book of Revelation begin. So just what ARE the evidences for this belief? Let's take a brief look.
God's promises of the pre-trib rapture are many. Revelation 3:10 promises us that God will keep us from the Tribulation to come. In Titus 2:13, Paul refers to the pre-trib rapture as our "Blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Paul would not have said our "hope" is to go through the Tribulation -what kind of hope is that!). And in 1 Corinthians 15:52, God tells us that living believers will be "changed" and taken up in the Rapture.
But most notable is 1 Thessalonians 4:17: "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." Now if THIS isn't a description of what we know of as the Rapture today, I don't know what is. We who are ALIVE will be CAUGHT UP! So what should we do with the knowledge of the Rapture? The next verse sums it right up:
"Wherefore comfort one another with these words." We are to TALK about the Rapture and COMFORT ONE ANOTHER with the hope of the Rapture!!
So we know what the Bible says about the pre-trib Rapture. But has anyone ever actually been raptured before? Surprisingly, the answer is YES. In 2 Corinthians 12:2, Paul was raptured to receive visions. In Revelation 4:2, John was raptured to receive the vision of the end times. Enoch and Elijah were both raptured or "taken up." So as you can see, the Rapture is most certainly in the Bible.
Some say, "Ah no, we can't predict when Jesus will come back because He told us not to set dates, and that we wouldn't konw anyways."
Not so fast. Jesus told us we would not know "the day nor the hour." But then why did He give us signs in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21? Why would he spell it out for us if he didn't want us to know? Why did He give us so many "be on guard and watch" parables just after His prophecies of the end times? We are not to set dates, that's true. But Jesus gave us these signs to watch for so that we would realize what is happening and prepare ourselves spiritually for it.
In fact, Jesus commanded us to WATCH for the Rapture. After Jesus brings us through all the signs and prophecies of the end times in Mark 13:37, he ends the discourse with this command: "And what I say unto you I say unto all, WATCH."
So yes, the pre-trib Rapture doctrine IS Biblical. The Rapture IS in the Bible. Let's look forward to our Blessed Hope, because it's COMING SOON!!