The word rapture is in the bible, even while many people state that it isn't. The central text on the rapture of the church is in one of the first epistles, written by the apostle Paul, the letter to the Thessalonians. It is this text:

^'For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ' (1 Thess.4:16,17)

The word used for 'caught up' in Greek is 'Harpazo',  which translated in Latin is 'Rapturo'. That is where the word 'Rapture' comes from. It comes directly out of 1 Thessalonians 4:17. The meaning of the word is 'to seize, carry off by force'. Theologians that could not fit in the information on the rapture in their theological framework have either completely ignored the text or they have tried to explain it away. The text is however so very clear and straightforward that each attempt to explain it away ends in a total failure.

What has been tried is that the metaphorical language of chapter 5, like 'a thief in the night' (5:2) and 'labor pains of a pregnant woman' (5:3) and 'getting drunk' (5:7) and  'a breastplate' (5:8) should be applied to chapter 4 also. However, no metaphoric language is used in chapter 4. So these theologians force their own metamorphic language on chapter 4, making it a city that goes out, to meet the victorious king, coming back from battle and with that, they transform the rapture into a post tribulation event, the church going up to Jesus after the tribulation. The problem is that at his return, Jesus does not return from a war but He is approaching a war, the world not being a jubilant city but a raging army, opposing the return of Jesus to the teeth. In no way does the rapture fit in the account of the future return of Jesus, either in the Olive discourse or in the Apocalyps.

What is more important. Why is any sort of analogy completely absent from the texts upon the rapture of the church? Why is the rapture described in plain and simple words and sentences, not comparing it with anything else? Why does the Spirit of God present the rapture on its own face value: the Christians living at the moment of Christ's return for them, being taken by a sudden act of force from the earth to be placed in the clouds where they are to meet the Lord? This might be difficult to believe. But it is not difficult to understand what the text actually implies. It might not match the theoretical framework of many a minister, pastor or priest but is fits exactly into the rest of Scripture as we will show.