Rapture Characteristics

Many movies and short films have been made on the rapture of the church, which have had enormous influence on peoples' imagination on how this future Biblical event would happen. Unfortunately, almost none of these movies and films give a presentation of the rapture that accords with Biblical information. According to the Bible, there the atmosphere wil be filled with sounds - a command, the voice of an archangel, the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ will rise from their graves. The living believers will be changed. Together they will be taken up into the clouds. There they will meet the Lord. They will be with Him forever and ever. Only one of these events is said to happen in the twinkling of an eye, the change of believers to immortality. But in almost all films, all items of the rapture happen in a moment, making it an instant disappearance. Here we dive into the aspects of the Rapture that the Bible mentions.

"I will come again and take you to myself." (John 14:3)

Millions of people worldwide will have disappeared without a trace. Impressive sounds were heard in the sky, and there are thousands of eyewitness accounts of large groups of people flying through the air like flocks of birds. What happened?

The word "Harpazo" in the Greek source text of the New Testament is translated into Latin as "Rapturo," from which the English word "Rapture" is derived. In Dutch, this is often translated as "Rapture." The word means: 'to suddenly snatch away'. In case of the church, it means: taken up to heaven. Jesus gave this promise directly to his disciples on the night he was betrayed, and this promise was later repeated in detail through the apostle Paul.

Many books and films about the rapture have created the impression that it all will happen in a fraction of a second. But the Bible says otherwise. Several stages can be distinguished.

First, various sounds can be heard from heaven. The first and most important passage in the Bible about the rapture is 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17. It starts as follows:

'For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God...'

 

The second thing that happens at the rapture is that all deceased believers are raised from their graves. The text continues with:

'...and the dead in Christ shall rise first...'

This event can also be read in a second passage of the Bible that concerns the moment of the rapture, namely 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52:

“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

 

The third thing that happens at the rapture is that living believers are changed. This happens in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. It is not mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4 but 1 Corinthians 15:51 states: “We will all be changed, at the last trumpet, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…” The “twinkling of an eye” refers to an element of the rapture, namely the change of living believers. This happens with lightning speed.

 

The fourth event of the rapture is the rapture itself, in which all believers, the changed believers and the resurrected believers, meet the Lord in the air and ascend to heaven together with the Lord. From that moment on, they will always be with the Lord. A third text indicates that the rapture goes heavenward and not back to earth. This text comes from the intimate conversation in the upper room between Jesus and his disciples, just before Jesus’ suffering. In John 14:1-4, Jesus says to his disciples: “Do not be anxious, but trust in God and in me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, would I have told you, ‘I am going to prepare a place for you?’ If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again.” Then I will take you with me, and you will be where I am.”

This biblical text refers to the Jewish wedding, in which the groom, after paying the dowry, first prepared a dwelling for himself and his bride, then fetched her (at a time unknown to her) and ushered her into his newly built home during the wedding. The notion that the church would return to earth with the Lord immediately after the rapture contradicts biblical data. The believers disappear with Jesus into heaven. It is a rapture into heaven. Afterward, a period of great calamity begins on earth. This period is called "the great tribulation," or "the hour of temptation".

 

Today, the doctrine of the rapture of all Christians just before the onset of the most difficult period in earth's history is fiercely contradicted and ridiculed. Just search for "rapture before or after the tribulation." However, the totality of all biblical data allows only one conclusion: Only after the Christians have been evacuated from the earth does darkness descend. The following texts underscore this view:

 

(1) Revelation 3:10: “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth."

Jesus is speaking here to the church in Philadelphia, a church that will exist just before his coming. It's important to note that the Jesus doesn't say that He will "keep from temptation," but rather that He will "keep from the hour of temptation upon the whole world." John always refers to a specific period in history by "the hour," here a period of temptation for the entire world. This period of worldwide temptation will only begin after the rapture of the church. It is the period that is described from Revelation 6 until Revelation 19. The church is kept from it.

 

(2) 2 Thessalonians 2:3-7: “Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the departure comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself to be God. Don't you remember that I told you these things while I was still with you? And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only now someone is restraining him until he is taken out of the way.”

Loosely translated, this reads: “The period in which the Lord Jesus will lay his claim on the earth and judge the world will only come after his believers have departed. Those judgments will only come when the world has completely fallen to the lawless one.” And that lawless one can only come when the Holy Spirit, who restrains him, is taken away, with the rapture of the church. For the Holy Spirit dwells in the church.