Today, Monday December 20
What Happens at the Rapture
1 Thessalonians 4:13-15 “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.”
I want to continue to give an overview of the end time events before we continue studying through the Book of Revelation chapter by chapter. Again, I must repeat that I am giving my opinions and my conclusions concerning these events of the end time. I have come to these conclusions after fifty years of studying the entire Bible and especially the passages that deal with prophesy.
I also want to acknowledge, that there is no doubt, that I have been heavily influence by the books I’ve read on these subjects and also by several men who played a large part in my Bible education. I would still highly recommend them and anything they have written on end time events. They are Dr. Elmer Towns, Dr. Ed Hindson, and Dr. Harold Willmington. And of course my dad, J.O. Grooms!
For the next several days we will be looking specifically at what takes place at the rapture and some of the details involved during this time and also the sequence of events after that. We will also discuss what happens when a believer in Jesus passes away. The two passages we will be using for this part of our study will be 2 Corinthians 15: and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 which give us the clearest details of what takes place when Jesus Christ comes back for His body, the Church.
What makes up His Church? The Church we are talking about is every believer, since the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has personally trusted Jesus Christ by faith, repenting of their sins and have been born again! The moment a person trust and believes in Christ this way, they are baptized into the Body of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. This is what many call the universal church or the invisible church. It is manifest as the local church.
Paul makes it clear in these passages that we don’t need to be ignorant about what happens to those who have died in Christ. Paul uses the word “sleep” to identify these individuals. He didn’t like to say they died probably because he remembered that Jesus said in John 11:26, “Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” A true believer does not die, they just change places when they draw their last breath on earth. “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord…” (2 Corinthians 5:8).
When Jesus comes back in the air, He will bring back all those who have died in Christ with Him. Paul assures us that he receive this revelation about this event from the Lord Himself. He basically is saying, “I’m not making this up just to make you feel good about your loved ones who have passed, but what I am writing to you came directed from the Lord.” When the Lord gave this to Paul we don’t know for sure, but very possible it might have been during those three silent years when Paul went to Arabia (Galatians 1:15-8).
Over the next few days we will be going into more detail about this and we trust it will help prepare your heart and mind for our study through Revelation!
God bless!