EVENT: THE LORD’S COMING IN THE AIR

The Dispensation of Grace will be brought to a sudden end by the Lord’s coming in the air, the Rapture. The word “rapture” is the English form of a Latin word in the Latin Vulgate (translation from Greek into Latin about 400 A.D.). The Greek word means lift up, catch up, catch away, pluck up, or pull up. In the English it is translated “caught up.”

“For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 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.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16,17)

“Behold, I show you a mystery (”a sacred secret”); We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:51-55)

WHO will be caught up? All from this Dispensation of Grace who have depended on the Lord for salvation. Like a magnet, He will pick up all who have believed on Him. In the twinkling of an eye, every believer will be bodily transported upward to meet the Lord in the air.

While awaiting our departure upward, we are ambassadors and soldiers in the opportunity of holding forth the message of the Gospel of Grace (2 Corinthians 5:20; Ephesians 6:10-18). Also meantime, the Lord is working in believers with a purpose to transform us to be like Christ (Romans 12:1,2). At the instant of the Rapture, that work will be miraculously completed (Romans 8:29; Philippians 1:6). The old sinful nature will be left behind, never to be a grief to us again.

That departure is the next event in God’s program. It may be at any moment, for there are no prophecies to be fulfilled before that event. No “signs” are to be looked for; instead, we serve, wait, look, and long for the Lord Himself (Philippians 3:20,21; 1 Thessalonians 1:9,10). We are “looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

Some think of the “Lord’s coming” as a reference to the death of the believer. But at the Lord’s return, the bodies of believers will come OUT of the graves. O death, where is thy sting? - for living believers will be translated, escaping death, cheating death of its sting. O grave, where is thy victory? - for the bodies of believers who have died will escape from the graves, cheating the grave.

As the looking for the Lord fills our hearts with delightful anticipation and expectation now, how much more will the reality bring inexpressible and unending joy!

Always note the sharp contrast in references to the Lord’s coming for believers with the references to His return to set up His earthly Kingdom. Another contrast is that the rewards to be given after the Rapture concern work done, whereas salvation and being caught up are by Grace only, no works are involved.

December 30th, 2001 at 7:29 pm in Philosophy and Religion

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