When Will the Rapture take Place?

ETERNITY


Jesus is coming soon!
I sense in my spirit that it is time to teach this like never before. In these teachings on ETERNITY I want to substantiate your faith with abundant scripture. By the way, I know that I have been giving you a heavy dose of spiritual revelation in this series. Just stay with me and we will get back to practical, motivational Christianity later.

SOME QUESTIONS YOU MUST ANSWER
Do you accept the infallibility of the Bible?
Do you take the Bible literally?
Did God mean what He said about the catching away of the Church, or is there some hidden meaning?
We must understand the importance of the rapture and we need to be able to provide scripture for the basis of our faith in the Second Coming of Christ.
How do we get faith? So then, Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Romans 10: 17.

HOW ARE THE PROPHECIES OF SCRIPTURE TO BE INTERPRETED?

20 [Yet] first [you must] understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is [a matter] of any personal or private or special interpretation (loosening, solving). 21 For no prophecy ever originated because some man willed it [to do so--it never came by human impulse], but men spoke from God who were borne along (moved and impelled) by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1: 20-21 Amplified Bible

3 things we must understand:
1. Prophecy supports prophecy
2. Prophecy is confirmed by other prophecy
3. God meant what He said

IS THE EVENT OF THE RAPTURE BIBLICAL?
Let's look at 3 events which depicts the rapture as God's way of operating

#1 Enoch was translated without seeing death. Genesis 5: 21-24

21 When Enoch was 65 years old, Methuselah was born. 22 Enoch walked [in habitual fellowship] with God after the birth of Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 And Enoch walked [in habitual fellowship] with God; and he was not, for God took him [home with Him]. Genesis 5: 21-24
Enoch having walked with God is caught up to heaven physically.
Hebrews 11: 5-6 ...he please God and he bypassed death.

#2 Elijah was translated to heaven. 2 Kings 2: 11

11 And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 2 Kings 2:11 (King James Version)
· Elijah knew he was going
· The sons of the prophets knew it
· Elisha knew it
We will have an inner awareness if we are spiritually sensitive.

#3 Jesus - Our Supreme example! Acts 1: 9-11

9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." Acts 1:9-11 (New International Version)
After 40 days of walking the earth after resurrection He was caught up (rapture) or taken up into heaven. After 40 years in the wilderness, the children of Israel passed over into Canaan.


WHEN WILL THE RAPTURE HAPPEN?
I believe that 2 Thessalonians 2:3 is speaking of the rapture. God operates by certain principles; one is He never pours out His wrath on the righteous. What do I mean? Let's look at a little Greek. Some pre-tribulationists, like myself, think that the Greek noun apostasia, translated in the King James bible as "falling away" usually translated "apostasy," is a reference to the rapture and should be translated "departure." Thus, this passage would be saying that the day of the Lord will not come until the rapture comes before it. If apostasia is a reference to a physical departure, then 2 Thessalonians 2:3 is strong evidence for pre-tribulationism.
Kenneth Wuest, a Greek scholar from Moody Bible Institute added the following contextual support to taking apostasia as a physical departure. But then hee apostasia of which Paul is speaking, precedes the revelation of Antichrist in his true identity, and is to katechon that which holds back his revelation (2:6). The apostasia, therefore, cannot be either a general apostasy in Christendom which does precede the coming of Antichrist, nor can it be the particular apostasy which is the result of his activities in making himself the alone object of worship. Furthermore, that which holds back his revelation (vs. 3) is vitally connected with hoo katechoon (vs. 7), He who holds back the same event. The latter is, in my opinion, the Holy Spirit and His activities in the Church. All of which means that I am driven to the inescapable conclusion that the hee apostasia (vs. 3) refers to the Rapture of the Church which precedes the Day of the Lord, and holds back the revelation of the Man of Sin who ushers in the world-aspect of that period. The Rapture will take place before the Great Tribulation period known as jacob's trouble. It is time to get ready!


In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; Titus 1: 2