Tonight I will be teaching about the difference between the Rapture of the Church and the Second Coming of Christ which are two different events that people have a tendency to get confused. The rapture of the Church is spoken of in 1 Cor 15:52 Listen, I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep but we will all be changed--in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. It is also spoken of in 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4. Now the word Rapture is not used in the Bible, but is used as the sudden taking away of something that was once physically there. The Greek word for rapture is rapizio is where our word Rapture is taken. It means the sudden taking away. The verse also tells how fast this will happen: in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye. Interesting study was once done by General Electric to determine what the twinkling of an eye would be. They came up with 1/10,000th of 1 second. Pretty fast if you ask me. But also think of physics. All things occupy space. When air is displaced by a fighter jet travelling faster than the speed of sound, you hear a sonic boom. The twinkling of and eye is faster than that so being somewhere and then being gone that fast times thousands upon thousands of people would cause an ear deafening sonic boom. This event will also be proceeded by a trumpet call. The specific trumpet to which this verse refers is called a shofar. This style of trumpet is quite loud and was used to call the evening Sabbath, or call to arms. It is quite large. You can see one on the Internet if you wish and I think even hear what one sounds like. So in other words the trumpet will sound and will be so loud itll blow your grandma right out of the grave! LOL This is also termed by Paul as a mystery. A mystery in the Bible is always referred to as something that has not been previously disclosed. So Paul was telling the church at Corinth something that was unknown previously by anyone. This is proceeded by the word listen or in some translations look or Behold, In other words Paul is telling you to pay special attention to what he is about to say because it is of the utmost importance. The verse also explains that we shall not all sleep In other words some Christians will be taken at the Rapture still alive in their mortal bodies on this Earth, but instantly changed When the righteous die in the Bible it is termed in the New Testament as asleep. In the Old Testament it states He went to be with his fathers. Now keep in mind, this is all going to happen in a specific order. the trumpet will sound, the dead in Christ will rise first, then those who are alive will be caught up (another word for rapizio) found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. All of this will take place according to General Electric in 1/10,000th of a second and according to physics will be immediately followed by a sonic boom because physics is physics. The Coming of The Lord, a totally different event will happen in Revelation when he will Defeat the Devil and his armies and the sun and moon will be darkened. We as saints will be with The Lord at this time riding white horses armed for battle. Now how could we be with the Lord at the Second coming and be raptured and changed at the same time? No these are two totally separate events. Now I will also say that the timing of the Rapture of the Church will be before the 70th week of Daniel or better known as the Tribulation. Why do I say this? There are many examples of this plus Bible verses that state this to be so. A couple examples are the delivering of Lot in Genesis before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Noah and his family being spared from the flood. The righteous of God were always delivered out of harms way before something tragic happened in the Bible. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 states for God has not appointed us (Christians) to wrath. (Day of the Lord). However we will fight at Armageddon. but that is for another teaching. Pastor Charlie Painter
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 03:59:57 +0000
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