WHEN DID JESUS SAY THE RAPTURE WOULD TAKE PLACE? by -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHEN WILL THE RAPTURE TAKE PLACE? In answering this question, many Christians will give a typical response of quoting Mt. 24:36 - But of that day and hour no one knows... to indicate that we can not know the day or hour of the Rapture. However, they stop there and do not read the next verse where Jesus says, But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Here He makes it clear that He is speaking of the timing of His Return, which still in the context of verses 29 and 30, is after the tribulation, when all the world will see Him...an event at the end of the 7 year week of Daniels prophecy....not at the start of the 7 years!! So, the verse ...of that day and hour no one knows... does not necessarily refer to the Rapture....unless it is at the end of the 7 years. Perhaps, because of a mistaken idea on the timing of the rapture, many Christians are not even aware that Jesus Himself did tell us in other places when the Rapture would take place...in fact, the very day of the Rapture, and these other scriptures do not conflict with Mt. 24:36 above. In fact He told us 4 times exactly which day it would be! So, lets take a look at what else Jesus said so that we can see how this is possible and just what He did say that pertains to the Rapture. But before we look at what day Jesus said the Rapture would occur, Rapture must be defined. Some Christians say the word rapture is not in the scriptures. Well, it depends on what scriptures youre talking about! The Latin Vulgate Bible is the Latin translation of the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts by Jerome completed around 405 A.D., and it does have that word in the section of scripture we are going to look at right now. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 says But I would not have you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, that you do not sorrow, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so those also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who are asleep. 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 who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so we shall ever be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. The portion highlighted above in this color in the Latin Vulgate reads: deinde nos qui vivimus qui relinquimur simul rapiemur cum illis in nubibus obviam Domino in aera et sic semper cum Domino erimus. The Latin word for shall be caught up is rapiemur. The Latin dictionary says that root for the Latin word rapiemur is rapio which it says means to seize , snatch, tear away; to hurry along a person or thing. In Latin endings are tacked on for case, number, gender, tense, etc. One ending is raptus for example. Many words are transliterated directly into English with English endings added. For example the Greek baptism transliterates letter for letter to baptism in English. There you have it. Rapture is a scriptural word...just in a different language (translation)! Even though it is a scriptural word, because of the association of the word rapture with levitation in Hinduistic, Persian, and occultic literature and also in spiritualist circles in the United States and Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries, some Christians do not want to use this term to describe the wonderful event described in these verses. Since the strength of the event is so well described by this choice of the Greek word by the Holy Spirit, it is obvious that some human beings (i.e. Christians saved at this time - both physically living and dead) will get new resurrection bodies and be caught up into the clouds to be with Jesus forever. This event is what the Holy Spirit, Paul and many Christians refer to as the catching away, seizing or snatching away of Christians and some other Christians refer to as the Rapture. It may be time for Christians to claim back this word for this blessed event. Now the root Greek word for shall be caught up is harpazo
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 14:20:27 +0000
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