1512. The Rapture Proved by Plain, Scriptural Statements

The Rapture Proved by Plain, Scriptural Statements

"If I go, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself" (Joh_14:3).

We desire to present five statements of Scripture which plainly declare that the saints are to be raptured, caught up, to meet Christ in the air.

1. Joh_14:3 : "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself."

If language means anything at all, the verse we have just quoted means:

(1) That Christ has gone somewhere to prepare abiding places, or abodes (see Joh_14:2) for His saints.

(2) That Christ, Himself, will come again.

(3) That when Christ comes, He will receive His saints unto Himself.

(4) That Christ and His saints will dwell together.

2. 1Th_4:16-17 : "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven * * 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."

This passage goes beyond the one above because it includes in the Rapture, by direct statement, both the dead and the living in Christ.

Both passages teach the Return of Christ, both insist on the Rapture of saints, and both urge that we shall be with the Lord.

3. 1Th_5:10 : "Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him."

This passage tells us that when Christ died upon the Cross, He had the translation of the living and sleeping saints in view.

He died with this joy set before Him. The Word is plain in two things.

(1) The dead and the living, those who sleep and those who watch, shall be included.

(2) That together they shall live with Christ.

4. 2Th_2:1 : "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him."

This passage sets forth unmistakably two facts:

(1) The Lord Jesus Christ is coming.

(2) The saints will be gathered together unto Him.

5. Luk_17:34-37 : "One shall be taken and the other left."

In Luke 17 we read three times the quotation just written. That Christ is referring to the Rapture, we do not doubt. He is giving the Rapture as one of the signs of the Revelation. This same thing occurs in Matthew 24, Mat_24:40-42.

When the saints are raptured, then the Jews and the peoples of the earth will know that the time of their deliverance, the time of Christ's return to the Mount of Olives, is drawing near.

The verses clearly prove that when the saints go up, others will be left behind.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR