The Rapture and the Return of Christ
What will Jesus’ return be like? What will
happen when Jesus comes back? What is the Rapture? What is Armageddon?
Acts 1:9-11 – [Jesus} was taken up before [the
disciples’] very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking
intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white
stood beside them. “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.”
Jesus will return, coming down from the sky, just as He was taken up
into the sky at His ascension.
Jesus’ return will also be visible and obvious.
Matthew 24:27 – “For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even
in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
Everyone will see and know that Christ has returned.
Matthew
24:30 – “At that
time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of
the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the
sky, with power and great glory.”
That verse says that people will mourn when
they see Jesus returning. Why would that be?
Very simply put, people will mourn because
when they see Christ coming back, they will have no choice but to realize their
mistake in not believing in Him.
I imagine that He will also be a very
alarming sight, as He will not return as the meek, unimpressive Jesus that
Isaiah describes but the glorified Christ seen by John.
Also, when Jesus returns, He will not be alone.
1
Thessalonians 4:13-18 – Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall
asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that
Jesus died and rose again and so we believe thatGod will bring with Jesus those
who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you
that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will
certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will
come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God,
and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still
alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore
encourage each other with these words.”
The trumpet call is most likely the seventh trumpet of Revelation.
Notice that it says, though, that “we believe that God will bring
with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.” Those Christians who have
already died and those persons in the Old Testament who believed in God are now
living as spirits in Heaven. When Jesus returns, He will bring those persons in
their spiritual forms back to the earth with Him.
Then, it says that “the dead in Christ will rise first.” This means that
Jesus will bring the bodies of those spirits He has with Him back to life.
Their bodies will rise from the dead, being resurrected and perfected, and the
spirits of those persons will re-enter their bodies. This is the resurrection
of the dead that Christians often talk about, and probably the scene described
in Revelation 11, as the two witnesses rise from the dead and ascend
heavenward.
Paul continues by saying, “After that, we who are still alive and are
left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the
air.” This is the famous “Rapture” passage.
Matthew 24:
31 – “And He will
send His angels with a loud
trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from
one end of the heavens to the other”.
There’s the seventh trumpet again.
When Jesus returns, and as the bodies of the dead saints are being
raised, the angels will gather the Christians who are still alive and carry
them into the air. Notice that there is no disappearing acts here, nor are
Christians flying by themselves up into the atmosphere. The angels are carrying
us.
Then, when we reach Jesus, He will transform
our bodies, just as He raised and perfected the bodies of the dead saints.
Philippians 3:20-21 –But our citizenship is in Heaven. And
we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power
that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our
lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.
1 Corinthians
15:36- 58 – But
someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they
come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life
unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body
that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But
God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its
own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one
kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There
are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the
heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is
another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon
another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown
is perishable, it is raised imperishable;43 it is sown in
dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in
power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a
spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So
it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a
life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first,
but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The
first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As
was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly
man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as
we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the
heavenly man.
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the
imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not
all sleep, but we will all be changed — 52 in a flash, in
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the
dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For
the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with
immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with
the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is
written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But
thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move
you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know
that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
When Jesus changes us, He will transform our bodies to make
us imperishable and immortal. We will no longer age or get sick or die. Our
bodies will be like Christ’s perfect resurrected body.
After Jesus raises the dead and transforms our body, He will not take us
back into Heaven but will descend with us to the earth, where He will put an
end to the reign of the Anti-Christ.
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