Out of all the end-time topics in the Church, the Rapture is the most debated on. The Church's rapture is actually widely spoken of in the Bible. One of the more overlooked places is this verse in Psalm 12:
Psa 12:1 Help, LORD, for no one is faithful anymore; those who are loyal have vanished from the human race.
Here is another:
Isa 57:1 The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.
Mic 7:2 The faithful have been swept from the land; not one upright person remains. Everyone lies in wait to shed blood; they hunt each other with nets.
Look at the language used. All of these verses speak of the righteous people being taken away or vanishing from the Earth before an evil time. This definitely constitutes end-time vocabulary. We have also never had a time that fulfills these verses, as the faithful (Christians or OT Israel) have always been on the Earth, and so this is a prophetic event they are speaking of, the Rapture!
In this teaching, we will examine what the Bible actually says about the Rapture, what the event will look like, and how it fits into the broader timeline of end-time prophecy. We will also look at the three major views Christians hold about the Rapture and explain why we believe the strongest biblical evidence points toward a pre-tribulation Rapture. God does not reveal these things to create confusion, but to prepare His people.
The Seven Raptures
Contrary to popular belief, there are actually 7 raptures spoken of in the Bible, with the Church's rapture forming part of it.
The second rapture is spoken of in 2 Kings 2:
2Ki 2:1 When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.
We will dive more into the 7 raptures in Part II, which will be a members-only release. Sign up for free here.
What Will the Rapture Look Like?
Paul writes it quite nicely in 1 Corinthians:
1Co 15:51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—
1Co 15:52 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.
1Co 15:53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
We can summarize it as follows:
- Suddenly, we will be changed - We will immediately be in our new, glorified body
- Twincling of an eye - This is an instant change.
- There are a series of events that must take place before it can happen. We will touch on these a bit later in the teaching.
Why are we Raptured?
- For the glorification of the physical body
- We have a glorified Spirit in us, and in theory, all Christian's should have transformed their mind into a Christ-like/glorified mind, but the body is still weak. The body is waiting all this time to be saved!
- Our bodies will be perfect, just like Jesus' when He resurrected.
We know this because of the writing in 1 John 3:
1Jo 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
John writes 'When Christ appears', this can only refer to the Rapture & Second Coming.
John then writes a warning to the readers:
1Jo 3:3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
John calls believers who believe in the Rapture to purify themselves, as this is the way to live for God. What else would you live for? Practically, this looks like Jesus, living according to the standards set out by God. You can read more about how to live Godly after you are saved in our Old vs New Covenant series.
The Rapture Timeline
Phase 1: Jesus Returns at Some Point in Time
1Th 4:16 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.
Phase 2: The Dead in Christ Raise & Meet Jesus in the Sky
The dead in Christ (Or dead believers) are raised first. They are given their new bodies in the sky and meet Jesus first. They have been waiting a long time, so it seems fair that they go first! We know the bodies we get are physical and incorruptible!
I have wondered if this could also have a double meaning. Perhaps in the end times, God will allow those who were once dead to be raised again. Think of how powerful that testimony would be!
Phase 3: Believers on Earth are Then Raptured Into the Sky
There will be a generation that does not taste death. After having released our Foundational teaching on 7 Things Needed Before Tribulation Can Begin, it might well be our generation, depending on how things go. Paul describes this.
1Th 4:17 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.
1Co 15:52 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.
Paul writes that as quickly as our eye can blink, those on Earth are brought up to the sky in our incorruptible body.
Another interesting thought - If we take Lot as a type and shadow of the Rapture, maybe some believers will act like Lot's wife and turn back to Earth on their way up, longing for the world, and they might get left behind because of it... Just a thought!
Phase 4: Some Are Left Behind
There is an explicit promise to certain groups of Christians that they will stay behind for the Tribulation. We have dedicated a 4-part Teaching called 'The 7 Churches' to this exact topic. This is where Jesus details to His Church the qualities that pleased Him and displeased Him. He even mentions specific denominations of Christianity that are promised to go through the Tribulation. To access it, become a paid or free member here.
The people who are left behind are still saved, but these are the people who did not have their lamps full of oil (As the Parable of the 10 virgins states) and did not live expectant of Jesus to come. I pray for all of you to read our teaching on the 7 Churches as it is the most critical part of Revelation! It can literally save your life!
Phase 5: The Tribulation Starts at Some Point after the Rapture. See Side Note*!
We will release a full timeline of Revelation in Part II, but according to our interpretation, the Church is raptured before the Tribulation starts. Tribulation is also going to be another teaching. We are full believers of pre-tribulation rapture, although there is another rapture at the midpoint! We will discuss the different rapture views in the next section of this teaching.
*Side note - Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the Tribulation will start immediately after the Church is raptured. It can be a long time before the Tribulation actually begins after we leave. There are potential clues in the Old Testament. If we use Noah as a model for the Tribulation, Noah was taken up into the safety of the Ark, and waited 7 days before the flood started. This could be an indication. Also, if we look at Lot, as soon as he left, judgment came, so this is an even smaller window. All indications seem to point to not a long wait between events, but it is impossible to say for sure.
The Three Views of the Rapture
There 3 mainline views that Christians hold:
- Pre-Tribulation Rapture. This is the camp we are in. We believe God takes the Church out of the Tribulation and we return with Him at the second coming, which is 7 years after. We will explain why we are in this camp in the next section of this teaching.
- Mid-Tribulation Rapture. The Tribulation is broken up into 3.5 year segments. The first 3.5 years are simply called the 'Tribulation', and the last 3.5 years are called the 'Great Tribulation'. This camp believes the church leaves after the tribulation, but before the great tribulation. We then return at the second coming, 3.5 years later.
- Post-Tribulation Rapture. This camp believes we go through the entire 7 year tribulation, we are then raptured, and then immediately come down for the second coming. It is interesting to imagine the people of the Earth seeing this play out. They would see believers go up, just to do a U-turn in the sky and come back down.
There are a few nuanced views, like
- The tribulation has already come.
- Tribulation is just a metaphor.
- We are living in it now.
I will not touch on these, but just know that none of these are close to the truth.
Why We Believe in Pre-Tribulation Rapture
- The Old Testament Shows the Pattern.
Since we know our Old Testament, we know that all the events in there are types and shadows of future events. You can fit Jesus into almost every event, and the rapture is no different.
- Noah was removed before the flood judgment. The World was wicked, but the righteous were removed.
- Lot was removed before the fire judgment. The city of Sodom and Gomorrah was full of sin, and Lot was required to be removed.
- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fire, but Daniel is missing.
- The 3 represent the Jews, who are promised to go through the Tribulation (Fire)
- Daniel represents the Church (He is called beloved) and was spared. Jewish sources say he was on a missions trip (Hinting at the Philadelphia Church, which has an explicit promise to be raptured).
- We see this is just not God's way. Abraham shows us this in Genesis: Gen 18:25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
- God does not just put righteous and wicked people together and destroy them. If they are together, be sure God has made every effort to let them know!
- Scriptural Evidence
Nah 1:2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies.
God does not show wrath to His Church, as that has been satisfied on the Cross. There is no condemnation in Christ! Below is another promise to be saved from God's wrath:
Rom 5:9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
Paul then writes an entire timeline of the rapture in 1 Thessalonians, and at the end of it, writes to us to encourage (Or comfort) one another in these words:
1Th 4:16 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.
1Th 4:17 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.
1Th 4:18 Therefore, encourage one another with these words.
We should be comforted because we will not go through this! The reason Paul is writing this bit to the Church in Thessalonica is because they started to receive so much persecution, they thought they had missed the rapture. So Paul had to calm them down and say, no you will not miss it because it is a pre-trib rapture.
Straight from our teaching on the 7 churches, Jesus explicitly promises a pre-trib rapture:
Rev 3:10 Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
What trial is going to come upon the whole world? Of course, the Tribulation!
- Jesus Told Us the Day is Unknown
You create a problem that Scripture cannot explain away if you believe anything other than pre-trib. Jesus teaches us in two places that His return is imminent:
Mat 24:42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
Mat 24:43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.
The Tribulation is a well-defined period of time, and so if you believe in mid or post trib, you are able to know the exact day and hour of His coming, and so contradicting the idea that the day is unknown.
If you believe in mid - trib, you can calculate exactly the time of Jesus' return, because it would be 3.5 years after the Tribulation started. If you believed in post-trib, that number would be 7 years until Jesus returns.
- People Would be Looking For Anti Christ Instead of Jesus
Titus shows us what we should be looking for:
Tit 2:13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
If you believe in pre-trib rapture, you would be fulfilling this Scripture, as we are waiting on Jesus to return in the sky and call us up.
However, if you believe mid-trib or post-trib, you are not waiting for Jesus, as He can appear anytime. If you are looking for mid-trib or post-trib, the sign that the Tribulation has started is the Anti-Christ (Remember, there is nothing in the Bible that says the Tribulation must start after the Rapture!). Then the mid-trib people can count 3.5 years, and the post-trib people can count 7 years.
- The Restrainer is Still Here
2Th 2:7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.
Paul is again comforting the Church that they did not miss the Rapture. He explains that we are holding the lawless one at bay. Lawless one is the name used to describe the anti-Christ. Once we are removed, then the anti-Christ will come forth and kick off the Tribulation. The World does not realise the kind of peace it has. Once the Christians are removed, this covering will be removed.
- The Pattern in Scripture
After chapter 6 in Revelation, all references to the Church are gone. This also provides more evidence of a pre-trib rapture.
The World Will be Deceived
There is an interesting topic in 2 Thessalonians:
2Th 2:9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie,
2Th 2:10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
Many of you might believe that when the Church is raptured, and the world becomes utter chaos, the unbelievers will turn to God and be saved. This verse shows us that the exact opposite will happen. Because people refused to believe in the Gospel in the age of grace, they will be condemned. So please do not tell people around you to wait to see the rapture, as by then it is too late!
Of course, there will be the tribulation saints and various other preachers on Earth during the Tribulation, so people can still turn to Christ. But don't count on the Rapture turning people to Christ.
Personally, I believe they will find a way to explain away the rapture. I don't believe it is an accident that people are talking more about aliens and UFOs. This is probably the easiest way to explain it away. Everyone loves a good alien abduction story, right? With the advancements in AI & drone tech, I believe it would be easy to deceive the world.
FAQs
Is it OK for me to be cremated or have another kind of burial?
Some denominations of Christianity (Also Islam and Judaism FYI) forbid the cremation of bodies as they believe this will stop them from being raised. This is not Biblical. God created man from dust, and He can raise you from the dust as well! It does not matter how you are buried or not buried.
Will we still eat food in our new bodies?
A question I always find funny is people asking 'Will we still eat after the rapture / in Heaven? The answer is quite clearly yes! After Jesus resurrected in His new body, the first thing He asked was 'Do you have something to eat?. Most likely, we will not eat meat, as that was God's original plan for humanity in the Garden of Eden.
What will we look like?
We will get a physical body. While it is not specified in the Bible what exactly you will look like, many people of God have had visions of Heaven, and they commented that people look like their best selves. So if you once had a six pack and hair, that will come back! Most importantly, the body is incorruptible, so aging will not be a thing.
Why does Jesus have imperfections?
A bit of a trick question. In our bodies, there will be no imperfections. But, there will be one man, whose hands and feet will have holes in them, and will have a huge scar on his side, and that will be the Lord Jesus Christ. He will forever bear the marks of His suffering for us. This is so the prophecy of Zechariah may be fulfilled:
Zec 13:6 If someone asks, ‘What are these wounds on your body?’ they will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’
Misc
Since Jesus could walk through walls and people, most likely we will also be multi-dimensional as well!
Encouragement & Conclusion
As the Church, we should be mindful of Jesus' Great Commission.
Mar 16:15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
As this is truly what is important, and is what Jesus commended the Philadelphia Church for.
The doctrine of the Rapture is not meant to create endless arguments within the Church, but instead to encourage spiritual readiness. Throughout Scripture, we repeatedly see the same pattern - before God pours out judgment on a rebellious world, He first makes a way for the righteous to escape. Noah entered the ark before the flood. Lot was removed before the fire fell on Sodom & Gomorrah. Again and again, God demonstrates that He distinguishes between the righteous and the wicked.
The New Testament expands this pattern by talking more on the rapture of the Church. In an instant, believers will be transformed into glorified bodies and caught up to meet the Lord. It will happen suddenly, without warning, and it will mark the start of the road to Tribulation.
The Rapture reminds us that this world is not our final home. Our hope is not placed in earthly systems, political structures, or temporary comforts, but in the returning King who will gather His people and establish His kingdom.
At the same time, the Rapture carries a sobering message for the world. Scripture warns that many who rejected the truth will continue to believe lies even after this event occurs. Rather than turning to God immediately, many will search for explanations and follow deception. This is why the message of salvation cannot wait until “later.” The time to respond to Christ is now.
Some Churches are promised to be in the Tribulation as well, as per Jesus' own words. It is ever more important to know what pleased Him and what displeased Him so you may escape that reality.
Ultimately, the Rapture points us to the same conclusion the apostles emphasized: the return of Christ is certain, even if the timing remains unknown. Jesus Himself warned believers to stay alert because His coming would be like a thief in the night. Those who are watching will be ready, but those who are distracted by the world may be caught unaware.
See you in Part II where we will dive a bit deeper into the 7 raptures, and take a closer look into Tribulation.
Be Blessed!
