#S4-045: Why You Should Believe in the Rapture [Podcast]

Here Are Some Reasons Why You Should Believe in the Rapture

God’s taking the church out of the world instantaneously. The Latin term ‘rapio’, which means to “snatch away” or “carry off,” is the source of the English word. While there are differing views of the millennium (Rev. 20:2–7) in relation to Christ’s second coming (e.g., premillennial, postmillennial, and amillennial), nevertheless, all evangelicals affirm a literal return of Christ to the earth preceding the eternal state.¹ The Rapture: Why You Should Believe In It, that’s what we are talking about in this week’s Light on Life.

Listen to the Audio

Click Play to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in Stitcher Radio

[Tweet “The only place you can learn about the Rapture is in the Epistles of the New Testament.”]

Read the Notes

You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put into operation.
This weeks call is:

The Rapture is coming and it is closer to manifestation than at any time in history. The end-time clock is winding down. Are you ready for the end?

Join the Conversation

Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believers life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
This week’s question is:

Question: The scripture says that ‘no man knows the day or the hour’ of His coming. But what would you do if you did know? Would you live differently? Would you work for God more if you knew He was coming at the end of this month? How does the very subject of the Rapture stir your heart? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Episode Resources

You can find more information on the subject of End-Times by clicking on the links above.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

Subscribe to the Podcast

If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe.

Stitcher Radio Google Play

iTunes PlayerFM

Share the Love

If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

________________________________________________________________________

Podcast Notes

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (KJV) — 13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

What Paul is describing here is the Rapture of the Church or the Great Catching Away.
The Greek word for ‘will be caught up’ means to be snatched.
It means to be or become seized or grasped hastily or eagerly; often in order to be taken away.
There are seven books in the New Testament where the Rapture is referenced.
The Bible is clear about the Rapture and we need to be smart about it.
Those who are alive and remain will be caught up.
They will be snatched away.

Why You Should Believe in the Rapture

1 Corinthians 15:50–57 (KJV) — 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Rapture is a mystery according to the Bible.
The Greek word ‘mystery’ is one which we should look at and with that thought, here’s the definition of the day.
So, here’s the definition of the word mystery’ found in First Corinthians fifteen.
The word means a revealed secret.
Or in other words, a divine secret that is now openly revealed.
Paul is saying to the Corinthians, ‘I am showing you this right now’.
Before this letter to the Church, it was a mystery.
It was a mystery to the disciples of Jesus.
The Jewish disciples of Jesus had no clue about the rapture.
Jesus never taught it in detail.
He mentioned it in John fourteen but the disciples never caught on to what He was saying.
The Old Testament believers didn’t know about the Rapture either.
It was a mystery, a divine secret hidden in God.
The only place you can learn about the Rapture is in the Epistles of the New Testament.
The Rapture of the church is the catching away or the snatching away of believers in Jesus who are the living and breathing saints walking around on Planet Earth the day of this event.
The Rapture proceeds the Great Tribulation.
Notice what Paul said, ‘We shall not all sleep.’
Sleep is a reference to physical death.
There is a specific group of people who will not experience death.
They will be caught up.
They will be Raptured.
So, there are two groups of saints mentioned in Paul’s ‘twinkling of an eye passage’.
There are those who will not sleep and there are those who are dead in Christ.
At the Rapture, the saints who are living and the saints who are dead and buried will both be changing in an atomic second.
That’s what the twinkling of an eye means.
Bat your eye or blink your eye and it will happen.
You won’t get to bat your eye a second time, it will already have taken place on the first blink.

John 14:1–3 (KJV)— 1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

Notice this next passage of Jesus to His disciples.
Jesus told them, ‘I personally will go and prepare a place for you.”
Then He said, “I will personally come back and receive you to myself.”
Jesus gives us the reason for it?
“That where I am, there ye may be also.”
Well, all we have to do is to know where He is.

Acts 1:10–11 (KJV) — 10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Jesus went to heaven in Acts 1:11.
But, He said, “I am coming to receive you to myself.”
So, Jesus is taking believers to heaven.
This is the not the Second Coming.
In the Second Coming Jesus comes back with the saints not for the saints.

Revelation 19:11–15 (KJV) — 11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

The Second Coming and the Rapture

2 Thessalonians 2:1–2 (KJV) — 1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

Here in this verse, Paul gives us two distinct happenings; the Rapture and the Second Coming.
He says, “We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, AND by our gathering together unto him.”
I am emphasizing the word AND here.
There is a Second Coming AND there is a gathering together unto Him.
The phrase ‘being gathered together’ is one word in Greek and it means gathering or the act of assembling or getting together.
Paul then goes on to calm the fears of the Thessalonians that they might have missed the ‘day of the Lord.’
He tells them, “It hasn’t happened yet.”
You see there were people who were saying that in the first century.
That the day of the Lord had come and gone.
Well, that hasn’t changed.
There are people who are saying it now, in the twenty-first century.
With that thought here’s the illustration of the day.
- A number of years ago retired NASA engineer Edgar C. Whisenant wrote a book called 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988. The book, which he self-published, placed the expected date of the Rapture between September 11 and September 13 of 1988 and became a massive bestseller. By the time the end of the year was reached, more than 4.5 million copies had been sold. Whisenant was certain he had the date right. He said, “Only if the Bible is in error am I wrong, and I say that to every preacher in town. I would stake my life on Rosh Hashanah 1988.” Whisenant’s later books predicting the Rapture in 1989, 1993, and 1994 did not sell nearly as well as the first one—but he kept right on making those predictions despite the clear teaching of Scripture that we are not meant to know the date and time of Christ’s return. Because we are only human, all of us are going to make mistakes. One of the things that sets fools apart, however, is that they continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. They never learn from their errors, no matter how painful their experiences may be. That is because they are committed to their folly. As the scripture says “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” —Proverbs 26:11²
Now let’s keep reading in Second Thessalonians because there’s some more important information we need to know.

2 Thessalonians 2:3–12 (KJV) — 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The Spirit of God through the Apostle Paul said the Second Coming of Jesus will not occur until there comes ‘a falling away first and that man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
The man of sin is the Antichrist.
So, the Second Coming will not occur until there is a falling away first and the Antichrist is revealed.

The Falling Away

We need to look at the words ‘falling away.’
In this particular place, the word is a noun, not a verb.
So, the word is not referring to an action that takes place.
Normally, the word means rejection or apostasy.
Look at this passage in the book of Hebrews for example.

Hebrews 3:12 (KJV) — 12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

The word ‘departing’ is the same word ‘falling away’ in Second Thessalonians except here it is a verb.
So, the word ‘apostasia’ can be translated departure.
Let’s reread 2 Thessalonians 2:3 and plug in the word departure.

2 Thessalonians 2:3–12 (KJV) — 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a departure first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

Remember that it’s a noun here.
Translating all of this now, ‘The day of the Lord will not come until there is a departure and the man of sin is revealed.’
The Departure is an event.
You can capitalize the letter ‘d’ for Departure.
Paul is referring to the Rapture of the Church.

Who Is the Restrainer?

Now, let’s move down to verse six.
We’ve already read it but let’s reread it.

2 Thessalonians 2:6–8 (KJV) — 6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

This may be a little confusing so let’s read this passage in another translation.

2 Thessalonians 2:6–8 (ESV) — 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

That’s much clearer, ‘You know what is restraining him’.
The Antichrist is being restrained.
He wants to come on the scene but he can’t because there is a restrainer on the earth who is keeping him in check.
When the restrainer is taken out of the way then the Antichrist will have free reign to do the evil he intends to do.
Who is the Restrainer?
Is it a single person or is a group of people?
Is it a human person or is it a spiritual person?
There are some who believe that this person is none other than the Holy Spirit.
But it simply cannot be for one good reason.
The scripture says, he will be taken out of the way.
The Holy Spirit is God.
He is omnipresent.
How can you take the omnipresent Holy Spirit out of anything?
He is always there.
He is everywhere.
You can’t take Him out.
The Spirit of God will still be working in the earth during the Tribulation.
We know that because people are born again during those seven years of God’s wrath.
How does the Holy Spirit work?
He works through the church.
It is the church who is the restrainer.
The Spirit of God working through the church is the restrainer of the Antichrist.
Once the restrainer is taken out of the way, then the Tribulation period can begin.
The restrainer, taken out of the way, is another way of referring to the Rapture.

The Church’s True Identity

Notice that the restrainer, the church, is referred to as masculine: ‘Only he who now restrains, will do so until he is out of the way.’
The Church, the Restrainer is a ‘he’ not a ‘she’.
You may be thinking, ‘Wait a minute, I thought the Church was the Bride of Christ?’
Brides are female not male.
Why would the scripture refer to the Church then as male?
Right now the Church, in the Dispensation of Grace is a he, not a she.
The Church is the Body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:27 (ESV) — 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Jesus is the head of the Church, the Head of the body.

Colossians 1:18 (ESV) — 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

Since Jesus is the Head of the body and the head is male, the body has to be male.
So, unequivocally, the Church is a ‘he’.
Who is the Bride of Christ then?
The Word of God tells you.

Revelation 21:9–10 (ESV) — 9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,

The Bride of Christ is the holy city of Jerusalem.
The scripture says it plain and simple.
Now, let’s reread the passage in Thessalonians.

The Church, the ‘he’ of verse seven, has to be ‘taken out of the way’ before the Antichrist can come on the scene.
How is the Church taken away?
Only one way, the Rapture.

_________
References:

Pete Schemm, “Rapture,” ed. Chad Brand et al., Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1366. ↩
/www.ministry127.com/resources/illustration/repeating-folly ↩

emeryhorvath.com

Equipping people to pursue God's glory

#S4-045: Why You Should Believe in the Rapture [Podcast]

by Emery Horvath

Listen to the Audio

Click Play to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in Stitcher Radio

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

The Rapture is coming and it is closer to manifestation than at any time in history. The end-time clock is winding down. Are you ready for the end?

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources

You can find more information on the subject of End-Times by clicking on the links above.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Why You Should Believe in the Rapture

The Second Coming and the Rapture

The Falling Away

Who Is the Restrainer?

The Church’s True Identity

Listen to the Audio

Click Play to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in Stitcher Radio

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

The Rapture is coming and it is closer to manifestation than at any time in history. The end-time clock is winding down. Are you ready for the end?

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources

You can find more information on the subject of End-Times by clicking on the links above.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Why You Should Believe in the Rapture

The Second Coming and the Rapture

The Falling Away

Who Is the Restrainer?

The Church’s True Identity

Related posts: