The Biblical Rapture

The Biblical Rapture/ The Pre-Antichrist Vindication of the Church  

By: Leo Hare

It Had Been Driving Me Crazy!

I was saved in 1989 in Mill Valley, California. I had just turned 26 and from that day on the voice of the Lord was the only thing that I could trust. I mean to say that the voice of the Father in Heaven was introduced to me, and I have been ruined to any other means of wisdom. In typical fashion as a novice with just enough knowledge to get into trouble, I set about to beat many to death with the Bible. Indeed, if one would be a thumper of the Bible, I would bludgeon my victims to death with my "superior insight." In 1996 I enrolled in a two year Bible college in Novato California which gave me a depth of knowledge that far outstripped my understanding, and again like a maniac I set about trying to right the world with my new found knowledge of God's will. Was I just a loony born again Christian? Yes, but there was something deeper stirring in me that was from God. 

      During my second year of Bible college, I was working as a warehouse manager for an Italian baking products company in Richmond, California. I was everything from the janitor, to the shipping clerk, working closely with my boss, Joe, who was very tolerant of my radical nature, to which I owe him everlasting gratitude. One day I was packing some orders when I saw Joe run out of the man door carrying a broomstick with obvious intent to commit harm to somebody. I ran out the door after him, and running across the parking lot was a medium build black man wearing a cold weather parka, carrying bags that he had taken from the secretary's car in a smash and grab. Upon seeing this, my first thoughts hit me as a freight train, "don't do anything about this. It is too dangerous." As the words began to make my heart sink, suddenly I remembered that God was in charge and that He had all authority over this sinner and that I could take up His cause; so I said to Joe, "lets take him!" 

Immediately we began to chase the thief and the thief ran on. My boss fell back a little, but I continued after the scoundrel yelling at him, warning him to stop. Suddenly, I remembered that Jesus had all authority in heaven and earth, and that I was commissioned to exercise that authority in "His name." I stopped threatening the brigand and began to yell in an authoritative voice, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to drop that stuff!" The weasel kept running, but I pursued after him commanding him with a full masculine roar, " In the name of Jesus..." Suddenly the thief began to drop bags one by one, and after he had cast the last bag away, he ran about ten steps, turned around and said, "I dropped it." He just stood there looking dumb and seemed to have no desire to flee or even guard his identity. For him it was over. I retrieved the bags and presented them to the secretary, who received them gladly.
 
My zeal had paid off, but this set my deepest thoughts raging. Why weren't all life's problems solved by invoking the name of Jesus? Why weren't most diseases healed, and deaths prevented? Why couldn't I find the life I desired, get a wife, deal with my deepest insecurities and become a Godly man as easily as it was to subdue that rascal who had been overcome by a demon of thievery? Was the Bible really asking the believer to be as powerful in life as Jesus, Paul, Peter, and others? Was I crazy to expect that life could be lived by the supernatural power of God? When I told the police what I had done, they said that they wished that they could use that same power in all their difficult work with the criminal element. A little later my boss saw me working at the packing table, and said, "Leo has a badge, the name of Jesus." The rarity of the experience was incredible. It was as though heroic magical powers were unleashed on that day.

Why did I take that unusual action at the sight of the thief fleeing from the crime scene? I think it was a combination of my participation in a series of church wide prayer meetings in support of an evangelical crusade being conducted in India, and what I had become to believe from studying the scriptures. The prayer meetings had exercised me in taking a strong spiritual stance, but Joel Chapter 2 had been eating at me and prodding me to pry into what could be meant by the word of God saying that there would be a super natural army of believers roaming the earth. Could I be one of them? How would I, or anyone become endued with superhuman powers without first being changed by God. When would you know that you could really be that powerful? Do you simply live in such a way to require God to uphold you, almost tempting Him beyond reason? How are believers supposed to use the authority of God, without being presumptuous and destructive? These questions had been driving me crazy, and now I had seemed to taste a little of that superhuman authority in recovering the stolen items from that pitiful sinner.

These are all questions that with which many in Christendom struggle and seek to somehow fit into their practical theology. Many will read the prophets, such as Joel and scratch their heads in disbelief, others will seek to apply these words in ways that does violence to the natural meaning of the words of scripture. Now, I have found some sure places in the word of God that can begin to bring sensible application to thses things, for instance: We are told that the dead are raptured before the living, but have you heard that Christ will do a worldwide miracle of resurrection in the last days before He catches away believers in the "rapture?" Do you want to know who will qualify for the rapture? Do not be deceived, not all saved, Christians, will go in the rapture; however, only saved Christians can go. Furthermore, the only living Christians that will be raptured are those who are in the class of people called the "Bride of Christ" As you read this exposition on the subject of the Biblical rapture, you will see how rapture is a consequence of a Christian resurrection, not an un-predictable event that happens in the "twinkling of an eye."

Part I: Sounding the Alarm

Chapter 1: Returning to the Word of God

Many have heard of the rapture and have heard of the "Left Behind" book series which sensationalized the scriptural truth of an immanent rapture, however the series fell short of visualizing the actual events as put forth in scripture (I did not read the book series, but I did see the movies starring Kirk Cameron and others). The authors of the series are not poor scholars in the field of Christian writing, so their depiction of end time events is well thought out and told creatively; their success proves that. However the theology that they based their story on does not agree with the Bible. The movies were made to evangelize not only entertain, and are effective in measure because they contain truth and they model faith, but they fall short in offering the plain sense of the scriptures. The title itself seems to skew the purpose for depicting the scriptures at all. When we accurately understand the scriptures according to the interpretation of God's spirit, we do not fear being "left behind," rather we hope for a "better resurrection." The biggest flaw in most people's understanding of the rapture is that many do not realize that shortly before the rapture occurs, there will be a Christian resurrection of the dead! The two are both predicted in the same passage, but their timing is not widely discussed. During the 1990's many read the books and could not put them down, but the theological flaws depicted in the series proves that even our best intentions, do not bring people into truth. It is still the Bible that we must consult. Like a hiker who somehow got off the path, the soul must retrace his steps back to the roadmap, righting his way. Those who are of Christ must return to the Bible for his or her religious progress. Imperfect theological constructs must eventually be left behind.

In the following passage I will show that there is not any scriptural basis to assume that the timing of the resurrection of the saints and the actual rapture must be simultaneous and mutually instantaneous. My parenthesis explain the events of the passage that I intend to divide into a sequence and order of occurrence. In this next passage Paul the apostle was telling the Thessalonian church that they were not to think that the resurrection has already come, but the opposite was indeed true:

1st Thessalonians 4:15-18
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (be resurrected before) them which are asleep.
16 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 (all who have died being saved will actually be raised from the dead first):
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds (after an amount of time following this resurrection of deceased believers, those Christians that have not yet died will be caught up with them in the clouds), to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

According to popular conceptions of rapture, simultaneousness is applied to resurrection and rapture. This is a misapplication. All of Paul's writing depict the near simultaneity of the dead in Christ rising and the living being glorified in their natural bodies soon before the rapture occurs as in 1 Corinthians 15:51:

51 Behold, I show 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.

This proper reading of the scriptures will allow a realistic view of the event and as you will see, will clarify many passages in the Bible which seem cryptic or arcane. If the Gospel is a practical pursuit of God's living truth, then why must the doctrine of the rapture remain unintelligible? Shouldn't the rapture be one of the most understood doctrines, since it involves a mass experience that is sure to occur in the Church during these last days?

Thesis #1: The rapture of the Church will only happen to Christian believers who are resurrected and/or glorified before the time of the actual "catching away."