By Rev. Christopher J. Derring ,Th.D

There are some today who do not believe in the “Rapture” of the Church.

Those who say that the word “Rapture” is not even found in the Bible. I have heard it said, how are we to be Raptured, are we all going to grow wings and fly away ? There are those who say if you show me where it says we are going to be Raptured then I will believe it. There are several instances in the Bible where we see individuals being “caught up” so it’s nothing new to God. Nor is it beyond His ability to cause to come to pass.

The first “Catching away” is seen in the book of Genesis it happens to a man by the name of Enoch.

The man Enoch walked so closely with God that He decided to just take him. And so Enoch was “Caught Up” Into Paradise and never saw death.

This is the first instance of a Rapture seen in the Bible.

The second involves a Man, A prophet Named Elijah, and can be found in the book of 2 Kings

Again we see a “Catching away” of a person, who does not die but is brought up into the Heavens as Enoch before him. Finally we see the Man Phillip and while Phillip was not “Caught away” into Heaven he was translated. While Enoch and Elijah were “Caught up” into Heaven Phillip was Translated vertically if you will within the Earth. This example is found in the Book of Acts.

Here we see Phillip being “Caught away” by the Spirit of the Lord. Phillip was instantly translated from the Gaza desert and was moved to Azotus. So once again we see someone being Caught Up but this time it was a Lateral translation, rather than a vertical one. The point I am making is that Raptures or being Caught Up is nothing new for God , It has been happening for quite some time and is still possible for God. And as we shall see the Rapture of the Church will take place sometime in the near future and before the great tribulation.

One of the theory’s out there today is that Christ will not come back literally but rather be seen coming through us. That we are somehow to be transformed into His exact image and likeness. And while it is true we are made in Christ’s image, and we, through the Holy Ghost, have been filled with power to do the works of Christ, We are still but mere mortals who if The Lord tarries will one day die. First of all we will never defeat death here on this Earth. Only Jesus Christ will do that when He returns and we are given glorified bodies, but we ourselves, will not defeat death until Christ gives us Our Incorruptible bodies when He returns.

Notice that the two groups of people who are given an incorruptible body, first the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and then we shall be changed, who is the we, those who aren’t dead at the time of Christ’s return to Earth.

Also notice we have inherited incorruptibleness because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead. And importantly, that inheritance of being uncorrupt able is being reserved for us IN HEAVEN ! And in the mean time, the period of time before we get to Heaven, before we receive our uncorrupt able bodies, we are being kept, or given strength to carry on through faith, until our inheritance of incorruptibility is revealed to us in the last time.

The point here is that as long as we are living in these mortal bodies we will eventually die. But when Christ returns and we put on our incorruptible bodies we shall never die !

Again Christ will not be fully revealed to the Earth through people we can show others Christ and save many, but Christ will fully be seen and known to the World when He Himself returns.

Please notice here that when Jesus comes it will not be through us as some believe, but rather, this SAME JESUS will come the SAME WAY in which He left, In the Clouds coming from Heaven to this Earth. To get His Church.

Enoch prophesied of a Day when the Lord would come with ten thousands of His Saints, The Saints must be received before they can come back with Him. That takes us to the next argument concerning the Rapture, That some believe we the Church will go through the great tribulation before Christ will come again. We shall see through the Scriptures that this theory is simply not true and un Biblical. If we, as God’s children, were to be left during the tribulation we too would then have to endure the great outpouring of God’s wrath upon this Earth. But Scripture clearly says God’s wrath is not for His Children. The second point is that God’s wrath can’t be poured out until the Anti-Christ is first revealed, And that revealing can’t take place until the Church is taken out of the way, according to 2 Thessalonians this is true.

The Anti-Christ will not be revealed to the Earth until the Church is first taken out of the way. Why? Because Light always overcomes darkness, Holiness overcomes evil, and as long as we the church, the light of this world are here that darkness and that evil and the evil one can not be manifest and fully revealed because we are holding them back and stopping them from coming forth in fullness.

That is just one reason the church will be taken before the tribulation, there are also other Scriptures that give us this promise.

We shall be Caught up to meet the Lord in the Air. There are some who claim that the word clouds and Air here don’t mean what they say that some how God was saying something different than what he was saying, this is a deception and is not true lets look at the Original Greek for these two words.

Clouds (Nephele) A small or thin cloud

AIR (Anp aer) Atmosphere

While looking at the Original Greek we can clearly see that the word clouds is talking of literal clouds even revealing them to be small and thin, and the word Air literally means Atmosphere. So there is no secretly encoded meaning behind these two words they mean what God said that we will be Caught up into the Atmosphere and into the clouds of this Earth and meet the Lord Jesus Christ in the Air. Just like Enoch was caught up , and Elijah was Caught up, we too will be Caught up.

There have always been scoffers and doubters of the Rapture Peter addressed this back in his day and we sadly are still addressing it to this day as well.

Peter warned them and we would do well to take heed to his warning today, that we ought not fall into the snare of deception concerning the falsities and ignorance of those who do not believe in the coming of our great King, or the promise of the greatest redemption of humanity other than spiritual salvation. Jesus said He would return for us and I choose to believe Him, rather than the theories of misguided and uninformed men.

Mansion (mone) Abode in the Original Greek

Jesus went to Heaven to prepare our Abode, and He has promised us that He will come again in the same way He left to gather us up into the air to meet Him, where we will be transformed and live with Him forever. I pray you take His words and believe them. Not theories and un belief as some scoffers today.

Here is one more thought for you to understand. The Bible says that no one knows when Jesus will return, only the Father, God Knows.

If we were not “Raptured” Pre-Tribulation, and left instead to face the great tribulation then every body would know exactly when Jesus would return.

If we were left during the tribulation we could pinpoint the day down to the very hour minute and second of Christ return based on this scripture. It would be 3 ½ years from the moment the Anti-Christ is revealed in the temple and commits that great abomination.

NO ! If we were left during the tribulation we all would know exactly when Christ’s return would be. It is ONLY in a pre-tribulation scenario that God would be the only one who knew. According to God’s word. This is another great yet simple way to realize we are going to be “caught Up” before the Tribulation happens. Glory to God !

My Friends don’t be deceived by the scoffers, and uniformed preachers !

The word is so clear on this matter if we would but only look ourselves.